Hunter: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Maybe,” I shrugged. “Call it payback for Claire making me see her like that.”

  “Is that the only reason?” he asked seriously.

  I dropped my eyes to my hands and shook my head slightly. “I didn’t want anyone thinking that you were capable of something like that. No matter what happened between us, I know that you could never do something like that.”

  His face softened at my answer and he looked away. “But I did hurt you.”

  “Hunter, what happened-”

  He shook his head and cut me off. “I may not have hurt you like that, but I told you that you were mine and then I refused to let you in. It was over before it had a chance to go anywhere, and I’ll always regret that.”

  “I may have pushed a little too hard,” I said sheepishly. “I guess neither of us is very good at relationships. Maybe we’re better off as friends?”

  He nodded defeatedly, refusing to meet my eyes. “Sure. Friends.”

  I didn’t know what was going on in his head. Part of me hoped that he wanted to give us another try, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to face that kind of rejection again.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  Hunter held my hand as I waited most of the day to get into surgery. They had to be sure that I waited a certain amount of time between meals so that I didn’t get sick. There was a whole list of instructions that I had to follow after my release and from what I understood, a very ugly nose piece. And Hunter was going to witness it. It bothered me more than it should have. After all, I was the one that told Hunter we would just be friends. So why did it bother me if he saw me at my worst?

  I was so nervous for the procedure that the doctor ordered some medication to calm me. It took the edge off, but also made me a little giddy. I couldn’t stop staring at Hunter and his amazing arms. They were so big and buff and it made my lady parts tingle. Was it wrong to want him so much when I was about to go have surgery on my nose?

  “Has anyone ever told you that you look like The Rock?”

  “I look like a rock?” he asked with a quirked eyebrow.

  I laughed and rolled around the hospital bed. “You’re so funny. Not a rock. The Rock. You know, Dwayne Johnson. You have those bulging muscles and the same beautiful skin tone. It was the reason I picked you up that first time in the bar.”

  “You didn’t pick me up. I believe that was all me.”

  “No,” I said, dragging out my words a little more than necessary. “I saw you with those big, hulking muscles and I knew that I had to feel your arms wrapped around me. Can you do the eyebrow thing?”

  “What eyebrow thing?”

  “You know, how he raises one eyebrow really high?” I tried to do it, but with my nose hurting like it did, I couldn’t really move my facial muscles the way I needed to.

  “Umm, let me try.” He raised both of his eyebrows and I burst out laughing.

  “You’re just raising both of your eyebrows really high,” I smiled at him and sighed, slapping my hand against his cheek. “You’re so pretty.”

  “Men aren’t pretty.”

  “You are. You have pretty eyes and long, beautiful eyelashes that are so thick, they make me jealous. And your lips,” I sighed. “They’re so plump, just like every woman dreams of having. It’s really not fair that you got so lucky.”

  He chuckled and ran his thumb in small circles over my hand. “You’re beautiful. You don’t have anything to be jealous of.”

  “Tell me more,” I whispered. I wanted to hear exactly what he thought of me.

  “You have gorgeous, silky brown hair. It’s one of the things I love most about you. And your eyes are really big, like doe eyes. They just draw me to you. They have from the first night I met you. And you have the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen.”

  I didn’t know if it was the drugs talking or if I was really falling for this man. My heart beat wildly in my chest as he continued to tell me what he loved about me.

  “And I love that you know how to have a good time. I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun with a woman as I do with you. You’re the only woman that I ever want to spend more time with.”

  “Do you still spend time with other women?” I held my breath as I waited for his answer, not sure if I would like what he had to say.

  “There hasn’t been anyone but you for a very long time. Even before I knew you were mine, I wasn’t sleeping around because my body only craved you.”

  My breath stalled in my chest at his admission. Was I hearing things? Was this some crazy alternate reality? All I knew was that I wanted to tell him exactly what I loved about him. I wanted him to know that I still craved him just as much as the first time I met him. Damn these drugs for making my lips so loose.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Hunter

  “DO YOU WANT to know what I like about you?” she said with a small grin.

  I nodded. “Of course.”

  “You have such big muscles,” she said to me from her bed. Her eyes were glazed over and she had a silly grin on her face. I was trying really fucking hard not to laugh at her right now, but she was hilarious on drugs.

  “I work hard for them,” I nodded.

  She gestured for me to come closer until my ear was next to her mouth. “I love it when you’re fucking me up against the wall. The way your arms flex makes me want to suck you into my mouth while I play with your balls. I have fantasies about you shoving your cock down my throat and fucking me hard until I can hardly breathe.”

  I pulled back sharply. She just took this from hilarious to downright painful. As in, my cock was straining against my zipper and it was fucking painful. She patted me on the cheek and sighed.

  “You have the perfect face. A masculine face. Nice, sharp features that scream how manly you are. Your teeth are so nice and it gives you this perfect smile, and every time you show it to me, I fall in love with you a little more.”

