My mouth falls open. Horror blossoms in my chest.
This is starting to make more sense to me.
“You… you faked it.”
He nods, watching me warily. “It annoyed her, but it was never my heart she truly wanted. She wanted me as her boyfriend; she wanted the status, the bragging rights. She didn’t really want me. Yeah, she would’ve been thrilled if I liked her, but it didn’t matter if I didn’t, as long as she could pretend to herself and everyone else that she had me. I put in literally no effort to convince her I liked her. I was openly hostile more often than not, it just didn’t matter. When someone locks on to use you, you don’t have to treat them well. It’s like having a leach on your body, they’ll stay stuck to you as long as you let them.”
My mind is racing. My heart, too.
“I… But I saw you kiss her. When we were posing for homecoming court pictures. You two were in front of me. You kissed her neck like you kiss mine. I saw you do it.”
Hunter shakes his head. “No, you didn’t. You saw me lean in like I was, but… I didn’t kiss her, Riley. I just wanted to punish you a little bit in that moment. You’d just said something to Anderson I didn’t like, I don’t even remember what it was now. Something about being a couple. I wanted to twist the knife a little, but I was always careful. I did what I did because I needed to see if I could get out of it, but I always made sure I left myself an escape hatch in case I couldn’t. I never did anything I knew you couldn’t get past.” His gaze drops. A flicker of shame darkens his features. “Well, that night Sherlock kissed you… I fucked up. I didn’t mean to do that to you.”
My stomach hollows out, hearing him reference what happened that night. It’s not something I’m hung up on or anything I hold against him, but I don’t like him bringing it up.
He goes on. “I hadn’t accounted for him. I thought I had everything under control, I thought if all of my attempts to get close to you again failed, I’d just come clean. I’d use the escape hatch I left for myself and I’d bail us out. But then I did start making progress with you. I did feel like I might be able to get you back, to get us back on track, so I didn’t use it. And I understand that now… that escape hatch has become more of a trap door. We got on stable ground, but we’ve built some of it around a lie. And not only that, I’ve… I’ve let you suffer when you didn’t have to just to satisfy my own fucking curiosity. I almost told you the truth a few times, but at a certain point I felt like I’d gone too far to turn back. I was afraid if I came clean, I might actually lose you over it. I’m still afraid of that.”
He looks down, shaking his head. I can tell he feels bad for what he did. All of what he did.
“You manipulated the fuck out of me,” I say.
He raises his turbulent gaze to mine. His brown eyes glint with remorse I know is real and he nods. “I know.”
I stare at him for a long moment. He doesn’t look back up.
I reach over and push my fingers through his hair.
That gets his attention.
He looks up, almost startled by my tenderness.
I smile softly, then I let go of his hair and climb onto his lap.
“Whoa,” he says, looking up at me, still a little lost.
My smile widens into a grin. I lock my arms around his neck and gaze into his eyes. “You wonderful, wonderful man.”
“What?”
I don’t answer him. I crush my lips to his, moving on top of him and pushing him back on the bridge. I pull up my dress, reaching under it to shove my panties down.
I am going to fuck him right here, right now, and if he gets a splinter, I’m not even sorry.
With all the shifting around I have to do to get my panties off and my body properly situated on top of his, I knock something out of his pocket.
Hunter looks down, his eyebrows rising slightly, but he doesn’t grab for it urgently, so I don’t think much of it until my gaze hits it.
My stomach drops.
It’s a fancy-looking jewelry box, midnight blue with HW engraved on the lid.
“Is that…?”
Smiling faintly, he says, “Good job. You wrecked my proposal.”
I gasp, my gaze jumping back to his. “You’re proposing to me?”
“I mean, I was going to.”
“Yes!” I grin, lying on top of him and throwing my arms around his neck.
Hunter grins up at me, settling an arm around my waist. “You didn’t even see the ring yet.”
“I don’t need to see the ring. I’ve seen the groom. You could propose with yarn and I’d say yes.”
Hunter shakes his head, looking at me with a mix of awe and pleasure on his gorgeous face. “I’ve gotta say, this is going a lot better than I expected it to.”
“You didn’t sleep with Valerie Johnson,” I state. “Do you know how happy that makes me? A million rings couldn’t make me as happy as that.”
To say he looks relieved would be a massive understatement.
And I get it. He did manipulate me.
But I’ve always known Hunter was a touch manipulative. It’s not news to me. Honestly, hearing him explain it the way he did, I’m not even entirely shocked that he took advantage of a unique opportunity to squelch one of his own fears about the durability of our relationship.
I understand wanting to know we could get through anything. I didn’t need that myself; I had enough faith in us without needing cold, hard proof, but… well, Hunter and I are different people. Complementary people. Two halves of a perfect whole.
Threading my fingers through his hair, I look down at him lovingly as he lies on the bridge and looks up at me. “Just so we’re clear, you can never do this to me again.”
“No,” he agrees. “No reason to. I got the answers I needed.”
“Is it weird that knowing you did this… kinda turns me on?”
He cocks an eyebrow. “Does it?”
I nod, letting go of his hair so I can unbutton the top button of his shirt. “It’s kinda brilliant, in a diabolic sort of way.” I move to the next button. “Kinda hot.” I’m straddling him, so I have to shift my hips to get to the button underneath me. “I could only be more impressed if you had a back-up plan to keep me captured even if I would’ve been pissed off instead of relieved that you lied to me.”
“Well…”
My eyes brighten with horrified delight. “Did you?”
“Remember how excited you were when you got your Harvard acceptance letter, but how nervous you were about taking out loans for the tuition since your mom can’t afford it?”
I nod, smiling.
“I figured if this all went bad and you rejected my proposal, I’d offer to pay your tuition and rope you into another exclusivity agreement. A four-year one this time. Surely at the end of five years you would’ve relented. And, hey, if not… maybe it would’ve been time for a baby.”
It’s a rather dastardly thing to find amusing, but I laugh anyway. “You’re the best.”
He smiles up at me, his arm tightening around me. “I’m glad you think so.”
I sigh, leaning down so I can kiss his perfect lips. “I can’t wait to spend my life with you.”