“Well, you missed the family dinner again, and now everyone is getting worried,” she said, trying to sound concerned.
“I’m a grown man, Hanna. I have other things to do with my Sunday’s than sit and fight with Paris and Rhea.” He went to Google and typed something in. Turning his eyes from her, he tried to calm his defenses. It seemed that he had to do that a lot lately with her.
“The family is talking, Hunter. They’re worried,” Hanna explained in a strained voice.
Hunter stabbed the keyboard with his finger and breathed through his flared nostrils. “Why are they worried now?” He turned towards her.
She hunched her shoulders again. “I told them about your friend.”
He shot her a dirty look but kept quiet.
She put her hands up in protest. “But it was in your own defense. They were starting in again about how depressed and detached you had become and…”
Hunter growled. “Dammit! Don’t you people understand that I need my privacy? The family was totally against me and Corina getting married and then tried to act so fucking destroyed when she was killed in Iraq. Now, they are suddenly concerned? I thought that I made it perfectly clear that I didn’t want to be the recipient of their concern anymore.”
Hanna loosened her balled-up fists and took a deep breath. “Maybe if you would just talk to them, they would stop probing me.” Hanna thought it really wasn’t her fault but his. He was the one avoiding his family. He was the one seeing a black woman. He was the one who was still sulking so many years after Corina’s death. Yet, she was the one who was being blamed for everything.
“And maybe I don’t care if they are concerned or not!” He stood up and snatched off his smock. “I’m out of here. Tell the wolves that they can circle if they like, but I’m not defenseless this time. If they try to ruin this for me, I’ll cut all ties. I swear it, Hanna.” He stared down at his sister and grabbed his keys. “And you had no right to run your mouth about me and Stacey. It’s none of your damned business. I don’t’ bother you about Jack.”
“I mourned for her too, Hunter. She was my friend too!” Hanna exclaimed, stomping her foot like a child.
Hunter let go of the knob and put his head on the door. “I know that, Hanna. And you’ll probably meet and befriend Stacey, so that you can say that you have one black friend, right? But it won’t stop you from stabbing her in the back, looking down on her and making our relationship a living hell.” He spoke of possible future misdeeds from bad past experiences.
“I would never do that,” she said with sincere conviction. Her pleading eyes locked on to the back of her brother’s head. “You know me better than that, Hunter.”
He turned to her, but her beautiful face was too wrought with pain for him to stare back into. He looked down at the floor and smirked. “Haven’t you already laid the foundation? It was my job to tell Mom and Dad about Stacey, not yours. You’re already meddling.”
“I was taking up for you,” she answered, stepping towards him.
Hunter stepped back. His voice was serious. “I don’t need anyone to take up for me.” Opening the door, he left quietly.
***
Stacey was ahead of schedule by a month. Every time that Hunter left and went to work, she sat in front of her computer and typed until he came home. For hours, she would immerse herself in the world that she had created of the same love and passion that she was experiencing right in her very home. Never before had she been so happy to write and so filled with ideas. Her imagination ran wild; many of the pages were a reflection of the nights that she spent in her lover’s arms.
Hearing Rapture purr behind her, she finally saved and closed her document and went to the kitchen to make him something to eat. As she placed the bowl on the granite floor, she rubbed his fur. It was amazing, but just a blink of an eye ago, this little creature was the only thing in the world that she had to show or that would show her any measure of affection. Now, she was bombarded with love.
Standing up, she grabbed the crystal vase on the countertop and refilled it with water. The two-dozen, long-stemmed Vera Wang roses fragrantly filled her nostrils. She didn’t even know Vera Wang made flowers, but she did and they were beautiful.
Hunter brought home roses every night. It was a ritual with him. Roses. Take out. And then hours of talking and watching television together or reading her story and skimming the Internet. Then finally, they would make love. They weren’t busy bodies, consumed with the outside world. Instead, they were comfortable at home, behind closed doors, alone in each other’s company.
She paused in the middle of her thought. Home? Really? Had her condo become his home? He woke up there. He went to bed there. He ate there. He bathed there. He took his calls there.
Still in her pajamas, she walked to the bedroom and opened up the door that led to her massive but nearly empty closet. Half of it had his stuff thrown all over it. Shoes. Clothes. Belts. Bags. The other half was her things, neatly put away. Walking to her bathroom, she looked at the counter to find his razors and shaving cream, his colognes and deodorants and a million other hygiene products lined up by hers. The bedroom was the same. A lap top on each nightstand. Shoes on each side of the bed.
“Wow,” she said aloud. “He has moved in.” Until that moment, she had never noticed. Until right then, he had been a guest, but at that moment, she realized what had happened.
