Kayla rushed into the posh ladies’ room outside the hotel’s ballroom entrance and sat on the sofa for a moment regaining her composure. She’d fairly rushed from the room that held the man she spent many nights dreaming of because, otherwise, she would have thrown herself at Hunter Barrett. It wouldn’t seem very dignified, but in all honesty, if she stayed next to him, she would have given him all kinds of truth. Good Lord her dreams about this man still made her blush. He’d been military friends with her cousin from what she understood. He left the military soon after he rescued her, according to her cousin. Now, he is the CEO of Barrett Family Foundation, for heaven's sake, not just some spec ops soldier with a lonely evening to fill.
Now it looks like he went back to the family business of engineering with an accompanying foundation. He was way out of her league. She’d had no idea until she saw him from across the room how much he would still affect her. She immediately honed in on those penetrating, assessing dark eyes as his glance swept the room and his smile was unmistakable.
She’d only a glimpse of that smile once before when he’d made sure she had settled next to him in the transport, and he’d intently checked her for injuries. He’d finished perusing her, top to bottom, and she’d been going to protest his thoroughness when he’d looked up and flashed his brilliant grin.
“Some scratches and bruises but no worse for the wear, you’re good enough for government work, Miss Rhea.”
“Thank you.” She’d felt the heat rush to her cheeks. Just as the man who had saved her and the others with that singleness of purpose, his attention to the detail of her safety and the connection of his very soul to hers, at that moment, was just as exclusive. “I imagine that the man who risked his life for me should have more than earned the privilege to call me by my first name. Kayla, please.”
“Call me Hunter.”
There was something about him even at their first meeting. But tonight, had she never met him before, she would’ve noticed the way he carried himself, confidently relaxed. She remembered his strength. She could see his muscular build, not overly bulky but solid. His manner exuded wealth, position, and power. Yet, he had a relaxed feel about him that put her at ease.
She’d watched him work the room for a few moments before their eyes met. She could not ignore the fact that he owned the room with his presence and his manner. Something that she would never be able to master although she heard her mother exhibited incredible talent in just that.
Her father and brothers spoke the right words, performed the right moves, and it was obvious they expected her to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Kayla grew into a different woman than her mother. Kayla was down to earth, intelligent but rather a non-assuming individual, not given to flamboyance or commandeering a room.
Regardless of who they were as people in this world, she felt drawn to Hunter inexplicably. She almost didn’t come tonight, but her brothers urged her to, and now she wondered if they knew she had been flying a holding pattern waiting for him. She spent her dreams filled with the hope that someday she would have the chance to connect with him again. She’d felt a draw to look into the east corner of the ballroom tonight, and her eyes landed on him. He hadn’t see her. Maybe that was as it should be. Kayla had begun to turn away and force herself to attend to the conversation in the little group, but she found she couldn’t ignore the allure. She’d needed to look at his face one last time. That’s when he’d looked up. Their eyes had met, and the unseen magnetism between them demanded they communicate through the baring of their souls.
She’d stood helpless to his exposure of her innermost secrets. She had waited for this man, possibly her whole life. Something had moved behind her, and she’d unwittingly turned, breaking that tenuous connection. Disappointed and achy at a the loss, Kayla had turned again to find he was gone. Maybe it was just she who ached. She’d rejoined her small group, determined to enter the conversation if for nothing more than to distract herself from him. Then he was there, beside her, desire in his eyes.
Kayla stood up abruptly from the powder room sofa determined to find out more about him. He had the perfect name for someone who appeared at her side quietly, and, with great ease, slid into the ongoing conversation. She wished she could boast that kind of confidence in these types of high society events. She knew she sported a reputation for not playing the game as other women did. She wasn’t a socialite. Nor was she striving to break the glass ceiling in commerce. Nothing put Kayla off more than pretentiousness or aggression. She would not embody those traits to spread her message.
She took one last appraising look at herself in the mirror and, as always, found herself wanting. But not as much tonight because Hunter Barrett found her to be good company and wanted more of it. Kayla smiled at her reflection. She went in search of her family, to find out more before she had dinner with him.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to rest until she found out more. Maybe after spending some time with him, learning about him, he would be out of her system and she could drop out of the holding pattern. He was out of her league, but she wished he weren’t. Kayla had never been a stupid woman. If she didn’t figure this out with him now and purge him from her system, she would be obsessed. She already had one all-consuming interest, how would she ever deal with another? No, another passion would never fit in her world.
She looked around to see if her father or one of her brothers were near. They surely held more information about him. Kayla looked for Robbie but held a sneaking suspicion that her eldest brother had gone to find a place to ride out the event. These types of events normally irritated him. He did it for the business and for their father, but he tried never to stay long. So why did he work so hard to get her here?
By five minutes to seven, the room echoed with conversation. Her father expressed his surprise that Hunter asked her to go into dinner with him by the raising of his eyebrow, but he said nothing. When she asked more about Hunter, she experienced one of her father’s long, contemplative stares before he began to fill in the blanks. His military background, when he left the Army, his present position at Barrett Engineering and Barrett Family Foundation.
