“What’s this?” I touched the boxes, a lump forming in my throat.
“She’s selling the house.” He searched through the cupboards until he found one of the many vases they had stashed away. “The moment the divorce is final, she’s moving to a place near her sister.” Colton had told me once that his Aunt Jessica lived somewhere in Georgia, not far from where Julia grew up.
“She’s moving away? From? Cody?
“I told her to.” He slammed the cupboard. “Until she’s better. She needs a fresh start. Get back on her feet without all the heartache, ghosts, gossip, and judgment of this town.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know how to respond. I knew Hunter had no real ties to this house. It never was a home, but it was still where he and his brother grew up. Where memories of Colton still lived. His room was still a shrine.
“We’ve all agreed she can’t heal if she stays here.” He filled the vase with water, every muscle in his body tight, drawing a huge line in the sand.
“Your dad?”
Hunter scoffed, a frown deepening on his forehead. “He already has a place near the woman he’s been cheating with for ten years. The façade is gone, so he no longer needs to pretend they aren’t together.”
I didn’t say it, but we both knew Julia was better off without that jerk. Because I had seen Julia as my future self if Colton had never died and what my life would have been, I felt a weight lift off my soul thinking Julia would find her happiness. Like me, she would do it on her own, but the man standing before me had been the guiding force for both of us. The person who drove us to want to change.
“Hunter…” I gulped, my fingers dropping away from the cardboard, twisting to him.
“Thanks for the flowers and stopping by. Meant a lot to my mom.” He cut me off, his gaze threatening, telling me not to continue.
My throat clogged with marbles of agony, feeling any chance for us slip through my fingers.
Noticing I wasn’t moving, Hunter strode forward, motioning his hand. “I’ll walk you out.”
My teeth clamped, but I followed him out; my heart spread out onto the floor, an empty cavity filling my chest.
Lightning crackled and the clouds rolled with turbulence when we stepped outside. The weather reflected the pain in my soul.
“Please, Hunter. Let me explain…” I turned to him when we reached my car.
“Explain what?” He tipped his head to the side, his timbre and gaze taciturn. “There’s nothing to explain.”
“Then why do I feel there are a million things to clarify? To say to you.”
“Maybe at one time.” He opened the door, nodding for me to get into my car. “But not anymore.”
“What? Why?” Desperation rang like bells off my tongue.
“Bye, Jayme.” He let go of the handle, circling around back for the house, walking away from me.
Grief submerged me under its suffocating weight. My heart clawed across the pavement to reach him. A thousand feelings and thoughts ran through me, but only one dominated and rose to the surface with fortitude.
A pregnant drop of rain splattered on my forehead, startling me out of my reprieve.
Screw him! I thought, my feet moving before I realized it.
“Fuck you, Hunter!” I stomped across the driveway that separated us, anger burning my muscles. “You don’t get to end it like that.”
“Excuse me?” He whirled around, his eyes flashing, his shirt soaking in the liquid falling from the sky.
“You never want to see me again? Fine!” It wasn’t fine. “But you will hear me out.”
Lightning cracked across the sky.
He stomped back to me, his dimple twitching with anger. “I don’t get to end it like that?” He growled, his body kept coming, looming over mine, making me take a few steps back. His aloof façade shattered in front of me, fury blazing his eyes, his shoulders tightening around his neck.
“Did you give me a choice when you walked away from me?” he spat, still moving forward, his bare feet knocking into my chucks.
“We both decided that!” I shoved at his chest, the rain pelting my skin and hair, sliding down my face.
“Did we?” His nose flared, pushing back. “You had already decided way before we talked. You dictated my life, who I was supposed to be with… all to make it easier for you to leave.” He shook his head. “So, yes, I can end it without your input. Especially because there is nothing to end.” He started to move away from me.
“Don’t act like I was being silly. No one could watch you with Krista and Cody and not feel it.” I yelled back, licking the rain off my mouth. “I’m sorry if for once I put myself first… if I didn’t want to follow you around like a puppy. That following my dreams came before yours.”
His chest puffed up, the rain sticking to his skin. “It’s not because you went to Italy or followed your dreams. Jesus, I want nothing more for you. I want you to have it all, Jayme.” His arms flung out. “When you walked out of the room, it broke me… I was hurt and angry.”
“Broke you?” My mouth dropped. “Really? Because it looked like you got over me quite quickly.” My mind flashed back to the night I saw him win the race, a woman’s arms around him, kissing him.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Veronica?” I wiped my face. “I saw you! Only weeks after I left! You two making out on TV. Yeah, that was awesome to watch. Then there were the times seeing Krista and Cody with you at the races.” Hurt and anger tightened my mouth. “And every time after that, Krista was there, the commentator talking about her being your girlfriend.”
“And you believed it all, just like the rumors about me in high school. Without even asking.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I exclaimed. “You even told me you guys were together. Did you sleep with her?”
“Did you sleep with your Italian?”
I jerked back.
“How long did it take for you to move on to him?” He stomped back to me, his eyes roaming over mine with spite, taking in my silence. “That’s what I thought.”
