by Nina Lindsey
“I’ll be happy to distract you again after we feed the cats.” He winked at her and pulled on his jeans.
After slipping into a T-shirt, Aria led the way back downstairs to the Cat Lounge. The cats were restless and irritated, swarming toward the door as soon as she opened it.
“Sorry, sweeties.” She bent to stroke her fingers through Garbo’s fur. “You can blame Hunter for being irresistible.”
“If being blamed gets me more of you, I’m entirely at fault.” He patted her ass.
Aria couldn’t stop a smile as she retrieved cans of cat food from the cabinet. Her whole body felt light and airy, like meringue. Even in her heart of hearts, there were no shadows, no pangs of worry or misgivings. Every part of her was certain about being with Hunter right now.
He refilled the water dishes and brought the food bowls over while she prepped their dinners. Hunter crouched to look under a chair where Fang was hunched, his eye slitted and his fanged tooth poking out of his mouth.
“He doesn’t like eating with the other cats, so I usually bring his food to him,” Aria said.
Hunter took a bowl of food from her and returned to Fang. He sat on the sofa and put the bowl at his feet.
“You’ll have to come out to get it,” he told the cat, then glanced at Aria. “What’s his story?”
“He was found on the side of a road up near San Jose.” Aria’s heart tightened as she bent to look at Fang. “He was in really bad shape—malnourished, a lacerated paw, cuts and scrapes, plus his missing eye. He’d been abused, and then he either ran away or was just dumped off in the ditch. Thanks to Max, he recovered well physically, but obviously he still has emotional issues. Max thinks he was starved too because he’s very protective of his food.”
Hunter bent to study the cat again and pushed the food bowl toward him slightly. Fang’s whiskers twitched.
To give him space, Aria returned to taking care of the other cats. After they’d all been fed, she took out the trash and cleaned up the counter space.
When she looked up again, Fang had emerged from under the chair and was hunched over his food bowl, eating noisily right next to Hunter.
“Wow. He rarely gets that close to people.” Aria watched as Hunter leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. Fang continued eating, unperturbed by the movement. Then the cat straightened and began washing his whiskers.
Hunter settled his hand on Fang’s back. The cat stiffened, but didn’t move away.
“Do you get the cats from all over the state?” he asked.
“Mostly from here to the San Jose area.” Aria went to sit beside him. Jumbo leapt up to paw at her lap. “Sometimes Max gets a call from a pet rescue and transportation service that they need help with a particular animal, so if I’m able to foster them before they find a new home, I do.”
“How many cats have you had adopted?”
“Seventeen since I opened. Buster just went off to his forever home yesterday. Sue is going to bring me another orphan tomorrow to join our little band of misfits.”
She stroked Jumbo’s head. Hunter straightened, lifting his hand away from Fang’s back. The cat shook himself and stretched before returning to his crouched position under the chair.
“Are you thinking of adopting another cat yourself?” Hunter leaned back against the sofa cushions and stretched his long legs out in front of him. His bare, muscled shoulders gleamed in the light from the streetlamps.
“Maybe, but right now Jumbo is enough. He and I have been through a lot together.” She nuzzled her nose against the cat’s head.
“Was he with you when you moved away from Bliss Cove?”
Aria nodded. She’d never been able to tell anyone about Steve, but based on what Hunter had told her about his childhood, he was well-acquainted with hopelessness and pain. He knew what it felt like to blame yourself. He’d pulled himself out of a bad place by fixing on a goal and creating a plan for reaching it.
So had she.
“I lived in Denver for a while,” she said. “I’d moved there not long after my father died. It’s kind of a long story.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” His gaze was intent and penetrating, like he was trying to look inside her. Aria had the strange thought that he probably could.
“After my father died, we were all kind of a mess.” She ran her fingers over the cat’s back. “Well, except for Callie who launched into general-mode the second we got the phone call that Dad had been in an accident. Then she just took over everything—Mom’s life, the bakery, the house, the arrangements, everything.