“To my knowledge, Hunter has no wives, no children, and no present girlfriends.”
“Good, no one will be angry if I sit with him at dinner, then.”
“Probably not, but then, I don’t know everything about him.”
She chuckled. “You could have fooled me. Don’t you want me to accept his invitation?”
“Kayla, you’re a grown woman, and he is a grown man. If the two of you want to share company at dinner, you should. It’s just…”
“What? It’s just what?”
“I’m worried that you are stuck on this thing. That both of you are perseverating over each other because of what happened to bring you two together in the first place. It was traumatic, and the memories are tainted, inaccurate.”
“You mean the abduction? You think my memories are making him into something he isn’t and he has the same problem?”
“Right. I think you both are harboring an unnatural connection because of him rescuing you.”
“So he has asked about me?”
“Yes, he has, but I told him like I am telling you now. Be careful.”
“Do you think he isn’t good enough or has some issue I should know about?”
“Nope. He’s a stand-up guy and has no issues that I know of, but you’re my daughter, and I don’t want you hurt and if I’m right—”
“Okay. I’ll do the best I can to not fall into a deep dark hole if we don’t click at dinner. Dad, I’m more intelligent than that.”
“I hope so because I would hate to have to send in one of the team to straighten him out.”
“It might take two.” Kayla grinned at the brooding look her father gave her before she kissed his cheek. “Don’t worry so much.”
“It’s my job as your dad.”
Now here she stood, feeling awkward and yet her tummy was jumpy
, primed to see Hunter. She was scouring the room for his lean, muscular body when hot breath bathed her left ear and cheek sending delicious shivers through her.
“Looking for me?”
Her eyes jerked up and to the left. When she saw his face, her smile broke out.
“Hi. Or someone remarkably similar to you.”
“Hi, beautiful, you are like the summer sun, bright, warm, and mine to enjoy.”
“Mmm, thank you? I don’t think anyone has ever called me sunshine before.”
“They were all blind. You are enticing in your glow.”
“It might be you that draws that out of me.”
“Good, I hope so. I’ll do my best to keep the look of happiness on your face. Let me announce dinner, and then we will go in. Come stand next to me.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” she protested as he swept her along with him.
Holding her hand, he spoke into the microphone. “It is time to grab your dinner partner and go into dinner. I found mine.”
He squeezed her hand and Kayla saw camera flashes. As they made their way to their places, she admonished him.
“Silly man, now people will make all sorts of speculations about you.”
He laughed. “Oh? Why are you beyond gossip?”
“Because I’m not important here, or gorgeous but you—”
“Stop right there. In my world, ladies get hot seats when they denigrate themselves.”
Her words faltered. “N-not at all, honest assessment is not denigration, it is realism. I don’t feel bad for the truthfulness of what I just said.”
“Then you are blind, and I need to open the shutters to your eyes.”
“Thank you.”
Dinner was a bit more taxing than Kayla had expected, but as the last course ended, Hunter reached over and kissed her hand, then her cheek. More camera flashes were accompanied by more murmurings.
Kayla looked reproachfully at him. “Hunter.”
“Shh, we can tease them, can’t we? Besides, who knows but that they are getting an exclusive?”
“An exclusive to what?”
“Our first dinner.”
“Oh. Well, it is our first dinner.”
“Our first date, then, the start of it all.” The intensity of his look told her of his seriousness. Her body flushed in heated response.
The long night was almost over. Hunter steadfastly kept Kayla by his side the rest of the evening, catering to her needs, including finding her a seat to rest her feet when she whispered she wanted to take her shoes off.
“So do it.”
“What? No, I couldn’t.”
He shrugged and had a chair brought over for her to sit on.
“Sorry, baby, just one more hour,” he promised.
“I’m fine.”
She grimaced as her voice sounded tortured even to her own ears. She sat, and the relief was almost orgasmic. Almost. She would not let aching feet stop her from sharing a bed with him if the opportunity arose. She’d come this far, and she was either going to rid her system of her yearnings or, much more likely, she’d want to stake her claim to his bed, his body, his mind and his soul. Who was this daring woman? Kayla kinda liked her.
He stood behind her chair and rubbed her neck with his thumb. So familiar. So hot. Kayla was almost glad for the distraction her dad and brothers offered when they came to offer their goodnights.
“Hunter, man, this was something. I might’ve made some connections of my own. Thanks for the invite. Kayla, you ready?”
“Oh, um, I-I well—”
“I’ll get her home.”
Her father looked at Hunter rather intensely for a moment. “Tonight?”
“Dad, stop, I’m a—”
“I hope not, sir.”
Robbie and Terin sported the look, the one that said they were going to fight for her honor just as they did when she was little.
Kayla looked up at Hunter and stood. “Hunter…”
She should say something more, protest stronger, but the heated look in his eyes made her belly drop to the floor. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks, the tingling reignited in her core, and her pussy become slippery. Kayla closed her mouth. The man affected her like no other. Hunter smiled and nodded.
