by Elisa Leigh
He sighs loudly. “Hunter, I shouldn’t have to tell you that there are other ways to get your point across. But, if those don’t work, there are other places for you to make it clear.”
I nod, knowing there’s nothing else to be said on the matter. We both turn and go back to our trucks, but I stop when something James said last night pops into my head. “Hey, Chief,” I call.
“Yes, Hunter?” He says, still walking toward his truck.
“What happened to Whitley her junior year?”
He stops and turns to look at me, his face tense. “You’ll have to ask her about that, son. I’ll see you tomorrow at dinner.”
“Yes, sir,” I say to his retreating back.
Arriving home within twenty minutes, I find Whitley standing in the kitchen staring off into space. I don’t like the look of fear I see when I finally get her attention. When she tells me, she saw a car parked across the street, and she thought they were watching her. I’m convinced this has something to do with the voicemail I listened to yesterday.
“Take a shower with me?” I ask.
When she agrees, I lace my fingers with hers and walk us to the bathroom and turn on the shower as hot as it will go. As soon as we get in and Whitley has gotten her hair wet, I squirt some of her shampoo into my hand and start washing her hair.
“That feels so good.” She groans.
I chuckle. “How is your head feeling after last night?”
“Not so bad. We stopped drinking after our third margarita, but Tina’s makes the drinks stronger each time she makes them. I’m probably going to take a nap with you whenever you do today. I didn’t sleep too well on the floor last night.” She says and rinses her hair out.
Grabbing her conditioner, I squirt that in my hand and run it through her hair, then massage her scalp with the tips of my fingers. The look on her face, eyes closed with a beautiful smile, tells me she’s enjoying it, and right now knowing she’s happy is all that matters. “I have to wait for the furniture to arrive before I can go to sleep. I’ll probably just go to bed early tonight and skip the nap depending on when the furniture arrives today.”
“Oh, shoot. I forgot about that. Well, I guess we’ll just see what happens.” Whitley says, shrugging her shoulders. She grabs my loofa and squirts some of my body wash on it then rubs it against my chest, creating a soft lather. Starting at my neck, she washes me from my shoulders down to my ass, behind and then up my legs, and finally to my hardening cock. Whitley moves out of the way of the spray of water so that it rinses the soap from my body, then drops to her knees in front of me. She’s a fucking wet dream, hair slicked back, body dripping wet, on her knees in front of me, and looking up at me with a sneaky smile on her full lips.
Stroking my fingers against her neck, I push all the other shit going on lately, out of my head. Right now, it’s just her and I. “You’re so damn beautiful Whitley Ann.”
Gripping my cock in her hand, she strokes me from root to tip and licks off the drop of precum that forms there. “Mmm.” She moans.
I spear my fingers into her hair and grip it tightly as she takes half my length into her mouth and pulls back, never letting my cock leave her lips. Back and forth, she sucks my cock into her mouth, pulling more of me in each time. With one hand stroking my cock, the other grips my balls in a delicate hold, carefully massaging as she sucks and strokes me to my impending orgasm.
The harder she sucks, the less hold I have on my willpower. I’m trying not to go full caveman on her, but my need to grab her and fuck my release into her is almost too much. The last thing I want to do is hurt her. I pull out of her mouth and help her get to her feet before pushing her back against the wall of the shower. “Hold onto me, love,” I tell her before picking her up and slamming her down on my dick.
“Oh, fuck Hunter.” She moans loudly as her eyes roll to the back of her head.
She throws her head back against the tile, as I stroke in and out of her hot pussy, while gripping her hips tightly. With each powerful thrust, she moves up the wall and comes back down, her ass snug against my balls.
“Tell me how bad you want my cum.”
She looks at me in the eyes. “I want it, Hunter. I want your cum filling me deeply.”
“Jesus woman.” I pound into her erratically, losing my rhythm the faster I thrust.
“I love you.” She moans as her pussy contracts around my dick. That’s all it takes, and I’m gone. I come hard, filling her full of my cum.
Once we’ve caught our breath, I pull out of her and place her back on the ground. When her legs wobble, I grab her and hold her to me. “I love you too, Whitley. I love you so much.” I say low in her ear then kiss the side of her head.
I help her rinse the conditioner from her hair and then get out so she can finish washing up. I dry off and go throw on a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt then head to my office to make the call I’ve been anxious about.
Chapter 16
Whitley
After changing into some leggings and a t-shirt I go to the kitchen, passing a tense-looking Hunter who is on the phone in his office. I make us both some coffee and bring it back to his office so we can talk about whatever is going on. Hunter is staring down at his hands on the desk.
“Everything okay Hunt?” I ask.
He looks up and smiles at me, but something is missing from his usual warm gaze.
“Baby sit down. We need to talk about some things.”
Worried by his tone, I set down our coffees and take a seat across from Hunter at his desk. While I’m waiting for Hunter to talk to me, Arya walks in and sits down beside my chair. I scratch behind her ear and wait for Hunt to tell me what’s going on.
