Chapter 23 #2
“That scares me too,” he confessed, and then we were kissing again. I could taste myself on his lips. When he settled between my thighs, skin to skin, my breath caught.
“I’m on the pill,” I said to him.
“Are you saying you don’t want a condom between us?” he asked.
“I’m okay if we don’t, but if you aren’t comfortable…” I babbled.
“I… I’ve never had sex without a condom,” he admitted. “After Amy…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I wore a condom with her.” I saw his pain and the way he was opening to me. I knew that it meant he trusted me.
“We can use a condom. I just wanted to really feel you,” I said as I caressed his back. I felt his muscles tense. Not from nerves, but from anticipation, like he was trying so hard to hold back.
His expression shifted to something tender and hungry.
“I want to feel you too. All of you,” he said, and it felt like he was referring to something deep and profound, and my heart was in it.
I couldn’t explain it, but I needed to feel connected to him.
I pulled him down and kissed him. When he pushed inside me, slow and careful, my whole body went still.
The fullness and intimacy felt like too much.
The way his forehead dropped to mine like he needed to be close enough to breathe the same air.
“Okay?” he whispered.
I nodded. He moved another inch, then stopped again, giving me time. I wrapped my legs around his hips and pulled him closer. His control broke on a rough exhale.
“Catherine.”
“I want all of you.”
He kissed me hard, and then he gave me exactly that.
Slow, deep strokes at first. Careful in a way that made me feel treasured and desperate at the same time.
Every stroke built something low in my belly, a pressure that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with how perfectly we fit.
It was not like before. Hunter watched me like my pleasure mattered as much as his.
Like he wanted to feel every breath, every shift, every sound I could not hold back.
I touched his face. “You feel so good.”
His eyes squeezed shut. “Don’t say things like that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m trying not to embarrass myself.”
A breathless laugh slipped out of me, then turned into a moan when he changed the angle.
“There?” he asked.
“Yes,” I moaned as my head tilted back. He thrust again, hitting the right spot. My fingers dug into his back.
“Yes. There.”
The rhythm changed to something rougher.
His mouth moved over mine, my jaw, my neck.
He whispered my name like it was the only thing holding him together.
My body climbed higher, tighter, closer to the edge with every deep thrust. When his hand slid between us and his thumb found my clit, I nearly came off the bed.
“Hunter.”
“I’ve got you,” he assured. That was what broke me. It was the trust. The terrifying, beautiful trust.
My orgasm hit hard, rolling through me until I clung to him, shaking and gasping his name against his shoulder.
Hunter held me through it, then lost his rhythm, his control finally cracking as he followed me over.
For a long moment, we stayed tangled together, breathing hard.
His weight was careful over me. His mouth brushed my temple.
“I missed you,” he whispered again.
I smiled against his skin. “You said that.”
“I’m saying it again.”
“I missed you too.” I was sure I was grinning from ear to ear.
Later, I must have fallen asleep. One minute Hunter was tracing slow lines down my spine, and the next I woke up in the dark with my heart punching against my ribs. The clock on his nightstand read 1:07 a.m.
“OMG.” I sat up fast. “Hunter.”
He woke immediately. “What? What happened?”
“It’s one in the morning.”
He sat up beside me, hair messy, sheet low on his waist. “Catherine.”
“I can’t keep doing this,” I said.
His face went still. I realized how it sounded and grabbed his hand.
“No. Not you. This.” My throat tightened. “The sneaking. The timing. The panic. I’m a grown woman. If I want to spend the night in your bed, I should be able to spend the night in your bed.”
“I want that too.”
“Then why does it feel impossible?” I was feeling desperate and torn.
“Because I’m worried about your career,” he reminded.
The room went quiet. He pulled me against him, and I went, because I was angry at the situation, not at him.
“I hate this,” he said.
“Me too.”
“I don’t want you leaving at one in the morning like you did something wrong.”
“Then I’m not leaving,” I replied.
His body stilled. “What?”
“I’m staying.”
“Catherine.”
“Isla is with my family. My dad thinks I’m at Taylor’s. Taylor already knows everything. I’ll text her in the morning and go there first for coffee.”
