eight
WE WALKED OUT OF the elegant restaurant tucked away on a side street of Lisbon later that night. Hunter had hustled us out of the house and down the short hike in the mountains, no easy feat in heels, so I’d worn my sneakers and carried the five-inch death traps, and then we’d taken a car into the city.
My mind whirling with the knowledge that we would be leaving at three A.M. to get to our flight on time, I couldn’t wait to put my feet up and relax—a book and a bubble bath had been my original plan—but if I couldn’t do that, at least I’d had some great food.
“That was amazing.” I closed my eyes, soaking up the soft guitar music filtering out of a downtown apartment. “I could eat those clams every day for the rest of my life. Where is the car picking us up?” I finally turned when I realized he’d stopped behind me.
“Let’s go somewhere.” He reached for my hand and the moonlight glinted off his corn-silk hair and gave him an other-worldly glow that pulled at the corners of my heart.
The energy he had was boundless and intoxicating. “Sure,” I smiled, and with our hands still locked, he tore off down the street.
“We passed a bar that looked great on the way in.” He turned a tight corner and we kept walking.
“Are you sure?” I frowned and slowed.
“Yeah, right around this corner I think.” He tugged me along and turned the street corner where a couple people spilled out. I raised my eyes in surprise. These weren’t the normal tourist fare we’d seen dotted all over during the daylight.
“Seriously?” I grinned as Hunter hauled me up the old stone steps and into the hot and crowded bar. A live band played melodic chords on stringed instruments while the mournful voice of a woman lamented in Portuguese. Hunter urged me onto the dance floor, and after two craft beers, the crowd suddenly looked friendlier, the night much younger. I was spinning in Hunter’s arms in no time, laughing and giggling as I stumbled on his feet. He laughed and held me like a gentleman, swaying and dipping me, and then we’d start again. After the third song, my forehead was damp and I couldn’t peel the smile from my face.
“I need another drink,” I hollered to my beautiful blond companion.
As the slow beats took a turn on the floor, his arms wrapped around my waist and he pulled me into his lean body. “I want you another song.”
My muscles rippled with sensation, every nerve responding to his on each level, from the tips of my toes to the hairs on the top of my head. He had me.
“You okay?” He placed a soft kiss at the cleft of my neck.
“I’m perfect,” I answered, eyes still closed, relishing the feel of his body dancing against mine.
“We can go home if you want.” His voice lowered an octave and I knew instinctively what that meant. We would continue the foreplay we’d toyed with all day. I could feel it throbbing between us like an incessant heartbeat, strong and steady. Lust. Mad, raging, wild lust.
“I want to go where you want to go,” I offered, compliant with him in every single way, something I had never, ever been with anyone else.
“Good,” he gruffed, the warmth of his breath heating and chilling me all at the same time. “Ready?” he murmured, his forehead pressed to mine, lips nearly breath to breath.
“Always,” I breathed. I would follow him around the world and back. I already had.
“A friend told me about this place,” Hunter muttered as we wound down a twisty side street a few minutes later.
“How many friends do you have?”
“I’ve met a lot of people,” he answered before turning down a grassy path. “I think this is it.”
I glanced up to find the ruins of an old building, hundreds, if not even a thousand years old. “Wow,” I said when I felt Hunter’s palm at my back, his thumb weaving small figure-eights above my bottom.
“It’s tough traveling the world and never getting more than a weekend in a location, but my favorite part is getting to see the city at night. It’s an alternate perspective. Bent reality and intrigue. Mystery and beauty all rolled into one.” He said the last sentence on a soft note, his fingertips trailing across my wrist and tickling me just enough to cause goose bumps. “Wanna go inside?” he murmured, and butterflies raged in my stomach, pounded against my ribcage, and shot up my throat looking for an escape. I wanted to kiss him, to press my fingertips across the hard angles of his chest, our pelvises pressed together while he fucked me with his tongue in the soft moonlight.