“We all let her because she’s so good at that kind of stuff, but then we found out that Dad had left each of us equal amounts of money. Callie and Rory immediately put their shares into mutual funds or whatever, and I wanted to use some of mine to take a trip to Athens, which was Dad’s favorite city. I’d never been there, and…I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to see it.
“Well, Callie thought that was a total waste, especially since I didn’t even have a job, and we got into a huge fight about it. She won, and I didn’t go. But I was so mad that I refused to talk to her for about a week. I was also upset because I knew she was right.
“Then Rory got a contract job with a tech company, so in addition to helping at Sugar Joy she was working all the time, and of course, Callie was busy with teaching and all of Dad’s paperwork. And Mom was focused on trying to get back to living her life again….
“I guess I felt alone and kind of adrift, except this time without them there to help me. With my safety net gone, I ended up in a bad place, though I did a good job of hiding it. I’d been dating Steve for a couple of weeks. He had it all…or I thought he did. Handsome, smart, successful. Somewhat ironically, he was an investment banker.”
Though Hunter didn’t move, the lines of his body tensed. “What happened?”
“I moved to Denver to live with him.” She pulled Jumbo closer as he butted his head against her arm. “We were together for about eight months. It took me that long to figure out how to leave him.”
“What did he do?”
“He was controlling. Very controlling. And I was perfect for him because he’d found me at my lowest, most vulnerable point. I didn’t know how to stand up for myself. So I didn’t.”
“Was he—” Hunter’s voice broke off. His hand curled into a fist.
“Physically abusive? He came close a few times. He liked to threaten me a lot and scare me by acting like he was about to hit me. He didn’t cross that line, but I’m sure he would have if I’d stayed. As it was, he dictated almost everything I did—what I wore, what we ate, where I went. I went along with it because I didn’t think I had a choice. I couldn’t come back to Bliss Cove. I didn’t even know how to access my inheritance because I’d let Rory invest it. Steve didn’t like the idea of me having any friends, so I mostly stayed home by myself. Took care of the house, ran errands. Spent all my time with Jumbo.”
She scratched the cat’s ears. He rolled his eyes and blinked before jumping lightly off her lap and padding over to explore a hideaway.
“When did you leave him?” An undercurrent of anger roughened Hunter’s voice.
“When he threatened Jumbo.” She rubbed her hands over the goosebumps prickling her arms. “I should have seen it coming. He didn’t like cats. Or animals in general. He tolerated Jumbo, but he had a short fuse about all things cat-related. He hated the smell of cat food, complained about cat fur, didn’t want Jumbo on the furniture. I tried to keep Jumbo out of his sight for the most part, but of course that wasn’t always possible.”
She took a breath, her heartrate accelerating as her recollection of that night crowded into her mind. Hunter settled his hand on her knee, the weight of his grip a steadying force.
“One night Steve came home upset over a work deal that hadn’t gone through, so he was in a bad mood to begin with. And I hadn’t done something right…I can’t even remember what. I probably bought the wrong bread or left a
crumpled towel on the floor. Jumbo was upstairs and out of his way, but somehow he escaped and came into the kitchen. As he started toward his food dish, Steve kicked him.”
She took a breath. “Of course, that made me angry, and for the first time, I shouted at him. Then he yelled back…which was scary because he didn’t often raise his voice…and we started fighting. It was the first time I’d fought back, and he didn’t like it. He started toward me…I knew he was going to hit me…and then Jumbo jumped onto the kitchen counter. That set Steve off even more. He grabbed Jumbo by the neck and shook…strangled him while threatening to kill him…and I was so scared he’d break Jumbo’s neck. I knew he’d do it, that he was capable of it.”
A cold shudder ran through her. Hunter tightened his grip on her knee.
