“Is it still true?”
I held his stare for a moment before my head moved in a jumbled mess of nods and shakes. “Hunter, I want everything with you, but Raf has the power to physically take me from here—from you.”
“He doesn’t have shit.”
And then I was in his arms, and he was crushing his mouth to mine. Seeking entrance and groaning when I opened to him. The kiss fierce and passionate . . . demanding and claiming. As if he hadn’t already owned every part of me for most of our lives.
I drove my hands into his hair when he lifted me and laid me onto the bed next to the suitcase. A whimper crawling up my throat and getting lost in the kiss the way I wanted to get lost in him.
For an hour. For the night. For the rest of our lives.
“Hunter.” His name left me on a breath when he moved down my throat as his hands lightly trailed up and under my shirt.
A warm shiver moved down my spine when his hands wrapped around my bare waist and inched up higher and higher. His movements slow and promising. The sweetest torture when I needed more.
I gripped at the back of his shirt and pulled, my breath catching when he ground his hard length against me . . . and rushing out when my phone went off repeatedly.
Hunter slowly lifted his head, his blue eyes all carnal need as they locked with mine. And in them, I saw everything I was feeling. Craving. That undertone of alarm when we both seemed to remember where we were. That my daughter was across the hall and my parents were downstairs . . . and the door was wide open.
“Everything you said . . .” he murmured, voice rough and dripping with desire, “that’s why he has nothing on this—on us. Because you don’t wanna leave. Because you want this.” He kissed me slowly and then pressed his forehead to mine. “Madison, if you leave for another decade, I’m gonna be right fucking here. Understand?”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure I could.
I wanted that—I wanted those exact words. All I’d ever wanted was the rest of forever with Hunter Dixon. But I could never do that to him.
I reached blindly above me until I found my phone and released a trembling breath when Hunter pushed to standing and righted my shirt. But he didn’t go far. He stood at the end of the bed, hand on my thigh as I read through Raf’s messages.
Rafael: Leaving Dallas at 730a tomorrow through AA.
Rafael: I sent you the confirmation.
Rafael: I’ll pick you up.
I sat up and dropped my phone to the bed as Hunter asked, “What’d he say?”
“Plane leaves at seven-thirty in the morning,” I answered thickly, affection and need building in my throat when Hunter’s large hands cradled my neck and his mouth fell to my ear.
“We’ll figure this out,” he assured me, voice deep and soft.
I don’t know how. I don’t know how. I don’t know how.
I wanted to figure it out. I wanted Hunter forever. I wanted the life I’d destroyed. But I didn’t know how when this chance we’d barely grasped was already being pulled from us.
“Where’s all that glow, huh?”
Emotion swelled in my chest as a love so fierce and pure raced through me. I fell deeper into his hold as a smile tugged at my lips, affection wrapping around my words when I said, “Don’t you know?”
I let him lift my head to search my stare and rested one of my hands against his chest, feeling the wild boom, boom, boom beneath my palm.
“It’s always been you,” I whispered, gripping his shirt and pulling him closer until he was kneeling on the bed and inches from my face.
Wonder and desire billowed from him as I secured my other hand in his hair, holding his gaze and speaking through the tears tightening my throat. “If I could go back, I would do everything different. I would’ve never left. I would’ve stayed right here with you. I’m sorry that I took that from us—God, Hunter, you have no idea how sorry I am for so many things. But I never stopped loving you.”
His eyelids slowly shut, his face creasing like he was in pain as his forehead fell to mine. “How much?”
“What?”
“How much do you love me?”
A breathy laugh tumbled free as tears slipped down my cheeks. “More than there are words.”
He passed his mouth across mine, his claim washing over my lips. “I love you more than there are stars in the sky.”
The words sent a rush through me that no drug-induced high could touch. It was heady and addicting and pure Hunter.
“How—” he began as he pulled back, clearing his throat. His eyes glassy as they danced over my face. “How the fuck am I supposed to walk away from you when this might be the last time I see you?”
My head shook, slow and uncertain at first before moving more resolutely as I hastily reached for my phone and opened up my recent calls.
“Mads . . .” Hunter said softly when I tapped on Rafael’s name.
I met his curious and hopeful stare as I lifted my phone to my ear, holding my breath as it rang.
“What?” Raf answered on the second ring.
“We are coming back—I am bringing Avalee back,” I said shakily, my throat going dry as my gaze fell to my lap. “But we are not coming back tomorrow. I need—”
“Madison,” Raf snapped, voice all steely rage.
“No, I’m talking,” I cried out. “I know you miss your daughter, Raf. I know. But you can’t just demand what you did, the way you did. You can’t threaten me to scare me into giving in.” I licked at my lips and sucked in a fortifying breath. “I need more time here, so cancel the reservation, and I will get us to Seattle in a couple nights.”
“Madi—”
“Don’t ever threaten to take my daughter from me again.”
I ended the call and dropped my phone to the bed. My body trembling and trembling as Hunter crushed his mouth to mine. Stealing my breath and soothing the fear creeping through my veins. Igniting the need that always simmered just beneath the surface for him.
“Take me home with you,” I whispered against his lips.
Hunter leaned back enough to look into my eyes, longing swirling deep within them. “You sure?”
“I need this time with you.”
Before it’s gone.
The unspoken words hung between us, screaming their reality and urgency.
“We’re gonna figure this out,” he assured me. Dipping down to place a slow, open-mouthed kiss at the base of my neck—the spot that had always been my undoing. Making my eyes roll back and heat unfurl through my body. “Never losing you again, Mads.”
He pulled me from the bed and had my legs wrapped around his waist in one fluid motion. Lips coaxing mine open and making me ache with playful nips and teasing strokes of his tongue. Making me forget about Raf and Seattle and everything other than my endless need for Hunter Dixon before we’d ever managed to leave the room.
The drive to my house was silent. Filled with an exhilarating tension that only continued to grow until I nearly gave in and pulled off onto the side of the road. My hand on her leg, and her breaths hitching the higher up I went. Her body shifting with need as I cursed that center console.
It felt like high school all over again.