Mom looked at me with wide eyes, a wounded look suggesting that I had said I was not at the stage where we were discussing not murdering puppies. “But whyever aren’t you discussing it? Don’t you want to make it work? Aren’t you thinking about your future?”
I opened my mouth to reply—
And realized I didn’t know what to say.
Hunter was hot. There was no denying it. Just thinking about him could make my breaths come shorter, my pus**sy grow wet. Being in the same room with him—I couldn’t keep away. Being without him—I missed him like I would miss one of my own limbs.
And more than that—he was a sweet, considerate, mind-blowingly skilled lover, and an ambitious, driven, decent man. He saw my talent and gave it its due. He had introduced me to new places, new experiences. He supported me.
But could I ever make it—could I ever make us—work, long-term?
Could I even make it work short-term, with so much at stake in my career?
We were both such busy people, working on things that we cared so much about, that we weren’t going to want to stop devoting so much time to. He would never ask me to give up my career in advertising, and likewise, I could never ask him to give up Knox Liquors.
And besides, I knew so little about him, only the tidbits he had seen fit to share with me. There were still huge gaps in my knowledge of his life. Did I even really know if he was a person I wanted to share my life with?
Mom was still waiting expectantly for an answer to her question. So was Paige.
I did the best I could.
“Yes….?”
ELEVEN
The moment I arrived at the estate for the anniversary party, I saw that Paige had outdone herself. She’d gone for a cool vintage bootlegging theme, and the grounds were twenties-style tails and flapper dresses as far as the eye could see. A jug band played over by the manor house, a hot jazz quartet further down by the stables. There was an open bar, and waiters darted and dived between the crowds of chattering guests, offering deep fried apple-pie-on-a-stick and vintage co**cktails.
I had ducked into my cabin as quickly as I could before anyone saw me in my distinctly un-period blue jeans and Rave Boys T-shirt, and after a quick shower, was now changing into a flapper dress of my own. I didn’t really have the slim, near-boyish figure for it, but I loved the way the grey silk slid along my skin, and the hand-beading and embroidery on the hem were to die for.
Also, any outfit with which you get to wear a hat with an ostrich feather in it is a win.
Arms encircled me from behind. “Well, don’t you look scrumptious.”
I jumped before the fact that it was Hunter’s voice penetrated my brain. “You as**shole! You scared me half to death!” Despite my harsh words, I relaxed back into his arms, savored the feel of him. God, I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed him until this very moment. “What are you doing here? I thought you needed to get ready—”
“I couldn’t stay away,” he murmured.
And then he kissed me.
It was everything I’d frantically imagined every night of his absence; his lips hot and demanding, his hands fisting in the back of my dress, starting to pull it higher—
I twisted out of his grip, panting, trying desperately to keep a lid on both my emotions and my hormones. “Oh no you don’t. You are not wrinkling this dress five minutes before I have to go out there.”
Hunter raised his hands like a suspect surrendering to the police, then leaned in, his tongue tracing a lazy figure eight on my neck, the sensitive skin there tingling under his touch.
“What if I say ‘please?’” he whispered against my hammering pulse.
It just might be worth it…no!
I pulled away again, shaking my finger at him. “You, Hunter Knox, are the devil himself.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets with a satisfied smile. Then his face went serious. “I would never ruin your big day for you.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, and I meant it.
We grinned at each other like fools for a few seconds. Damn, but that man looked good in a tux, even an old-school one.
“You nervous?”
“And excited,” I said. “But yeah, nervous too, for the big unveiling of the new branding and film. My boss is in from D.C., his boss is in from New York; everything’s riding on this.”
Hunter took my hand and squeezed it. “It’s going to be great.”
And looking into his eyes, seeing his belief in me, I believed that too.
#
We joined the party with a discreet distance between us, trying to make it less obvious that we were…whatever we were. But how could it not be obvious? Couldn’t everyone see the electricity crackling between us? I felt like a little girl trying to hide a broken cookie jar behind her back.
? Also By Lila Monroe
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