19. Hunter
Nineteen
Hunter
The knock was soft, and there was a half-second delay before the door creaked open.
I didn’t move from the chair, just tilted my head slightly, watching her enter my domain out of the corner of my eye. Her footsteps were quiet, but my heart wasn’t. It was hammering, tightly caged.
Suppressing a groan, I took in her crop top — no fucking bra, again — and those skin-tight yoga pants. Her lip was caught between her teeth, like she was trying not to fall apart.
She didn’t know how much she was ruining me at this very moment.
I didn’t smile when she spoke, just watched her cross the room like it was hers already.
Her voice was soft. “I … might need your help again.”
“I figured,” I said flatly.
“You already knew about this, didn’t you?”
“I know a lot of things. This one wasn’t hard to predict.” I deadpanned.
Ella took a deep breath. “Dom’s freaking out. This could wreck everything for him.”
“It will. Unless someone rewrites the narrative.”
Her fingers twitched at her side, as if they were dying to twist her hair around them — a habit she would never quite be able to break — but she resisted.
“I don’t care what it takes. Just tell me what to do.”
The plea wasn’t really about logistics, it was surrender dressed up as control. I could feel it, taste it, and fuck, if it didn’t make my dick throb.
She thought she was bartering. But it wasn’t about the cost. It was about who would collect.
I sure as hell wouldn’t bring it to her attention.
“The NCAA won’t touch him. His name will disappear, and all the tests will vanish. I can do that.” My voice was quiet and controlled, everything I wasn’t on the inside.
“What do you want?” The question was nonchalant. She expected a price she could easily pay, something I’d led her to believe.
Surprise, baby.
“You.”
Ella stiffened, her lips parting in shock, making me crave nothing more than shoving my cock in this perfect little O she formed with them.
“Is this a joke?” She scoffed, trying to play it off, like she must’ve misheard or misunderstood. Adorable.
“No.”
Finally, I turned around to face her head on, pinning her in place with my gaze.
“There will be no more you in the other bedroom, pretending you don’t hear me at night.”
She raised her brows, her eyes sparkling with something like defiance … and lust.
Huh .
“Is this seriously how you ask for things?”
“I’m not asking,” I stated quietly.
The air thickened as her breath hitched. My hands were still, but my pulse wasn’t. It was thrumming in my jaw, my neck, and in the spaces between my knuckles.
I lowered my gaze for a moment, giving her a second’s reprieve as I saw her squirming. “You think this is about Dom?”
Letting the silence settle over us for a beat, I held onto my control by a fucking thread. Then I finally turned my eyes on her again, locked the fuck in.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me, Ella? Swishing around in your little tennis skirts, shoving your tits in my face in these goddamn crop tops, without even fucking looking at me.”
The corner of my mouth curled up as I watched her eyes widen. “But I saw you. I see you. Every time. And I wanted to kill every guy out there who thought they could, too.”
Ella didn’t argue and didn’t retreat. She swallowed thickly, opening those taunting lips like she wanted to speak but thought better of it.
“The deal is simple. If you think about it, this is just me cashing in my favors. I want you. I want to do whatever the fuck I want with you. Anywhere. At any time.”
I watched every flicker in her face, devoured it like it was already mine, because it was. She was mine. All mine.
Her eyes were huge. Hands trembling just enough to betray her cool as she reached up, twisting a strand of hair around her finger.
“Are you going to hurt me?” she asked softly.
I quirked a brow, my lips threatening to pull up into an actual smirk now that victory was so, so close. “Only if you want me to.”
For a beat, she just stared at me, a war of emotions raging behind her eyes. Then, with a shaky breath, she turned on the spot and marched to my bed.
My throat went dry as I watched her crawl onto my bed, stealing my fucking breath.
She settled back against my pillows, like she belonged there, like she’d always known she would.
Then she looked at me. Chin tilted up in defiance, eyes gleaming.
“You waiting for an invitation, or …?”
At last, I allowed the smile to spread on my face.