I didn’t know what he was thinking, but he looked exhausted, and I realized he’d been up all night. If it hadn’t been for the GPS tracking Hunter had put on my new phone, I didn’t know if they would have found me, or when they had, what they would have found.
I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. “Okay.” I needed to be close to him as well. I climbed in. Hunter shucked off his jeans and followed. He dragged me close, pulling me over him, and rested his hand on my back.
Neither one of us spoke. It was a long time before his breathing slowed and he fell asleep.
It was longer still before I joined him. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Pierce looming over me, then the feel of his body going limp and heavy, pinning me to the bed. The hole between his eyes.
I finally fell into a restless sleep. I don’t know for how long, but every time I woke, I was surrounded by delicious heat, by Hunter’s scent.
Eyes heavy, I blinked several times. I was awake and this time I was staying that way. Shoving my hair back from my face, I tilted my head back.
My cheek was on Hunter’s chest, his hand on my lower back. His eyes were open and they were on me.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Hey,” he said back.
“Are you feeling better?” I asked lamely.
His eyes got dark, his jaw getting tight. “No, Lulu. I’m not fucking better.”
Shit. He was still pissed at me, and he had good reason to be. I’d let fear get the better of me and run from him, what he was offering me and Josh, and then I’d gone and put myself in danger, forcing him and his friends to lie for me. Forcing Hunter to shoot and kill someone for me. I tried to pull away. Lying here like this with him, it hurt too damn much. But he held me tight to his side.
“I know I fucked up,” I said. “I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you all for what you did.”
He gave me a squeeze, silencing me. “That’s not why I’m pissed off, Lulu.”
Okay, now I was confused. “So why . . . why are you still so angry?”
His eyes flashed. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously low. “I’m still angry because you’re laying here in my bed, and I want you. I want you so fucking much I can’t think straight. And as much as I want to, I can’t force you to feel the same way. I can’t hold you prisoner and never let you go. And I sure as fuck I can’t force you to trust me, or make you believe that I would never let anything from my job touch you or Josh.”
I sucked in a breath through my nose.
He just stared at me.
I tried to lift up a little and this time he let me. I stared into his eyes and felt the heat in them move through me. The sensation was exquisite. Knowing that he hadn’t given up on me, on us . . .
“When I woke up in that room . . . I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again.”
He flinched. “Lulu . . .”
“No. Please. I need to say this.”
He gritted his teeth and gave me a small nod.
“I tried to tell myself to just lay there and take it, whatever he was going to do to me, just make it to the other side, make it out of there alive . . . but then . . .” I shook my head. “He told me he was going to kill you, that he wasn’t going to hand me over. And I fought, because there was no way I could let him hurt you . . .”
His body went tight, every muscle flexing against me.
Hunter had sat stiff during my questioning with the police, while I’d described my attempted escape. He knew physically what I’d been through, but not what was going on in my head. I needed him to understand, so I carried on. “When he dragged me back . . .”
Hunter moved fast. One minute I was looking down at him, the next he flipped us so I was on my back and he was looking down at me. “You don’t have to do this, Lulu. Not yet.”
“I need to explain. Please.” My hands went to the sides of his face. “Please.”
His fingers tightened in my hair, but he gave me another small nod. He wasn’t happy about it, though. I didn’t want to make this harder on him, so I didn’t go into detail. Instead, I let my hands trail down his back, fingers digging into the thick muscle there. His eyes drifted shut for a second before opening back up and locking on me. “You don’t need to force me to want you.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Lulu.”
“You don’t need to force me to trust you either. I trust you, Hunter. I know you’d move heaven and earth to make sure nothing you do at work touches me or Josh.” He didn’t move, didn’t speak, just stared down at me with those gorgeous blue eyes. “I realized in that moment, in that dark room, what I’d always known in my heart . . . a life with you, however that comes, is all I want, all I’ve ever wanted, and I’d do whatever I had to to make sure I got that chance with you again. I’d suffer anything to be here with you again like this. To get our little family back.”
