Heart of the Hunter

by Chance Carter

  I climbed into the front seat and turned the ignition. I should have been happy for her. I knew that. As I pulled out of the hospital lot, I knew in my heart that I should have been happy for her. The guy sounded genuine. He was offering her a real relationship, and I’d smashed his face for it.

  I figured Lacey would find out soon enough. I’d beaten up her new boyfriend and his friends. I’d jumped without looking. She’d hate me more than ever when she found that out.

  I’d blown it. I’d ruined my chance with the one girl I’d ever loved. I’d hesitated, I’d failed to offer what she deserved, and now some other guy was stepping up to the plate. My breath caught in my throat. I tried to take a deep breath but I couldn’t breathe. I pulled over and took off my seatbelt, then I leaned forward in my seat and gasped for air.

  Chapter 22

  Grant

  I’D LIKE TO TELL YOU that everything went fine from then on. I’d like to say Lacey was happy. I’d like to say she was going out with Rob, and that he was a great guy, the guy she’d always been dreaming of. I’d like to say he was the kind of man she deserved, the kind of man who would look after her. I’d like to say I was happy for her.

  But I can’t. You know why? Because fuck Rob Crawford.

  I’m not saying Lacey was my girl, because I know I never offered her what she wanted. But this jerkoff? Please. I didn’t like the way he treated her one bit. He said she’d taught him how to be a man, how to treat women properly, but from what I could tell, he just wanted a piece of eye-candy he could bring to parties and use to woo potential clients. He was constantly trying to get her to do things to enhance her appearance, whatever that meant. As if she wasn’t the most beautiful creature God ever created already. He was using her as an advertisement for his clinic.

  I watched her get ready for her dates with him, I watched the way she changed her style, the clothing she wore, even the way she spoke. Fuck, it was the longest two weeks of my life. She was meeting up with him practically every night, going to fancy parties in the city, or black tie events at his clinic. I hated watching her leave. I knew it was my own fault. I hadn’t claimed her. She was free to do whatever she wanted with whoever she wanted, but fuck, I didn’t have to like it.

  I tried to ignore it, but I couldn’t. For those two weeks, every time I saw her get ready for a date with Rob, I felt like I was watching my own wife get dressed to go out with another man.

  Is that crazy? Is that the kind of domineering bullshit that people don’t approve of any more? If it is, I don’t care. It’s how I felt, and I’m not going to hide it.

  I was glad I broke his nose. The more I saw, the happier I was that I’d had the opportunity to plant my fist in his face. If I ever got a chance to do it again, if he fucked up and broke Lacey’s heart, I’d put him right back in that hospital, and it would be more than a few stitches before he got out.

  And then, you know what Lacey did next? Me with all this emotion bubbling under the surface, and she tells me she wants me to meet the guy. I was working out in our basement gym when she told me. I was literally benching like three-fifty, the weight of the bar pushing down on me, when she chose to tell me. She always had great timing.

  “I’m having Rob over for dinner.”

  I glanced at her, just for a second, and then my arms gave way. The fucking bar came crashing down on my chest with the force of a small automobile behind it.

  “Fuck, Lacey,” I cried.

  She hurried over. I didn’t usually need a spotter for that much weight, but Lacey had a real fine way of breaking my willpower. She pulled at the bar but it was no good. It was far too heavy for her. I couldn’t breathe. It was crushing my chest, painfully forcing down into my muscle.

  “I can’t lift it, Grant.”

  I shut my eyes and put my will into it. I got the bar up and into the locks.

  “Shit,” she said. I knew she meant it because she rarely swore. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you’d have such strong feelings on the issue.”

  “I don’t,” I lied.

  She smiled at me. “I just watched you drop six plates, practically on your neck. You’ve got feelings.”

  “I don’t, Lacey.”

  “Then you won’t mind joining us for dinner. I really want you and Forrester and Grady to meet Rob.”

  “Why? We never meet your boyfriends. You like to keep your love life private from us.”

  “Yeah, well it’s not so private anymore, is it, Grant? Not after what you did to me in the barn.”

  “What I did to you? From what I remember, you were just as into it as I was,” I said.

  “I only did it because you begged me,” she said.

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I did, Grant. I’d never agree to a one night stand with you otherwise. You know that. You can see how awkward it made everything between us.”

  “So you only agreed to it because I begged?”

  “You really begged. Plus you had my pictures up there, hidden away. It was … endearing.”

  “Endearing?”

  “Yes.”

  I laughed. “You craved me just as much as I craved you, Lacey. Don’t even bother lying about it. It just makes it more obvious.”

  I was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and I saw her eyes glance over my rippling muscle.

  “Does your boyfriend look like this?” It was a lame thing to say but she was infuriating.

  She rolled her eyes. “No, Grant. You’ve got bigger biceps than my boyfriend. Do you think I should dump him for you?”

  She was always at her sexiest when she was being sarcastic. I looked over her delicious little body. God, she could turn me on. She was the only person in the world who could make my body crave her while simultaneously making my emotions want to get as far away from her as humanly possible.