Luca was the last one in the string of men I tried to use to get over Hunter. It only made me feel guilty, because standing before Hunter, I realized none of it worked.
“I’ve fucked a lot of people since you left. All in trying to forget you.”
I flinched at his words, mostly because I had done the same, but hearing him admit it still ripped my heart.
“But clearly it did shit… because here we are.” He scoffed, running a hand over his face, the rain pouring down, lightning zigzagging across the sky. “I’m done being broken. In everything. Go back to your boyfriend, Jayme. Just leave me alone.” He stepped away.
“He’s not my boyfriend.” My declaration halted his feet, his eyes snapping to mine. “He left the day after your birthday. After seeing me with you that night.” I licked my mouth. “He knew I didn’t love him… not like I love you. Like I’ve always loved you.”
Hunter inhaled sharply, his gaze reproachful.
“You assumed as well. I broke up with him in Italy because he deserved better. Someone who was capable of loving him. My heart was already taken.” I tucked my soaking hair behind my ears, not feeling anything besides Hunter’s eyes on me. “I may have left the day in Denver, but no matter what I did, what I tried, what I told myself, I have never stopped loving you, Hunter. Not. For. A. Single. Moment.”
Anguish slipped over his face for a second before he barreled for me. His hands clasping the sides of my face, his body slamming into mine. He pulled me to him, his mouth crashing down on mine. The instant his lips touched mine, everything detonated inside of me, desire whooshing through every vein.
Desperate. Violent.
My need for him burned along my spine and between my thighs, igniting the need to be closer. I groaned as his tongue met mine, deepening the kiss.
“Jayme.” His hands curled under my ass, pulling me up. My legs wrapped around him, my back crashing against the jeep
, flaring more desire through me.
A streak of lightning overhead amplified the crackling energy between us. My car door still open, Hunter tossed me on the seat, our mouths never parting. He roughly grabbed the back of my head, pressing his firmness between my thighs, spinning my head with painful yearning.
I ached, rubbing against him.
“Fuck… Jayme.” His fingers dug into my scalp, tugging off my tank, the sodden fabric slapping against the pavement as it hit the ground, a hand sliding under my bra covering my breast. “Tell me to stop now.”
Oh hell no.
I peered out my windshield. The pouring rain and tree blocked the car from view of the house. Not that I cared. Nothing would have impeded me. My need for him overrode anything else.
“Don’t stop.” My hands skimmed under his shirt, gliding over his bare chest, greedy to feel every inch of his skin, even more muscular and built since his days on tour. “Please.” My mouth caught his before my fingers ripped off his shirt, joining mine on the ground with a smack.
Feeling his hands on me, him throbbing against my leg, I became more reckless, desire consuming any logical thought, my hands shoving at his shorts.
“Wait.” He broke from my mouth.
“What? No.” My legs wrapped tighter around him, my eyes wide with anxiety.
His hands curled around my butt, picking me up, his head knocking against mine. “Believe me. Nothing is going to stop me from being inside you.”
Heat flushed in my cheeks as he moved us across the driveway to the garage to his truck parked on the side of the garage, opposite of Julia’s room. He flipped down the tailgate.
“You know how long I’ve fantasized about this?” He dropped me on the lip. “We never got to finish that night, did we?”
“No. We didn’t.” I inched backward as he followed me into the bed of the truck, crawling between my legs, laying me back as he climbed over me. His mouth seized mine with a new fierceness as he unclasped my bra and tossed it to the side. This time there was no lake for my clothes to sink in, but the rain cooled our heated skin, slipping between our lips as our mouths claimed each other.
Tugging off my shorts, my body trembled with missing him, of longing for him to be the guy making me ache with need. His hands and mouth made me feel as though I were exploding, making me moan as electricity fired up every nerve he touched.
My hands shoved at his shorts, pushing his boxer briefs down his legs along with them, my hand finding him.
Hunter hissed, moving with me as I stroked him, his elbows at my head, his teeth sinking into my lip, tugging at it. “Shit,” he muttered against my mouth, drawing back. “I don’t have anything on me.”
The thought of ending this prickled panic at the back of my throat.
“I’m on the pill.” It was something I started immediately in Italy, not taking any chances.
“I’ve never had sex without a condom. I’m clean.”
“Me too.” So many things had come between us, it would be amazing to have sex without barriers. “Please, Hunter.” My nails sank into his ass, pulling him down on me. “I need to feel you.”
“Fuck.” He growled. “I want to take my time, but…”
“Next time.” I bowed into him, biting at his neck. “Or maybe the time after.”
A grin tugged at the side of his mouth, his eyes glinting with desire.
“Now, Hunter.” My heart raced with necessity, my lungs gasping at the feel of him nudging between my thighs, my body ready for his.
Raw hunger drove his mouth against mine. He lifted himself up enough to thrust in, a cry breaking from my mouth, back bowing under the onslaught of pleasure. I couldn’t breathe or speak, my body trembling under him.
Oh. My. God.
“Holy. Fuck.” He paused for a moment, staring down at me before he moved, sending flames of pleasure up my spine. Eagerly I responded, meeting every drive with my own, unable to stay quiet.
Rain plummeted down on us, slicking our skin as we moved with each other.
