Prologue #5
He took my nipple between his teeth, just hard enough to make me gasp, before his tongue soothed the sting with a slow, hungry drag.
“Hunter.” I moaned his name, and he groaned against me just as my phone rang again.
Hunter stilled, one rough hand still splayed low on my back while the other cradled my breast, thumb still circling around my nipple like he couldn’t bear the thought of letting go of me. His lips were glistening from the way he’d just had them on me, and for a second, we both just breathed.
The phone kept going. It pulsed against the dock like a warning, and it was impossible to ignore.
Hunter’s jaw was tight as he stared at me. I was slick against his hands and aching everywhere. My skin burned with my need for him, and still the damn phone kept ringing over and over. It was so loud in the quiet of the evening, like the universe was trying to slap some sense back into me.
“I think you should probably get that,” he said, even as his eyes traced over my lips.
I stared at him, this perfect, infuriating man standing chest deep in the lake with his hands still wrapped around my body, and my phone kept buzzing above us with the reminder that real life still existed outside the heat of Hunter’s hands and the ache of my own need.
I nodded, but my fingers dug deeper into his shoulders. “Yeah,” I whispered.
His eyes locked with mine, and my legs stayed wrapped around him for three more rings before I forced myself to pull away. “Sorry.”
I untangled myself from him and dragged myself around the dock with water dripping from my body as I reached for my phone with trembling fingers.
My heart stopped when I saw her name flash across the screen.
Ella.
Of course it was her. Of course she’d pick tonight to remind me how Hunter would never be mine.
Hunter was right behind me, and his gaze dropped to my phone then back up to my face. His mouth flattened into a hard line like he already knew exactly what kind of damage she could do.
We both did.
The phone pulsed in my palm, and the dock blurred in front of me. My chest felt like it might split open, my ribs straining under the pressure of what I’d almost just done.
What the hell was I doing?
I just stood there, dripping and raw with the way Hunter had touched me and the things he’d made me feel when I had no right to feel them.
Because he had been hers first.
I hit accept and pressed the phone to my ear, ignoring how my hands shook.
“Hello?” My voice was wrecked and breathless. I tried to clear my throat, but it didn’t help. Hunter was close enough behind me that I could feel the heat of him on my back.
“Maggie?” Ella’s voice came through the phone, and I winced at the sound of my own sister’s voice. “Where the hell are you? I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all day.”
Her words tore through me, and I felt stripped naked in the worst possible way.
I pressed my free arm across my chest, hiding myself when I’d felt no need to only moments before. “Sorry. Today’s been a bit crazy.”
“Are you at the bakery?” she asked, and I could hear her riffling through something through the phone. “I swear I’m going to put a tracker on you one day.”
A dry laugh clawed its way up my throat. “No. I’m out at the Calloway Ranch. I was just dropping something off for McCoy.”
Hunter’s palm landed on the small of my back, anchoring me back to reality, and I looked up and met his eyes. There was too much in his gaze, and the world titled off its axis as I stared up at him.
“Man, is he as hot as I remember?” She laughed, and I hated her for it.
“Yeah,” I managed as I stood there completely naked, with my phone pressed against my ear, and her ex standing at my back. “He’s exactly how you remember.”
Hunter’s hand stilled on my back, and I burned where our skin connected. I tried to breathe through the ache and the heat and the humiliation pouring down over me in suffocating waves. I knew better than to want him, knew better than to believe this could happen.
“Can I call you back when I get home? I don’t have great service out here.” It was another almost lie.
I could feel Hunter’s gaze burning into me as I pressed the phone tighter to my ear. “Of course. Just don’t forget to call me, okay?” Her voice was softer, and I could picture her sitting on the front steps of our parents’ house, looking out over the fields.
“I won’t.” I shook my head even though she couldn’t see it. “I’ll call you as soon as I get home.”
“Okay. Love you.” I was just about to tell her that I loved her too when she spoke again. “Is Hunter there?”
The question felt like a slap, and I glanced over my shoulder at him. He didn’t move, didn’t flinch, but I was sure he could hear her.
“Yeah. He’s here.” Guilt flooded me.
“Tell him I said hi,” she said hesitantly. “And that I’ve been thinking about him.”
Hunter’s hand slid from my back, and my skin prickled all the way to my scalp. I pretended not to feel it, the sudden loss of his touch, but it cut clean through me.
“Will do,” I said, and the words tasted wrong. “Bye, El.”
“Bye, baby sis.”
She ended the call before I’d even pulled the phone away from my ear, and my hand shook as I tried to remember how to be the version of Maggie she expected me to be. The version of Maggie I had been when I’d done everything my family wanted.
“Ella says hi.” My voice shook as I said the words.
Hunter looked at me for a long moment, and the lake was still around us. Something moved through his face quickly, like a light going out behind his eyes.
“Tell her I said hi.” He looked away from me as he lifted his hand and pushed his hair out of his face.
“Yeah,” I whispered as I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around myself. “I will.”