“Would you rather enjoy the view from here?” His throaty voice moved closer to the shell of my ear, the soft hairs at the base of my neck tingling and rising with arousal.
“Yes,” I finally uttered, more desperate for him to push me into the tall grass and fuck me until I couldn’t think straight. He’d left me sitting on the edge all evening. The things he’d said at the shoot earlier had been rattling in my head on a loop and kept me in a constant state of anxious arousal.
“Something else on your mind?” He pulled me from my thoughts when his fingertips flirted with the hem of the dress brushing in the breeze across my thighs.
“Maybe.”
“Jesus,” he pulled me into his arms then, the warmth a comfort against the cool breeze. His forehead dipped and his lips took mine in a pressing kiss. Soft, but with edge, just like everything he did. With his fingertips still roaming at my inner thigh and his other hand pressed against my waist, his tongue shoved past my lips and darted, fucking me in a way I’d been dreaming of since I’d first set eyes on his sculpted, sensual mouth.
My heart thundered as one of Hunter’s hands dove in my hair and his tongue delved deeper, his lips bruising with passion before he finally pulled away, his breaths quick and shallow. His eyes fluttered closed just as I opened mine. “I wanted to shoot you against that tree today. The entire fucking time I wrapped the leather around her I thought of your body. Your dark hair. I wondered if your perfect pink lips matched your nipples. Fuck, Erin. I shouldn’t touch you for so many reasons, but you look up at me with those big dark eyes, and my dick pounds.”
“Hunter, I—”
“I’m serious, me touching you is wrong in every way, but I don’t think you want me to stop anymore than I want to.” Words clogged in my throat as I tightened my fists on his biceps. “But I’ll give you all the time I can.” He wove his fingers in mine. “Now, let’s get closer.” He pulled me down the path to the entrance of the building as my stomach rolled with cartwheels.
That kiss. Jesus Christ that kiss was incredible. But why was he so persistent that he wasn’t good for me? Wasn’t that my decision to make? He was different from anyone I’d ever met. The sweet reverence that emanated from his beautiful irises warmed the chilled chambers of my heart. Looking into Hunter’s eyes felt like seeing into my own soul.
His hand fell away from mine then, and I turned to hear that familiar click and found Hunter, head behind his camera, taking pictures of a half crumbling stone archway with small heads engraved at the corners.
“Sorry, the moon hit that corner in just the right angle; I had to capture it before it was gone.” His face appeared apologetically.
I smiled. “I love seeing you work.” I was pulled into his gaze, his swirling depths lit in the shadowed light.
“Some people are bothered by the click.”
“Not me. It’s comforting.” I slid my hands out to his wrists, unwinding the strap he’d twisted to keep the camera safe, and brought it to my face. I aimed, focused the lens, then clicked. “I want a copy of that one.” I grinned after inspecting the finished image, handing it back to him.
His eyebrows lifted with amusement until he saw the picture. While the moment when I’d snapped it had been lighthearted as most everything with him was, the picture was not. In the photo, his face was caught in a look of conflicted contemplation. I shuddered at the memories that must be imprinted in his mind.
“I’m deleting it,” he huffed, and I heard beeps on the camera as he pushed buttons.
“No!” I reached a hand to stop him. He pulled away and a sardonic smile lit his face.
“I don’t take photos of myself. Let’s leave it at that.” The tone of his voice told me it wasn’t up for discussion.
“A photographer that doesn’t take photos of himself?”
“Leave it, Erin,” he whispered.
“Why?”
“Let me take one of you then.”
“Nuh—uh.” I tucked a strand behind my ear and looked to the ceiling again.
“I’ve been dying to take a picture of you since we met. Let me,” he pleaded, his voice thick with emotion, though I couldn’t understand why.
I sighed and stood in place, crossing my arms awkwardly. “Okay.”