“Then Steve’s phone rang.” A hollow laugh broke from her throat. “So Jumbo was saved by the bell. The instant Steve dropped him, I grabbed him and ran back upstairs to hide in the bedroom. Steve tried to get me to come out, banging on the door and shouting, and he only stopped when I threatened to call 911. The next day, after he left for work, Jumbo and I packed up and walked out. We caught the next bus back to California.”
Hunter was silent for a long minute. “Did he come after you?”
“No. He called to hurl a bunch of insults at me and told me he was glad I was gone. I never heard from him again.”
“Come here.” His voice gruff, Hunter hauled her against his warm chest and wrapped his arms around her. “That’s one of the bravest things I’ve ever heard. I’m only sorry that asshole didn’t get what was coming to him.”
“He will, at some point.” Aria rubbed her cheek against his chest. “Karma is real, whether you believe in it or not.”
He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “What I believe is that you deserve everything good. You are everything good.”
“Thank you, but I’ve made plenty of mistakes and bad decisions.” She shifted to kiss his chin. “The good news is that I’ve been making much better ones lately. Like hooking up with the guy who’s supposed to be my arch-enemy…oh, wait a second…”
His eyes crinkled with a smile as he cupped her face and brought her mouth to his. After a warm, lovely kiss, he lifted his head.
“I don’t think I’m falling for you.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “I’ve already fallen.”
Chapter 20
As falls went, it was the best one Hunter had ever experienced.
For the next few days, he reluctantly left Aria to her café work in the morning while he, even more reluctantly, finalized the Oceanview plans and continued his quest for signed contracts.
Juliette returned to Manhattan—and Hunter didn’t know what she intended to tell her father about his progress. With eight votes locked down, he was doing his job as well as he ever had. He’d learned at a young age how to compartmentalize, so separating his work from his intense feelings for Aria wasn’t difficult.
As long as he didn’t think about it too much.
The second the clock hit five—or several minutes before—he was back at Meow and Then, impatiently waiting for her to turn the Closed sign and lock the door so he could pull her into his arms and kiss her deeply.
After he helped her take care of the cats—though his work mostly consisted of feeding and petting Fang—they went out so Aria could reveal more of Bliss Cove’s secrets. She showed him the six historical murals scattered throughout town, the best rocky coves to explore tidepools, the ice-cream stand on the boardwalk where Ghost Pepper Chocolate was a secret menu item only attainable if you asked for it by name.
“It’s delicious because it’s sweet and spicy at the same time.” Aria darted her tongue out to lick her cone, the action causing heat to rush to his lower body.
“Kind of like you.” He kissed a drop of ice cream off the corner of her mouth.
“You sure you don’t want one of your own?” She held up her cone to let him take a bite.
“I’ve got one of my own.” He patted her ass, which he did as often as he could because first, he loved the sensation of her round, firm rear under his palm, and second, because she always flashed him a smile when he did.
After she finished her cone, they walked from the boardwalk to Pelican Beach. Aria pointed to a patch of sand near the pier. “Right about there was where you caught Porkchop. Oh, I meant to tell you, a family came in yesterday and filled out an application for him.”
“Did you tell them he’s a pain in the ass?”
“Hey.” She swatted his arm. “If it wasn’t for Porkchop, we wouldn’t have met.”
“That would have been a damned shame.”
And that was an understatement. He couldn’t even imagine how different things would have been if he’d walked into Meow and Then without having joined forces with Aria to catch an escaped cat. Without having kissed her. He didn’t want to imagine it.
“So, what’s Porkchop’s story?” He pressed his hand to her lower back as they stepped onto the rocky pathway leading back to the inn.
“He belonged to an elderly woman who was a retired chef, and she cooked gourmet meals for him all the time. He got a bit hefty as a result, not to mention spoiled rotten. When she passed away, there was no one willing or able to adopt him, so he ended up at the Rescue House.”
“I hope his adoption works out.” Hunter started toward the front of the inn, when Aria stopped him with a hand on his arm. “What’s wrong?”
She grimaced and indicated the windows. “I don’t want Mrs. Higgins to see me going to your room.”
