So, I asked, “What now?” At his questioning look, I clarified, “What does this mean for us?”
He seemed to think for a while as he released my hand to make soothing trails along my spine.
For some idiotic reason, it made me want to cry. The shift in just half an hour was incredible.
I’d been in love with this man for years and had been sure I would have to keep it buried deep. I’d been sure, as he’d just said, that I was going to lose a part of him. And I’d ended up with more.
“Let’s just figure it out as we go,” he finally said. “Do what we’ve always done—let the changes come naturally. Don’t force anything. If you wanna sleep at your apartment, then you should.”
“Are you telling me to leave?”
His clutching, possessive hand on my back was his only response.
A small grin touched my lips. “Don’t force anything,” I agreed.
“But, I should probably stop calling you my employee.”
“I am your employee,” I said dryly. “I have been this entire time.”
“It sounds wrong now.”
I stared at him for a moment before an incredulous laugh left me at how backward he had it. “Call me what you want, but I do work for you.”
“Izzy,” he said decisively.
“Who works for you,” I added sarcastically.
His stare suddenly took on a faraway look, and he breathed a curse. “Your dad isn’t gonna go for the whole figuring-it-out-as-we-go thing.”
I stopped tracing patterns on his chest and looked at him dully. “You don’t want to force anything, but you’re gonna tell my dad?”
“When he asks.” Hunter stared at me with a look of surprise and integrity. “Yeah.”
“I don’t think my dad pays close enough attention to me to . . .” The words trailed off at Hunter’s raised brows.
“Izzy, your dad’s been talking to me about you since about a year after y’all started working here.”
I moved away from him and propped up on my elbow, pushing at his shoulder when I did. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“You were still living with them at the time, I thought you knew.”
I made a face saying I clearly hadn’t. “Talking about what?”
He rolled to his back with a sigh as if trying to remember it all. “I think the first time he just kinda put it out there that he knew what we were doing. He said he respected me, but he didn’t wanna see you get hurt because you’d been through something terrible.” Hunter gave a little shrug and then put a hand behind his head to prop it up more. “I let him know that you and I were open with each other. That I was very much aware of the things you never should’ve had to go through, and that I was being gentle with you.”
I snorted, and he sent me a wicked grin.
“Emotionally. Mentally.”
“And?” I asked when he didn’t go on.
“Every six months to a year, he pulls me aside and reminds me that he knows what we’re doing. That he isn’t sure if he approves or not. To be careful with you.” Hunter’s stare darted over my face before shifting away. “The last couple years, he’s been saying I’ve led you on long enough. That I either need to do something about it or let you go.”
Mortification slid through my veins like lava. “He didn’t.”
Hunter made a confirming grunt. “I told him what I’ve always told you. Told him what you mean to me. That you’re my best friend.” His eyes sought out mine, and I knew he wanted to say more.
But even with all we’d acknowledged and the lines we’d crossed tonight, he was afraid to.
“Your dad called me on my shit too. Every time.”
A soft laugh escaped me. “Of course he did. You’re not that hard to read, Hunter Dixon.”
His eyes danced in the darkened room, but the amusement slowly faded from his expression.
And then he was rolling to his side and reaching for me, pulling me close again. “What happens when he asks, and I tell him the truth?”
I fell deeper against him and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “I’ll be waiting to hear exactly what you said.”
“And when he realizes you’re better away from me because I can’t give you what you deserve?”
I hated that he genuinely believed that.
I wanted to show him how wrong he was . . . but I knew it was something he would need to figure out on his own, just as I had.
There wasn’t a part of Hunter that was insecure.
Even when trying to save a business his dad had tried to bury, when living off of savings alone for years to do so, there wasn’t a part of him that worried. He’d thrived on determination and a passion for the orchard.
So, seeing him this way hurt. And worst of all was that his fears were truly for me. He was so afraid of hurting me that he’d rather keep us apart. He just couldn’t see that being apart was hurting me.
“Do you want me?” I asked plainly and then hurried to add, “In more than just a using-each-other-to-get-off kind of way.”
“Isabel, you know I do.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
He pulled me in for another slow, heart-stealing kiss, and then settled deeper against the pillows with me wrapped up in his arms.
Just when I felt myself being dragged under, he asked, “Were you gonna throw a pot at me earlier?” Voice all a low, murmured tease.
“It was a very real possibility.”
“So dangerous.” The smile in his voice had one pulling at my own mouth.
“That’s what happens when you let me into the kitchen.”
“Izzy . . .” he began after a moment. “You yell at me when I keep you out of the kitchen.”
“De nada,” I said with the hint of attitude I could muster as I drifted deeper and deeper.
His low, rumbling laugh vibrated against my cheek and followed me into sleep.
When I woke early the next morning, I felt the corners of my mouth curl up as my body went a little crazy.
Heart racing frantically.
Wings taking flight in my stomach.
Mind whirling as I tried to wrap it around all that happened the night before and what was happening then.
Hunter’s fingers were drifting lazily across my stomach as he placed soft, slow kisses across my upper back. Everything so faint, I wasn’t sure he’d meant for me to wake up.
When he began pulling away, I gripped his hand and had my answer.
He stilled and made an apologetic sound before curling his body around mine. “Go back to sleep.”
“Animals?” I asked, voice scratchy from sleep.
At his answering hum, I squeezed his hand tighter and nestled into his body for another few seconds.
“Want breakfast when you’re done?”
“Later.” He brushed his mouth across my shoulder before biting it playfully. “Be here when I get back.”
“Keep being bossy, and I won’t.” I fought a smile as I felt the change in the air. The charge.
His hand moved under my jaw, curling around my chin in a way that would’ve crushed my heart the night before.
But then he shifted my head to the side so I was looking up at him, his eyes equally amused and burning with need as he dipped to press his lips to mine once. Twice. And then he crushed his mouth to mine, stealing my breath and making me ache for him.