Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Regge and familiars, friends, and fooling around
“Your mum will be home soon. We should get up.” My words belied my actions, because I had no intention of leaving Hunter’s bed. We were both sweaty and sticky, and I couldn’t bring myself to get up.
“Yeah. She’ll leave us be for a bit. Let’s just stay here for that bit.” Hunter’s breath ghosted against me.
“We should help. You invited them. To your mum’s house. Without even asking her. I don’t know if this is a modern custom or not, but we should at least help cook.”
“We shopped,” Hunter protested.
“Make a salad. Fetch some bread. Something?” I sat up and turned toward him, still unable to stop touching him. “I want to make a good impression.”
He flinched and grabbed my hands. “Isn’t it a little late for that.” His lips twitched.
“Not for your mum. We’ve put a lot on her today. My history, Archie, the reality of our world, not to mention us being…us. It’s a lot to process. And I want her to like me.”
“She likes you because I like you.”
Our conversation was halted by the sound of the back door slamming and Marjorie talking to Archie. Or rather cooing at Archie.
Hunter grinned at me. “We better get down there before you lose your familiar. Because if Archie takes bribes, you’re done for.”
“You’re getting up? What happened to just staying a bit?”
“Come on,” he said. “Get washed up and dressed. We’re getting bread. There’s a bakery down the block.”
Two loaves of the bakery’s rosemary olive in the back seat, Hunter pulled up to the curb outside his mother’s house. The bakery down the block had been closed, so we’d had to drive across town to get the super special rosemary olive bread that he wanted.
“You invited Izzy and Theo to dinner for a reason, didn’t you?” I asked.
He turned off the ignition and looked at me.
“You’re not the only one who wants to make a good impression.”
I lunged across the center console, seeking his mouth. He oofed in surprise before kissing me. All too soon, he pushed me back to my seat. “We should go in.”
This lovely, sweet man had found me, had taken care of me in this vast and complicated modern world.
In my relatively short life of twenty-five years, I’d been in lots of danger, usually of my own making, but sometimes not.
Years of narrow escapes, close calls and fights, and only three times that I could remember, had someone shown up for me.
Petey and his brother in the livery stable, Theo and Izzy, when Locke took me. And Bruce Hunter, time after time.
“Bruce,” I said quietly.
“Mm?” Hunter’s hand was on the car door.
“Bruce,” I said again.
He looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“Stay a second.”
He faced me in time to meet my lips again. This kiss escalated even faster than the first one, and I went with it, pushing him against his seat as I leaned in. We parted, breathing the other’s air, staring into each other’s eyes. Feeling one another’s heartbeat.
“Put your seat back,” I whispered.
“What?”
I pecked him on the lips, smiling. “The seat reclines, yeah? Put your bloody seat back.”
His dark brows edging higher, Hunter hit the seat button, reclining all the way down.
I followed him, climbing over to straddle his hips, skimming my hands under his shirt.
It was a tight squeeze, but he was hot under me.
I rucked the cotton up under his arms, unable to get enough of the smooth skin over taut muscle.
Lowering my head, I bit and then licked his collarbone.
His yelp made me smile, and I rose just enough to slip a hand between us, fumbling at his fly.
Under the denim, he was hard. Almost as much as I was. I shifted to ease the tightness.
A sudden rap on the window sent me backward into the steering wheel, laying on the horn. I jerked forward into Hunter and then back again, the horn sounding again. I collapsed against him, fumbling for the button on the side of the seat. Hunter stared at the man outside the car. “Theo?”
I looked. Sure enough, Theo North frowned at us, his eyebrow quirking over his missing eye—glamoured to appear perfectly normal.
As I scrambled over the console, Hunter yanked his shirt down, tugging at it to cover his open jeans. Levering his seat back up to vertical, he opened the window.
“I drive two hours through hellish traffic to this lovely neighborhood of fine working-class people, two of whom are peering at us through their mini-blinds. And you two are here auditioning for a porn film. On. The. Street.” His voice was deep and penetrating, but I heard the amusement in it.
Hunter did not. He croaked, clearing his throat and overstretching his shirt to cover himself, though he was perfectly decent.
Jerking on the door handle, I opened the passenger door but glanced over at Hunter. “This will be continued, yeah?” Not waiting for an answer, I walked around the car to give Theo a quick embrace. Then did the same for Izzy who’d come up behind us.
