Hunter: On second thought, bring nothing. You won’t be needing any clothes. I’ll pick you up a toothbrush.
Natalia: LOL. I’ll bring a bag anyway. Just in case there’s a fire and I have to run out of the house.
Hunter: Good thinking. Wouldn’t want any neighbors to see that ass. Because for what’s left of my two-month assignment, it belongs to me.
I smiled like a teenager. I liked the sound of that. A lot. But in the back of my head, a tiny little wa
rning went off.
Just make sure all you give him is your ass, Nat. Not your heart.
Chapter 20
Hunter
11 years ago
It never dulled.
Not even after eight months of not seeing her.
I should’ve forgotten all about Summer by now. There’d been others—maybe too many others in an attempt to forget her—but my attraction was still there the first time we crossed paths again.
It was Jayce’s graduation party at our aunt and uncle’s house. I was sipping a beer in the living room when she walked in. Our eyes locked, and I swear it felt like my heart started to beat for the first time.
Fuck. She’s gorgeous.
I watched as she walked over to Jayce and his girlfriend of two months and gave him a big hug. She said something that made all three of them laugh, and then walked over to the couch and parked herself right next to me. Without turning her head in my direction, she took the beer from my hand and brought it to her lips to drink.
She spoke before drinking. “Truth or dare?”
I smirked. “Truth.”
After she took a healthy swallow from my beer, she passed it back. “Did you delete the nearly naked picture of me on your phone that I sent forever ago?”
I turned my head and waited until she finally looked at me to respond. “Nope.”
Her eyes sparkled. “How often do you look at it?”
“More truth?”
She nodded.
“Every fucking day.”
We passed the beer back and forth again. “Seeing anyone?” she asked.
“I have someone I see once in a while.”
“Is see code for fuck?”
The corners of my lip twitched. “I was trying to be a gentleman. How about you? You seeing anyone?”
She lobbed my noncommittal answer right back at me. “I have someone I see once in a while.”
I was screwing someone else, hadn’t seen or spoken to Summer in eight months—not since the night at the party when I walked away after realizing she was the girl my brother was nuts about—and yet, I had the urge to rip the head off the nameless, faceless guy she was sleeping with. Yeah, time hadn’t dulled shit.
I stood. “Going to grab another beer. You want your own, or are you planning on just taking mine the rest of the night?”