Chapter 7 Angel
Chapter Seven
ANGEL
To my shock, my husband fell to his knees on the ground and began clutching at the hem of Hunter’s pants.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-sorry,” he began babbling and hiccuping with anxiety. “She c-can’t go. It’ll bring the whole company down.”
“Get the fuck away from me,” Hunter snarled, raising his knee so it slammed into Henry’s chin.
Blood sprung to Henry’s lips, dripping down his face as he stumbled over his words.
“Please. . .please.”
I didn’t know if he was talking to Hunter or me, but I couldn’t understand why he was acting like this. The weak, craven look on his face made my skin crawl. His hands were raised in supplication as my stomach roiled with nausea.
What was wrong with him?
Hunter’s skin felt hot to the touch beneath my fingers, and my pajama top had ridden up so high my naked belly pressed against the exposed skin at Hunter’s throat.
“Call the cops!” I shrieked, yanking at Hunter’s shirt and beating on his warm, tanned back with my fists.
But he only hoisted me higher on his shoulder, like all the extra pounds I’d gained since getting married were absolutely nothing to him.
“He can’t call the cops." Hunter snorted, then he jerked his head at the man he’d killed in front of me.
“Better clean that body up or it’ll start to stink.”
As Henry raised his hands higher, babbling apologies and promises of eternal love, Hunter extended a massive, boot-clad foot, and kicked his twin aside.
“Angelise—my darling—my sweetest,” Henry gasped, reeling from Hunter’s blow. “I never—m-meant to hurt—”
But the door slammed back into his face as I was hoisted down the stairs, and the last thing I saw was Henry hanging onto the screen with a hangdog expression on his slack face.
Then my captor bent to grab a pair of my boots that were on the porch, and proceeded to haul me down the darkened street.
Well, Henry might be a fucking weenie, but I wasn’t going to give up this easily. I pounded on Hunter’s back with my fists and started to kick him as hard as I could in the gut.
“Let me go!”
Then I started to scream.
But his strides were so long we were already at his motorcycle and my screams were abruptly cut off as Hunter lowered me to the ground and popped a big motorcycle helmet over my head. Then he flipped the lid down on my shrieks of rage.
“I demand you take me back!”
“Your husband just tried to murder you,” he snapped. “Are you really so in love with him that you can’t see that?”
“In love with him?” I yowled angrily.
I absolutely was not. Seeing Henry like that had been absolutely nauseating. That weeping, wild-eyed man was not who I married. But it wasn’t like I got a chance to explain. Apparently Hunter was intent on kidnapping me.
Hopefully he would put me behind him on the motorcycle so I could roll off before he got going, and then run away.
But instead, he set me right in front of him and got on behind, surrounding me with his powerful thighs and massive arms. The hands that gripped the bars in front of us looked like freaking bear paws.
When I tried to wriggle back and forth to loosen his grip, he only clamped his thighs down on mine and revved the engine.
“Stay still,” he growled, and then we were off into the darkness.
I was forced to hold onto the handlebars, because even I wasn’t such a fool as to try to throw myself off at 70 mph.
Not like I could have anyway, with how tightly Hunter held onto me.
His big biceps and muscular thighs kept me totally encircled and protected from even getting jostled on the bumpy roads.
I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing I could feel the way his cock dug into my ass, so I sat poker-stiff, my cheeks flushed and heated.
It was fucking freezing going at these speeds, and my pajamas were far too thin for proper protection.
Hunter took a sharp turn, grabbing me around the waist to keep me steady, his arm right under my heavy breasts. My face flamed with embarrassment as my nipples tightened like diamond points against the silky fabric, and I hoped my brother-in-law hadn’t noticed.
We pulled into some 24-hour diner out in the middle of fucking nowhere, dark woods crowded up against the fluorescent lights of the squat brown building.
“Stop carrying me around!” I shrieked as he took off my helmet and pulled me into his arms again.
“You’ve got no shoes on, brat,” Hunter said briefly, and I crossed my arms angrily as he carried me inside and put me down in a booth.
The table looked dense with a few inches of sticky residue, but I could smell the mouth-watering scent of 1 am waffles.
Hunter bent down in front of me, taking my leg in one hand and pushing my feet into one of the boots.
“Get away from me,” I said, but the sight of him between my thighs made me flush.
I couldn’t help remembering how he looked when he had eaten my pussy, and if the twisted smile on his face was any indication, he was remembering it, too.
