20. Hunter
Hunter
As soon as I turn down the road, there’s a collective release of energy in the truck’s cab. Sutton settles against my side, her thigh pressing against mine. The smell of her perfume hits me, and I groan.
“What’s got you all growly?” she asks.
“Why were you trying to sneak out before I got home?”
She presses her lips together. “I wasn’t sneaking. I told you I was headed back to my place to let you settle in.”
“Let me settle in.” I scoff. She can try to hide her emotions, but she forgets I’ve known her my whole life. As if I don’t know when she’s hiding something. “Talk to me, babe. What’s going through that mind of yours?”
She exhales, slips her shoes off, and tucks her bare feet beneath her. The movement forces her to lean into me more. Her hand now rests on my thigh. “I guess maybe I’m nervous about what you’ll think of your room.”
I don’t miss how her voice dips on the your of that sentence. “I’m going to love it. You know this. Next.”
“Next?”
“What’s next on the list running through your mind?”
“I got to thinking about you leaving.”
“Leaving?” I shake my head. What is she talking about? “Where would I be going?”
“Back to your house.”
Ah, and now we’ve come to it. After pseudo-living together the last ten days, maybe she’s seeing what I’ve seen all these years.
We’re better together.
“And that makes you feel good or bad?” I tug harder at the invisible string tethering her to me.
“I’m not sure,” she says.
Not exactly the response I was expecting.
We lapse into silence as I make the final turn, bumping through ruts, and pull alongside our lake. The rain continues to fall, and my truck is caked in mud. I put it in park and kill the ignition.
Now that we’re at our lake, my shoulders drop, and calm settles deep into my bones. I hope this place brings her as much peace as it does me.
My hand brushes against her hip as I release my seat belt. She sucks in a sharp breath.
“You’re not sure.” I repeat her words, turning to face her. “What are you not sure about?”
She scoots away and turns her body fully toward me, leg bent and resting on the seat. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
Her tongue licks at the corner of her mouth, her eyes narrowing on me. I’m not trying to pick a fight with her, but I was also serious when I said I was done with not saying what we’re thinking and keeping things buried inside.
“It actually makes me sad.” She folds her hands in her lap.
Each word pierces my chest.
“And why’s that?” Hope bubbles to the surface, but I do my best to play it cool.
“Because I’ve gotten used to having you around.”
“And do you like having me around?” I hold my breath as I wait for her reply. Rain splatters against the windshield, making it almost impossible to see anything outside.
Her lips quirk to one side, and there are several seconds of silence as she fidgets with her fingers. Something flashes in her eyes as she blurts, “I like it. A lot actually. I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
I exhale loudly, all nervous anticipation leaving my body. “You know,” I say, “I don’t have to leave.”
Her lips tug into a sweet smile. “That might get weird when Mom gets home.”
She’s not wrong, but I’d do almost anything to make Sutton get out of her own way. Reaching forward, I fold her hands between my own. “When will your mom get back again?”
“Last I talked to her, she wasn’t sure. Living alone in a two-story house with a broken leg isn’t the easiest. My guess is Mom will stay with her sister a while longer than she originally anticipated.”
“If it’s okay with you, how about I stay with you until she comes home?”
She scoots closer to me. Her bent knee bumps into mine.
As if it has a mind of its own, my hand sweeps up the expanse of her jean-clad thigh and grips around her hip.
I don’t miss her body’s reaction to my touch—goosebumps pepper her arms, nipples barely visible under the fabric of her thin black sweater. All I want is to hold her in my arms.
I squeeze the flesh of her hip and pull. “C’mere,” I say.
She moves closer, throwing one leg over mine, and settles her weight on my lap.
Sutton has a slight body, but it is pure strength.
The weight of her on top of my lap is almost too much to handle.
I wrap my hands around her waist, one coasting up her back to pull her to me.
She braces her hands on my shoulders and sweeps them up the back of my head and into my hair.
“I think maybe”—Sutton dips her head to mine, stopping when her lips are a few centimeters from mine—“I’d like to try sleeping over at your place every now and then.”
Outside, thunder rumbles as wind rushes around the truck.
My heart rate accelerates at her words. “Do you—”
“I’m not moving in.” Her lips brush mine in a soft kiss.
I pull her to me, capturing her mouth again. Sutton’s lips are incredibly soft, the bottom so plump I can’t help but take it between my teeth and tug gently. This earns me a soft moan that I long to hear again.
