11. Hunter
CHAPTER ELEVEN
hunter
My home was a small, well-kept cabin on the other side of the farm with a perfect view of the rolling Hill Country. Bluebonnets were starting to pop up, and soon there would be blue skies and blue fields as far as the eye could see.
After I’d left Emma’s house, I’d stopped by the store to grab some food, sunscreen, snacks, and Gatorade for work before driving home. I pulled my truck to a stop and got out, walking my groceries up to my front porch.
I unlocked the door and stepped inside. The silence was heavy. I’d become so used to being alone, but Emma was starting to ruin that.
Suddenly, I wanted to actually have a smart, sassy fiancé. One who painted everything pink and had a rat for a dog.
There’d been so many times over the last day where I’d thought about telling the truth. Lying didn’t come naturally to me. I could bend the truth, sure, but telling everyone I loved that Emma and I had been dating behind their backs? It made me feel awful.
Then again, selfishly, I was enjoying certain parts of this. Mostly the way Emma’s eyes widened when I surprised her. Or the way she bit her bottom lip when the tension between us became unbearable.
Unless I was just imagining the tension.
I set everything down on the counter and looked around. Everything was clean, lived in, and cozy. But it was lacking something. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what.
My living room had a nice leather couch and a couple of plush chairs, a big TV for watching games, and a coffee table with a stack of books about farming. I kept countless plants in the house, each one feeling like part of my bloodline at this point. Some of the plants hung from the ceiling, cradled by rope I’d used to create macrame holders. Plus, it kept my rope tying skills from becoming too rusty.
My gaze lingered on the knots and patterns for a moment. Emma would look really fucking good in a chest harness. Maybe in a rope tie that would cradle her entire body, with a knot resting over her clit. If I tugged the rope at the back, it would tug down there too—the idea of her squealing, of her being at my mercy…
Stop. Don’t even go there.
My thoughts were already there, and this time they lingered longer than they should have.
Most of the time, I was dominant. I especially liked rope and breath play. The idea of tying her down to my bed, my hand around her throat as her lips formed my name, her rich brown eyes full of lust and need…
She’d be a brat in the bedroom.
Or maybe she’d be completely submissive.
Hell, if she were dominant, I’d even be willing to submit to her. That’s how far gone I was.
I shook my head. I was desperate to know what she would be like, but she was off-limits. This entire fake fiancé situation was making me too comfortable.
Once we got through the dinner with Mr. Jackass, I’d be able to put this all behind me. I could go back to pretending to hate Emma, and my life would feel less empty again.
I drew in a deep breath, trying to steady myself. The scent of grapefruit wafted through the air. Grapefruit?
I didn’t like that scent. At all. I turned my head, scowling. I didn’t wear cologne, nor did I keep candles that smelled like fruit—so where the fuck was it coming from?
“Hello?” I called.
Surely, someone hadn’t broken in. That would be absurdthis far out of town. Citrus Cove was barely a dot on the map, and my cabin wasn’t exactly the most luxurious looking place out here.
Nothing seemed to have been touched. My front door had been locked. What about the back door?
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I opened up a kitchen drawer, pulling out a knife. Call me crazy, but after all the shit I’d seen happen to the rest of my family, I didn’t think it was paranoid to grab some sort of weapon, especially since my gun was in the side table in my bedroom.
“Hello?” I called again, listening for any sort of rustle. I didn’t hear anything.
I crept down the hallway and paused in the doorway of my office, kicking the door wide open. I stepped inside, but there was no one in here either. My heart pounded as I yanked open the closet door.
My shoulders deflated. Nothing.
Was smelling grapefruit cologne a sign that I was losing my mind?
I sighed and scanned my bedroom next. Again, nothing appeared to have been touched. I lowered my knife and shook my head, quickly checking the bathroom before moving on to the final bedroom with a door that opened to the outside. I usually kept it blocked and locked, but the boxes looked like they’d been shifted out of the way.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered.
I turned the knob and pushed the door open with ease. Who the fuck would have come into my house? And why? I kicked the boxes aside and stepped out the back door, looking at the field that stretched toward the hills. There was no important shit back here. I didn’t have anything valuable in the house, aside from my laptop and TV. All of my expensive things were in the barn.
I planted my hands on my hips, my stomach twisting.
It looked like I’d be taking my own advice and installing cameras around my house, too. I did a quick walk around the yard before going inside through the back door. I slammed it shut, locked it, and piled the boxes again.
I ran through a mental list of who could have done this, and the only person who could be stupid enough was Josh. If it was him, I was now even more concerned for Emma’s safety.
My nerves were rattled.
I searched through the house once more, scrutinizing the bare walls and plants I had in each room. Satisfied that nothing else was touched, I made my way back to the kitchen. There were countless photos on the fridge of Cam, Sammy, Colt, and me. Pictures from holidays we spent together, and of me officiating Haley and Cam’s wedding.
My gaze swept over them. All I wanted for our family was for everyone to be safe and happy. I reluctantly included Emma in that, too. If Josh had really broken into my house, I couldn’t trust that he was going to leave Citrus Cove without a fight.
I unloaded my groceries, grabbed my laptop, and settled down on the couch with a beer. I turned on the TV for some noise as I opened a browser.
I’d done some basic research on Josh, but now it was time for a deeper dive. If Alexa were still alive, I would have called her to see if she could find anything on him using police resources. I rubbed the ache in my chest, trying not to think too much about her.
