Heart of the Hunter

by Chance Carter

  When we entered, the entire bar, even those who didn’t know us, cheered.

  Chapter 30

  Faith

  LACEY LOOKED AT ME AND smiled knowingly as Jackson carried me over to the table.

  “I see you two have become reacquainted,” she said, teasingly.

  “You knew about this?” I said. “You knew he was back and you didn’t tell me?”

  “He made me promise not to say a word,” Lacey said.

  “But you brought her here,” Jackson said.

  Lacey laughed. “And I’m glad I did. You’ve been reconnected now. You have your girl back. If I hadn’t brought her here you’d have let another week pass you by. You two have waited long enough.”

  “Thank you,” Jackson said, and he meant it.

  I found my seat and Jackson opened the wine as he sat down next to me.

  And Damn.

  What can I say?

  It felt so good to be sitting in that bar next to my man. My makeup was smudged, my heart was still fluttering from nerves, I was still terrified for the future, but I was happy. Jackson was back.

  The way he looked at me, as if he was staring right through me, into my soul. I felt naked in front of him. He made me tingle with something I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in a very long time. I felt sexy. I felt desirable.

  He was so sure of himself. I’d never seen a guy walk with so much swagger. To call him cocky was the understatement of the century. He was like a young Clint Eastwood crossed with Jax from Sons of Anarchy.

  I’d forgotten how he made me feel. I felt like a little girl again, the girl who’d walked up to Jackson all those years ago and asked for his help.

  It was like going back in time. It was like being reborn. It was like getting a second chance at life. And this time we were going to do it right. We’d make up for all the time we’d lost. I knew we would. There was no Wolf Staten, no Los Lobos, just me, Jackson, and the son our passion had created.

  I looked at Lacey and I was so grateful to her. She’d forced this meeting. She’d brought me here.

  And at the same time I felt so sorry for her. Her guy was cheating on her, screwing with her mind like a complete jackass, and all the while, I was having the happiest time of my life. I’d never be able to thank her for allowing me to have this moment of happiness. She didn’t make it about herself and her struggle with Matt. She gave me the night, allowed it to be a happy time, despite the fact she was going through her own personal torture.

  Jackson nodded to Lacey and poured four glasses of the pinot noir. Then he stood up and motioned for Grant to come join us. He’d been watching the scene from the bar with a big smile on his face.

  He came over, said hi to me and Lacey, slapped Jackson hard on the back, and took a glass.

  Jackson raised a toast. “To second chances,” he said.

  “To second chances,” the rest of us said together.

  I tasted the wine and, to my surprise, it was pretty good. No, it was better than good, it was excellent. “This is good wine,” I said and picked up the bottle.

  “It’s from my father’s vineyard,” Jackson said.

  “I remember Grant saying he was working on your father’s vines.”

  “Did he ever take you down there?” Jackson said, his eyes widening.

  “No, never.”

  “Good,” Jackson said, relieved. “That’s going to be a surprise.”

  “Jackson knows all about our wine business,” Lacey said.

  I smiled. “How come we never tasted this before, Grant?”

  “It wasn’t ready,” he said. “Believe it or not, the first vintage wasn’t ready until the very night Jackson returned from his wanderings.”

  “Is that so?” I said.

  Jackson and Grant nodded.

  “What a coincidence,” I said.

  Jackson looked into my eyes. “Nothing in life is a coincidence,” he said.

  I blushed under his gaze. The way he looked at me made my cheeks flush. He leaned back in his seat and made no attempt to hide where he was looking. His gaze started at my feet, climbed my legs, passed over my dress and paused at my breasts, before coming up to meet my eyes.

  “I missed you,” he said.

  My heart fluttered. He stared at my breasts and ass without even trying to conceal the fact. It was the first time in twelve years I’d been examined so closely by a man with sexual intentions. It was thrilling.

  I looked at Lacey. She was loving every second of it. She’d waited so long for me to find happiness with Jackson. Even when I was ready to give up, she never let me.

  I thought again of the pain she must have been going through with Matt and something inside me wanted to scream. How dare that asshole hurt my best friend. I’d take a bullet for Lacey. I’d have to do something about Matt soon. If Lacey didn’t, I would. After all, she’d intervened to help me and Jackson.

  I glanced again at Jackson. I’d been trying not to look at him. I was still getting used to the fact that he was there, and I didn’t want to embarrass myself. Despite my best attempts however, I felt myself trembling with excitement. The way Jackson was looking at me, I felt like a deer on the African plains. Jackson was the lion. I was his prey and he was about to kill me. It would happen very soon. I could feel it.

  He’d waited twelve years. He wouldn’t wait another night.

  “Lacey,” Jackson said, “would you do me a favor?”

  “Sure thing,” she said, looking at him with a naughty twinkle in her eye.

  “Would you tell Faith that I find her completely enchanting.”

  “Of course,” she said, playing along. Then she turned to me. “This gentleman finds you enchanting, Faith.”

  I blushed. “Will you tell him that I know for a fact he’s no gentleman,” I said.

