CHAPTER 28
Take It Off
Gabriela
After sharing a kiss, Hunter picked up another dart while I took a sip of the champagne to mask my erratic heartbeat.
He threw the shot expertly and it landed on a triple.
I gave him a stink eye.
Hunter laughed throatily, his eyes crinkling endearingly. Fuck, he was a sight for sore eyes.
“Whatever. I’ll win this round. Just wait and see.” But when I shot my dart, it only struck a single. I resorted to giving Hunter my best puppy-dog expression, sticking out my lower lip to really drive the message home.
He let out a fake-exasperated huff, but the smile playing on his lips betrayed him. “Fine. You can ask me a question. Even though I scored higher this round.”
A little squeal eked out of me, and I turned around in his embrace and squared my arms around his neck. My happiness was contagious; it caused his smile to morph into a wide beam. “Okay, so. I want to hear about your ex, too. Tell me something you disliked about her.”
Seeing her tonight didn’t put a damper on Hunter’s mood and that was a win in my book. He was over her and I had nothing to worry about.
Hunter slid his hands over my waist. “I’m going to need more champagne if I have to talk about Ginette.”
Since my pretty boy’s hands were occupied, I only had one option.
Taking a sip of the champagne, I opened my lips over his and let the liquid pour into his mouth.
He drank it with a crude groan. I loved that sound.
It only served to remind me of our hot shower foreplay, when he drank his cum straight from my mouth like a heathen.
“More,” Hunter pleaded.
“No.” I pecked him. “After you tell me about her, bello.”
“And what does that word mean?”
“Handsome,” I murmured. “A term of endearment in Italian quite fitting for you.”
Blue eyes swirling with a heady concoction of desire and reverence pinned me on the spot. Like he was seconds away from chucking aside our game to give us both what we really wanted. But he was waiting for the right moment.
“Handsome, huh?” He ran his hands over my hips. “I’ll take it.”
“Knew you’d like it.” I tucked aside a lone strand of his hair behind his ear. “Give me my story, bello. I’m waiting.”
He pondered for a few seconds before speaking.
“Ginette was…a piece of work. That’s the nicest way I can put it.
She was in the school band, a trombone player, and I thought she was cute.
I asked her out and we dated for less than two years.
I learned the hard way that she never really liked me—only what I represented.
A popular jock who would be her ticket to high school fame.
In the beginning, she was nice to me, but it was all an act.
Halfway through our relationship, she turned horrible, acting like I was an inconvenience and speaking to me in a condescending manner.
I didn’t see the red flags until much later because I always saw her through rose-tinted glasses.
It took me a long time to understand that someone you love shouldn’t treat you that way.
And despite her shitty treatment of me, I continued doing everything in my power to be a good boyfriend.
I just wanted to please her, make her happy.
However, by the end of it all, it became obvious that Ginette hated everything about me.
During our final fight, she said I was a boring introvert, still too emotional over my dad’s death, and that the only good quality I possessed was my dick.
The worst part? She said I deserved to get cheated on—she boasted about sleeping with my teammate like it was her biggest accomplishment.
I left the room in so much pain and puked my guts out in the nearest trash can.
” It was Hunter’s turn to chuckle without humour and my insides clenched with agony for him.
“I guess Ginette and Franco were similar in that manner, huh? Both of them diminished our worth to something so trivial.”
They really were. Those two idiots would be perfect for each other.
“I hate her,” I seethed. “What a bitch.”
I wanted to go back downstairs and dump an entire bottle of liquor over her. Or kidnap and drag her useless ass to one of the Remington warehouses and do some damage. Like Hunter, I wasn’t violent by nature, but I would do anything for the people I cared for.
“Oh, I think she knows just how much you hate her. That display by the bar was all the evidence she needed.”
“Good,” I said, annoyed by the thought of his rude ex-girlfriend. “I want to hurt anyone who hurts you too, Hunter. How dare she treat you so cruelly? I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that either.”
“It’s okay, baby.” He rubbed his palms up and down my arms soothingly. “I did therapy for a bit and I’m fine now.”
“Can’t believe we both had shitty exes,” I grumbled and sipped the champagne. “Hey—I have an idea! Maybe for our date tomorrow, we should partake in a fun activity. Go to an axe-throwing range and pretend their faces are the targets. Wouldn’t that be so therapeutic?”