Until this moment I hadn’t realized how different sex felt with him than had it felt with others. He had ruined me for all other men the first time, but now my body truly understood the difference, and it wouldn’t want anything but him.
Ever.
Chapter Thirty
His fingers softly laced through my hair then ran down my back as my head curled on his chest. I couldn’t say the bed of his truck was comfortable after this long, but I was too content to move.
“I imagined fucking you a lot in this truck, but damn… I don’t want to know where you learned some of those things, do I?”
I went up on my elbows, grinning down at him. He lay on his back, one arm behind his head, not a single thing covering him. “Probably not.”
His eye twitched, but he pulled me down on him, kissing me.
“Do you think your mom is wondering where you are?” I pulled back, my fingers tracing his face. I couldn’t stop touching him, which seemed to lead us back to sex. Hence, why we were still here after a couple of hours. The cloudy skies still dripping random drops of rain were darkening with the approaching evening.
Hunter let out a chuckle. “I’m gonna take a guess she knows where I am.”
“What?” I sat up, my hand on his bare chest, still damp from rain and sweat.
“Um… Jayme…” His mouth twisted with humor. “That last time alone, I think they heard us a couple towns over.”
“Oh god.” I smacked my face with humiliation. “So embarrassing.”
“Don’t be.” He grabbed my hand, pulling it away from my face. “There’s always hope she took the relaxant her doctor gave her and slept through it.”
“What are the chances of that?”
“About nil.”
Groaning, I dropped my head on his chest, feeling his chuckle vibrate through my bones. I couldn’t remember feeling this much joy in a long time. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me on top of him, his lips brushing my head. Being in his arms felt so good, I never wanted to be anywhere else. I pressed my ear to his heart, hearing it thump, feeling a peace I hadn’t since we parted.
I sighed contentedly and traced the dragon tattoo on his arm, which reminded me of the sketches he had drawn.
“Have you thought about doing anything with those motorcycle designs?” My finger followed the ink.
“Not really. They were just something I did for fun.”
Tipping up my head on his ribs, I peered at him.
“They’re really good, Hunter. And I’m not just saying that. You could do that… for a living. People would be tossing money at you.”
“I have a job.”
My lips twisted in a frown. “Is this what you really want? To stay here, working in Doug’s garage?”
“That’s not good enough for you?” His lids lowered.
Sitting up again, my head shaking. “Of course it is. Don’t turn me into some uppity snob. I am truly asking if this is what you want.”
He pushed up on his arms, his eyebrows creasing, but didn’t respond.
“I know some of your friends are here. Cody. The baby…” Did he want to be a father to that baby as well? “But like I said before, don’t settle just because one dream fell apart. You are much more than a supercross rider. You always were. And honestly, those careers last for a few years anyway… What did you want to do after that?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it.” He reached for his shorts, tugging them on, jumping down from the truck. I followed suit, pulling back on my shorts before realizing my tank top was across the driveway in a puddle.
“If working at the garage is what makes you happy, that’s great. I just want the best for you.”
He sidled up to me, his hands moving over my naked torso.
“You make me happy.” He leaned down, kissing me. I understood him enough to know not to push any more, to let the topic drop. We would somehow make it work, but I was not staying here. Too much waited for me out there
to ignore.
His mouth moved hungrily over mine, like it had been days instead of minutes since we were together. My arms looped around his neck, my bare chest rubbing against his.
“Jayme…” He grunted. “If you don’t stop that now, I’m going to fuck you against the truck. And I won’t be in any way quiet.”
I took a breath and stepped back. His poor mother had gone through enough; she didn’t need to hear us… or worse, see us. That would be wrong.
“Hold on.” He went to the passenger door, opening it. He grabbed something, shaking it out. “It might be dirty, but it’s dry.” He handed me a T-shirt from Doug’s garage. Tugging it on, his sexy smell clinging to the fabric made me want to curl up in it. “I just lost a shirt, didn’t I?” He smirked, watching me.
“Yep.” I nodded, holding it to my nose. “I’ll let it visit when it needs your smell again.”
“Weirdo.” He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me against him. Several moments we stayed there, enveloped in each other’s embrace.
My brain almost couldn’t wrap around that we were here. Maybe we had to go through the last year to get here. I had grown so much since we parted ways. I was proud of the person I had become. Now I appreciated this moment even more.
“Do you have to go home tonight?” he said against my ear, his breath tickling down my neck.
I loved my parents, but living with them again felt like I had stepped back in time to the girl who still needed a curfew and “no boys allowed in the bedroom” rule. They wouldn’t be happy with my choice, but it was mine to make.
“No.” I gazed at him through my lashes. “Why? You plan on keeping me?”
“Yeah.” His attention locked on me, his expression serious. “Forever if I can.”
I went up on my toes, kissing him, my heart screaming yes. As usual, our mouths grew frantic in moments, before Hunter leaned away.
“Let me check in with Mom. See if she’s all right, and then you meet me at my place later tonight.”
“Your place?”
“Yeah, well, Doug’s. I’ve been living there permanently since the accident.”
Broken Love (Blinded Love Series Book 2) Page 27