Both men turned to stare at me, the surprise on their faces priceless.
I rolled down my window, foot poised on the accelerator.
“I’m leaving,” I yelled at them. “Hunter, call me if you’d rather sleep with me than fight with Deke.”
With that, I slammed my foot down and took off into the night.
Damn, that felt good.
• • •
“I’ll strangle you if you ever pull something like that again,” Hunter said, pacing back and forth across the hotel room we’d gotten. Under the circumstances, neutral ground seemed like a good idea.
Someone was grumpy.
“You could’ve gotten shot. I could’ve shot you. What were you thinking, sneaking around outside a house under guard?”
I leaned against the bathroom door frame, my arms crossed, and sighed heavily. This reunion had been nowhere near as fun as I’d pictured it. Sweet baby Jesus, but the man could pout.
“Maybe if everyone wasn’t so trigger happy, this wouldn’t be such an issue,” I said, my voice tart. “Don’t give me this shit, Hunter. You caused a big scene because you weren’t willing to wait a few hours to get things sorted out. Someone could’ve gotten hurt. Silvie could’ve gotten hurt. Don’t we have enough to worry about from the cartel? I thought you wanted peace?”
He stopped pacing to snarl at me.
“Goddamn, Em—whose side are you on? I’ve been going hard for four f**king days. I drove for six hours to get here and claim my woman, and I wasn’t going to let some pissant Reaper prospect keep her from me. You’re mine now. I don’t f**king share.”
I took a deep breath, poised to rip him a new ass**le. Then it struck me—something was really wrong here. Hunter was usually so cool, always calculating. This was nothing like him, something else was going on here.
“You’re overreacting,” I said slowly and deliberately. “I hear what you’re saying, but it’s not making sense. This isn’t like you. What happened?”
His face twisted, and he turned away from me, running a hand through his hair.
“Bad shit, Em,” he said finally. “I saw some bad shit today. Did some bad shit. I just needed to be near you, around someone clean and whole. He wouldn’t let me have you.”
Well, f**k. Now he looked all broken, and seeing this big, strong man so close to the edge made my insides twist. I still wanted to kick him, but I wanted to make him feel better even more. Hunter turned away, so I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling him back into me. My cheek rubbed against the red devil on the back of his cut, reminding me that I’d left my club behind for this man.
“You have me,” I said into his back, letting go of my anger. I started running my hands up and down his stomach. I loved the feel of his hard muscles, but this was about more than sensation. He needed to realize how much I wanted him, how special he was to me. I tugged his shirt slowly out of his pants, trailing my fingers along his bare skin. Those amazing muscles of his tightened and he groaned.
“You don’t have to tell me about it,” I whispered, knowing he couldn’t. “Just relax, okay? Let’s just finish fighting tomorrow.”
“Do we really have to fight?” he asked, sounding exhausted. “God, Em. You have no idea. No f**king idea at all . . .”
Shit. What the hell had happened?
I slid my hands lower and caught his fly, pulling apart the button and sliding down the zipper. His c**k was still soft, something I’d never felt from him before, but instead of being disappointed I was curious.
I wanted to explore. Seeing as he clearly had something he needed to forget, now was the perfect time to satisfy my curiosity and distract him in the process. I rubbed his length gently through the soft fabric of his boxer briefs with one hand, using the other to lower his pants. He sighed, and I felt him stir to life. I continued my exploration, finding the head as it slowly hardened, running my fingers around the ridge ringing it.
“That’s really good, babe.”
“Then I must be doing it right,” I murmured, wishing I were tall enough to kiss the back of his neck. “Let me make you feel good again, Liam. I want you to feel clean.”
He reached down and caught my hand in his, pulling it away long enough to shove down his briefs. Then he was putting my hand around his c**k again, wrapping the fingers around his erection and using me to squeeze himself tighter than I would’ve dared on my own.
I moved my hand up and down, his length growing harder with every stroke. Then I slid my other hand up and under his shirt, savoring the ridges of his abdominals once more before finding his chest. His nipple.
I pinched it and Hunter inhaled sharply.
“Good?” I asked, the question a whisper.
“Very,” he said. “Very f**king good.”
“Just relax and enjoy. Let me help you.”
He sighed heavily. Something had obviously gone terribly wrong, something I might never know the details of. But whatever it was, when he needed peace, he’d come to me.
I liked that idea very much.
Hunter’s c**k was fully erect now. I kept playing with his nipple, working his c**k slow and fast alternately, exploring what seemed to give him the most pleasure.
After a few minutes he gasped, his hand catching mine again, jerking it up and down. Now it seemed almost as if he was using my touch to punish himself. I couldn’t imagine something so rough could be anything but painful, but the groans coming from his mouth weren’t unhappy.
“Christ,” he muttered, reaching around with his free arm to grab me, pulling me hard into his body. The embroidery of his patches rubbed against my cheek. Would I ever have sex with him fully naked?