He circled me slowly, his eyes scanning my form, assessing the angles, the light, the composition, I assumed, until he finally stopped. I chewed on my bottom lip, begging him to take the God damn picture.
“Relax.” His soft voice filled the night air and whispered across my skin, loosening my arms, causing the nerves to hum and jump. I closed my eyes for a beat and breathed through my nose, relaxing my lips and allowing the breath to fall out just as a click filled the night air.
My eyes shot open, but the last thing he saw was me. His eyes were riveted to the camera, wide green orbs transfixed on whatever image he saw. “What?” I took the couple steps to him and bent my head to see the photo.
Somehow Hunter had captured what I was sure was my only good angle. I was sure I didn’t look like that, never had, it was simply the very best me I could be after a day of makeovers and glamour shots and heavy photoshopping. The light hit my angles in just the right way to add dimension, my eyelashes falling across the tops of my cheekbones and casting a gentle shadow. It was a breathtaking image, regardless of the subject.
“Wow,” I breathed when I could finally speak. “You’re amazing.”
“I knew you’d be perfect,” he murmured so quietly it was much more meant for himself.
“Anyone could be in that picture and it would be astounding,” I said with complete honesty.
“Hardly. And you don’t need a douchebag like me to give a gorgeous girl like you compliments, so don’t ask for them.”
“What? I—”
“This photo is stunning because you are in it. That background could be anywhere, a ranch in Texas, or the fucking moon, and it would be as stunning.”
“You’re insane.”
“Let me shoot you.” He cut me off and took another step closer. “I mean it.” Hunter pulled me into his arms. My breath heaved in the dark night, our chests touching, my hardened nipples brushing against his pectorals just enough to drive me mad. “I want to shoot you. You know that photo in my foyer?” I nodded in response, my eyes locked on his. “I want you there.”
My mouth fell open and images swam through my head of Hunter and sex and that fucking click I loved.
“Do you want to be there, Erin?” He pulled me to him, my chest still pressed against his, my nipples so fucking hard I was afraid he could feel them.
“Yes,” I said with all the confidence I could muster. He blinked, his mouth open, his fist flexing around my elbow before it slowly eased.
“That was easy,” he finally exhaled and placed a slow, delicate kiss across my lips. “I can’t wait to shoot you.” He nipped at the corner of my lip, his teeth dragging along the bottom and pumping blood between my legs.
“We should get back; we have to be up in a few hours for that flight,” he reminded, his palm now settled at the nape of my neck, holding me in place.
I swallowed the heavy lump in my throat and nodded as Hunter wrapped his fingers in my own and led me through the overgrown field and back to the sidewalk. The moon cast a haunting shadow of the old stone building behind us, and as sleep tore at my eyes, I almost fell in love.
nine
I sat camped outside the same red brick home I’d come to know all too well. He was my primary target, but she’d become tangled up in it, no matter how dishonest it felt watching an innocent woman every day. I grit my teeth together, half wanting to warn her, throw in the assignment and tell her to run from the man she thought she loved. But she’d made her bed, gone into a life with eyes wide shut, and now she was forced to handle the consequences.
I heaved a sigh, only watching her half-heartedly as she buzzed around the empty house. I still hadn’t laid eyes on him. For such a popular guy, he sure kept to himself.
As if he was laying low because he knew he had a trail. Of course he didn’t know — I was a pro, highly trained with a very specific skillset that allowed me to fly under the radar and observe every moment of any situation that most glossed over as unremarkable.
But still I was here, knowing he could show up at any second. I was convinced that she was in the dark on every vile thing he’d done, but I always wondered, if she knew, would she stay? The question rang between my ears like the incessant chop-chopping of a Blackhawk, haunting me long after it should be out of earshot.
Erin climbed the stairs to her bedroom after dark and tucked herself in bed with her phone, golden lamplight casting the only glow. I zoomed in on her screen, which from my position I had a remarkably good view of, and caught her looking at sexy black and white photos. It was only a minute before I noticed one hand snaking between the sheets and the soft cotton rising and falling between her thighs.