  Jackson reached under the table and put his hand on my thigh. I felt as if electricity was rushing from his skin into mine. Desire poured through me.

  Lacey giggled. She looked at me.

  “Faith,” she said, “you look like you’re going to fall off your seat.”

  I can’t describe how I felt. My heart was pounding. I felt nervous and excited and full of lust.

  After twelve years of absolutely zero male attention, Jackson coming on to me in front of Grant and Lacey was too much to bear. He was shamelessly flattering me. It had been so long since I’d allowed any man to show me attention.

  I liked it. I realized I’d been yearning for it.

  I’d done a lot of things during the past twelve years that I was proud of. I’d built a life for Sam and myself. That meant building up the wine business from scratch with Lacey, becoming financially self-sufficient, being a good mother with a stable, sheltered, secure life for Sam.

  But I’d done nothing with a man. Nothing at all. I was practically a virgin all over again.

  So when Jackson said what he was about to say next, I didn’t know how to react.

  “Faith,” he said, “come outside with me.”

  “Where?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t care where. I just have to be alone with you.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, laughing but also meaning every word I said. “You think you can just show up after God knows how many years, flatter me, and I’ll fall right back into your lap like nothing happened?”

  Jackson looked right at me, into my eyes, and I found myself desperate to believe whatever he was about to say.

  “I know what happened, Faith. I know I can’t erase that. But if you don’t get back into my lap soon, I swear I’m going to burst.”

  Chapter 31

  Jackson

  WHAT THE HELL WAS I DOING? I mean, this wasn’t the way I operated. I know how to deal with women. At least, I used to know. It had been so long since I’d gotten my dick wet it was like I’d lost my touch.

  I’d been back in the Socorro Valley a week.

  A week!

  And I was still pussyfooting around Faith like
a boy too scared to ask her to the prom.

  Faith didn’t need a guy to show her manners. She’d been waiting for me for twelve years. She needed me to fuck her so hard she had to beg me to stop. She needed an orgasm in her pussy. An orgasm in her mouth. An orgasm in her ass. She needed my jizz flowing out of every hole.

  I don’t mean to be crass. I loved this woman and I’d have taken a bullet to see her happy. But shit. I had to get my act together.

  Women are the most complicated creatures on God’s green earth, but they’re simple too. You charm them. You challenge them. You flatter them. And then you fuck them. And then you fuck them again. And a third time. And they love you for it. They thank you for it. They beg you for more and then they beg you to stop. They know exactly what they want and if you can’t give it to them, you’re not really a man. At least in my book.

  That’s the way it’s always been, since the beginning of time.

  So why did this feel different?

  Why was Faith making my dick pound with desire, while at the same time terrifying me?

  I’ll tell you why. Love. Love was the complicating factor.

  I looked into Faith’s eyes. God, she was pretty.

  I took her by the hand and led her across the bar.

  “Jackson,” she gasped. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Have fun, you two,” Grant said, as we left.

  Lacey was laughing.

  “I’m taking you where I should have taken you a long time ago, Faith.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “If I hadn’t gotten mixed up with Los Lobos, this is the place I’d have taken you twelve years ago.”

  “If it wasn’t for Los Lobos, we’d never have met at all,” she said.

  I looked at her and smiled. She was being kind. She was letting me know that she wasn’t holding what had happened against me. Was she really forgiving me?

  Outside, the air was refreshing. It was a relief to get out of the bar. In the moonlight, Faith looked even more attractive. All I wanted was a chance to talk to her alone.

  I led her to the pickup truck and opened the passenger door for her.

  “Where are you taking me?” she said.

  “You’ll see.”

  She climbed up into her seat and I hurried around and got in next to her. I took the truck out onto the road and down into the valley, past the spot where she’d almost killed me a week earlier.

  “I can’t believe you said nothing when you were in my car,” she said.

  I looked across at her. Fuck, she was beautiful. She was an angel. My angel.

  “The time wasn’t right,” I said.

  She smiled and nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “This feels better.”

  We were driving away from the town, down toward the bottom of the valley, where the peaks of the mountains rose sharply up from the river. We passed the Brotherhood mansion and Faith looked down the driveway toward it.

  “Grant took me there after you left,” she said.

  “I know. Did you like it there?”

  “Yes, I did. And I’ve liked knowing the Brotherhood was there for me if I needed them. Lacey and the brothers helped me get established. Lacey’s still my best friend.”

  I nodded.

  “I thought you were taking me there now,” she said. “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  We drove on a couple more miles and then I pulled down the driveway of my father’s vineyard.

  “Where is this place?” she said.

  “My father’s old place.”

  “Oh.”

  I pulled up outside the house and killed the engine. I looked at Faith. There were tears in her eyes when she looked back at me.

  “I’ve never been here,” she said.

  “Well, you’re here with me, now.”

  “I’m glad to be.”

  “This is where I grew up.”

  “And what are you going to do with me here?” she said, a sparkle in her eye.

  “Come on,” I said.

  I got out of the truck and helped her out of her side.

  “Are we going into the house?”