The events that surrounded Haley and Cam had been horrific. We’d been lucky to get to Haley in time before Thomas Connor could kill her, but he’d still taken out Alexa. She’d been the only cop worth her salt in Citrus Cove, and it hadn’t been the same since she’d been gone. They hadn’t done shit when David Connor came to town, and while I was happy he was dead, I felt like they could be blamed for his death.
What if Josh had waited for me to leave Emma?
I felt a flicker of guilt for what I was about to do, but it was just to check in on her safety. I pulled up the security camera app, logged in with the info I was supposed to send to her, and pulled up the feeds.
The front porch was clear, so was the back of the house and the back door, but I didn’t spend more than a second analyzing those feeds. My eyes were immediately glued to the living room camera.
Fuck.
I immediately looked away, every thought evaporating as my cock hardened.
Fuck. Don’t look, don’t look. Shut your laptop like a gentleman. You’re a good man, you’re a good man, you’re a ? —
My eyes widened as I stared at the camera feed. Emma was sprawled out on her couch, her legs spread and pussy facing the camera. Her fingers circled her clit, her other hand cupping her breast as she arched, her lips parting for an inaudible moan.
There wasn’t a single good thing I could do after this moment to save my soul. I was going to hell, and I knew that, accepted it—and then unbuckled my jeans and pulled my cock free.
This was so wrong. It was so fucking wrong. She didn’t know I was watching her, didn’t know I could see her pussy glistening in the afternoon light, or that I was so fucking hard for her I could barely breathe.
Her words came back to me. I’d teased her about being watched, and she’d said yes, she liked it . Was she doing this on purpose? Had she thought I would look at the cameras like some horny freak?
I was better than this. I had to be better than this. Everyone in my life knew me as someone with good morals, always willing to lend a hand—safe and kind and good.
But I wasn’t good enough to look away from her.
Fuck, she made me crazy.
I gripped my cock and groaned as I stroked myself. I watched her every movement, the way her fingers worked her pussy, imagining that I was there with her. This was a perfect lesson on how to make her come, and I had always been a good student.
Fuck, was that a tentacle dildo? Jesus. That only turned me on more.
One day, I owed her a fucking apology on my knees for how insane I was around her. But today was not the fucking day.
I grunted, thrusting my cock into my grip, imagining her cunt wrapping around me, milking me.
Emma’s perfect ass jiggled as she adjusted her position, putting her leg over the couch. I wished I was sitting there with her.
“Fuck,” I whispered as her fingers moved faster.
She was a dream I couldn’t wake up from. Or a nightmare, depending on how I looked at it. Regardless, every thought was about Emma.
We’d talked more in the past couple of days than ever before, kindling a desire for more.
A few minutes with her wasn’t enough. I wanted hours, days, forever .
My palm was rough as I stroked myself, her name chanting in my mind as pleasure branded me. Emma, Emma, Emma. Fuck. What the fuck was I going to do? Nothing could pry her out of my mind or heart, no matter what I did. I didn’t want to touch another, kiss another, fuck another, breathe around another. I just wanted her.
But I couldn’t have her. Right? I was too obsessed with her. I probably needed to go to therapy and figure out why the hell she’d become all I wanted.
Denying myself felt so wrong. So what if I wanted to get on my knees and eat her pussy until she came on my tongue?
I grunted, stroking myself faster and harder. I imagined her riding me, my fingers digging into her ass as her head tipped back, her perfect lips parting with a scream?—
“Fuck!”
Emma arched the same moment I came. I couldn’t hear her, but I could see her pleasure in her movements, the way her face twisted. My release shook me to my core, my muscles trembling. I panted as I melted, sinking into my sofa. My thoughts cleared as I blinked.
Damn, I’d made a mess. Cum streaked my jeans, dripping down my cock and over my hand. I panted as I stared at my laptop, watching as she came down from the high of her orgasm too.
Fuck. What the hell was I doing? I leaned forward and quickly logged out of the app, closing the page down, and wiping my laptop’s search history.
I threw my head back against the couch and stared at the ceiling. At this point, I needed to call up a pastor to exorcise her from me.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I winced and got up, pulling off my clothes and heading for the bathroom. I washed my hands before pulling it out of my pocket.
Sammy : Dinner tonight?
I sighed. I wasn’t really sure I could handle being grilled again. I leaned over the sink, staring at myself in the mirror. I felt the urge to jump in the shower and scrub myself raw, as if that could wash away this feeling from the voyeuristic masturbation session.
Sammy : I’ll bring food over to your place?
I grit my teeth. Fuck it. I couldn’t avoid my family. I sent him a text back.
Me : Sure
I wondered if it would just be Sammy or if he’d bring Colt, too. Or maybe he’d bring my nephews.
Me : Just you or..?
Sammy : Me, Colt, and the boys if that’s okay?
Maybe getting some uncle time in would be good for me. And whatever Sammy made would be way better than anything I would have come up with for dinner.
I was sure everyone thought Emma and I had lost our minds. They’d be right on my part.
I sent Sammy a thumbs-up and flipped on the hot water Steam swirled through the air as I stepped under it, the heat permeating my muscles.
If Josh had broken into my house, I should be able to tell during dinner tomorrow. We’d see what he needed to show Emma, then he’d be out of our lives. Everything would go back to normal. We’d be safe and sound, and I’d try to start dating again like a normal man in his thirties…
There wasn’t a chance in hell for me and Emma to make anything work between us. She was too much of a damn princess, and I was the furthest thing from a knight in shining armor.
She deserved the best.
Better than I could ever give.