I watched with attention, feeling every part the stalker I’d become, when her eyes fell closed and lips parted on shaky breaths, I snapped away, hoping I’d never need to use these photos. Hoping they’d never see the light of day, wishing I could burn them along with all the other evidence that may implicate her.
ten
“NEED YOU, CAR WILL be there in thirty,” Hunter grunted over the phone the following Tuesday morning as I stood in the bright sunlight of my kitchen. He hung up before I could even reply. I set my phone back on the counter. Within hours of landing in Chicago, he’d called to tell me there was a chance we’d be in LA before the week was out. I guess that was his confirmation.
I shot up the stairs, jumped in the shower, and then threw on a pair of shorts and a cotton shirt. I was just shoving my laptop in my bag when my phone rattled. My mother.
My loving, doting, suffocating mother.
“Where have you been?!” came her shrill voice when I answered. I held the phone from my ear and groaned. Maybe I should have just texted from the car.
“I’ve been calling all weekend! I drove by twice and no one was home.”
“I got a new job!” I said brightly, hoping to end her spiel in its tracks.
“Doing what?”
I began to tell her how I’d gotten a job and been whisked off to an exotic locale, excitement bubbling in my voice, before she cut me off and said she couldn’t believe I’d left town without telling her.
I groaned. My mother was a difficult person to say the least. At best, she was undiagnosed depressed, and at worst, I shuddered to think of the plethora of diagnoses a mental health professional would see fit to bestow. The best I could do was try to keep her at arm’s distance, which was difficult when she lived less than twenty minutes away and expected me to report in like an eight-year-old.
“You’d better watch yourself, young lady. Not everyone has your best interests at heart, ya know.” Her admonishment rang loud and clear over the line. Another fuck-up for Erin, she was saying. Running full steam ahead into another relationship blinded by the idea of love. I’d heard it all before. Was she right? Certainly when I was young and more impulsive, but at twenty-nine, I’d made enough mistakes and learned at least a few lessons.
Therapy had taught me that I was a classic case of paternal abandonment with resulting daddy issues, which apparently translated to my falling into bed with any man that flashed an interested glance and never failed to leave me drowning in a vicious whirlpool of lust and heartbreak in a matter of months.
But this wasn’t lust, and there wasn’t any room for h
eartbreak. It was business.
Taking the job with Hunter wasn’t a mistake; it was a financial necessity.
“I need a job, Mom. If I’m going to try to make it in this city, I need a job, and I’m more determined than ever to make it on my own.” I said with an air of defiance.
“Well, I bet it would have been nice to have someone to talk to about this new job, but if you didn’t want to talk to me…” And there it was — the pout. She had a marvelous way of sweeping the air out of someone’s lungs with guilt and shame piled stories high.
“Maybe, but I had to make a quick decision, so I did.”
“You know how you are with those.” I could see the condescending look in her eye from twenty minutes away.
“I know, Mother, but I thought you’d be excited. I’ve always wanted to travel, and this photographer is so talented, he’s won awards and everything. I’m only a PA; I’m not anything more than someone to hold the reflector and get the coffee, but hopefully it’s a start. And it’s good money.”
“How good?” Her interest was piqued again. Oh, my mother, always driven by selfish tendencies and dollar signs.
“Very good.” I allowed myself the one slip. I usually avoided talking finances with her. She had a way of taking advantage of even the smallest openings.
“Erin—”
“Look, Mom, I have to run,” I interjected, realizing the car would be here any moment and I’d already given her more time than I had to give. “I have a million things to take care of, and then we’re headed to—”
“Okay, okay. Just keep an eye on yourself.”
“I will,” I replied. “Love you.” I hung up, relieved to finally be off the phone and off to see Hunter again.
Blindsight: The Series (Complete Erotic Suspense STANDALONE) Page 4