  “I don’t know, Lacey. Do you want to?” I didn’t know what I was saying. I couldn’t think of a witty response with her standing over me like that, looking so sexy.

  She had on a tight pair of black yoga pants and I could see every curve of her butt and thighs perfectly. She may as well have been standing in front of me naked. I was pretty sure I could even make out a hint of the shape of her pussy through the fabric.

  My cock throbbed. Fuck. Not now.

  I started to get up but Lacey did something that really surprised me. She leaned down, put her hand on my chest between my pectorals, and pushed me back down.

  “Is that a pencil in your pocket, Grant?” she said, a wicked smile on her lips.

  I lay there and looked up at her. “Why don’t you climb on and find out?”

  She looked at me for a second, we both looked into each other’s eyes for an intense moment, and then she turned and left.

  “Dinner’s tonight. Please be there. I’m serious about this guy and I want him to meet my family.”

  I watched her leave, her delicious buns swaying left and right in those yoga pants. My cock was completely rigid, pulsing with desire, eager for her pussy. But it wasn’t getting her pussy. It crossed my mind that if things worked out between Lacey and Rob, I’d never taste her pussy again.

  The idea hit me all of a sudden, like a freight train. It shouldn’t have been a shock, but it was. What if I never had another chance with Lacey? What if she married this guy, Rob Crawford? What if I lost her forever?

  How would I live with that?

  I guess, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, during all the years I’d secretly lusted after Lacey, I’d always known that there was a chance. A relationship between her and me was never as hopeless or as impossible as we both pretended. I’d known it could happen at any minute. She was single. I was single. Sooner or later, she’d fall into my bed. I’d lived my life secure in that knowledge. Now, for the first time, I was beginning to see what my life might be like if that possibility was gone.

  And I didn’t like it. In fact, I couldn’t fucking stand it.

  I got up, put another plate on each side of the bar, and
pumped iron like I’d never done in my life.

  Chapter 23

  Lacey

  YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT awkward? Picture this.

  Forrester, Grady, Faith, Jackson and Grant, sitting around our dining table, all dressed up, waiting for Rob. I’d gone the whole nine yards, brought in the best wine from Jackson’s vineyard, made roast beef, gravy, vegetables, mashed potatoes. I’d been in the kitchen all day. The candles were lit. The table was set beautifully. Classical music was playing in the background.

  Everything was perfect. Except for the fact that it was really awkward.

  “This looks beautiful,” Jackson said.

  Grant glared at him.

  “What?” Jackson said, responding to Grant’s glare. “It’s nice.”

  Grant wasn’t one bit happy, and I’m going to be honest with you right now. That was the whole plan. I’d done all that work, got everyone I loved around the table, just as a way to provoke Grant.

  It wasn’t very mature of me. It wasn’t honest. I’m not proud.

  But I was desperate. I’d been dating Rob for two weeks, and I could tell things weren’t going to change. The way things were with Rob was the way they would always be. It wasn’t hell. I mean, he hadn’t tried to pressure me into another threesome with Duke or anything. He’d at least meant it when he said he’d realized how stupid he was being treating me like that.

  But on all the little things, I knew he’d never change. He just couldn’t. He still thought I needed to make an effort to be more beautiful for him. He still encouraged me to try the various, drastic treatments that were available at his clinic. He didn’t say it, but deep down, it made me feel like he didn’t think I was beautiful enough. He said he wanted a woman like me, someone intelligent who was willing to stand up to him and challenge him, but I think what he really wanted was a twenty-year-old supermodel with tits the size of watermelons.

  “Thanks for coming, everyone,” I said.

  “Of course, Lacey,” Faith said. “We’re a family. If you say this guy is important to you, we’re all here to welcome him, aren’t we, Grant?”

  Grant took a deep breath. I watched him carefully. Faith knew what I was doing, of course. She knew I was still hung up on Grant. She knew I needed to force him to make a decision, take a stand, and she was hoping as much as I was that Grant would do something tonight.

  What was holding him back? Did he really just not want me? That was my biggest fear in the world.

  The doorbell rang. I got up but Grant beat me to it.

  “What are you doing?” I said.

  “Getting the door.”

  “Sit down,” I said, making it clear I wasn’t kidding.

  Grant shrugged, as if he didn’t know what the big deal was, but he knew.

  I met Rob at the door and for the briefest of seconds, I was sure I saw a flash of disappointment in his eyes. It was because I was dressed in my normal clothes. I knew he preferred me dolled up like a bimbo, he’d made that amply clear, and I’d even tried to dress the way he liked, but I just couldn’t do it tonight. I couldn’t dress that way in front of Faith and the brothers. They’d never let me live it down.

  The truth was, I was ashamed to dress that way. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with looking like that if that’s the way you want to look, but they’d have known I was only doing it to please Rob, and that was humiliating in some way.

  “You look very … businesslike,” Rob managed to say, as he kissed me on the cheek.

  I chose to take it as a compliment even though it was seriously lacking. “Thank you, Rob. You look rather dashing yourself.”

  The annoying thing was that he did look dashing. He always looked great in a suit.

  I led him into the dining room, where he was greeted warmly by Faith, Jackson, Forrester and Grady.

