Then he was wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close so my back was to his chest and his mouth was teasing my neck. Slowly moving us toward the bedroom and undressing us as if we had all the time in the world.
As if that clock didn’t exist.
He lowered us to the bed and pulled me on top of him, looking at me like I was the answer to every prayer. Moving his hands over my body like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. Lowering me onto him like he needed me to breathe.
A shiver rolled down my spine at the size of him. At the ache from the amount of times we’d come together. Yet I wanted more. More of this connection and nights in his arms and just being near him. More of this love I’d somehow gotten to experience again.
Tears pricked my eyes when my alarm sounded, but neither of us stopped.
Hunter’s gaze held mine as my hips rolled, all love and need and sorrow. His fingers slowly drifted up my thighs to grip my hips. To feel my movements. To guide them. Quicken them until we found our own perfect rhythm. Until I was clenching around him, my mouth parting on a silent moan when my orgasm remained just out of reach before spiraling through me. His grip tightening as he pushed me through until I was a trembling mess before finding his own release inside me.
I shakily lowered myself to his chest, the tears finally spilling over and falling onto his skin as he held me close.
Breaths shallow.
Hearts racing.
Neither of us talking for long moments before he whispered, “Come back.” The ache in his voice echoing the one in my soul.
“As soon as I can,” I promised.
After another minute, he let out a deep sigh. “Let’s get you back to your girl.”
I passed my mouth across his chest before moving away from him and getting off the bed, going around to collect my clothes and dress. And like the morning before, every time I passed Hunter, he grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. Swaying us to a song that wasn’t there.
Keeping me in that moment and with him. Brushing away the wonder of how long we would be apart this time. The longing to go back years and change everything. But there was something infinitely sad about our dance that morning.
There was pain.
“More,” he whispered as he slowly moved us to that phantom song once we were ready.
My head shifted in a subtle nod. “More.”
“Forever.”
Then his mouth was on mine in a kiss that was nothing less than a claim. A vow. A plea.
Making my head spin and my knees weak in the same way he’d always done. In a way I knew he always would.
“Need to get you back before I keep you here,” he said against my lips and then pressed another soft kiss there.
I gave him a look as I moved to his side and under his arm that clearly showed I would’ve taken that forever right then, earning a flash of his dimples.
“Don’t tempt me, Mads,” he said as he led us from his room, sounding as if that’s exactly what he wanted me to do.
“I didn’t say a thing.”
Hunter hissed something that sounded like a curse and abruptly stopped, causing me to stumble and nearly fall out of his hold.
I blinked quickly as I looked up to see him staring straight ahead. Face blank but jaw tense. The muscle there feathering under the pressure he was putting on it.
That curse playing in my head again and again until I realized it hadn’t been a curse at all. But a name.
And as I followed his line of sight, a cold, sinking feeling washed over me. Because on the opposite side of the living room, staring at us and looking like someone had just knocked all the air from her lungs, was a woman.
Beautiful and seductive in every way I wasn’t. And she was in Hunter’s house. At six-thirty in the morning.
In an instant, I was back in that hotel room, watching Raf and Madelyn stumble in. Except this? This was worse because this was Hunter. It was more confusing because I’d just come back into his life. And—oh God.
Oh God, oh God, oh God.
Had I just become Madelyn?
I tried to pull away from Hunter, but my movements seemed to snap him out of his shock, and he hurried to stop me. His expression falling when he looked at me. Deep-rooted fear flashing through his eyes before he could look away again. To her.
“This is Izzy,” he said, voice strained. “Isabel.”
Isabel sucked in a stuttered breath, her head bouncing awkwardly as her lips curled into the briefest smile before falling again. “You’re Madison. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“This is my best friend,” he explained softly.
“And bookkeeper,” she added, gesturing behind her.
“Oh,” I managed to say, forcing a smile that I was sure didn’t convince either of them.
Everything about their movements and tones and the thick, uncomfortable tension in the room screamed that there was something else going on. Something I’d stumbled upon. Something I shouldn’t have.
It made me want to leave when, just a minute before, I’d been wishing I could stay. It had my stomach rolling and my entire body trembling as I fought wave after wave of nausea.
Because I got it. I saw the way her stare kept darting to him before flashing my way and then falling to the floor. I felt the way Hunter was gripping me tightly like he knew I would bolt if he let go. I understood it all.
“Um, I was just gonna let you know I was here,” Isabel said, a tremor weaving through her words. “I, uh . . . I ran out of coffee. So, I figured I’d get started early.”
Coffee.
I was sure I stole all the oxygen from the room when that one, simple word hit like a sledgehammer.
She was the reason behind Hunter’s French press. The one Hunter had gone out to use and had ended up just standing there. Looking like he’d been listening for someone. Gripping the counter and looking so sad that I’d hurt for him.
And I’d foolishly assumed he’d been thinking about me. About us. About the short time we had left.
Oh my God.
My chest constricted so painfully as everything began making sense that I choked on a gasp.
Hunter glanced my way before looking at her again, clearing his throat as he did. “Yeah. Yeah, go for it. I’ll be back in a bit if you need anything.”
Isabel watched him for a few seconds before dragging her stare to me and offering me a smile to hide her pain. “It was good seeing you again.”
“You too,” I mumbled, not realizing until she was moving toward the kitchen, and Hunter was leading me toward the front door again, exactly what she’d said.
And as I stepped onto the porch, I made the mistake of glancing back. Unable to resist that draw when it felt like my life was shifting in this horrible, gut-wrenching way again now that she’d stepped into it.
My heart cried out when I saw Hunter looking back as well. At where Isabel had stopped halfway to the kitchen to watch him. Her expression of anguish and longing and understanding perfectly fitting with Hunter’s sorrow and guilt.
I managed to maneuver out of Hunter’s hold and started for the truck. My steps calm when all I wanted was to run. My throat thick with emotion, but my racing thoughts kept the tears at bay.
“You’re Madison. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“It was good seeing you again.”
It was unsettling knowing we’d been laying claims and making plans for a future not long before. Yet, because of my own mistakes, I felt like I couldn’t bring up what happened. Couldn’t ask about her or what she meant to him. It was confusing to feel like the naïve one when I’d just found him again. But I felt like that and more.