He frowned, unexpectedly stung by the implication that she didn’t want to be seen with him.
“Hunter, she’s vice-president of the Ground Hogs…that’s the gardening club run by Mrs. Bowers, the mayor, and she’ll totally drop hints at the next meeting that Aria Prescott went to Hunter Armstrong’s room at nine-thirty at night, and she’s pretty sure they weren’t going to discuss the stock market. Then because Sugar Joy provides all the pastries for the Ground Hogs meetings, Mrs. Bowers will casually mention to my mother that isn’t it interesting how her daughter has hooked up with Hunter, of all people, and—”
“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in surrender and strode toward the window of his room. “We’ll do this the old-fashioned way. Which I guess is also our way.”
Glad that he’d left the window unlocked, he pushed it open and lifted Aria into the room before climbing in after her. He closed and locked it, as she went into the bathroom to check out the new bottles of lotion and shampoo left in the complimentary toiletries’ basket.
He followed her, breathing in the fragrant air. “What kind is that?”
She dabbed lotion on her arms and studied the little bottle. “Orange flower and vanilla. Smell.”
She thrust her arm under his nose. He sniffed appreciatively. “Nice. Did you know oranges are an aphrodisiac?”
“I suspect that for you, everything is an aphrodisiac.” She rolled her eyes and capped the bottle, leaning past him to return it to the basket.
“Everything about you, yes.” He took hold of her hips and eased her forward against the counter. “Now that you smell like oranges more than usual, I’m revved up to full speed.”
He pushed his groin against her rear so there was no mistaking his erection. She caught her breath, her eyes widening in the reflection in the mirror.
“That was quick,” she remarked.
“But I’ll go nice and slow.” He pressed his lips against her warm neck. Heat spread through him. Grasping her skirt, he inched it over her bare legs to expose the thin scrap of cotton that she called underwear. “You might as well be wearing nothing under here.”
“Maybe next time I won’t.” Though her tone was flip, her eyes darkened with arousal.
Though his own lust intensified, Hunter took his time stroking her bare thighs, edging his fingers under the elastic of her panties, and breathing her in.
He loved her scent, the warm smoothness
of her skin, the sound of her breath catching in the back of her throat. He loved the silky glide of her hair, the way she opened herself without hesitation to his exploring fingers, the little trembles that made her body quiver. He loved—
Hunter blocked the direction of that thought. He went down on his knees, pulling her underwear off at the same time. Edging his hands between her legs, he opened her wider and leaned forward to pleasure her with both his mouth and his fingers.
Aria gasped and clutched the edge of the counter. “Oh my god, Hunter…”
He steadied her with one hand and worked her harder, feeling her body tense with readiness. When she came, his name escaping on another cry, one word burst into his head.
Mine.
Whatever happened, however it happened, he knew one thing for certain. She was his.
He rose to unfasten his jeans and took her up against the counter—slow and easy at first, like he’d promised. But the sight of her in the mirror, all flushed skin and desire-dark eyes, was too much to take.
Clamping his hands around her waist, he quickened his pace. He’d never get enough of her. He thrust into her until she shattered again, convulsing around him so tightly that his own urgency snapped, the explosion so powerful he felt it to his bones.
Chest heaving, he picked Aria up and carried her into the bedroom. He spread her out on the bed and stripped off her clothes, then did what he’d been aching to do since the night he first pictured her naked. He kissed her everywhere—starting with her lips and moving down to her collarbones, her shoulders, her breasts. He trailed his mouth across her belly, dipped his tongue into her navel, pressed kisses over her thighs and all the way down to her toes.
She squirmed, giggled, and breathed his name. And when he worked his way up her body to her lips again, she opened her arms as if to welcome him back.
As if to welcome him home.
He couldn’t get enough of her. When he finally rolled away from her, every cell in his body wrung out, he pulled the flowered comforter over her and tugged her against him. She murmured in contentment, nestling against his side.