26. Ella
Twenty Six
Ella
Cool air hit my bare legs as I padded over to his dresser, drawing the neckline of his hoodie I was wearing up to my nose and inhaling deeply.
The faint smell of detergent and him, mint and cedar, filled my nostrils.
The low hum of his computer fans, accompanied by the occasional click from cooling metal, filled the air, my audiobook softly playing in the background.
I dug through his dresser on the hunt for one of his shirts, preferably one big enough to drown in, like I was drowning in him.
Sliding the drawer open, I felt it catch halfway. I huffed, and after a hard yank, it gave way. My fingers landed on the soft cotton of his neatly folded shirts as a faint clink echoed from inside.
“Fuck.” I muttered under my breath.
Leave it to me to break his stuff the one time I looked for something myself. Peeking inside the drawer to find out if a screw had come loose or if I’d broken it beyond repair, my eyes found a matte-black hard case instead, tucked under clothes.
Carefully picking it up, I spun it in my hands. The case felt cool and smooth. It looked sleek and expensive, except … there was a dent and a scratch on one side.
Oh God, please tell me I hadn’t just broken some kind of expensive tech gear bullshit.
Hoping only the exterior was damaged, I opened the latch and heard a soft hiss of air escaping.
With furrowed brows, I surveyed the contents, like I knew what the fuck broken high-tech equipment looked like.
A small camera lens was glinting in the glow of the monitors, and next to it sat SD cards in neat rows. Each card was labeled in tidy handwriting: timestamps, initials — E.K.
My throat went dry, and my heartbeat picked up as I set the case down again. Not to get a big head or something, but those were my initials. It seemed almost too much of a coincidence to be true.
Right?
Thoughtfully gazing at the camera, I gave a slow blink as a wild, unhinged notion entered my head. I turned on the spot, slowly and deliberately letting my gaze wander through the room.
I did a double take when my eyes fell on a device plugged into an outlet by the dresser. It was positioned flush against the wall, barely noticeable. But now? A tiny green dot winked at me like a secret.
Frozen to the spot, my pulse thudded in my ears. Was this what he did? Did he watch people? Or maybe just me ?
“Oh my God …” I murmured, feeling a tightness in my chest — not from fear, but from something darker and heavier curling low in my insides.
Now I began actually scanning the room, my adrenaline spiking like a fever and my pulse pounding in my ears.
My eyes widened as they fell on the smoke detector, and I recognized the too-perfect lens at the center. Holy fucking shit. He was surveying this room from every possible angle.
How long had he been watching me in here? Was he keeping tabs on me or his room? Was he hoping to catch me touching myself to the thought of him?
As these thoughts took root, the initial socially acceptable emotion of slight fear, maybe even disturbance, was replaced by a deep throb of arousal.
My thighs pressed together unconsciously, my breath going shallow.
“Jesus, Ella. You should be running. Calling someone …” I put a hand to my forehead before my hands threaded into my hair, twisting a long strand in between my fingers, as I tried and failed to get a grip on myself.
I imagined him in this chair, jaw tight. Watching, always watching.
With my gaze, I traced the outline of the lens, like it was alive. Heat flooded through me as I wondered if he was watching me even now. I wanted to play with fire, wanted to see what he’d do when he knew I knew.
I couldn’t stop replaying everything in my head.
Every little quirk I laughed off, every thing I thought was just Hunter being Hunter.
The way he always seemed two steps ahead, how he’d hacked into a locked drive to retrieve that tape before it ruined Hailey and Colt, and how he’d done it as easily as checking his email.
The night he’d torched Sierra’s old sorority without leaving a fingerprint, blasting their embezzlement receipts across campus without dragging her name into it.
And then, the quiet way he answered questions I never asked out loud. Like he already knew. Like he was always watching.
And now this. The cameras, the neat rows of SD cards marked with my initials.
Was it all connected? Or was I insane to even consider this?
If it was true, and he’d been watching me all this time … I should be terrified. Instead, all I could feel was a heat coiling low in my belly and spreading like wildfire.
I sunk onto the edge of the bed, the hoodie I was wearing bunching around me, fingers twisted in the hem like it might ground me. My heart hammered against my ribs, loud and hot.
If he was, what did that mean?
He didn’t trust me? He wanted control? Or … he couldn’t stop looking?
The thought landed like a punch to my chest and then slid lower, deeper, until I was breathing shallowly.
Every guy before him got bored. Drifted. Left me wondering what was wrong with me.
Not Hunter. Hunter didn’t drift, he didn’t move on.
He watched, he planned, he took what he wanted, and he kept it.
And if what he wanted was me …
If all this time he’d been watching me, maybe even fantasizing about me. Fuck , I couldn’t breathe.
I should be running or calling someone, but instead I was sitting here, thighs pressed tight, wondering if one of those tiny lenses was on me right now. Wondering what he’d do if I stared right into it and said his name.
But then, I thought of something better. A slow smirk curled around my lips as a plan began forming in my head.
***
The night air bit against my skin as I slipped out the back door, my bare feet silent on the deck. I let the towel wrapped around my body slip off me, placing it over the chair in the far corner.
If I was right, I wouldn’t be needing it. Bare and exposed, I felt the thrill of a midnight skinny-dip pulse through me.
Steam curled up from the hot tub, ghosting around me as I dipped a foot into the water. Goosebumps erupted on my skin, and I hurriedly stepped in.