A strain formed in her throat. What happened to slowish? Now, they were living together? It had only been a little over a month and yet they were moving at warp speed. What happened to this secure blanket she had wrapped around herself in the form of an agreement? What happened to two-months of a pseudo-relationship and then back to a life where she couldn’t get hurt or hurt anyone else?
The front door slammed shut and snatched her out of her frenzy. Hunter walked in, roses in-hand and a smile on his handsome face. His bright smile disappeared as he glimpsed her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, setting the flowers on top of the dresser beside Drew’s photo.
Stacey didn’t realize that her face showed her concern. She scratched her brow with her thumb and looked around the room with her hand on her hip. “I…I just realized that we’re living together.”
Hunter walked towards her. “Not technically.” He pulled off his sweater and threw it on the bed. “I still have a place, remember?” Though he knew that he never went there except to get more clothes, pick up his mail and check on things. His condo had become a glorified storage unit.
Instantly, she picked up his sweater and walked into the closet to hang it up. She seemed to never stop cleaning up after the man.
Hunter stood confused, picking up on her growing frustration. He spun around to her as she came out of the closet and grabbed her by her waist. “Hey, wait a minute. Come here.”
She looked up at him and frowned. “We said that we wouldn’t do this, Hunter.”
“Do you not want me?” he asked. His grip loosened on her small hips.
Looking into his eyes, she melted. The frown lines above her forehead disappeared, and in the sincerest voice she could muster, she shook her head. “Of course I want you, Hunter. I love you. I’m just…”
He put his cold fingers over her pouty lips. “I’m not going anywhere,” he assured. Pulling her into his warm embrace, he felt the fast thud of her beating heart. She was scared. Whispering into her ear, he rubbed her back. “I’ve been thinking about something all day, and this just confirms it.”
“Confirms what?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him.
“I want you to see my place.”
Stacey stepped back and pulled at her t-shirt. “But it’s across town. We’d have to drive. It’s raining cats and dogs outside. And I don’t…I can’t…”
Hunter stopped her protests. “Calm down, baby.” Taking her hand, he led her to the bed. They sat beside each other on the edge. He held her hands in his own and gave a sympathetic smile. “I can completely understand your
fear, Stacey, but one day…”
“I knew that this was going to happen,” she interrupted.
He held on to her. “One day, you’re going to have to face your fears.”
“You’re one to talk. You’ve never even gone to Corina’s grave site,” she snapped back.
“Me too. I’m going to have to face mine. But I want us to be together and maybe together, it all will be easier to face.” He stroked her face lovingly.
Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. “Hunter, you promised.”
“I promised to be here, and I am. But I also need you to trust me, Stacey.”
“I don’t know if I can do it. What happens if I freak out and have a fit.”
“I’m a doctor. I can help you.”
She looked up at the ceiling and tried to bat the tears from her eyes. “Why now? Things are going so great.”
“Are they? You were just having a breakdown about my stuff being here. Maybe it would do you some good to hang out at my place for a change. It’s a change of scenery…a change of pace.”
“You’re getting tired of being here, aren’t you?” she asked, suddenly forgetting that she had nearly just kicked him out for being at her place too much.
Hunter laughed. Grabbing her, he gave her a big hug. “You can’t win this, Stacey. I want to be where you are, but I also want to be with you out in public. Piper and John agreed to dinner this week. They want to meet about fifteen minutes from here. You can’t expect to walk. I want you to see my home. You have to move past your fears.”
“For you?” she asked, swallowing. Why was she the one having to do all the sacrificing.
He hunched his wide shoulders. “For us.” Wiping the tears from her face, he stood up. “But before that, I brought home your favorite.”
“Chinese?” she asked, hoping that she could think of way to get out of this by the time that dinner was over.
“You bet,” he answered.
***
As they lay in bed together tangled in each other’s arms, the pouring rain raged outside. Tucking her face into Hunter’s neck, Stacey finally spoke after a long silence. Her groggy voice vibrated against his skin. “I don’t know if I can do this Hunter,” she said, running her hand over his bare chest.
Hunter ran his hands through her dreads and kissed the top of her forehead. “Of course you can,” he assured. “I have faith in you.”
“Do we have to do it tonight? I mean, can’t we wait until tomorrow?” she pleaded.
“No,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. He pulled her naked body up closer to him. As he moved her, her silky skin ignited new heat in his belly.
She looked up into his eyes innocently and pursed her lips together. “I haven’t been in a vehicle in years,” she said, as though he didn’t know.
“It’s a short drive. You’ll be there before you know it,” he said, lifting her chin with his finger. “Are you still in love with me?” he asked curiously.
“More now than ever,” she said sighing. Truth was in her words.
