Devastated (Anger Management Book 1)

by R. L. Mathewson

  Chapter 22

  “Are you going to buy me a drink?” the beautiful brunette with a body that was made for sin asked, giving him the sexiest coy smile that he’d ever seen as she moved closer so that the medically enhanced assets that were barely contained in the hot red dress that looked painted on, brushed against his arm.

  “No,” Hunter said, as he grabbed his soda and headed towards an empty table outside the bar and sat down, already bored out of his fucking mind.

  He should be in there, talking that brunette into helping him make the next week memorable instead of sitting here wondering how long before he could-

  “I thought you’d be happy to get out of your cage,” Ryan said, as he joined him.

  “I’m fucking ecstatic,” Hunter drawled, as he finished off his drink.

  “I don’t know how Kylie puts up with you,” Ryan said with a sad shake of his head as he held up his hand and gestured to the waitress for two beers.

  “Probably has something to do with the fact that she doesn’t annoy the shit out of me,” Hunter pointed out, waving away the beer the waitress went to put down in front of him.

  Ryan watched the move with a curious look in his eye. “Not drinking tonight?”

  “No,” he said, not bothering to mention that Kylie didn’t like the smell of alcohol. She never complained when he drank, but he knew the scent bothered her, which was why he hadn’t had a drink in a while.

  “I see,” Ryan said, looking thoughtful as he took a sip of his beer.

  “There’s nothing to see,” Hunter said evenly, as he glanced towards his right and couldn’t help but wonder what his assistant was up to when he spotted her cutting through the large atrium and heading towards the hotel gift shop.

  “Of course, there isn’t,” Ryan murmured.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, as he watched Kylie head right for the junk food, making his lips twitch as he watched her carefully consider her options.

  “You seem more relaxed lately,” Ryan said, shrugging it off.

  “It’s the therapy,” Hunter said dryly.

  “Yeah, that must be it,” Ryan said, chuckling as Hunter watched Kylie give up trying to choose a snack and grabbed a handbasket, loading it with every snack she could get her greedy little hands on.

  “I thought she was on a diet,” Ryan said, following his gaze.

  “It’s a cheat week,” Hunter said, pleased when he saw Kylie grab several Snickers bars and dropped them in the basket. Kylie wasn’t a big fan of Snickers, but since they were his favorite, she always made it a point to grab some for him.

  He’d been raised on frozen dinners, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, junk food and the occasional school lunch when he’d decided to go. The Marines had given him three squares a day, mostly in the form of MRE’s, and an unhealthy dependence on Pepto Bismol. When he left the Marines, he’d lived on take-out, room service, and whatever was convenient. Since Kylie started cooking, he’d started looking forward to her homecooked meals. He was afraid that when this was all over that he was going to end up going through withdrawal from her cooking. Then again, that would just give him an excuse to see her, he realized, as he watched her make her way to the coolers in the back.

  “I think Tim is smitten,” Ryan said, sounding amused.

  “And why would you say that?” Hunter asked, watching as Kylie brought her basket to the register.

  “Because he wouldn’t shut up about her,” Ryan said before leveling a glare on him. “Thanks for kicking me out of the suite, asshole.”

  “You’re welcome,” Hunter said, sighing when he saw Kylie pull money out of her pocket instead of charging everything to their room. God, she really was a pain in his ass, he thought even as he had to admit that was one of the reasons why he liked her so much.

  He liked everything about her and that was the problem.

  “You know, I could always watch over Kylie for you if you want to switch rooms,” Ryan offered as Hunter watched the woman in question pick up her shopping bag and head back towards the elevators, carefully avoiding coming into contact with anyone as she went.

  “And why would I want to do that?” Hunter asked, as he glanced to his left to find the beautiful brunette watching him.

  “Because you care deeply about my well-being?” Ryan said, sounding hopeful.

  “Think again,” Hunter said, deciding that he’d wasted enough time.

  *-*-*-*

  “I think that’s everything,” Kylie said with a satisfied nod as she took in the assortment of snacks and drinks that she’d carefully selected for tonight’s movie marathon.

  After ensuring that the extra-large meatball and mushroom pizza that she’d splurged on was still hot, she grabbed her favorite tee shirt and a pair of panties and headed to the bathroom. There, she debated grabbing a slice of pizza and her iPad and starting the night off with a long soak in the bathtub with some of the bath salts from the beautiful gift basket that Hunter had delivered earlier. Deciding that she’d save that for tomorrow night after the convention when she was probably going to need it most, she took a quick shower, selected one of the many lotions that came in the basket, and after she finished drying her hair and getting dressed, she decided that she was ready to do this.

  Once she climbed into bed, and God, was this bed comfortable, she piled the pillows against the headboard, adjusted the comforter over her lap, pulled the pizza closer, turned the television on, and-

  “Oh…oh, my God,” Kylie mumbled weakly even as she frantically reached back for a pillow so that she could cover her eyes as she blindly searched for the remote as the sounds of the large brown bear tearing apart Leonardi DiCaprio echoed throughout the room.