Hunter threw his head back in a full-belly laugh. I grinned, proud of myself. His laughter felt like an achievement. I reckon I was the only girl who made him laugh this hard.
Unable to help myself, I smacked noisy kisses all over his lips and cheeks. I was feral for him. I wanted to squeeze Hunter in my embrace and never let go.
“Yes,” he said in the midst of me planting pecks on his modelesque cheekbones. “That would be therapeutic.”
“Thank you for indulging in my crazy.” I hoped he knew that I wasn’t kidding.
“I love your crazy,” he said. “But who cares about Franco and Ginette, right? We have each other now and that’s all that matters.”
He was right. “And as we agreed, we’re basically perfect, so it’s really their loss.”
In the moonlight, his eyes glittered like precious diamonds. “Exactly.”
There was a feeling in my gut telling me this was going to be good. Us. Together.
“Hunter.” I cupped his cheek and he did that thing where he turned his head enough to kiss my palm.
I swooned. “I want you to know that you have more substance than your physical appearance and being a star quarterback. You’re chivalrous, you’re kind, you’re loyal, you’re smart, you’re a good friend, and you have the wonderful ability to set those around you at ease with your calming energy.
Anyone who spends more than ten minutes in your presence will agree.
I’m sorry Ginette never bothered seeing the incredible human being on the inside.
” I pressed a hand over his heart. “Like I said before, this is the best part of you.”
Before I could blink, he plastered me to his chest for a hug and buried his face in my throat. “Fuck, Gabby.” He kissed the hollow in my throat almost frantically. “You have no idea what those words—what you—mean to me.”
If the thumping beat of his heart against my chest and the way he held on to me was any indication, I was beginning to understand just how bad he had it for me.
Hunter may have fallen for me first, but little did he know that I was beginning to fall for him too.
I laid my cheek on top of his head and combed my fingers through his soft hair. “I adore you.”
It was the simplest way to convey what he meant to me.
Hunter’s voice was muffled against my skin, but I heard it all the same. “I adore you, too.”
We continued our game, sharing champagne and sweet kisses in between. One of my darts finally landed on a double and Hunter’s on a single. Though I suspected he purposely missed so I could win.
“Tell me a dream of yours,” I asked softly. “Something you want to accomplish in the next fifteen years.”
He tucked his chin against my collarbone and tightened his arms around me. “It’s cheesy.”
I squeezed my hand over his tattooed forearm. “I won’t judge.”
“I want a home, a wife, and kids. I want the kind of family I was in growing up before my dad passed away.” He skimmed the tip of his nose against the side of my neck, inhaling my fragrance and stopping to kiss my pulse.
“And I just want to live a good life with them and have my happily ever after. That’s it. ”
Why did that make me teary? “That’s beautiful, Hunter.” I leaned my smooth cheek against his stubbled one. “I hope you find your happy ending.”
“I will.” He kissed my cheek. “And so will you.”
Bliss settled over me.
We played another round and I hit a single. Hunter hit the outer bullseye.
“Say something in Italian.”
I shivered from the rough timbre and the way the pads of his fingertips glided over the bare skin of my thighs, eliciting a flurry of goosebumps. “What do you want to hear?”
“Anything you want to tell me.”
The words formed on my tongue before I had a chance to stop them. “Penso che mi sto innamorando di te.”
Hunter’s lips parted, awed. “What does that mean?”
I smiled around my white lie. “You’re so cute.”
He smiled back. “Likewise, doll.”
We played another round while drinking. The bottle was now halfway empty and a light buzz pumped through my veins, stemming from Hunter’s champagne-stained kisses and the feel of his muscular arms caging me in their fortress.
I was in my own little slice of heaven, the faded beats and lyrics of an R&B song from the club faintly echoing through the room.
Hunter won the current round and I felt like a sore loser.
Wanting to mess with him a little, I leaked a steady stream of champagne down the front of his black dress shirt. He jolted and I fake-gasped. “Oops. I didn’t mean to do that. You should totally take your shirt off now that it’s all wet.”
Smirking and seeing right through me, Hunter undid his buttons with calculated slowness. He dropped his shirt on the desk and let me have at him.
Straight away, my fingers swirled over the snake coiled around his bulging muscles. It was ethereal. Whoever inked it did a fantastic job. “I love your tattoo. I want a similar one.”
“Yeah?” he said gruffly. “Where would you get it?”