I kiss the corner of her mouth, my hands spanning the width of her back, pulling her closer.
Her chest presses against mine as she leans her head back, exposing her neck to me.
I place open-mouthed kisses along her cheekbone, down to the corner of her jaw.
Her hands tug at my hair, holding me to her.
Her pulse beats rapidly beneath her skin. I lick her pulse point and suck not so gently at her porcelain skin. It pulls a long, low moan from her.
“I love that sound,” I say between kisses down the slope of her collarbone.
My fingers dig into her shoulder blades, wishing her sweater wasn’t in the way. Sutton’s legs open wider and she presses more firmly against me, but not close enough, with the steering wheel taking up the space she would need to fully straddle me.
Kissing my way back to her lips, my hand dips beneath her sweater. Baby-soft skin meets the rough texture of my own palms, but the callouses don’t appear to phase her. Instead, my touch pulls yet another moan from her, and she buries her head against my neck.
When she kisses and sucks at my neck, I slip my hands further up her back, forcing them beneath her bra. She kisses the dip below my ear. Her warm breath coasts over my skin, and I almost lose focus.
“Hunt . . .” The hooks of her bra give way. She freezes, her lips resting on the flesh of my ear.
Her bra loosens from her body, the band snapping from my fingers and allowing me access to the full expanse of her back.
My hands move up and over her shoulders, pulling her more firmly into my lap—steering wheel be damned.
With one hand cupping the back of her neck, I take my other and gently trail it down her spine, over the curve of her hip, and up the side of her rib cage.
Sutton’s breathing slows, and she lays her head against the side of mine. It’s as if every ounce of tension disappears from her body, and she becomes putty in my hands. My thumb traces the side of her breast. She sighs in response. I freeze at the sound.
“Hunter?” she whispers.
“Yeah?”
“Why’d you stop?”
My fingers tighten, my thumb pressing into the tender flesh of her breast. I’m not sure why I’m hesitating. I’ve longed for this moment with Sutton for forever.
“Is this what you want?” My voice has a rough texture to it as I struggle to contain my desire for this beautiful woman.
“Yes, of course this is what I want.” Sutton sits back and rests against the steering wheel, her hands on my chest. “I can’t wait anymore, baby.”
Whatever control I had snaps at the word baby. I shove her roughly over into the passenger seat. She grunts and gives me a confused look, but when I throw the truck in drive she bursts into a fit of giggles. “Where are we going?”
“Home.”
“But—”
“Sutton,” I cut her off. “I want nothing more than to have you naked right now, but I’ll be damned if our first time is squished in the front seat of my old truck. I want to see all of you. Touch all of you. Kiss all of you. Lick all of you. F—”
“Fuck all of me.”
My body jolts at the sultry tone in her voice. I catch her out of the corner of my eye. Her cheeks are covered in blush splotches, red strands of hair frame her face, and her breasts rise and fall in rapid succession.
“Hunter?” Her voice has a dreamy texture to it now.
“Yeah?” I reach out for her hand and thread our fingers together.
“Drive faster.”
The tail end of my truck gets away from me as I make a turn on the dirt road. I slam on the brakes, quickly pull my hand from hers and brace it on the steering wheel. Neither of us moves. The only sound in the truck is the steady thump of the windshield wipers.
“Excited much?” She’s doing her best to suppress her giggle.
I say nothing as I press my foot to the pedal. It’s only a twenty-minute drive in normal conditions, but with the rain, it’ll be damn near forty.
Sutton reaches forward and turns up the heat. It blasts my already warm face, but I don’t complain. I’ve gotten used to her constant need for heat over the course of our friendship.
Lightning flashes ahead of us, a boom of thunder chasing a heartbeat later.
When I look to the side, she’s got her back resting against the passenger door, left leg bent against the back of the seat, the other stretched out toward my side. But it’s her hand underneath her sweater and playing with her breasts that almost causes me to miss our next turn.
“Shit,” I say as I yank the steering wheel to the left.
She giggles but doesn’t stop.
“Sutton,” I warn.
“Mhmm?”
“Be good. We’ll be home soon.”
I keep my eyes laser-focused on the road ahead. Thunder rumbles behind us now, the worst of the storm in the rearview mirror. The rain eases enough to turn the windshield wipers down a notch.
The cab of the truck is sweltering. Her foot drifts along the outside of my thigh. With my right hand, I grasp her delicate ankle and pull her foot into my lap. Her sharp intake of breath is the only indication she feels how affected I am by her.