  “Why are you watching The Revenant?” Hunter asked, as she felt him join her on the bed.

  “I don’t know!”

  “Would you like me to shut it off?” he asked, sounding bored as she gave up trying to find the remote and hugged the pillow against her face.

  “Yes!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes!”

  “What will you do for me if I shut it off?” he asked, shifting to get more comfortable.

  “Let you live?” she offered, squeezing her eyes shut.

  There was a chuckle as the bear upped his game from the sounds of things, she realized with something close to a whimper, and then, it was over.

  “So, tell me something, Miss House,” Hunter drawled, as she reluctantly peeked around the pillow to make sure that it was really safe, “what exactly are you doing?”

  “Movie night,” Kylie said, sighing with relief when she saw the baseball game playing on the television.

  “Without me?” Hunter asked, shaking his head in disgust as he flipped the pizza box open and helped himself to a slice.

  “Umm, you went out?” Kylie reminded him.

  “Lies, Miss Brody, all lies,” he said around a bite of pizza.

  “What exactly are you doing here?” she asked, since he should be doing all those things that she’d been telling herself not to think about for the past two hours.

  “Movie night,” Hunter said, finishing off his slice of pizza as he grabbed the television remote and signed into his Netflix account before handing the remote over to her.

  She looked at Hunter, taking in his neatly styled hair, freshly shaved jaw, the gray shirt that she’d never seen before, dark pants, and-

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said with a forced smile as she focused on picking out a movie.

  “What exactly am I doing, Miss Hunt?” he asked, grabbing a Coke off the nightstand and taking a sip.

  “Being here when you should be downstairs,” Kylie said and although she appreciated the gesture, she wasn’t a big fan of pity.

  “What makes you think that I’m not exactly where I want to be?” he asked, placing the Coke back on the nightstand.

  “Because you’ve been trapped in a house with me for the past eight months and this
is your one and only chance at freedom for the next four months?” she reminded him.

  There was a heavy sigh and then Hunter was getting off the bed and piquing her curiosity when he began unbuttoning his shirt and pulled it off. “When have you ever known me to do something that I didn’t want to do, Miss Jackson?” he asked, sounding bored as he tossed his shirt on the chair.

  “Well, there is the whole house arrest and mandated therapy,” she said absently, as she watched as Hunter worked his belt loose.

  Chuckling, Hunter said, “Just pick a damn movie, brat,” as he tossed his pants on the chair and adjusted the band around his ankle before disappearing into her bathroom.

  Biting back a smile, she picked out a documentary series on the Black Death before she tossed the remote back on the bed, grabbed a slice of pizza, and did her best not to stare when Hunter walked back into her room in his boxers. Reminding herself that it was wrong to notice just how good her boss looked in boxers, and yes, she’d already accepted the fact that she occasionally slept in the same bed with her boss, she focused on eating.

  “Didn’t we already watch this one?” Hunter asked, as he climbed back in bed and grabbed another slice of pizza.

  “This one’s new,” she said, feeling herself relax for the first time since they’d left the house this morning.

  They watched three more episodes and managed to finish off most of the pizza before they decided to call it a night. Hunter made quick work of getting rid of their trash while she used the bathroom and brushed her teeth. By the time she was done, Hunter was back and double-checking the locks to make sure that the balcony doors were locked.

  “Do you want the lights on?” he asked, as he pulled the curtains shut to block out the light coming in from the atrium.

  Yes, yes, she did, but…

  “No,” Kylie said, biting her bottom lip as she forced herself to reach over and shut the lights off. She stood there for another moment, slowly exhaling before she reluctantly climbed into bed where she spent the next several minutes trying to convince herself that she wasn’t nervous about tomorrow. By the time Hunter climbed in bed next to her, she’d decided to look at this as an opportunity.

  Tomorrow there would be thousands of people here, many of them CEO’s who might need a personal assistant when this was all over. She’d planned on taking some time off after this job ended before she started looking for her next position, but now she wasn’t sure that was a good idea. She didn’t want to sit around in some hotel room missing Hunter, and unfortunately for her, she was definitely going to miss him.

  Over the past several months he’d become her best friend. He made her laugh, teased her, tormented her, made her feel protected; and those times when she struggled, he was there, holding her and letting her know that she was safe. For the first time in her life, she felt…

  Whole.

  There was no other way to describe it. She’d never felt like this, never known that it was possible to feel like this, but whenever she was with him, she felt like she was exactly where she was supposed to be. It felt like she finally found the place that she belonged and that was part of the problem. She’d considered asking Hunter if she could stay on after this was over, but that wasn’t part of the plan.

  She’d been working on this plan since the moment she’d overheard her parents laughing as they’d placed bets on whether or not her soon-to-be ex-husband had caught something from a hooker and given it to her. That had been followed by a discussion on how much better their lives would be if she’d caught something that would kill her.