“Babe . . .” he rasped.
But I wasn’t finished. “Losing you once was hard enough. When you got shot . . .” I bit my lip, ignored the moisture gathering in my eyes, and carried on. “I was so damn scared, of so many things . . .”
“Baby,” he whispered. “You’re not going to lose me.”
“I don’t think I’d survive it.”
“I’m taking a step back,” he said.
“What?” My voice came out barely a whisper.
“When we started the agency, my main reason for doing it was you, to prove myself to you. I’d wanted to be able to give you everything, whatever you needed. That hasn’t changed. That’s all I want. Besides, Van’s been getting antsy behind his desk for a while now . . . so we’re switching roles. I’ll still do field work, but I’ll leave the higher-risk stuff to the other guys.”
I was suddenly finding it hard to breathe, struggling to process all he’d just said. “You’d do that . . . for me?”
His thumb slid across my cheek. “Nothing is more important to me than you and our son.” He grinned. “Plus, there’s an added bonus.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll be wearing suits a lot more often.”
I chuckled, and it sounded a little watery. I sniffed. “That is definitely a bonus.”
He dropped down, and I wrapped myself around him, arms and legs, and clung to him for all I was worth. I turned my head, lips going to his ear. “I love you,” I breathed. “It’s only ever been you.”
His arms tightened around me and he rolled to his back, taking me with him. His hand went to my hair, holding it back from my face, pulling me down close, so we were nearly nose to nose. “I love you, too. So fucking much.”
Then his mouth was on mine and he was kissing me, hot and hard. His hands moved down and dragged the tee I was wearing up and off. Then they were back on me, slipping under the oversized sweats he’d loaned me, hands going to my bare ass. I didn’t have any underwear here, since all my clothes were still at Sara’s, so I’d gone commando. Hunter groaned into my mouth, then shoved my pants down. I kicked them off and my hands went to his abs, down farther to the waistband of his boxer briefs. I shoved my hand down the front and wrapped my fingers around his hot length.
He hissed a breath through his teeth, then wrapped his fingers around my wrist and pulled my hand away. I started to complain, but before I got a word out, he flipped us again. Shoving his boxers off, he came down on top of me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, arching up as his mouth caught a nipple and sucked.
I fisted his hair and dragged his mouth to mine. “Now,” I said against his lips.
One of his hands went to my ass, holding me where he wanted me, the other snaking down between our bodies, guiding his cock. He pushed inside. Pushed in so deep, I threw my head back and gasped. So good. So fucking good. There was no easing in. He didn’t mess around. He started moving, hard and fast, mouth never leaving mine.
“Harder,” I whimpered against his lips, a second before I convulsed beneath him and came, crying out his name.
Hunter’s hand went to my jaw a
nd he held me still, watched me the entire time, hot gaze never leaving mine, pounded into me while I moaned and shook my way through it. Then he slammed forward once and came with a rough shout.
I stayed wrapped around him while he shuddered through it, then he collapsed on top of me and pressed his face into the side of my neck.
“I love you,” I whispered when he stilled, big body covering mine in way that made me feel safe, wanted. In a way only Hunter could give me.
He kissed my neck. “Love you, too.”
Hunter
The door opened and Lulu walked into reception. My eyes went to her and stayed locked on, like they always did when my woman was in the same room. She spotted me, and a smile lit up her whole face. I felt it, like a light had been switched on—no, the fucking sun, its warmth was just for me. That’s what Lulu did to me, had always done, since the first time I laid eyes on her. It had been a month since Pierce had kidnapped her and earned a bullet between the eyes. She was tough, doing okay, but sometimes the pain of the past hit her. During those times, I held her and did my best to make her feel safe again. She’d also started seeing a counselor, someone who specialized in working with rape victims. It was helping, the change, watching her come out of her shell, open up, have fun—it was the best thing I’d ever seen. And I thanked Christ I was there to watch every second of it, share every second of it with her. Josh was beside her, clutching her hand. When he spotted me, he let go and ran toward me. I crouched low and scooped him up. My boy wrapped his arms around my neck and hung on, then yelled at the top of his lungs. “Daddy!”
