Chapter 5 #4
“So we pretend it didn’t happen. We pretend I wasn’t getting myself off to thoughts of how you looked with your shirt off in the pool,” I said.
The gold in his eyes swirled with liquid heat.
I felt like I had to press my thighs together at the thought.
I needed relief from being so close to him.
I needed his hands on me. What was wrong with me?
His gaze raked over my body like he could read my need.
Now he was assessing the situation. He was controlled.
He had discipline, and I could read the fight on his face, like he had heard the danger in my words and knew exactly where the conversation could go if he let it.
“Catherine,” he said carefully. My name in his voice still did something to me, even with the warning wrapped around it.
I tightened my grip on the towel. “I’m not asking you to say something you don’t want to say.”
His jaw flexed. “That’s the problem.”
I went still. The air between us shifted again, but this time it was sharper. Hunter looked away first, dragging a hand over the back of his neck as he exhaled.
My pulse kicked hard.
“I’m also not going to stand here and pretend this is simple.” His eyes came back to mine. “Holland has been good to me and Isla for years. Your family has been good to us. Cole trusts me. He lets my kid into his home. He looks out for me on and off the ice. That matters to me.”
My throat tightened.
“I know it does,” I said softly.
Hunter nodded once, but he didn’t look relieved. His eyes darkened.
“I get what you’re saying, and I don’t want to cause trouble.
I love my parents. I care what they think about me.
But I watched you with Isla since I was a teenager.
I’ve seen the kind of man you are and…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
He’d already be able to figure out that my attraction to him didn’t start a week ago.
Heat rushed through me. Hunter seemed to realize what I had admitted. He gripped the strands of his hair.
“Fuck me,” he murmured.
I really wanted to, but I wasn’t going to say it out loud now. Then his eyes locked on mine.
“You’ve turned into a beautiful woman, Catherine, but you’re coming to work for the team.
We need boundaries,” he said. I knew he was right, but it still felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured on me.
My fingers curled around the towel. “That’s why it’s better if we forget the shower happened,” he said, his voice rougher now.
“Not because I’m pretending I didn’t react.
Not because I think you’re a kid. I don’t. ”
My breath caught.
“I know exactly what I saw,” he continued, each word careful. “And I know exactly how I reacted. That’s the problem.”
The gym went silent around us. I could hear my own heartbeat.
Hunter held my gaze for another second before forcing himself to look away.
“You’ve worked hard to get the position with the team.
I’m not going to be the guy who complicates it before you even walk through the doors.
And I’m not going to betray Cole’s trust or Holland’s trust because I couldn’t keep my head straight. ”
I hated how much I respected him for saying it.
I hated more that it made me want him even worse.
Because this was Hunter. This was the man I had admired when I was seventeen without fully understanding why.
He didn’t take the easy road just because he wanted something.
He thought about Isla. About my parents.
About the team. About consequences. Even now, when his face was flushed and his breathing was uneven and every look between us felt like a match dragged over dry wood, he was trying to protect everyone from the fire. Including me.
“So we forget it happened,” I said.
His mouth tightened. “We try.”
The honesty of that almost undid me.
I looked down, fighting a smile that had no business being there. “Try?”
“I’m not going to insult either of us by pretending it’ll be easy,” he said.
My stomach flipped. When I looked up again, Hunter was watching me with an expression so open and conflicted that I had to remind myself not to move closer.
“Okay,” I said. “We try.”
He nodded once. “Good.”
“Good.”
Neither of us moved. The word sat there, completely useless.
Because nothing about this felt good or resolved or safe.
It felt like standing at the edge of deep water and agreeing not to jump while both of us stared at the surface, wondering how cold it would feel if we fell in anyway.
Finally, I picked up my towel from the bench and draped it around my neck. “I should go.”
His eyes stayed on mine. “Okay.” His voice came out rough.
I took a step back, forcing my voice to stay light. “I’ll see you around.”
His jaw flexed. “Yeah, Catherine.”
My name in his voice followed me all the way to the door and into my parents’ condo. Hunter was right. We both had too much riding on the line. I had worked too hard to get where I was, and I wasn’t going to hurt my family. Neither was he. So we would have to do the adult thing and show restraint.