Aggravating, infuriating man.
“I don’t want your toes to be cold,” he said, putting my other boot on, then sliding into the seat across from me, jostling my knees with his long legs.
“Can I get you some food? You must be hungry.”
I glared at him.
“No, thank you. I wouldn’t like whatever greasy, disgusting food they have at this diner.”
“Liar,” he said, his slash of a mouth turning up in some perverse amusement.
“You lie to me,” I retorted. “Now I want answers. Why were you outside my house?”
His lips twisted.
“Next question.”
“Seriously, Hunter. Tell me. I mean it.”
“Why do you think?” he asked, looking steadily at me.
And then I couldn’t breathe, my throat closing up, and I didn’t want to think about the answer, about the way he was looking at me with that steady dark gaze, or the way I felt my traitorous pussy twitching.
There was nothing to twitch about. After all, Hunter looked exactly like my disgusting cowardly cheating husband Henry.
Although. . .being this close to him with his mask off, I didn’t think I could mistake them again.
There was something in Hunter’s eyes that was just different.
The one dark eye, the other golden one, were both blazing at me, and although there was a harsh frown on his face, there was a raw heat emanating from him, so different than Henry’s cold reptilian looks.
“Where did you get that cut on your cheek?” I asked. “Was that from the fight?”
“No,” he said, as I tried not to look at his strong jaw, the way his hair was a bit long and messy in the back, the way it curled over his ears.
“I got sick of looking like my brother.”
My heart almost stopped at his words. Oh, Hunter was dangerous to me.
“I demand you tell me what is going on,” I cried, my pulse racing. “Why were you doing Henry’s dirty work and trying to get us back together?”
He ignored me, looking down at the menu.
“I’m thinking eggs and bacon. And waffles, of course,” he said.
“God, what a massive asshole you are,” I cried pettishly.
There was a little bruise on his strong jawline where the intruder had hit him.
Would Henry have ever defended me like that? His remark about the company made me bitter. Was the only reason Henry had married me the inheritance he expected me to get when my grandfather died?
It was looking more and more likely that was the case. But, although my parents were both gone, my grandfather was still strong as a horse and was currently doing a hiking tour of Switzerland.
How could I ever have confused Hunter with Henry? But god, he was stubborn as a mule, so big he was literally filling the whole opposite side of the table, one of his massive legs on either side of mine.
I tightened my thighs and tucked my toes primly up on the seat. If Hunter wasn’t going to answer me, I was going to ignore him. But it was hard not to remember what those hands and lips had done to me, and impossible to forget what he was packing in those tight jeans.
The chipped plate of waffles, eggs, and bacon placed in front of me made my mouth water. And damn if he wasn’t right. They did taste delicious, and suddenly I was ravenous.
What was my plan? How was I supposed to get away?
What did Hunter want with me?
My stomach did a little uncomfortable flip-flop.
“There’s no point in kidnapping me,” I said as I popped the last piece of bacon in my mouth. “I’m divorcing Henry, no matter how much you beg me to get back with your brother.”
He cut a piece of waffle, then drenched it in syrup.
“But I’m enjoying kidnapping you,” he said mockingly. “And I have no intention of begging you to stay with my brother. I never wanted you to be with my brother.”
Wait, what was that supposed to mean?
Did I even want to know the answer? I had to get out of here.
I had a sliver of a plan to escape. Wasn’t a very good plan. But I couldn’t think of anything else. Still. It rested on a few guesses about Henry.
Guesses I wanted to be wrong about. Guesses I was afraid of. But I had to try something.
“You’re a natural on the bike,” Hunter said as he filled up my cup with coffee.
“Yeah, takes real talent to sit on my ass,” I retorted.
But still I felt that weird, squirmy sensation again as he chuckled. It sounded like gravel breaking but Henry never thought anything I said was funny. I had stopped even trying to joke together less than a year into our marriage.
No. I couldn’t let my mind go down that path.
Now this plan assumed that Hunter had. . .certain depraved desires. That he would do something when Henry wasn’t even here to tell him to.
If I was wrong, it was going to be embarrassing. But at least I’d be able to escape.
Before I could think too long and scare myself, I suddenly bolted for the door.
Now, there was no reason for him to chase me. No reason at all to exert himself. No one was here threatening him.
No reason at all for him to care.
But as my feet pattered hastily to the door, I heard movement behind me.
“Angel.”