HUNTER’S HANDS TIGHTENED AT my neck, the pads of his fingers digging into the tight tendons. I winced and pulled away before turning and catching the vacant look in his eyes. “Growing up,” he started, “I never knew what business JW was in, until I hit the street and heard word. JW has power. He’s got sway in this city. He’s got law enforcement in his pocket, and if someone important goes missing, chances are I could point a finger at the culprit…under the same fucking roof.” His fists tightened as I watched the muscles in his neck and shoulders tense and bunch.
“But I thought…God, I thought you were just a photographer…” I ran soapy circles in the water with my fingertips, lost in the vastness of it all. “How didn’t I know Brant was into all this?” I choked the words out, angry at Brant’s deception, and Hunter’s.
“First off, JW knows everyone and everything that happens in this city. He knows more than anyone.” Hunter’s eyes turned away again and his hands began rubbing a soothing motion on my calves beneath the water. “And white-collar criminals usually excel at deception—most wives don’t have the slightest inkling,” Hunter answered, leaving me feeling even more broken.
“So what the fuck am I supposed to do?” I jolted from the water and stepped out of the tub before he could catch me. “You shouldn’t have followed me back. You have to go.” I wrapped a towel around my torso, feeling emotionally abused in a way that was all too familiar.
“I’m not leaving.” Hunter’s voice followed me out when I turned to find him dripping and wet, bubbles trailing down the hard angles of his pelvis. His cock hung flaccid but heavy at his thigh as he glared. I sucked in a lip before his mouth quirked to one side, his eyes flashing in challenge.
“Go.” I pointed to the door, more determined than ever to get my life back. Figure all of this out in my brain, connect the dots, if there even were any to connect.
“Not a chance. Not leaving you like this, Princess.” He crossed his arms and his smile grew as I gnawed on my lip, becoming more distracted by his alarming yet proud nakedness. “I don’t want you to be alone, and I don’t want to be alone. So that makes you stuck with me.” His smile widened further before he turned and strutted to the kitchen, buck-naked. My jaw dropped as I watched his retreating form before rushing after him just as he pulled a beer from the fridge and uncapped it with the edge of the counter top.
“You can’t stay. What if Brant comes home?” I began grasping at straws, knowing how unlikely it was for Brant to show up any time soon.
“I don’t give a fuck about your husband.”
“Hunter, you can’t just force yourself on me like this. I don’t want a bodyguard.” I ran a hand through my hair as my thoughts rattled. Stubborn blood ran through every vein in my body. I couldn’t stand the idea of having my freewill taken away from me, even if it was only temporarily and by a man that was the walking representation of male perfection.
“I thought you wouldn’t mind.” He winked and pinched my chin, placing a sloppy kiss straight on my lips before brushing past me and heading back to the bathroom. A moment later I heard him slosh into the tub.
“You can’t stay!” I called and wrapped my towel around me more tightly, unsure of whether I should kick him out or head back into that tub and feel the long hard length of him pressed into the back of my throat. My arousal won when I padded back into the bathroom after him.
He sipped his beer as he soaked in the fluffy white bubbles. What a contrast he was, the golden beautiful soldier soaking in my frilly tub with bubbles and a beer. He was all man, take him or leave him, and I found myself wanting to take, and often. “Get used to me, Princess.”
“What about when I have shit to do? Appointments? I don’t need a bodyguard. I’m not good at being under someone’s thumb.” I shot him a glare.
Hunter’s lips twitched in amusement before he fixed his frown and narrowed his eyes on me. “Fine. You get a couple hours a day, but my number is the emergency contact on your phone. Public places only, and keep your eyes open for suspicious people. Can you do that for me?” he huffed, but his eyes twinkled with amused exasperation.
“Thank you.” I plopped myself on the toilet seat, fidgeting with a string hanging from the towel before I glanced to find Hunter’s eyes watching me with quiet peace. “Do you think JW would kill me?” I asked.
Hunter’s eyes held mine for long, agonizing beats. His lean throat swallowed as a hand exited the soapy water and dripped a path across the tile to lock with mine. “I don’t know, I can’t predict anything he does before he does it.” He ran a hand through his closely cropped hair. “But I won’t give him a chance. You are my priority.” Hunter leaned out of the tub and caught my chin between his fingers to place a sloppy kiss on my lips.
“I can’t believe this is happening.” I shook my head and ran fingers through my hair. I chanced a glance to find pain radiating from his eyes.