Hearing that, shit, it got to me, every fucking time. Lulu had started telling our boy that’s who I was. Josh was young enough it wasn’t an issue, and so that’s what he called me now. I fucking loved it.
“Hey, bud, you been a good boy for your mama?”
“Yep.”
Lulu moved in, that smile still in place, and rested her hand on my chest. I bent down, meeting her halfway, and kissed her. Not as deep as I wanted, but that could wait for later.
“Hey,” she said, a breathy sound to her voice that made my dick stir.
I grinned down at her. “What’s up?”
“We came to see if you want to have lunch with us?”
I slid my hand around the back of her neck and gave her a squeeze. “Sounds good.”
“But first, I need to tell you something.”
“Yeah?” Going by her expression, what she had to tell me was not good news.
“Aunt Sara came by this morning. She, ah . . . she brought over a letter from my mom. She wrote it not long before she died, asked Sara to give it to me . . . and there was a . . . a key, to a safety deposit box.” She blinked up at me, eyes bright.
Shit. I took her hand and led her to my office, sat on the couch, and pulled her and Josh onto my lap. “Talk to me, Lulu.”
Josh wriggled away and started running around the room pretending he was a horse. I brushed Lulu’s hair back from her face. Her expression was lost, so damn sad. It killed me to see her like this. “Lulu?”
“She took it,” Lulu whispered. “The painting. Mom took it after I left. She didn’t know why I ran, but she wanted me to have it. Pierce had been selling everything, her parents’ artwork, her jewelry, and she didn’t want him to sell that as well, so she took it. Sara had no idea.” She gripped my shoulders, fisting my tee. “She wanted me to have it.” A tear streaked down her face. “It was there the whole time.”
Well, shit. I didn’t have the words to make her feel better, so I pulled her in tight and held her.
She lay against my chest. “Do you think she knew? About Pierce, what he did?”
I kissed the top of her head. “No. She may have suspected he was the reason you left, but not what he did, what he was capable of. What I do know? She loved you, more than anything.”
Lulu nodded. Sniffed. “Yeah. She did.”
We sat like that for a while. I’d stay like this with her for as long as she needed me. Someone tapped on the door. “Yeah?” I called.
Neco opened up. “You two got a minute?”
I looked down at Lulu and she nodded. She was good. So damn strong. “What’s up?”
He held the door open and motioned for us to follow. I carried Josh, Lulu at my side.
Neco shut the door behind us when we entered his office. He walked around behind this desk and pulled a file out of the drawer. “Been doing some digging. Thought you might like to see this.” He slid it to me.
I flicked it open with my free hand. Pierce’s name was at the top of the paperwork. I looked up. “Not now, man. Lulu’s been through enough already today.”
“I think she’ll wanna see this.”
Lulu rested her hand on my arm. “I’m okay, really.”
I frowned. “What is this?”
“Medical records,” Neco said, leaning forward and pointing to a section near the bottom. His gaze lifted to Lulu, eyes going soft but still intense. “I know you both said you didn’t care either way, that you didn’t want to know. But I think you’d want to know this. Pierce . . . he had a vasectomy, before he married your mother. He couldn’t have kids.”
“What?” she whispered, swaying a little on her feet.
I reached out to steady her and pulled her into my side, feeling a little weak at the knees myself. We’d decided not to get DNA testing done. I didn’t care who made him, Josh was mine. But, fuck—yeah, this news. Knowing Josh would never have to go through the pain I had, of learning that he was created in violence. I couldn’t describe the joy I felt right then. Relief was too small a word.
