9. Hunter
CHAPTER NINE
hunter
Knowing Emma was upstairs, naked and wet, was a special kind of torture. The last twenty-four hours had been a shit show and our fake engagement was proving to be a bigger problem than anticipated.
Not only was my cock unreasonably hard, but I was losing my fucking mind. The questions I’d answered without batting an eyelash gave Emma a glimpse into my little obsession with her, which was dangerously close to pulling back the curtains on a bigger lie.
The one I’d let Emma believe from the start.
I reached into my truck to dig out my tool bag and the cameras. I was taking my sweet time despite my rule to stay far away from her. Knowing that her ex was hanging around made me anxious.
I hadn’t run him out of town.
Yet.
If he stepped a toe out of line tomorrow night, then my fist would be going straight down his throat.
My brows drew together as another wave of worry for Emma swept over me. Any time I asked her how she was, she avoided the question like the plague. But maybe it was stupid to be asking that, anyway. I knew she wasn’t okay, and she wasn’t supposed to know I cared.
I was also concerned about her plants and would absolutely be stealing them. With some TLC, I’d have them thriving, and then I’d bring them back with a care guide.
I slammed the door and returned to the porch, setting everything down on the wood. I heard a whine and sighed, cracking the front door to take a peek at Donnie.
The little rat was my buddy, even if Emma disapproved.
“Can I let Donnie out on the porch with me?” I called.
“Sure!”
Her voice rang from the bathroom. I inhaled the scent of black violets and saffron that filled the entire house, and shook my head to clear it. Donnie trotted out and found a patch of sunshine to curl up in, and watched as I started unpacking my tools.
“What do you think?” I asked him as I opened a box. “Am I being too much?”
Donnie let out a soft, contented sigh.
“Maybe I am,” I said. “I don’t know.”
The good news was I’d never uninstalled all the wires that were in there from Sarah’s security system. Really, it would only take me an hour but I planned to draw it out as long as I could in case that jackass showed up again. I was curious about what papers Josh wanted to go over with Emma. Flying all the way from California for something that could have been an email seemed unlikely.
The research I’d done hadn’t given me much insight. The only thing I knew was that when Emma was married to him, there were complaints filed by neighbors about overhearing their fights. I didn’t want to make assumptions, but given how Emma kept dodging questions about him, I was assuming the worst.
Which gave me all the more reason to send his ass packing.
Already, this was turning into one of the wildest things I'd ever done. And I’d done plenty of wild things in my life. But lying to my family about who I loved was way harder than I'd expected.
The way Haley and Sarah looked at me was a knife to the heart. Mostly because after some talking, they believed it.
And because I wanted to believe it, too.
There was a very real part of me that wished all of this was real—that I had an amazing ring for Emma, that she didn't hate me as much as she claimed she did.
Regardless, if Josh didn't leave after this weekend, I would definitely need to pony up for a ring to keep this up. Or alternatively, I’d commit a crime and he’d end up six feet under an apple tree at the farm. The good news (for him) was I already had a ring picked out, even though it would take a pretty chunk out of my savings.
My mind continued to wander as I focused the cameras around the outside of the house. Once finished, I gave Donnie a low whistle, opened the door, and we both headed inside.
Emma stood at the top of the steps wearing nothing but a towel.
“Fuck!” she yelped, scampering to her bedroom.
I caught a glimpse of her ass, and nearly fell to my knees.
“What the fuck, Hunter?” she yelled from her bedroom.
“You knew I was here!” I adjusted my poor, touch-starved, desperate-for-her cock.
I heaved a breath and leaned against the wall. I could hear her grumbling over my blood pressure, but couldn’t tell you a single word she said.
Damn this woman.
She was gonna be the end of me.
Emma came back out wearing leggings and a shirt that I could see straight through. Her dark brown hair was piled into a bun, her lashes still wet from the shower. She planted her hands on her hips.
“Are you finished?”
Not even close, nor in the way I wanted to be.
One breath. Two. “I still have the inside cameras to put up. What’s our plan for tomorrow?”
“We’ll see what he wants, I guess.”
“What did he say?” I asked, trying to force small talk. Because if we didn’t keep talking, then my eyes would stray from her face to her tits.
“He said the lawyers are pressuring him. That’s all I know.”
“Is there anyone you could call for more info?” I asked.
She sighed, her shoulders deflating. She made her way down the stairs and collapsed onto the couch, throwing herself at the cushions with a dramatic flare only she could pull off. “Technically, I could call my stepmom. We aren’t close.”
“I’m sorry. It seems like they all missed out on knowing you, and that’s their loss.” I was thinking clearer now. I shifted from the wall to the couch and plopped down on the opposite side.
She gave a slow nod, staring off into space. “You know what? Yeah. They did miss out. I am pretty cool.”
“You’re more than cool,” I said.
It was a rare instance where I’d complimented her and she hadn’t immediately told me to fuck off.
“Thank you.” She sank into the cushion, studying me. “My family isn’t like yours. There’s been a lot of times I’ve felt jealous.”
