Someday . . . soon?
Suddenly the answer felt more important than ever, though she was fairly certain she wouldn’t like it.
She’d seen him with his family. He missed them. They missed him.
Brit missed her parents too, but it was different. Michigan had ceased to feel like home the second she left. And her parents, while loving, had never seemed to consider she’d move back, much less pressure her to do so.
From what she could tell, the Cross family was wired differently—better together somehow. And Hunter was a crucial part of their clan.
“You gonna tell me what’s up?” he asked, reaching for the chow mein she’d set aside and shoveling in a mouthful with the chopsticks she’d left in the container.
Brit blew out a breath. “What happens tomorrow?”
He chewed and swallowed. “Well, I expect you’ll wake up around six. Slowly, and a little grumpily, if what I’ve seen recently is any indication. You’ll eat that disgusting bird-food cereal you seem to enjoy. You’ll shower, though it’ll likely not be nearly as enjoyable as today’s shower. . . .”
“Hunter. Be real. I’m freaking out here a little bit. We work together.”
He set the Chinese food aside and scooted closer to her on the couch, picking up a strand of her hair in a move that was so unexpectedly boyfriend-ish she felt her heart squeeze.
“Be real,” he repeated. “Okay. Well, it’s Monday. We’ll have our staff meeting. It’ll probably be boring as hell.”
“It’s your meeting, boss,” she pointed out.
“Well, if you have any suggestions on how to make last week’s website-downtime stats more interesting . . .”
“Donuts?” she asked hopefully.
He rolled his eyes. “See? You’re still focused on fried, sugary breakfast, just like last time. I don’t think much has changed.”
“Except it has,” she said. “I know we agreed to be friends and lovers, but that was just the onetime thing. Right?”
“Wasn’t just one time from what I remember.” He gave a dangerous smile, his eyes locked on his own hand, where he rubbed his thumb against the light-blond strands.
“You know what I mean. One weekend. And it’s been amazing, but I keep thinking we should maybe quit while we’re ahead. Everything’s good right now.”
“So, what’s to say it can’t be better if we keep at it?”
She turned to face him more fully, and he released her hair. “You’re my boss, Hunter. I’m okay being that girl who slept with her best friend. I’m not okay being the woman who sleeps with her boss.”
“Nobody has to know.”
“Yeah, the people at Oxford are so good at minding their own business. Plus, our boss’s wife caught us kissing.”
He dragged a hand over his face. “Cassidy won’t care. Technically, Emma was reporting to him when they hooked up.”
“Yeah, but we’re not them,” she said softly. “They had a decade’s worth of history behind them.”
“Hey, we’ve got a few years of that ourselves,” Hunter said, looking unexpectedly stung by her comment.
“Yeah, but as friends. They were . . .” She waved her hand. “Whatever they were. Soulmates.”
He opened his mouth and then shut it. “Yeah. You’re right. It was different.”
She should have been pleased by his answer. She loved being right.
But pleased wasn’t at all what she was feeling right now.
“Maybe this is why people don’t do this,” she said, gesturing between them.
“Hate to tell you, but people have been doing this since the beginning of time.”
“Yeah, but we’re not a no-strings-attached hookup, and we’re not dating either.”
Are we?
She didn’t ask the question out loud, but it hung there anyway, uncomfortable, awkward, and yet necessary.
“No,” he said quietly. “We’re not.”
She nodded, the assertion making her a little more melancholy than she expected.
“We’re on the same page with that, right?” Hunter asked, scooting closer, tilting her face up. The panicked expression on his face made her smile slightly.
“Same page. I couldn’t bear if we tried to date and failed. Sleeping together, I think we can come through relatively unscathed, but romance . . .”
“Is trickier,” he said.
Brit nodded. “I’m thinking that fun as this was, maybe we leave it at this weekend. Before things get so tangled we can’t untangle them.”
“Agreed,” he said after a moment. “What about your grand seduction plan? Where are we with that?”
For a second she had no idea what he was talking about. The plan was the last thing on her mind this past weekend. Then it all came rushing back to her. . . .
The reason things had shifted between Hunter and her was that she’d asked him to teach her how to seduce.
“Well, since I’m still woefully single, I guess the plan’s still on,” she said, forcing lightness into her voice. “Useful as you are in the shower, those good hands of yours won’t be much good to me on the marriage-and-babies front.”
“You know, it occurs to me I must be a pretty good teacher,” Hunter mused, his thumb drifting over her lips.
“Oh?” She touched the tip of her tongue to the pad of his thumb fleetingly, accidentally on purpose, and his eyes narrowed.
“You hired me to teach you how to seduce a man,” he said huskily. “I’d say I did just that.”
“Yes. Jon from the party did seem pretty enthralled.”
His fingers tightened just slightly against her face, and then he blinked in surprise as though at his own reaction.
His smile was fleeting. “Not who I meant.”
“I know,” she whispered, leaning into him and pressing her mouth to his.
“Thought we weren’t going to do this anymore,” he said, even as he hauled her over his lap.
“Not after this weekend,” she said, sliding her arms around his neck. “It’s still the weekend.”