“I just got off the phone with the Marshall handling my parent’s case. Remember how I told you that he said he was going to look into it and make sure everything was still status quo? Well, he called me back.”
My chest tightens. “What did he say?”
“Kozlov and his men are still behind bars, and they won’t be getting out any time soon.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s good then, right? That just means I’m letting all of these little things mess with my head. Like you said, there’s probably a reasonable explanation for what’s been happening.”
His brow furrows. “Maybe. I’m not sure. There’s something else. McManus said there is chatter between agencies. The head of the Bratva in Russia sent over someone new to take Kozlov’s place, and they’re looking to make those responsible for putting his men in prison pay for what they’ve done.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “Your parents! What’s going to happen to them? Are you going back to them?” I ask selfishly, worrying that he’ll leave, while at the same time concerned about the welfare of his parents.
He smiles at me sadly. “I can’t go back, Whitley. I’d risk their identities and put them in more danger. Marshall McManus is assigning another Marshall to watch over my parents, but he’s on his way here in hopes he’ll catch the new guy in charge.”
“Oh, Hunter.” I stand from my chair and walk around the desk to stand between his spread thighs. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I rest my forehead against his. “I’m so sorry this is happening again.”
He hugs me to his front, wrapping me tightly in his arms. “Me too, baby.” He’s quiet a moment before telling me the rest. “He might be coming here since this is where it all went down. Because I’ve started using my identity again, I’ll be easy to locate. Maybe it’s best if you take Arya and go stay with your parents until all of this blows over.”
I shake my head no, firmly. “It’s not happening. I’m not leaving you. You can’t make me leave.” I beg, my voice cracking as I put my foot down.
“Don’t you understand? If anything ever happened to you Whitley, I don’t know what I’d do. I’ve spent the last seven years without you. Don’t make me spend an eternity. I wouldn’t survive it. It will only be for a month or two, just until we know we’r
e in the clear.”
“Hunter, you said the safest place for me was with you. You said that.” I say, my voice rising with every word.
“That was before I knew I could be the one putting you in harm's way.” He growls, then looks to the side, clearly upset.
I grab his face, forcing him to look at me, then stare at him straight on. “You listen to me, Hunter Stone. I’m not leaving. I’ll do everything you tell me to do. I’ll follow every precaution. I mean, what’s the point of having the best security money can buy if you aren’t even going to use it?”
Hunter shakes his head. “There’s that sass that I love.” He says and smiles. “You’re right. You leaving was a stupid idea in the first place. Promise me you’ll let me know if anything happens out of the ordinary though.”
I nod my head, and he squeezes my side. “I promise. If anything happens, I’ll tell you.”
“Good, now I want to talk to you about your junior year.”
I stiffen in his grasp. “What about it?” I go back around the desk and sit down, taking a sip of my coffee.
“James and I got into it at the station last night after one of our calls, and he mentioned-”
“You and James were fighting? Why?”
Hunter gives me a look that I don’t understand. “What?” I say.
“He let me know in no uncertain terms that if things between us don’t work out, he'd be the first guy lined up to take my place.” He lets it hang until it finally sinks in and I start choking on my coffee. Hunter stands up and rubs my back until I’m breathing easy again.
“You can’t be serious? James is like my brother. He’s never shown any interest before.”
“That’s what I said, and that’s when he mentioned your junior year of high school. I asked your dad about it, and he told me I had to ask you.”
I take another sip of my coffee, my mind still spinning that James has been interested in me. Not that there could ever be anything between James and I. I don’t feel for him the way I do about Hunter.
“Whitley, please tell me what no one else will. I’m going crazy over here thinking up what might have happened to you.”
I try and think of the best way to tell him about something that happened years ago. “Why don’t we go sit outside for this conversation?” I stand and tell Arya to ‘come,’ then walk out with my coffee mug in my hands. Once we’re standing outside, I begin.
“So, in my junior year, I had chemistry with this guy, Jeremy, that flirted with me all the time.” I shake my head at the memories. How could I have been so stupid not to see that he was playing me?
Hunter stiffens beside me, and I know once the conversation is over, he won’t be too happy.
“In the middle of the year, he asked me out for ice cream, and I agreed to go.”
“How come I don’t know about this?” He growls.
I give him a pointed look and roll my eyes. “Anyway, while we were out, he asked me to give him a blow job.”
“He what?!” Hunter shouts.
“If you don’t stop interrupting me, I’m not going to finish telling you the story.” He makes a point to close his mouth and stare at me until I start talking again. “When I told him no, he got pissed and told me I should feel lucky he took pity on a fat girl like me.”
“Please tell me Ramsey kicked this piece of shit’s ass.”
I shake my head, no. “Ramsey was away at school. Not to mention if he did, he would have been arrested since the guy was a minor and Rams wasn’t. I honestly didn’t even think he knew about it until you just told me James knew. My parents knew about it, but other than that we didn’t talk about it after that weekend.”
Hunter wraps his free arm around me and pulls me to his side, dropping a kiss on my head. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”
“It’s not like there was anything you could have done. Most likely you would have been away with Ramsey at school.”