“But you’re part of the family,” I said. “You should have seen Cam at the store, Emma. He was about to throw my ass to the wolves for you.”
She smiled. “I know I’m part of it. I know people care for me. But it’s still… I just feel like an outsider sometimes. Because I am one.”
And my attitude towards her over the years probably hadn’t helped.
“When I moved to Baltimore, I was cut out of my dad’s life. Monetarily, too. He eventually let me work for a marketing agency he owns… owned… but that’s about it. All of my credit cards were cut off. And any money I made from the company stocks was put into an account I don’t have access to. Everything I have now is what I built up for myself. Which is saying something, considering I didn’t know how to do a damn thing when I left.”
“You were so young,” I said, frowning. “What were you? Twenty?”
“Twenty-one,” she said. “I used my degree and my last name to gain access to some circles, got a good job, and that eventually led me to work for the agency I’m with now. At first, I thought it would be a bad idea, but my father never interfered with anything. His name was just attached to the agency on paper. Then, I met Haley. She stepped into the role of sister for me, and I did the same for her. And I’m proud of who I’ve become, even without those people in my life.”
I smiled. “They don’t deserve you, Emma.”
Her eyes softened. “Yeah. They don’t. And I really don’t want to call my stepmom. The very idea of it makes me want to throw up. So I’d rather deal with Josh’s bullshit and see what papers he has for me to sign, then put this all behind me.”
“It’s strange,” I said. “I can’t imagine opting to fly across the country rather than send an email.”
“A flight to Texas is nothing for Josh,” she said with a shrug. “I’m sure sitting in first class to deliver bad news to me got him off. That bastard is loaded. After we divorced, he became even closer to my dad. I’m certain he married me just for the proximity to him.”
She was probably right, unfortunately.
“Tell me something about you,” she said. “In exchange for this very secret and private information I’ve shared so freely.”
I chuckled. “Our rivalry isn’t transactional.”
She nudged me with her foot. “Come on. Tell me something no one else knows.”
“Hmm.” I thought about it for a moment. There were countless things, really. But I wasn’t used to anyone asking about them. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, don’t do that. I know there’s something.”
“Okay. Well. I don’t want the Harlow farm some days, but because I’m the oldest, everyone thinks I do. And they expect me to just take over. Not a single soul has ever asked me if I want it. But if I don’t take it, no one else will.”
Oof. I’d never vocalized that before.
“Why don’t you talk to your brothers?” she asked.
“I don’t want them to feel like it’s their problem.”
“Like you do?”
Double oof. I didn’t like this game. “Cam is happy with the winery. Sammy has his own thing going between having a family now, his online stuff, and helping Sarah get her business off the ground. Neither of them have time to run a farm. They also don’t have the same amount of knowledge. Cam can keep things floating for a bit, but he can’t really run it like I can.”
“Then you can’t blame them,” Emma said.
“I never said I did.”
“No, but you resent them for doing something else, without the pressure you feel. But you’ve never said anything to them about it. I would be mad if I were you, because you didn’t ask for those responsibilities. But you also haven’t told anyone that you didn’t want them.”
I wrinkled my nose. “What are you, a therapist?”
“No,” she snorted. “Far from it. I just know how it feels. When my sister died, the expectation was that I’d be the one to rise through the company. That I’d go to school, get all the degrees I needed, shadow him. If I didn’t, then I was supposed to get married and have children so they could follow in his footsteps. But I didn’t want any of it. I’ve never been interested in running the company. He was never home, always working. Like a corporate ghost. He missed my graduation, my birthdays, everything. And he didn’t like to hear me gripe about it, because that made me ungrateful.”
“My dad is like that sometimes,” I mumbled. “Not nearly as bad, of course. He was there for all the milestones. But he doesn’t take feedback well.”
“It sucks,” she said.
It did.
“I don’t mean to complain,” I said. “I’m lucky. I love my family. They’re everything to me.”
“You can love someone and still be mad at them,” Emma said. “God knows, they’ll be furious when we tell them the truth.”
I gave a dry smile. “Yeah.”
“Then we can put this whole thing behind us and go back to hating each other.”
“Right,” I said.
Like I wasn’t sitting on the couch with her.
Like I hadn’t just told her something I’d never told anyone before.
Like I didn’t want to worship every part of her body and make her scream my fucking name.
“Well, on that note, I’m going to finish installing the interior cameras and then head home,” I said, standing up. “The cameras outside are up and working. I’ll text you about how to set up the app on your phone. If that bastard shows up?—”
“I’ll call you,” she said. “I doubt he will, though. Plus, I can always take him down. I’ve got skills. Are you sure you don’t want to go home and enjoy your afternoon?”
“It won’t take long,” I said. “I’m putting one in here and one faced on the backdoor.”
“Great, now you can watch me all the time,” she snorted.
“Oh, so you like being watched?” I teased.
“Yes, I do.”
What the fuck did she mean by that? Was she trying to chase me away? I shook my head, grabbed my bag, and headed to the other room, releasing a breath once I was out of earshot.
Nothing was going to be the same after this weekend. I couldn’t go back to pretending.
But I had to. Everyone would expect me to.