  My whole body relaxed at her confession. She loved me. Even if she said it while she was on drugs, there had to be a part of her that really felt that way. That meant that I still had a fighting chance with her. I just had to go slow so that I wouldn’t scare her off.

  “Ah! There’s my favorite sister,” she shouted as Claire and Derek walked in the room. I adjusted myself quickly so they wouldn’t see that I was hard as a rock while Claire’s sister was in a hospital bed.

  “I’m your only sister,” Claire said.

  “And my favorite brother,” she grinned, then her face turned serious. “You two are very dirty. Like, way dirtier than I had ever imagined. I mean, I thought the things Hunter and I did were dirty, but he’s never tied me to the bed naked. Although, that might be an interesting idea.”

  “Okay,” Derek said, clapping his hands together once.

  “Although, he has tied my hands behind my back and then fucked me from behind,” she said with a grin. “That was fun. And then there was the time that we were at the bar and he fingered me under the table. I almost spit my drink all over everyone else there.”

  “I think that’s enough stories,” I interjected, not needing all the dirty things that I did to her told to her sister.

  “Oh, come on, Hunter. Don’t be shy now. After all, we did just see my sister tied to a bed in some kind of webbing. I think anything we’ve done is tame in comparison.”

  “How are you feeling?” Derek asked, saving us from any more of her tales.

  “Not bad considering a wall hit me in the face.”

  “I’m really sorry, Lucy.”

  “Pssht.” Lucy waved her off. “A little pain with sex can be a good thing. I just don’t think it was supposed to be me that got the pain.”

  Claire turned bright red and bit her lip in embarrassment. “So, when’s the surgery?”

  “They’re coming to get her in an hour. She was a little nervous, so they gave her some drugs to calm her down,” I told Claire.

  “If they were supposed to calm her down, why does she look high as a kite?”


  I shrugged. “I guess everyone reacts differently.”

  They came and got Lucy shortly after to prep her for surgery. Derek and I were asked to go to the waiting area since we weren’t family. I paced the large area, not able to sit still. I knew it was a pretty simple procedure, but it still made me nauseous to think of her back there about to be sliced open.

  “Would you sit down? You’re making me dizzy.”

  “You know, Lucy wouldn’t be here if you and Claire weren’t so fucked up. Spider webbing? Really?”

  “Hey,” he held up his hands. “She’s the one that comes up with the ideas. I just let her live out her fantasies.”

  “Well, her fantasies just landed her sister in the hospital.”

  Derek laughed and slapped me on the back. “Shit, you are so far gone for that girl. Are you seriously blaming Claire for Lucy ending up in the hospital?”

  “You know this is her fault.”

  He shook his head. “No, I know this was an unfortunate accident and you’re feeling a little overprotective of Lucy right now. She’ll be fine. She didn’t seem like she was holding any grudges against Claire when we showed up, so chill the fuck out.”

  I knew he was right. I was practically foaming at the mouth over what was going on with Lucy. I had to pull my shit together. It was obvious to everyone that I had completely lost my fucking mind over this woman.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  When she finally opened her eyes after the anesthesia wore off, I took my first normal breath. I knew that the doctor said the risks were minimal, but I couldn’t help but be anxious over the whole thing. I was two seconds away from asking for some drugs of my own just so I didn’t flip out. Lucy meant more to me than I could have ever imagined and the thought of her in pain was more than I could take. Derek had assured me that he would take care of Lucy when she was released, but I just couldn’t deal with that. I needed to be with her and make sure with my own eyes that she was okay. The only way I was leaving her side was if she asked me to.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked as she finally came around. She had packing inside her nose to hold everything in place and then she had a “mustache dressing” under her nose to catch blood that would leak out. She would have to keep it on for about twenty-four hours. I didn’t care. I just wanted her to not be in pain, but based on the size of the swelling around her nose, I would guess that she was going to be in pain for a while.

  “Hmm?” she looked around the room, blinking a few times and then focused in on me again. “Good. How’d it go?”

  “It went great. The doctor said that your nose is a little deformed, but he could probably fix it with another surgery.”

  Her eyes went wide and she jerked up in bed, cringing from the pain. I stood up, regretting the joke instantly. “Shit, I’m sorry. I was just joking. There’s nothing wrong with your nose.”

  “You big jerk,” she muttered as she laid back down.

  “The nurse is going to check on you and then we can get out of here now that you’re awake.”

  “Awesome.”

  “Do you want me to take you to your sister’s?”

  “I thought that you were taking me home?”

  “I can. I’d like to,” I admitted. “I just wasn’t sure if you would want me there.”

  “I don’t think I can stand to be around Derek and Claire just yet.” I wondered if she really felt that way. She had admitted to me earlier that she loved me, but I wasn’t sure if it was just the drugs talking.

  “I can stay with you. If you want, you can come back to my place. I have that nice, big bed.”

  Her eyes lit up and I smiled. “That sounds like heaven right now. I love your bed.”

  “Well, my bed is yours for as long as you want.”

  I took her back to her place after she was released and we got a bag packed for her to stay a few days. She insisted that she only had to stay one night, but I convinced her that my king size bed would be more comfortable for a few days. She didn’t really put up that much of a fight.

