Summer #2
His voice sounds like Levi, but masked as well, like on the phone, when I assume he alters it.
He’s always been pretty good at faking other voices.
It’s why our virtual friendship went on for a few months.
He sounded familiar, but not so much that I didn’t believe it wasn’t a trick of my mind, of hope blending the stranger with the one I actually desired.
A threat lines his words, but one that makes my palms damp. “You want me?”
“Want you?” he repeats with a chuckle bred from my wildest dreams—the fantasies I’ve had of Levi over the years. “I already have you. Why else would you invite me here?”
You do have me. He’s always had me. It’s what I want to tell him. In both forms, he’s dealt with my ups and downs. He’s managed to pull me out of my funk with a mere few words. He’s the person who never gave up on me, insistent on creating a friendship out of dislike.
“The first time we ever gamed together, you called me a ‘pompous player’—definition still unknown.”
The memory brings a smile to my face, but no more than the fact he’s ensuring I’m aware it’s him and not a stranger. From his perspective, he is.
“It’s you.”
“It’s me,” he repeats. “Turn around.”
Holding my breath, I turn until to face the wall beside the bathroom.
For a moment, there’s complete silence. Then, the floorboard cracks beneath his weight.
His hoodie brushes against my arms, his scent clean and fresh.
He must have recently showered to wash off his familiar cologne, because I’d recognize it.
The steps Levi takes to keep this connection going, though I still don’t understand why, let alone why it began.
His gaze starts at my hair and travels over my shoulders, following the line of my hip.
“You listen beautifully. I told you, before touching, we’d talk.
You understand everything going forward is for your pleasure, not pain?
” His arms come up around me, palms on the wall, until his voice is a low purr in my ear—nothing I’ve ever heard Levi sound like before but everything I’ve imagined.
“There will be no one else for you during this. Your days will begin and end with me. I won’t just fuck you, Summer.
I’ll own you. Body, heart, mind, and soul—not an inch will be free.
I won’t ask permission after tonight, but should anything feel too real, if you want it to end, it ends immediately.
No fights, no arguments.” He removes one hand to stroke my shoulder, raising goosebumps. “Understand?”
“Yes.”
To replace my father’s touch with a man I crave, to not feel him every time, Hunter instead guarantees my consent.
In my mind’s eye, I try to envision my best friend, his dark eyes molten and soft. Not with emotions like care and affection, but lust. Except it’s difficult to see the fantasy that’s always out of reach.
“I’m taking your consent here and now, because if you want to test your boundaries…” Breath blows over my nape as he presses into my back. His voice drops a few degrees. “Then it has to seem a little real, doesn’t it?”
My head falls forward as I struggle to come up with something to counter the eager twist inside my stomach. I’m happy I didn’t ask Levi directly to do this with me. It’d be different. It’d be whatever version he presents, what he assumes I want.
When it’s Hunter I crave.
“Lunar,” he whispers. “That’s your safe word. You say that, and everything stops.”
His gaming tag. A connection to my surname.
Abruptly, he knocks my feet apart. In my next breath, he has my hands in one of his, held above my head. He slides his other to my hip and pulls me back against him, arching my spine.
“What are your limitations?”
I list a few things that my research brought up, but, given how wide of a variety sex can involve, a few probably got missed. “If there’s something I don’t want or like, I’ll tell you.”
“Good.” A finger traces down my spine, making me arch into the wall. “God, you’re so responsive.”
“Or you’re just good at it.”
“Maybe.” Amusement covers the word before his voice lowers again.
“I’ll be here when you least expect it. In your cunt, your dreams, your fucking head, every second of the damn day.
I’ll have you begging and needy. I’ll be everywhere and nowhere; right in front of you, and you won’t even know it.
When you’re wondering which of the strangers around is me, I’ll be watching you—envisioning you bent over or on your knees. ”
God… His words form a picture in my mind. Me by the pool, surrounded by strangers, watched by him and not even knowing it. Every breath, every reaction, catalogued for later. Given his last name is all over this place, he knows the best hiding places. I don’t even have a chance.
“Lunar,” he repeats suddenly. “The second I hear that L and U, the games end. Say it now.”
“Lunar.”
Even though this isn’t real, his hands slide away, and he backs up a step. His heat disappears, as does the twisting in my stomach. Left in its place is a strange sort of affection. Because while this was only practice for the real acts—and he demanded I say it—he still took it seriously.
“It’s that easy,” he murmurs when I turn around, facing the unnerving purple Xs again and trying to uncover more of my long-time friend beneath it, only to once again see them truly as two separate people. “You’re in control, now and always.”
“Dad! Dad, stop! What the fuck? Let me go!”
The flash ends as quickly as it began, the present knocking the horrific past away, as the situation presented tonight will be nothing like my father’s attempt.
The shadows swallow Hunter as he paces backwards to the door. “You deserve the world, but for now, step into mine. Let me show you what it can be like, and then make your choice.”
His words are strange. What started out sweet sounds like there’s a concealed message within it.
He leaves before I could wonder, the click of the door echoing through the room.