“He’s yours,” Neco said to me, a grin damn near spitting has face.
I turned to my boy, wrapped my hand around the back of his head, soft curls against my palm, and kissed the top of his head. “Always was.”
Neco gave me a chin lift, knew what this would mean to me, knew all too well what it had done to me when I’d found out the truth about my own twisted beginnings. That Josh would never have to suffer that heartbreak meant everything.
Lulu curled into my side, arms wrapping around my waist, and buried her face against my shirt. Neco left the room without a word, giving us privacy. When she leaned back, tears were running down her cheeks. I sucked in a breath at the fucking sheer joy on her lovely face.
Fuck, I loved her.
“You wanna get married?” The words came out of my mouth before the question fully formed in my head, but they felt right, more than right. Way fucking overdue.
Her mouth dropped open, then she snapped it shut and blinked up at me, which sent more tears down her cheeks. “What?” she whispered.
I swiped the tears away with my thumb, but more replaced them instantly. “I love you, Lulu. I wanna be with you forever. Let’s make it official. Marry me?”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
She nodded, smiling and crying and being her fucking adorable self. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
I slid my fingers into her vibrant hair, fisted it lightly, and leaned in to kiss her, slow and sweet. Josh squirmed and giggled, then started demanding lunch.
I tickled my son then handed him to his mother. Then, slinging my arm around Lulu’s shoulders, I led them to the door. “Fine, let’s go eat, and then we can go ring shopping.”
I was rewarded with another of Lulu’s killer smiles.
EPILOGUE
Lulu
Two weeks later.
Butterflies assaulted my belly as I opened the door to the apartment. Nerves and excitement all rolled into one.
The place was quiet, but then I heard Hunter’s voice coming from Josh’s room, low and deep. I took off my jacket, slung it over the back of the couch, and walked across the living room, down the little hall to Josh’s door. It was ajar and I stood there for several seconds, listening to Hunter read a bedtime story to his son. My heart squeezed. Sometimes I didn’t know how one woman could handle this much happiness. Be this lucky. I eased
it open and Hunter glanced up.
“Hey,” I whispered.
His gaze moved over me, traveling from head to toe before his eyes came back to mine, like he always did when I walked into a room. “Hey,” he whispered back.
He glanced back at Josh, who was fast asleep, and his eyes softened, that small smile playing around his lips. God, I loved that smile. That smile was reserved for Josh alone, and was a shot to the heart every time I saw it. He put the book on the nightstand, tucked the blankets around him, kissed his head, and followed me out to the living room.
“You have a good night with Ruby?” he asked, coming toward me.
I backed up, not sure why I was so nervous. I knew he’d like it, or I hoped like hell he would.
He stopped, watching my retreat, head tilting to the side like a giant, extremely hot predator. He grinned, all white teeth. “You got something you wanna tell me?”
“Um . . .” I felt my cheeks heat. Suddenly I was embarrassed. Shy. Why? I didn’t know.
Hunter started moving again, a smile on his lips, and I started backing up again, until my back hit the couch. “What the fuck, woman?”
Okay, I had to stop being a coward and tell him. It’s not like I could hide it. “Ruby and I, we didn’t go to dinner tonight,” I blurted. His body stiffened, just a little, but I noticed. I noticed everything when it came to Hunter.
“No?” He closed in, cornering me, resting his hands on the back of the couch either side of my hips, caging me in. “Where’ve you been?”
I lifted my hands and started to unravel the purple scarf I was wearing. “We went to a tattoo place, a guy Ruby uses.”
His gaze got darker, gliding over me, like he was trying to see through my clothes. “Ruby get more ink?”
“Not just Ruby.” I was holding both ends of the scarf still looped around my neck.
Those striking blue eyes went to my throat and then his hands covered mine. He took the soft muslin fabric from my fingers, and slid it slowly away. I watched him closely, knew the minute he saw it, the way his eyes flared, the heat burning from them.
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