  After that much-needed wake-up call, she’d started making plans that would take her as far away from her past as she could get. While she’d waited for the divorce to come through, she’d pulled double-shifts at a motel, cleaning rooms during the morning and working the front desk at night, listening to audiobooks that she’d borrowed from the library on business, organization, accounting, basically anything that she thought would help her. After work, she’d go back to her room, study until she’d passed out and do it all over again the next day. She’d kept doing that until the day she’d received the notice from the courthouse telling her that her divorce was final. Then, she packed her stuff, bought a ticket for the next train leaving the state, and never looked back.

  And now…

  “Are you really going to hog the bed?” came the muttered complaint even as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer.

  “Are you really going to complain all night?” she fired back with a wiggle, demanding that he hold her tighter.

  “Probably,” Hunter admitted, as he tightened his hold around her and pressed a kiss against the back of her neck before casually asking, “Did you like the gift basket?”

  “I loved it,” Kylie said, smiling as she thought about the large gift basket filled with lotions, bath salts, bath bombs, goat’s milk soaps, creams, loofa sponges, scrubbing brushes, a manicure kit, and all the luxury bath items that she’d never had and always told herself that she didn’t need.

  “More than the cookie basket?”

  “Well, I mean, I wouldn’t go that far,” Kylie said, feeling her lips twitch when he released a growl and pressed another kiss against the back of her neck with a “Goodnight, brat,” and before she knew it, she was falling asleep.

  A gentle caress woke her sometime later. For several minutes she simply laid there, enjoying the feel of Hunter’s fingertips running along her jaw. She’d never liked to be touched, not when she was a kid, and definitely not when she was married. It used to take everything in her not to flinch when David reached for her. She’d hated his touch, his scent, but mostly, she’d hated not being able to be close to anyone without being afraid.

  When Hunter asked her why she’d married David a few months ago, she hadn’t been able to give him an answer, but now she knew. She’d never loved David, but she’d cared about him and back then that had been enough. She was sick of being alone and being afraid all the time and that had led her to the biggest mistake of her life. She thought getting married would make her feel like she belonged, but all it did was make everything worse. He’d never made her feel safe, never made her feel wanted, or even bothered to pretend that he cared once they’d said, “I do.”

  David had been quiet, boring, polite, kind of pathetic, and once upon a time, she’d thought that meant safe. The moment he thought she wasn’t going anywhere he’d stopped pretending to be harmless and she’d found herself trapped in another nightmare. He’d turned cruel, belligerent, and had taken great joy in throwing everything that she’d foolishly told him about her family back in her face.

  It hadn’t taken long to realize that she didn’t love him after that and even less time to realize that she didn’t even like him. When she’d found out what he was doing behind her back, it had made accepting the truth that much easier.

  She was better off alone.

  At least, that’s what she used to think. Now, she wasn’t so sure what she wanted, she realized, as she opened her eyes to find Hunter sitting next to her, watching her with that curious look in his eye that she couldn’t quite understand. He slid his fingers through her hair as he slowly leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, giving her an achingly sweet kiss before he pulled away, letting his fingertips caress her jaw one last time with a softly murmured, “What am I going to do with you, Kylie?”

  Chapter 23

  “You look uncharacteristically pissed today,” Ryan said conversationally as he joined him by the back wall, away from the long line of people eager to get a shot at the security challenge that his men set up for a chance to get their hands on ten-thousand dollars.

  “Did you need something?” Hunter asked, as he watched the next person in line step up to take a crack at the security system they’d put on a shed that they’d built to look like a house and-

  “Damn it!” the man that headed straight for the keypad groaned when the buzzer went off and the red light flashed, letting him kn
ow that he’d tripped the system.

  “Whose idea was this?” Ryan asked, gesturing towards the challenge that had people lined up around the block.

  “Kylie’s,” Hunter said absently, still beyond fucking impressed that she’d come up with this idea in the first place.

  It not only brought them a shitload of free PR, but it had also given them an opportunity to put their newest system on full display. So far, they’d gained over two thousand new home security contracts and business contracts, and increased their newsletter subscription list, guaranteed to keep his men busy for months. They’d also managed to attract hackers, ex-cons, and security experts eager to show off their skills and get their hands on the ten-thousand-dollar prize, a prize that he would happily pay to find anyone that could break into one of his systems.

  “Seriously?” Ryan asked, looking genuinely surprised.

  Nodding, Hunter watched as another person failed Kylie’s challenge.

  “She’s bright.”

  “Yes, she is,” Hunter agreed, already toying with an idea that would make things easier.

  “Then why aren’t you in a better mood?”

  “I’m in a great fucking mood,” Hunter said dryly.

  “I just thought you’d be in a better mood today thanks to that brunette I saw follow you to the elevators last night,” Ryan said, as they watched the next man in line move up and-

  Went straight for the keypad.

  “Wasn’t interested.”

  “You weren’t interested?”

  “No,” Hunter said, glancing at the reason why.

  “You really weren’t interested?” Ryan repeated back slowly.

  “Not one fucking bit,” Hunter said, watching as Kylie noticeably startled when the buzzer went off, signaling another failed attempt.

  “You haven’t had sex in eight months,” Ryan said, shooting him a disbelieving look. Since it had actually been a little over two years since he’d had sex, he’d decided to ignore him.