“So it is,” he said, pulling her head down to his for a kiss so unapologetically wanting that it took her breath away.
Even as a little part of her mind wanted to slow down, to make this final time with Hunter last, her body had other plans.
So did Hunter. He wasn’t rough, but there was none of his usual gentleness. He took control, his hands demanding as he divested them both of clothes.
Brit started to straddle him again, but he pushed her onto her back on the couch.
Hunter kissed her, hard.
His hands roaming over her body as though memorizing every inch of it.
His mouth seduced. Her lips, her neck, the sensitive skin just behind her ear. Greedily, his lips found her nipple, and he let out a groan of satisfaction as he sucked.
His fingers slipped between her legs and she gasped, arching up. He gave it to her, first one finger, then another, until she was begging for release. Begging for him.
She reached down, found him warm and hard in her palm. Stroked.
Hunter growled and reared back from her. “Condom.”
He was gone but back in a second, tearing the wrapper with his teeth before pulling her up, guiding her to face the back of the couch.
With his hands on her hips, he thrust into her so hard she cried out, her hands finding the back of the sofa and clinging.
Hunter pressed a kiss to her shoulder, but he didn’t gentle his thrusts, and Brit didn’t want him to. It had been good between them every time, but this was different. There was no tender exploration, no trace of hesitancy or carefulness.
It was raw, and a little desperate, as though their bodies were acting on what their minds didn’t want to accept—that this was the last time.
Brit was on the verge even before his hand slid around to her front, his fingers finding and circling the exact spot to trigger her orgasm.
She cried out as she came, but when she would have pitched forward, Hunter�
�s arm banded across her chest, pulling her against him, his breath warm on her neck.
Brit turned her head slightly, one arm going behind her to tangle in his hair, her teeth finding his earlobe, biting down.
Hunter surged against her with a roar, his arm tightening across her chest as he crushed her to him, hips slamming into hers again and again.
She took it all. Embraced it all, relishing that his desperation and need matched her own.
Finally, the muscles of his arm eased, relaxing slightly so she could collapse with shaky legs onto the couch.
Hunter went to the bathroom. When he came back, she forced herself into a sitting position, meaning to reach for her clothes.
He bent and scooped her up easily despite the fact that she was no tiny wisp of a woman, and carried her to his bed.
Hunter laid her down, then pulled aside the covers and nodded for her to crawl under. She did, and he joined her, his chest against her back in the age-old spoon position.
“Hunter.” Her voice was soft.
“Hmm?”
“Did we really just do that less than ten minutes after eating Chinese food?”
He laughed softly. “One of my more daring sex moves.”
They fell silent for a while longer, and she stirred when she felt her eyelids getting heavy. “I can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” he murmured sleepily.
“Because tomorrow is Monday. I don’t have any of my work clothes here.”
“So, get them in the morning.”
“I’m not going to walk-of-shame it out of your apartment. Plus, I’d have to leave at the crack of dawn to be able to make it into work by that stupid meeting.” She paused and looked at him over her shoulder. “Unless I could skip the meeting.”
Hunter smiled without opening his eyes. “Nope.”
She sighed. “So much for perks of sleeping with the boss.”
“That’s why you did it, huh? To get out of that meeting.”
“The only reason,” she lied with a smile. “Now that I know it didn’t work, I’ll have to declare my body off-limits.”
“Starting tomorrow, though, right?” His hand slid to her breast.
Brit sighed. She would have sworn that she didn’t have another ounce of sexual energy left in her, but . . .
Hunter pinched her nipple lightly.
She rolled toward him. “Yeah. Starting tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Hunter didn’t look up from his laptop as Cassidy came into his office.
“Putting together our weekly stats for the presentation this afternoon. Per your request.” Hunter kept his eyes on the screen.
His boss shut the door with a bit more force than the standard Cassidy-control allowed for. “That’s not what I’m talking about, and you damn well know it.”
Hunter gritted his teeth just for a moment to keep from snapping that while Cassidy was indeed his boss in work matters, he had no authority in Hunter’s personal life.
Because there was no doubt in Hunter’s mind what Cassidy wanted to discuss. Who he wanted to discuss.
Still, he understood that his friend meant well, so he pivoted his chair toward Cassidy and smiled as benignly as he could.
“So, I take it you and Emma talked,” Hunter said.
“You mean did my wife and I have a discussion about two of my employees having their tongues down each other’s throats? Yeah.”
Hunter took his glasses off and carefully folded them up, putting them inside their case. “And?”
Cassidy closed his eyes for a moment, then tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling. When he looked at Hunter again, his green eyes were laser-sharp. “I don’t like fraternizing between my employees.”
Hunter couldn’t stop the incredulous laugh. “Seriously? Your office is nothing but one big fraternization.”
Cassidy crossed his arms. “Admittedly, Oxford does seem to be a hotbed for romantic entanglements. But this is different.”
“How?”
“Because it’s you and Brit,” Cassidy said. “I shouldn’t have to tell you that that’s . . .”
“What?” Hunter said on a challenge.
Cassidy scratched his cheek. “There are some who thought it was a long time in coming. But I thought you had more sense than to mess with her.”