  “I just need to call the school and let them know that I’ll be out for a few days. And then I need to call Graham. We were supposed to go to a conference this weekend, but that won’t be happening now.”

  “You could probably still go.”

  “Are you kidding? I’m not going anywhere looking like I had my face bashed in.”

  I didn’t argue because I didn’t want her to go away for the weekend with Graham anyway. She got the week off work and then called Graham. It sickened me to hear him gushing over her. Yeah, I stuck close enough that I could hear him on the other end, offering to bring her soup and take care of her. She glanced at me as she told him that she was staying with a friend and I could swear that she blushed. I was going to get her back. I just knew it. I was going to take advantage of our time together, and I would win her back.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Just stay in bed, Lucy. I’ll bring you breakfast.”

  “That’s ridiculous. I’m perfectly capable of going downstairs for breakfast.”

  “You might be, but I just want to take care of you.”

  “Do I really look that bad?”

  I cringed, not wanting to answer. Her nose was so swollen and I had changed her mustache dressing several times since we got back here yesterday. Her eyes weren’t quite as swollen, but she had bruises under both eyes.

  “Okay, don’t answer that. I don’t really want to know.”

  “You look beautiful.”

  “Sure, I believe that about as much as I believe you want a relationship,” she laughed.

  I forced a smile to hide the fact that that hurt a lot more than I wanted to admit. How could she not see how much I wanted her? What did I have to do to prove to her that I only wanted her? I stood and walked to the door.

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes with your breakfast,” I said as happily as I could muster.

  “Hunter, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  I smiled at her, not wanting her to feel bad for pointing out something that had been true up until a few months ago. “Don’t worry about it. It’s like I told you, I’ll wear you down.”

  I went downstairs and shook my head as I placed my palms on the counter. Fuck, I didn’t know what more I could do. How the hell was I supposed to show her that I was serious?

  “Hunter.”

  I hadn’t heard her come downstairs. She was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking at me in a way that I couldn’t comprehend.

  “Yeah,” I said, clearing my throat. “I was just about to start breakfast. You should go back to bed.”

  I started busying myself around the kitchen, pulling out fruit to make a smoothie for her. She had a very limited diet for a few days.

  “Hunter,” she said softly. I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. If I did, she would see how utterly devastated I was to know that she didn’t really believe that I could give her what she needed. “Hunter,” she said more urgently, placing a hand on my arm.

  I finally looked up at her and realized that she was blurry. Fuck, I was crying. I was actually crying because the woman I loved didn’t want me. Her eyes softened and she placed her hand on my cheek.

  “I’m sorry. I know that you’ve been trying. I can tell and I shouldn’t keep sniping at you. I guess I just was trying to keep my defenses up. I didn’t want to get hurt again.”

  “I know,” I said softly, and I couldn’t blame her. She had every right to be wary around me. I couldn’t just change the rules of our relationship out of nowhere and expect her to believe that I had changed.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Anything,” I said, turning and swiping the moisture from my eyes before I embarrassed myself any further. I turned back to her with a smile.

  “Do you really think you’re ready to try? I just want you to be honest with me because I don’t want to get my heart broken.”

  “Lucy, I can’t guarantee that I won’t fuck
up again, but I am ready this time. I may need a little guidance from you, but I understand a little better now what you need and I’m ready to give that to you.”

  “I’m not asking that you be perfect, Hunter. I know I’m not, but I just want to know that you won’t freak out on me.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. Even if you need more time, I’ll still be here, waiting for you. I’d wait forever for you.”

  “I don’t need forever. Maybe just until I’m not wearing a gauze mustache anymore,” she grinned.

  “I can do that. Alright, breakfast. I’m going to make you a smoothie and then we’re going to binge watch Poldark.”

  “You want to watch Poldark?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Your sister told me about it. She said that you really wanted to see it and there are three seasons out right now.” I waggled my eyebrows at her and she slapped me.

  “We don’t have to watch that. Don’t you want to watch something like Die Hard?”

  “Nah. When you work around violence all day, sometimes it’s nice to just watch something a little lighter.”

  “You don’t fool me. Derek told me how you guys all got together and watched sappy movies one day.”

  “Hey, that was strictly privileged information that he should not have told you.”

  “Yeah? What are you going to do about it?”

  I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my chest. “I’m going to kidnap you and keep you here for the rest of your life so that you can’t tell anyone else.”

  “I kind of like the sound of that.”

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I laid on the bed next to her, running my fingers over the smooth skin of her leg in the early morning light. She was everything I wanted and I needed her to know exactly that. There was no holding back with her anymore. Her eyes slowly opened and small smile tilted her lips.

  “I love you, Lucy,” I said in all seriousness. “I think I’ve always loved you, but I just didn’t want to see it. I didn’t know what the hell love was. But when I’m with you, my heart feels like it’s going to pound out of my chest. My fingers tingle until I can touch your skin. The first thing my eyes look for are yours. I want to see that sparkle that lights up the room.”