  “Not yet. I’m still working on the house. I don’t want you to see it until it’s ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “What did you think of that wine?” I said.

  “I liked it. I really did. And I know wine. I think I could find some restaurants in the city that would be interested.”

  I opened the tailgate and hopped up onto the back of the truck.

  “You want to see what else we’ve got?” I said. “There’s a case here with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Grenache.”

  “You had me at Merlot,” she said, laughing.

  I reached down to her and she seemed to hesitate for just a second before giving me her hand and letting me pull her up into the back of the truck.

  “Would it be out of line if I were to pay you a complement?” I said.

  She laughed but she was listening. “That depends.”

  I could tell she was blushing. She was probably glad it was dark.

  “On what?”

  “On whether or not you mean it.”

  I couldn’t lie to her. I could never lie to her. She was a part of my soul.

  “You are an angel, Faith. You are an absolute angel.”

  She looked away.

  We sat at the back of the truck, our backs against the cab. I’d brought our wineglasses from the bar and set them in front of us.

  “What do you want to try first?” I said.

  “You choose?”

  I looked at her for a second. It was a surreal moment. The moon was shining above us. We were outside the house I’d grown up in. We had a child together, and yet it was as if we were two strangers. We were soulmates who’d been forced apart for over a decade. It reminded me of those stories of twins separated at birth. Somehow, they maintain a deep connection, despite the fact they’ve been kept apart their whole lives. There was heat in the air but it wasn’t oppressive. Crickets were chirping for twenty miles in every direction and they created a comforting din, like the sound of the ocean.

  “It’s a beautiful night,” she said.

  “You’re beautiful, Faith.”

  Her lips were like the blush on a ripe cherry. Her eyes looked into mine and the connection between us was like that between two people who’d known each other their entire lives. We weren’t strangers. We were lovers. We always had been, and we always would be. At that moment, the only thing that existed in the entire universe was her.

  Nothing mattered, except that we were both there, under the stars, drinking wine and looking into each other’s eyes.

  I opened a bottle of Merlot and poured two glasses.

  She raised the glass to her lips and took a sip.

  “What do you think?” I said.

  “What do I think?” she repeated thoughtfully. “Jackson, what are we doing out here? What are you going to do to me?”

  Chapter 32

  Faith

  I DRANK THE WINE. I needed it. Nothing like this had happened to me in a very long time.

  I’d once been the wild girl, the girl that hooked up with the bad boys, but for the last twelve years I’d been a wallflower. No guy so much as looked at me. They could tell I wasn’t interested. It was like Jackson had marked me somehow, and other men could sense it. I’d gone from being the wildest thing at the party to being a complete wallflower. I was the designated driver, the one who went home early. Something told me tonight was going to be different. I’d finally be the Faith I’d been a long time ago. I’d be the girl that got the guy.

  For the second time in my life, I was getting picked up by Jackson Jones, and it was a thrill.

  As I sat there with him in the back of the truck, his muscular body right next to me, the thoughts of what he was going to do to me became increasingly vivid.

  I was scared,
but there was no way in hell I wasn’t going through with this. We’d committed to each other a long time ago. This was just an inevitable part of the journey. A very long time ago, Jackson had told me there would be no going back. I’d believed that. And I would hold him to his word.

  I decided to let go of my inhibitions. Whatever was going to happen, and I could feel that something was definitely going to happen, I would embrace it.

  I’d already put in the time. I’d waited long enough. I remembered Jackson as a wild passionate lover, and I was ready to submit to his powerful body. Whatever he wanted from me, I would give him.

  He opened another bottle of wine, I didn’t even notice which one.

  “You want me to try and find buyers for this wine in the city?” I said.

  Jackson shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s been Grant’s department up until now. I don’t want to make plans without speaking to him.”

  “Well speak to him. Lacey and I could create quite a stir with this.”

  I took another sip.

  We sat there, drinking the wine, looking up at the stars, and then it came. Exactly what I knew was coming. What I’d been praying would come. You don’t get into the back of a truck with a man like Jackson Jones and not expect something to happen.

  His hand was on my thigh.

  His strong, masculine hand, was on my smooth, succulent thigh.

  My mind flashed back twelve years, to the first time he touched me at the motel. I shuddered with desire.

  I was wearing a short, black dress. I’d always been proud of my legs. They were my best feature. I was glad he started on them. I was terrified of letting him down. A lot had changed with my body in twelve years. I’d given birth to a child. I wasn’t the twenty-year-old he remembered.

  I looked at him.

  It was strange. There was something intense and real about the look in his eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought maybe it was love.

  Love.

  Where did we stand on that question? I didn’t know.

  I loved him. I loved him with all my heart and I had ever since he’d given me his son, but did he love me? He said he’d been loyal to me for all the years we were apart. Did that mean we were in love? I hoped it did.

  Stop thinking, I told myself. Just enjoy this for what it is and stop trying to read anything into it. I couldn’t control what the future held, and I wouldn’t try. If Jackson loved me, if he loved Sam, he would show us. We wouldn’t have to guess.