“That’s a terrible plan,” he noted.
“It’s the only plan I have.”
He stared at me in the dark.
Then he exhaled and pulled me closer. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Stay. I want to hold you all night,” he said, and I didn’t know how to react because when he said things like that, my heart just fell deeper.
I stayed, and for a few hours, I let myself sleep in Hunter Russell’s arms like the world outside his bedroom could wait.
In the morning, I texted Taylor before I even got dressed.
Me: I stayed over.
Taylor: I assumed.
Me: Coffee?
Taylor: Already brewing. Also, you’re an idiot. Come over.
Hunter walked me to the door with his hair damp from a quick shower and his hand warm at the small of my back.
“This is ridiculous,” he muttered. “I don’t even get to kiss you goodbye in my own hallway.”
I looked up at him. “Then kiss me inside.”
He did and it was soft and fast and not enough. I slipped into the hallway and made it to Taylor’s without running into anyone. Taylor opened the door, handed me coffee, and looked me over.
“You look disgustingly happy.”
“I’m also stressed,” I confessed.
“Because now you’re going to walk out of my condo and pretend you slept here?”
“That’s the plan. I’m sorry for getting you involved. I just don’t see another option.”
Taylor took a sip of coffee. “At least you’re hydrated.”
An hour later, I left Taylor’s condo with my hair fixed, coffee in hand, and the fragile confidence of a woman who had survived a secret overnight.
Then Isla stepped out of the elevator with Hunter.
She wore leggings, a Dallas Blaze hoodie, and carried a stuffed turtle under one arm.
Hunter held a grocery bag and looked like a man who had just been hit with a puck he saw coming but could not avoid.
“Catherine!” Isla said brightly. Then she ran up to me and hugged me. I hugged her back.
My entire body locked for a moment then I hugged her back. “Hi, Isla.”
“You had a sleepover with Taylor?” she asked.
My gaze cut to Hunter. We both hated the lie but for right now there wasn’t another option.
“Yes.”
“Taylor has good snacks,” Isla said.
“She does,” I agreed.
Hunter said nothing. Which made him look guiltier. Isla looked between us, then tilted her head. “Are you busy?”
“Me?” I asked with surprise.
“Yeah. Dad said we could watch a movie. You should come watch too.”
Hunter’s eyes widened. I looked at him. He looked at me. Panic. Pure panic.
“Oh,” I said. “That’s really sweet, but I don’t want to intrude.”
“You’re not intruding. You’re basically my big sister,” she said, and my heart cracked because it was the truth. I’d known Isla for most of her life and loved her too.
Behind me, Taylor’s door opened.
Taylor leaned into the hallway. “Did someone say movie?”
Isla lit up. “You can come too!”
Taylor’s eyes flicked to me, then Hunter, then back to Isla.
A slow smile spread across her face. “I love movies.”
Hunter looked like he wanted to throw himself down the elevator shaft.
“What are we watching?” Taylor asked.
“Moana,” Isla said. “Or Tangled. I’m deciding.”
Taylor nodded seriously. “Huge decision.”
Isla turned back to me. “So, you’ll come?”
There were at least ten reasons to say no.
Hunter’s hand tightened around the grocery bag.
But Isla was looking at me with open, easy excitement.
Not suspicion or pressure. Just a ten-year-old girl asking someone she trusted to watch a movie.
And for one second, I let myself imagine it.
Sitting on Hunter’s couch with Isla curled under a blanket.
Taylor there as a buffer. Hunter nearby, awkward and careful and probably silently panicking. Not a family, but maybe a glimpse.
I smiled. “Sure. I can stay for a little.”
Isla grinned. “Yes.”
Taylor stepped out fully and locked her door. “I’ll bring popcorn.”
Hunter finally found his voice. “Great,” he said.
It was the least natural word any man had ever spoken.
I looked at him and bit back a smile. He gave me a warning look.
For once, we were not sneaking into Hunter’s condo.
We were walking in together, with Isla leading the way and Taylor talking about popcorn like this was normal.
Somehow, that felt more dangerous than anything we had done in secret.