The bubbling water licked at my thighs, rising higher, embracing me as I sank in with a soft sigh. My gaze then slid sideways, toward the shadowed corner where the tiny green light winked like the world’s dirtiest invitation.
A slow smile curved my lips.
If you’re watching, Hunter … don’t blink.
I stretched out, letting the water slick over my breasts, the heat seeping into my bones. My fingers skimmed lazily over my stomach, nails trailing faint lines. Down. Lower.
My thighs parted under the water, the bubbles masking what I was doing, but the movements? They’d show, and I so desperately wanted him to see.
My middle finger circled idly over my clit, slow, teasing spirals that made my hips twitch. A breath shuddered out of me, catching in my throat, and I bit down on a whimper, then let it slip, soft and breathy.
I pictured him sitting there, jaw tight, fists clenched, watching every flick of my wrist, every twitch of my body, every breathy sound that wasn’t quite a moan but close enough to gut him.
God, I wanted him gutted. I wanted him to be as desperate for me as I was for him.
“Fuck …” The word ghosted past my lips, barely audible over the churn of the jets, but I imagined it bleeding through a speaker, straight into his ears.
My fingers worked faster now, water splashing softly against my stomach. I curled two fingers inside me, my back arching as heat detonated low in my belly.
“Hunter,” I breathed his name, knowing what it did to him.
The thought of him being able to see everything — how my body shook and how my mouth parted — sucked me in closer, tighter, until the climax hit like a current, ripping through me as the world blurred into steam, stars and sin.
When I finally stilled, chest heaving, I turned my head toward the shadowed corner, my pulse hammering like a countdown.
Your move.
***
The sound of the door sliding open sliced through the steam like a warning shot, but I didn’t flinch. I didn’t even look.
Dragging my fingers lazily through the water, I circled my knees, pretending to be oblivious, while every fucking nerve in my body attuned to the sound of footsteps thundering closer.
Hunter just stood there for a moment, dripping heat and ferocity, like a storm about to crack the sky in half.
His voice was low and lethal when he finally spoke.
“You like performing, huh? Putting on a show just for me?”
I tilted my head, slow and smug, like I hadn’t been trembling with anticipation since I stepped out onto the deck.
“Mmm, maybe I just like an audience.”
Wrong move. The muscle in his jaw jumped like a trigger, and then he was moving.
Ripping his shirt off, boots crunching on the deck as he closed the distance, and before I could so much as blink, his hands were on me. Fisting in my damp hair, yanking me forward so hard the water sloshed over the edge.
“You wanna tease me, baby? Make me sit there and watch you spread those pretty legs for a fucking camera?” Hunter snarled.
My laugh died in my throat when his grip tightened and his mouth crashed down on mine, brutal and wet, like he was trying to eat every sound escaping my lips.
Then he was hauling me up, out of the water, his eyes wild and out of control. My bare skin collided with his pants, soaking them through.
He didn’t even pause, just slammed me back against the deck railing so hard it rattled.
“Shit!” I gasped, my nails digging into his shoulders. But Hunter just smirked, dark and twisted, as his hand clamped around my throat, pinning me in place.
“Say it.”
I tried playing dumb, my lips curling into a shit-eating grin. “Say what?”
The next thing I knew, his other hand was between my legs, while his fingers shoved through my slick heat like he owned it. Like he was reminding me who the fuck I belonged to.
I choked on a cry, my whole body jerking, but his grip on my throat kept me still, kept me wide open for him.
Hunter’s voice was rough, like gravel. “Say who you did this for.”
My defiance was crumbling fast , splintering under the pressure of his touch, the weight of his gaze.
“You. Fuck–” I broke off breathlessly. “You, Hunter.”
“That’s right,” he growled, spinning me before I could think.
My chest slammed against the railing, and my ass was pressed out for him like a goddamn invitation.
I barely got to draw in a breath before he had a fist closed in my hair, dragging my head back as his teeth grazed my ear, his voice lethally soft now.
“You wanted an audience? Fine. Now everyone’s gonna know who owns this cunt.”
The sound of a zipper carried through the quiet air, then he was buried inside me in one brutal thrust that ripped a scream from my throat.
No buildup. No mercy. Just raw, punishing need making my vision go white.
Hunter fucked me like he was trying to drive me through the wood, every slam of his hips echoing off the deck, the railing biting into my stomach.
I clawed at the boards, moaning like a needy whore, but he just laughed, low and feral, while pistoning his hips forward, harder and harder.
He reached out, tilting my chin gently so I could see his mouth curve into something that wasn’t quite a smile but made my chest tighten nonetheless.
“You think this is your first sex tape? Cute. It’s just the first you’re aware of. Difference is …” He leaned in, his teeth grazing my ear. “Those were for me. They’ll always only be for me.”
This should not make my pussy clench around him. I didn’t know if I was crying or laughing or coming, because Hunter didn’t stop, didn’t slow, just used me like I’d begged him to.
He was bringing every single one of my fantasies to life.
His piercing was dragging over my g-spot relentlessly, a delicious ache building with every merciless snap of his hips.
When I broke, I was screaming his name, shaking while he held me down, pounding through my orgasm like it was just the opening act. His mouth was on my neck, teeth scraping, claiming, while his words burned against my damp skin.
“Mine. Every fucking inch of you,” Hunter growled.
And when his cock finally throbbed deep inside of me, pumping me full of his cum, it was with a savage grunt and his teeth sinking into my shoulder like he wanted to leave a mark no camera could ever capture.