Her father stood for another moment, not saying more before he kissed her cheek and left. Her brothers gave Hunter a protective stare and communicated the only way guys did with nods, and grunts, then they also kissed her cheek and left. It was as though they were marking her for protection. She smiled. Men.
Chapter 4
Hunter had not been celibate since leaving the Army, but he also didn’t offer any return encounters after one night. Women tended to get clingy with more than one night. Ever since he’d met this honey blonde woman, he was hooked. He’d held her on the transport home, watching as she finger combed her bedraggled hair and ripped the hem off her tee shirt to tie it up. This girl was practical and still beautiful beneath all that dirt and fear. He’d given up a long time ago trying to erase her from his memory. An image of her flashed through his mind every time he saw another woman with her general description.
Now that he had her, he wouldn’t let her go until she was out of his system. Hunter, being a realist, recognized she might never get out of his system; he might never let her go. Kayla looked up at him after he shook her youngest brother’s hand as they left the benefit. He understood he was asking a lot from her father when he laid his cards on the table. He wanted to take Sarge’s daughter home with him, and he didn’t guarantee that he was bringing her back.
Hunter was taking a risk because, as any man or beast knows, you don’t crap in your own yard. That was just what Hunter was doing, or at least his actions could have the same result if he didn’t tread carefully. He enjoyed working for Sarge, it afforded him to keep his hands in the game, but regardless of the fallout, Kayla would be coming home with him tonight. She wanted it, and he wanted it. They were consenting adults.
Hunter leaned down and whispered to Kayla. “Sorry, I just have a few more people to send off, and then we’ll be out the door. Normally I would be able to leave but,” he shrugged, “I am the host. Are you okay to wait?”
“Of course I am. I’m not such a child that I must be entertained to keep from becoming bored or naughty.” Her voice sounded petulant. “Sorry. That didn’t come out right. I can last just as long as you need to with no lasting ill effects.”
Hunter chuckled deeply. He shook hands with another dozen or so men accompanied by lovely women who were quite obviously not all spouses. In fact, some looked young enough to be their daughters but sported no familial likenesses.
When the last May to December coupling walked past them, and the last woman in the room finished making a pass at Hunter, he gallantly offered his hand to her, clasping tightly as she laid it in his.
“And now it is time to retrieve your wrap because your chariot awaits, my dear.”
“You are too kind, sir. Please lead the way, and I shall follow you.”
Hunter’s grip tightened, and his lips brushed her cheek. “I’m going to hold you to that later.” He felt her slight tremor, and it pleased him.
Hunter preferred to drive himself on nights like this. When many others were being chauffeured, he declined the offer. His father, however, enjoyed it, giving him the opportunity to concentrate on other things during the ride. Hunter could see the benefit of that, so sometimes he indulged himself, but not tonight, not with Kayla. He wanted her all to himself.
Hunter lived in one of the apartments that the corporation kept for engineers as they filtered in and out according to projects they were working on. His company owned the top three floors for those purposes as well as for guests for other business. Hunter stayed on the very top floor, which housed two penthouse apartments. They shared an elevator when the other apartment was occupied, but it often stood vacant, as it did now.
Hunter himself would’ve liked to live outside of the city even a few mile
s, but it was impractical right now. He was single and still working intently on not only the foundation but on the business itself. Being close at hand made things more convenient. He smiled when Kayla oohed and aahed the hallway artwork and the entryway to his apartment that allowed one to see out over the city from the doorway.
“Hunter, this is gorgeous. I’m not much for living in the city, but this could change a person’s mind.”
“I agree. There have to be trade-offs to stay in the city for your work, and this is some enticing trade-off. Would you like a glass of wine?”
“I better not. I’ve probably drunk enough as it is.”
Hunter’s voice was firmer this time. “How much did you drink this evening? Are you feeling the effects of it?”
“Don’t worry. Yes, I indulged more than I normally do, but that was at the beginning of the night, so any of its euphoric effects have long dissipated.”
“Let me see if I can’t give you that euphoric feeling again.”
Leaning in, he captured her lips with his as he drew her light throw from her shoulders. His hands slid across her shoulders and up into her hair, anchoring her head as he deepened the kiss. He allowed his lips to slide down her throat, kissing the pulse beating rapidly at the base of her neck. He continued kissing her shoulders, nipping at her skin and then letting his tongue soothe the spot to comfort her.
Her breath came more rapidly, and her skin tasted of the sweet and salty flavor of perspiration as it dampened everywhere his lips teased. He loved her little whimpers, her murmurings as his hands sought the firm nipples on her soft and pliable breasts. He allowed himself an answering strangled sound before he took her lips again in a harder kiss, taking what he wanted more roughly. She gave all that he asked and offered more. He released her lips and moved back just a few inches. He felt his cock jerk painfully when she reached out her tongue and traced his lips.
Hero Undercover: 25 Breathtaking Bad Boys Page 102