“Because before I could, you ran away. And then I got cold feet and started second-guessing myself.” He reached out and caressed my cheek. “But I’m not second-guessing myself now. I’ve had feelings for you since we lived together, Erica. I care about you more than you know. And I needed to tell you before it burned me up inside.”
I couldn’t have responded even if I wanted to. My mouth was dry and my throat had tightened with emotion. Everything he was saying, everything he was doing, was what I had dreamed about for so long. A dream I never thought would actually come true.
But here he was, standing in front of me in the garage, smiling at me like nothing had ever changed.
The look on my face must have told Hunter everything he needed to know, because he lowered his lips to mine the way he had five years ago, kissing me on the hood of the Mustang. All the tension left my body as our lips churned together in a slow kiss, a kiss of remembrance and longing.
But then I pushed him back.
“I need to know something,” I said. My body was on fire with desire, but I forced myself to hold back.
“Anything,” he breathed.
“My business.Yours Forever Gemstones. Did you invest in it because you have feelings for me? Or do you believe in the business on its own?”
His face grew serious. “It’s a sound business idea. I think you’ve found a really good opportunity. Regardless of my feelings for you, Erica, I would have invested.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s what I needed to hear.”
Hunter planted a fist on the car next to me, leaning downintome with his body as our kiss deepened. His other hand tightened in my hair, holding my lips against his as if he woulddieif we stopped kissing. He pushed between my legs and I surged upward with need, spreading myself to let him in, desperate to feel every inch of him against me. I moaned into his mouth as I felt his hard length against my inner thigh, long and warm through his jeans, the two of us separated only by a few evil layers of fabric.
Finally, after so long. Take me, Hunter. I’m yours.
“I’ve dreamed about this,” he gritted out while kissing a trail down my neck. “Touching you. Holding you in my arms…”
“Me too,” I breathed as he ground into me with desire, pushing me against the hood.
He lingered at my neck, nuzzling and nibbling and tasting me. I ran my hands across his back, eager to feel the hard lines of muscle covering his body. I wanted to touch every inch of him with my fingertips, tolickevery inch of him. When we had done this in the garage five years ago, I was an inexperienced teenager. Now, I was a grown woman who knew what she was doing.
I want to show him what I can do.
I pushed up off the hood of the car and lifted his shirt so I could kiss his chest, between his pecs and down into the dinner-roll-shaped abs, as hard and hot as I had imagined. My hand drifted lower, into the waistband of his jeans because Idesperatelywanted to touch his cock, to squeeze it between my fingers. Hunter groaned as I unbuttoned his jeans, a sound which was music to my ears.
And then it was replaced by another sound. The worst sound in the world.
The front door slamming closed.
Both of us froze: me with my nose and lips against his skin, and him with his hand tightened in my hair. We listened for three long seconds.
“Erica? Hunter?” my brother Brad called from the foyer. “I’m home!”
28
Hunter
Erica was everything I had ever wanted. I knew that with certainty, now. And after delaying things for a week, I had finally told her the truth.
Kissing her woke old emotions inside my soul, and new ones too. Even though it had been so long, and even though we had only kissed once back then, her lips felt likehome.
I wanted to do everything with her. I wanted to rip her clothes off and plunge myself into her here in the garage, on the hood of the Mustang. Then I wanted to throw her over my shoulder, carry her upstairs to her bedroom, and make slow, sweet love to her the way I had fantasized about five years ago.
I wanted her to pass out in my arms so I could watch her sleep, and then I wanted to wake up with her spooned against my body.
I wantedso muchwith this girl.
But fate had a way of punishing a person for their sins, even if it was half a decade late. The front door slammed closed, and then we heard Brad’s voice.
I jumped away from Erica and pulled my shirt down. “We’re in here! In the garage!” I called.