He raked his hand over her shoulders. “I know it’s only been a New York-minute, but I feel like there is no one else in the world for me except for you. Because of that, I have to take care of you, make sure that you not only get everything that you want but also what you need.”
Stacey shook her head. “See, when you say things like that how am I ever supposed to not give you what you want?”
He smiled exposing the deep dimples in his cheeks. “Speaking of what I want...I want you again,” he said, biting his lip. “Just once more before we go to my place.” He pushed his body closer to hers and kissed her neck.
Slowly and seductively, Stacey ran her hands down the side of his body to his large thighs and then brushed against his growing manhood. Licking her lips, she grabbed him and stroked his thick erection. When she was sure that he was ready to enter her, she stopped abruptly. “Sex? Not a chance. If we’re going to do this, we might as well get it over now, chief,” she said, sitting up. “Can’t have your cake and eat it too.”
Hunter laughed and rolled over in bed. His manhood slapped against his thigh, hard as a rock. “Woman, you’re really killing me,” he groaned.
***
The rain had not let up at all though a few hours had passed since Hunter and Stacey first discussed the inaugural drive. Standing at the door as she waited for him to bring the car around, she looked up into the night sky and felt a deathly chill that ran down her spine.
“I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this,” she said in a stark monotone as she held her arms around her.
As Hunter pulled up in his truck, she held her breath. He got out and grabbed an umbrella. The water splashed under his boots as he hiked up the stairs to her and opened the door.
“Are you ready?” he asked with a smile on his face.
“No,” Stacey said, holding on to the door. “Maybe this is a bad idea.”
“Don’t be afraid,” he said, grabbing her hand softly. He curled his hand around hers. “I’ll be right here with you, and I am a perfect driver.”
One step at a time, he led her in the rain to his truck and opened the door for her. Putting her in the car, he locked her seatbelt in and leaned in to kiss her lips. “You know I won’t let anything hurt you, right?” He looked into her eyes.
Stacey swallowed hard. She wanted to run back up to the safety of her condo and stay there forever. However, Hunter knew that if he let her go back now, he would never get her to face her fears. Running to the driver’s side, he jumped in and put on a jazz cd.
“You like jazz, right?” he asked, turning up the music. “Are you cold?”
She shook her head and held on to the dashboard. Her fingers trembled. Staring at the wet road, she zoned out. It was a night just like this when she lost Drew. The splash of the water as the cars passed caused her heart to race. Nothing scared her more.
Putting the car in drive, Hunter reached out to hold her hand.
“Keep both hands on the steering wheel,” she ordered. Her voice quivered as she looked over at him.
“My hands are on the wheel,” he reassured. “Everything is going to be okay.”
It was like she had never ridden in a car before. Used to the slow manual movement of her bike, she marveled at how quickly the blocks seemed to move past them. Protected from the elements, they went through the rain with ease in the comfort and warmness of his truck with the music playing to sooth her. Calming her fears, she sat back in her seat and nodded to herself.
Hunter knew that she was talking to herself. He also felt privileged to be the one to experience this with her. Everyone handled trauma differently, and if pushed too much, often the traumatized would shut people out. Stacey, however, had opened up to him, trusted him. He knew that he couldn’t ask for much more.
Stacey looked out the window as they moved past her safe area. She looked at the stores and houses that they passed like they had driven to another planet. “Oh, I’d like to go there,” she said, looking at a Moroccan restaurant that they passed.
“We’ll go,” Hunter said with a grin. “We can go wherever you like.”
“That would be nice,” Stacey said, nearly in a whisper. Her hand found the console. Looking over at him, she wiped the tears from her face, though she tried to smile. “I’m scared as hell,” she confessed.
He smiled back. “It’s okay. I know that this isn’t easy, but you have to admit that it isn’t as bad as you thought.”
“Yes, it is,” she said, sitting back. But she knew that it wasn’t. Maybe she was calmed by him being with her or maybe it was that she had made too much of not driving, but she felt somewhat comfortable.
When they pulled into the private drive of the upscale waterfront condo community Hunter lived in, he looked over at her and felt like they had accomplished a major feat.
Stacey looked around impressed. It was definitely a place that she would have picked. The condos were well-built, bricked, and spa
cey. Each had its own balcony. Plus, it had a beautiful view of the waterway, very much like her own.
After Hunter parked, he walked around and opened the door for her. As she put her feet on the step to get out, he grabbed her and hugged her. Her body was still trembling. Holding her tightly, he kissed her neck. “I’m very proud of you, Stacey,” he said with conviction.
“Thanks,” she said, taking a deep breath. “It was different.”
“Nice?”
She bucked her eyes. “I don’t know if I would say that it was nice, yet.”
He liked the word yet. Taking her hand, he led her to his apartment and opened the door.
Finding Opa! Page 8