“Sorry we’re early. Don’t pay attention to Theo. Traffic was light.” She smelled sweet as lilacs as her arms came around my neck.
Hunter climbed from the driver’s seat to face Izzy, his blush endearing enough that I wanted to kiss him again. Izzy hugged him and then smirked at me. “Are you taking advantage of my friend?”
“Iz,” Hunter protested.
I slid an arm around Hunter’s waist. “As much as I can.”
Archie mewled at us from the tiny front yard.
“Oh. Archie. Did you fly all this way?” Izzy asked, even though he was in his cat form.
Marjorie Hunter came out of her house, reprimanding Hunter for disappearing without notice, even as she gave him an enormous hug. She greeted Izzy as an old friend and politely welcomed Theo.
I stood a bit to the side as everyone milled about the tiny yard. “Mistress Hunter, I apologize for our leaving, but I wished to contribute to our meal, and Hunter knew of this bakery.” I rushed to retrieve the loaves from the back seat.
Marjorie peered up at me, her eyes serious and warm.
“No apologies necessary, young man. Though I’ve already gotten a text from Mrs. Warren across the street.
” She winked. “And it’s Marjorie. Or even Mama Hunter if you wish.
You have more family here than you think.
” She kissed my cheek and turned away, brushing her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Come along, my baked ziti will be getting cold.”
It was lovely, sitting around the table, eating pasta, listening to Theo and Izzy make pleasant conversation with Hunter’s mum—Marjorie, I reminded myself. I wasn’t sure I could call her Mama Hunter or if that would be acceptable to her son, so Marjorie would have to do.
Theo was at his most charming, regaling tales of his past position as a political consultant, and Marjorie told her own stories, a lot of them about Hunter as a child, much to his chagrin.
The night grew dark around us, and at a break in the conversation, Marjorie excused herself and said good night.
When it was just the four of us, Theo turned to me. “So work has already started on the hotel. The first of the permits came through, and some of the others were anxious to get started.”
“What?” Hunter asked.
“Bloody hell, I didn’t tell you.” I tensed up. I’d genuinely forgotten.
“You didn’t tell him you bought the hotel?” Theo’s eyebrows did that unbelievable arch thing they did when I’d cocked things up.
I scrambled to explain. “We’ve been busy.”
Theo snorted. “Yeah. I got how busy you were earlier.”
Hunter’s eyes were on mine. “No. He didn’t tell me. And this is the sort of thing that you tell someone you want to do everything with.” He’d lost his relaxed tone from before.
“Are you angry with me?”
I turned my palm up on the table between us. After a moment, he took my hand. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. About the hotel. I wasn’t keeping it from you, I wasn’t. I thought we should get us sorted first. And then everything happened.”
“I’m not mad.” He smiled but released my hand as he gathered plates on the table.
“Eskridge needed cash and fast. So I used the money Theo set me up with.”
“And you’re okay with this?” Hunter asked Theo.
Theo shrugged. “The money was his to do whatever with. This will take a lot of work, but Regge’s never been afraid of hard work.”
“Wow.” Hunter shook his head somewhat disbelieving.
I rushed on. “I want to run it. It’s a bugger of an undertaking, and I know nothing about how to run a hotel.” I swallowed hard, my mouth dry. “I will need lots of help. If you’re game to, that is.”
When he said nothing, I babbled more details. My handshake deal with Julian and his subsequent disappearance. The proxy he’d entrusted to Abraham so we could close the deal.
“I hope he makes it. Julian. He deserves a fresh start. Wherever he is,” Izzy said.
“Him and Nigel,” Hunter agreed.
It was a lot to spring on him. The whole hotel business thing. My vision of running the hotel had Hunter in it. This didn’t work without him.
Theo put down the empty wineglass with a glance at Izzy. She nodded and scooted back her chair. I guess they figured we had a lot to talk about.
“So you’re going home soon, yeah?” Theo asked me.
“We could both come back. I mean if Hunter wants to.” I held my breath until Hunter gave me a brief smile.
Goodbyes were said, and I walked them to the car, giving Izzy a hug on the sidewalk.
“Thank you for coming. This meant a lot to Hunter. And me.”
“Nonsense.” She broke away to look up at me. “You are family, Regge. Not just to Theo but to me too.”
Suddenly overcome, I rushed back into her arms.
“Thank you. Thank you for sending me here. For saving my life, but also, for Hunter. For renting your basement apartment to him. So he would have to take me in and take care of me.”