“I don’t care. If I were here there wouldn’t have been a date, to begin with, I would have made sure of that.”
I roll my eyes and finish my story. “Anyway, I went through a rough patch for the rest of the year and into my senior year. Some of the popular girls would talk about me behind my back, and it just got to be too much. Towards the end of my senior year though I didn’t care anymore.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that baby.”
I shrug my shoulders. “I should have never gone out with him in the first place. He was a tool, and I knew it. I guess it was nice that someone was paying attention to me.”
“So why didn’t you date after that? I’ve never seen any pictures of you with anyone special. Not even a date for the prom.” Hunter asks.
I smile, sheepishly, and shrug. “None of them were you. Years had gone by, and you had left a lasting impression. Shoes no man could fill except you. After that date, it didn’t make sense to date anyone else when I knew before he even picked me up for the date that I wasn’t going to have a good time because he wasn’t the person I really wanted to be out with.”
We settle into a quiet moment. Eventually, we go back into the house and to the kitchen where I start pulling out eggs, cheese, and the ingredients to make omelets.
I hand the eggs to Hunter. “Start cracking these into a bowl, we need six eggs.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Turning on one of the burners, I place a skillet on it and start laying bacon down into the pan. Once I’ve put the rest of the bacon away and have washed my hands, I watch Hunter while he tries fishing out an eggshell from the bowl. He finally gets it and starts whisking the eggs up while I put the remaining eggs back into the refrigerator.
I lean against the counter, trying to figure out how to say what’s been on my mind since the girl’s mentioned it earlier. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
He looks up at me and smiles. “You should know by now that you can ask me anything.”
“How are you able to afford all of this?” I ask, sweeping my hand around the house.
He’s quiet for a while, and I worry I’ve gone too far, asking something that isn’t my business to know. I’m about to tell him to forget it when he starts.
“Remember how I said I read a lot those first several months I was gone?” I nod. “One of the books I read was on coding. I became very interested and wanted to know more, so I requested more books on coding. The Marshall that was checking up on us was closer to my age than my parents and was knowledgeable about it. We would spend hours talking about it and the applications it had in our growing world.
When we had moved and taken on our new identities, I started applying what I had read about on my computer. Computer technology became a hobby of mine to pass the time. While I was in fire school, we learned about the technology that was used in the field. There weren’t as many advances in that area, and it intrigued me. I developed and eventually patented a program that streamlined on-site communication.”
“That was you?” I ask, shocked about what he’s telling me. “I remember my dad and Ramsey talking about this new program a couple years ago. At first, they hated it, but after a few months of using it, they started to depend on it. Hunter, I can’t believe that was you.”
“Always with the not believing in me. You’re going to have to start giving me a little more credit than that baby.” He says, giving me a stern look.
He’s right. Damn, it’s not like I don’t believe he’s capable of everything, but it’s just crazy to me. “I’m so sorry, Hunter. I didn’t mean that-”
Hunter starts laughing, and I swat his stomach. “You little shit. I was starting to feel bad.”
He grabs my hand and kisses it. “You’re going to burn the bacon.”
“Shit.” I walk over and quickly turn the bacon then go to the fridge and grab the tomatoes and mushrooms.
While I’m cubing up the tomatoes, Hunter continues. “Before I was able to release the program, a few technology com
panies got wind of it and approached me. I ended up selling my program to the company I believed would do the program justice. I earned a lot from the deal and invested most of it. Now I’ve got a nice savings account and don’t have to work as long as I’m careful.”
“Why are you working then?”
He gives me a weird look. “I couldn’t just sit at home twiddling my thumbs for the rest of my life. I needed to do something worthwhile with my time, and I’ve wanted to be a firefighter for as long as I can remember. That desire didn’t go away after I didn’t need to work.”
“Makes sense. I guess that answers the lottery question then.”
“What lottery question?”
“You know the one, ‘if you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?’”
Hunter is quiet, and I can tell what I said made him pause, so I finish up on the omelets. I chop up the bacon and mushrooms, then start building the omelet in the pan.
“Does that change things between us?”
I stop what I’m doing and stare at him. “Why would it change things? I didn’t fall in love with you because of your money Hunter, and I’m not going to start letting it affect us now that I know. I’d rather just forget about it and live life like it isn’t there if you want to know the honest truth about it.”
Hunter picks me up and swings me around the kitchen before sitting me on the counter. Spearing his hands into my hair, he pulls me in close. “I knew you were perfect for me,” he says and gives me a breath-stealing kiss. When he pulls back, he kisses the tip of my nose and studies me. “And it’s our money now, baby.”
Chapter 17
Hunter
It’s been a few weeks since Whitley, and I had our heart to heart in the kitchen. After putting everything out on the table, we’ve grown even closer. I know with everything inside me that she’s the woman I’m spending the rest of my life with, but I’m worried asking her to marry me this soon after we’ve gotten together will be too much for her. I’ve already upended her life as it is since moving her in almost immediately. So, I’m biding my time and waiting for the right moment, while the ring that I’ve had for months burns a hole in my pocket. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to hold off from making her my wife.