“I kissed her. I admit it’s complicated, given that she’s my direct report, but how is that messing with her?”
“So it stopped there? With the kiss?”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “Cassidy. I like you as a friend, I respect you as a boss, but that’s not your business.”
“I knew it,” Cassidy said with a sigh. “You slept with her. So, are you guys . . . a thing?”
“Again, not your business, but if it’ll get you to shut up, no. We’re not dating. It was just . . . sex. Between friends.”
Cassidy looked at him like he was a moron. “Damn it, man, I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I had sex with an attractive woman. Not a crime.”
“Not for you, maybe. But have you thought about the effect this will have on Brit?”
“She’s my best friend,” Hunter retorted. “I think I’ve got a pretty good sense of how things affect her.”
“Exactly. She’s your best friend, so I’ll ask again. What the hell are you doing?”
“We’re adults,” Hunter said, standing as his temper began to approach a boil. “Brit and I’ve got it figured out.”
Cassidy shook his head. “You don’t get it, do you? You think of her as just a friend. She thinks of you the same. But did she or did she not come to you for help because guys always seem to keep their distance?”
“How is that my fault? If anything it’s yours,” Hunter said. “You’re the one who treats her like Oxford’s resident Betty Cooper. You ask her to show the new kids around like she’s the damn girl next door. As a result, everyone treats her like she’s good ol’ Brit. If anyone’s given her a complex, it’s you.”
“Bullshit,” Cassidy said, stepping forward, his finger pointed at Hunter. “That’s bullshit. This is on you, Hunter. You know why guys don’t stick around? You know why they keep bailing on her? Because everyone thinks she’s yours. You declared her off-limits the second you named her your best friend, or whatever.”
Hunter’s head snapped back. “What the hell? I don’t think of her as mine. Brit doesn’t think of herself that way either.”
“Not consciously, maybe,” Cassidy said, his hand dropping to his side. “But trust me when I say that anyone who’s seen the two of you together has been figuring it’s only a matter of time. You think any guy wants to fall for a woman whose best friend looks like you? Who has sleepovers with you?”
“That’s—”
“Tell me. Is there any correlation between her getting dumped and her boyfriends’ meeting you?”
“I—”
Hunter wanted to protest, but Cassidy’s comment forced him to consider. He supposed there’d been a couple of times when a guy had ended a relationship with her soon after Hunter met him, but—
“We’re just friends,” Hunter muttered. “I’m sure she tells the guys that.”
“Yeah, because that’s how guys operate. Very rational, and not at all territorial when it comes to women,” Cassidy said sarcastically. “Listen, I’m not saying you’ve done anything wrong in the past. Guy–girl friendships are tricky regardless of the parties involved. But no man wants to fall for another man’s girl, and that was before you slept with her.”
“It was just sex!” Hunter shouted. He lowered his voice at Cassidy’s warning look. “If it’ll reassure you, go talk to Brit. She and I are on the same page with this. It was a fun weekend fling, and now we’ll go back to how we were before.”
“Which is what? Her constantly getting rejected by men because they don’t want to compete with you? I’m under the impression that she wants a serious
relationship. Marriage, kids, the whole thing.”
“She does.”
“And what do you want?”
“The same,” Hunter said slowly. “Eventually.”
“But not with Brit.”
“Brit’s life is here in New York,” Hunter said. “I don’t plan to be in the city forever. It’s why I’ve never really gotten emotionally involved with anyone here. I’ve always figured I’ll try my hand at the serious-relationship thing once I get back home.”
“Does Brit know that?”
“Yes, my best friend knows of my plans to return to Kansas City someday,” Hunter said sarcastically. “Is there a time limit on this lecture? Because if not, maybe you can record it and I can listen to it later, or never.”
“Fine,” Cassidy said, holding up his hands in resignation. “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. Just . . . think about what I’ve said. Put yourself in the shoes of the guys she’s dating, then take a hard look at why she’s still single.”
“Sure. Whatever,” Hunter said, trying to keep his tone light and dismissive, even as doubts began to take root.
Was Cassidy right?
Was Hunter the reason guys never seemed willing to give Brit a chance?
Cassidy turned away and opened the door, nearly colliding with Brit as he exited.
“Oh! Hey, Cassidy!” Brit said cheerfully. She held up a bakery box. “Donut?”
“No. Thanks,” he said in a clipped tone, with a last warning glance at Hunter.
Brit stared after him with a bemused expression. “What was that about?”
Hunter rubbed his hands over his face, and Brit gave him a curious look. “Were you two fighting?”
“I don’t know. Does anyone fight with Cassidy, or do they just get condescended to?”
“He can be bossy,” Brit admitted, coming toward his desk and setting the donuts on it before picking out a chocolate one and taking a bite. “But annoying as it is, he’s usually right.”
“Not about this he wasn’t.” I don’t think.
“What about?” she asked, taking another bite.
He glanced at her, then smiled a little because she had chocolate on her lip and didn’t appear to notice or care.
He started to reach out a hand across the desk to brush it away, then stopped himself, a bit stunned by the instinct.
I Think I Love You Page 16