  Only Grant remained seated. And that’s when the sparks started to fly. Rob wasn’t one bit happy to see Grant.

  His jaw dropped almost to the floor when he saw Grant.

  “You!” he said, like he had just found some fugitive from the FBI’s most wanted list. “It’s you. You’re the one.”

  There was a knot of guilt in my stomach but I forced myself to swallow it. It was completely out of character for me to invite a guy I was seeing to meet everyone. The only reason I’d done it was to provoke a response from Grant, and now I waited to see what he’d do.

  But I hadn’t ever connected the dots. Not completely. Grant was the one who’d punched out Rob at Club Viper. I hadn’t known it, and we’d never spoken of it, but Grant had responded to my plea for help after all. He’d come to Club Viper. He cared about me. The realization took my breath away.

  “The one who beat you up?” Grant said, a bottle of wine in his hand. “Of course. Who’d you think you were going to find here?”

  “What the hell?” Rob said, more to me than to Grant. “This is the guy who punched out me and my friends at the club.”

  “Grant,” I said, my eyes full of tears. I was overcome with emotion. “Is that true?”

  Grant just laughed. “Come on, Lacey. You knew it was me who knocked this guy’s dick in the dirt.”

  “No I didn’t,” I gasped. The truth was, I hadn’t dared allow myself to believe it had been him.

  “Yes you did. You sent me there.”

  “Sent you there?”

  “The text message, asking for help. You knew what would happen.”

  “Grant,” I said again, even more emotion in my voice. “I never asked you to beat up anyone. I’d never ask you to fight for me. I know you wouldn’t want to.”

  A look of anger flash across his eyes. I shuddered with guilt as I watched the scene unfold. It was completely unfair, completely manipulative. It was exactly the kind of thing I hated. Some woman bringing together two guys, just so that they’d have to fight it out over her. It was like something out of a high school drama.

  But Grant had come when I’d texted. That changed everything.

  Rob was fuming. “Lacey. What’s the meaning of this? I have to leave.”

  “Don’t,” I said, but out of the corner of my eye I was watching what Grant would do. It was only Grant’s response that I was really interested in.

  “Look,” Rob said. “I knew this guy was looking for you at the club, Lacey. But I didn’t know he was your family. I didn’t know you’d called him to come. I thought he was just some jealous ex-boyfriend.”

  Grant laughed. “Look, Rob. I kicked your butt because you were being an asshole. Not because I was jealous.”

  Rob shook his head. He looked at me desperately. “What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded. “Why did you invite me here? So that this brute could beat me up again?”

  I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I never knew he was the one who’d beat you up. I really didn’t.”

  I felt bad now for doing this. It wasn’t fair to Rob. He’d done nothing wrong. He was just trying to date me, trying to give me the relationship that I craved. I looked at him in his handsome suit. He’d brought chocolates and flowers, which I hadn’t even taken from him yet.

  What kind of a person was I becoming? You didn’t try to square people up against each other. It wasn’t right.

  And besides, Grant wasn’t taking the bait. He didn’t want me, not even now that he could see who his competition was. I guess Grant and Rob weren’t competition at all. You can only be in competition with someone if you both want the same thing, and Grant didn’t want me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to the room. “This was a mistake. I thought we could all have a nice dinner together.”

  “Why can’t we?” Grant said, only heightening my humiliation.

  “You know why we can’t.”

  “Because of your games?”

  “I’m not playing games,” I said.

  Grant just shook his head. “Sure you aren’t,” he said. Then he got up from the table and walked out of the room. A moment later we heard his motorcycle fire up as he tore down the dr
iveway, headed anywhere but where I was.

  He’d punched out Rob because he thought I was in danger. But now that he thought I actually liked Rob, he didn’t care. He didn’t care at all. He’d been protective of me, but only in the way he’d always been, as a loyal family member, as a brother.

  He wasn’t jealous in the romantic sense. He hadn’t taken the bait. Not for a second.

  I was extremely quiet during the rest of the meal, which despite what had happened with Grant, actually went surprisingly well. Everyone else was really nice to Rob. I guess they believed me when I said I was serious about him. They were being supportive. I should have been grateful. But all I really wanted to do was cry.

  Without Grant there, the whole thing was pointless. The room felt empty without him.

  Chapter 24

  Grant

  HAVE YOU EVER FUCKED UP your life so bad that you’re not even sure you’ll be able to go on living? I don’t mean like losing a big bet on a table at Vegas, or getting fired from your job. I mean something really important, like convincing the one person you love more than anything else in the world, that you don’t even care about her?

  Because that’s what I did.

  Don’t even ask me how. I don’t know how it happened, or why I let it. Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was fear. But somehow, I just let Lacey believe I wasn’t interested, and I let that creep Rob win her away from me.

  Little by little, day by day, she drifted further out of my reach, and further into the arms of Rob. I didn’t even just watch her drift away, I pushed her away. I stopped talking to her. I avoided her at the mansion. I didn’t fight with her, I didn’t show her any emotion, and I didn’t give her anything to hold onto. I just pretended, day after day, that I didn’t give a rat’s ass what she did with Rob.