My heart swelled and felt like it may drown in tears as my mind cast to memories of nights Brant stayed away from home with needle-thin alibis about working late and landing big accounts. I knew now that I’d stayed because it’d been the easier thing to do, getting caught up in the luxurious lifestyle had been the Band-aid for a while, until the lack of love and connection formed like a dark cloud over our home leaving me feeling choked and oppressed.
But then the nights away had gotten more frequent and the calls more distant. The pretense for alibis seemed to be tossed in favor of casual omission. We’d been lying to each other—even I’d felt it between us back then. My heart had begun to harden towards him, had frozen to keep his pain away. It’d been slow coming, but it’d been coming.
Just as always, I’d found myself left in the dark, but when presented with the facts, I couldn’t actually say that I did believe my husband over Hunter Ellis
“So, you want my help to bring my husband down?” I turned away, chewing on my lip.
“I would never ask you to do that.” He splashed from the tub and set his beer on the counter before wrapping a towel around his waist and pulling me into his strong arms. “Let’s talk.”
I huffed and dragged my feet all the way to my bedroom where I tucked into a pillow, curled up in the fetal position, giving him my back.
“Don’t do that; it fucking eats me alive when you turn away from me.” Hunter fitted himself behind me and wrapped me in his giant arms, making me feel as safe as I’d ever felt.
“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to believe,” I said as my stomach turned in painful figure eights. “I think I might be sick.”
“Take deep breaths,” he murmured into my hair as he ran a palm down the long strands. “I’m so sorry. I’ve never done this before, but I didn’t know how deep Brant was in with JW until he started asking questions about you.”
I sucked a lip into my mouth. “But can’t we go to the police? Let him rot in jail—”
“That’s not how it works,” he cut me off.
“What do you mean that’s not how it works? It’s the law—of course that’s how it works. I don’t give a fuck who John Ellis Walker is!” I shrieked and turned in his arms, trying to push him off and away from me. Only his arms tightened further and he wouldn’t let me go.
“Please, Hunter. I don’t want any part of this.”
“I know,” he grunted. “But it’s too late, Princess. You’re in it, but I promise, I’ll get us out of it.”
“So…you’re just going to stay here? With me?” I uttered, flabbergasted at the audacity of him.
“It will be just like it was, a lot of photo shoots, a little business, more sleepovers.” His hands ran up my torso, lighting fireworks.
“I don’t know how you expect me to do this. What do I do when he calls?”
“If he calls, Erin, you have to let him come home.”
“What if he just shows up and I’m not home? What do I say then?”
“You were out working. You got a new job with an incredibly talented photographer.” His mouth lifted in a sarcastic grin, but I couldn’t get caught up in his charm right now. My brain was running mad.
I sucked a lip between my teeth and gnashed. I thought about going to the police. I still wavered there. Could I really trust Hunter? I’d known him for a matter of weeks. I had years of history with Brant and still something hadn’t sat right with him the last few years. More business meetings overseas, late night calls, and after-hours meetings. I delved the recesses of my memory searching for John Walker’s face—perhaps he’d been to my house, or I’d seen him at Brant’s office? But I came up empty. I was positive I’d never met him before, and those calculating golden eyes I couldn’t easily shake.
“How can you ask me to pretend everything is normal?” I choked out.
“I’m not asking. I’m telling.” Hunter’s heavy voice resounded in my ears. “Everything stays as is—we do the photo shoots we have planned, not a single thing can be off or JW knows I told you. And that can’t happen, Erin. JW is a cold-blooded killer—we can’t ever find ourselves on his bad side. I mean it when I say it’s you and me until this is over. I’m the best thing for you whether you believe that or not.”
I sighed, more exhausted by the last twelve hours than I’d been in a lifetime.
“Hunter…” I sighed, thinking of the other devastating fact in this story. Hunter grew up under the influence of JW and his goons. “What makes you think you can escape him?” I asked softly, terror threading my voice. Hunter’s eyes turned up to mine and held for long moments.
“I have to believe him when he says this is it—my last job. I don’t have a choice.”
“Sounds like a lot of people are getting their choices taken away when it comes to him.”
“That’s generally how it works.”
“So why did he want to meet me? Scope out the wife of his target?”
“You never know what JW has planned. I shouldn’t have brought you there.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I thought it would prove your innocence. You clearly aren’t involved with Brant’s bullshit.”
“What happens if we run, just leave?”
“Erin…” He slipped the pad of his thumb across my jawline. “If only it were that easy.”
