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“No, Lottie,” I rasped. “It’s not just you.”
Chapter 18
Lottie
I’d made a horrible mistake. I’d convinced Hunter not to go to the breeding conference the second day and stay in bed with me instead.
We’d spent nearly every second of the day in each other’s arms. We didn’t discuss any further what was going on between us. There was a calm that I was too afraid to shatter and I wasn’t ready to go back to reality.
With his lips on mine, his hands all over me, I didn’t worry about anything else. I didn’t need to think about how often my phone was buzzing, or whether this would work between us, or whether any part of this was even real. I could lose myself in him and he could lose himself in me.
I hadn’t made him sleep on the pull-out couch. He slept in the bed with me, both of us naked under the sheets, our warmth enveloping one another. It had been far too long since I’d slept so soundly in the arms of someone else. Saturday passed in a blur of pleasure and sweat; a fogged shower door and handprints giving away the passion occurring within. Hours away from friends, family and responsibility, I didn’t have to pretend I wasn’t feeling something that I was. I could just fall into it.
“Let’s go out today,” Hunter said softly, his bare chest rising and falling under my cheek. His fingers splayed out across the small of my back, pulling me in just a little more to his side. “Get out of this room for a little bit and have something other than fast food.”
The idea of actually getting up and putting on clothes, knowing damn well that a little trail of him would inevitably leak down my thigh, was enough to make me groan in frustration. “But we could get McDonald’s this time.”
The rumble of his laugh practically shook my brain around in my skull. “Wouldn’t you like something nicer than McDonalds?”
“I’ve had Michelin star food all the way to microwave ramen,” I chuckled. “They have good nuggets, man.”
He sighed, his hot breath warming the top of my head. I dragged my nails down the front of his chest, down to his happy trail and back up again. Flutters of excitement stirred within me as I felt each little curve of muscle through the thin strands of hair. There was a part of me that wondered if leaving the room would push us ten steps back instead of one step forward. Would the fantasy snap the second I crossed the threshold of the penthouse? Would real life come flooding back in?
I shouldn’t have cared. But I did, as much as I didn’t want to admit it.
His hand bunched the comforter and sheets before throwing them off within a second, baring our bodies to the cool air of the room. “I’ll cut you a deal,” he said, grinning down at me when I glared at him. “I’ll treat you to some world-class nuggets if we go outside.”
————
The large grassy area that stretched along the river trickling before us—named the Colorado River despite it starting in northwest Texas and ending in the Gulf of Mexico—was a decent enough place to sit in the sun and dunk my nuggets into honey mustard. I didn’t even protest when Hunter decided to steal a drop for his fries, or loudly read out the sign in front of the river that gave me its entire history. That was permanently drilled into my brain now, purely because of the way he’d grinned when he’d looked back at me trying to dip my toes into it.
I’d proven myself wrong. As we left the hotel to see the sights and sounds Austin had to offer, I didn’t feel any sense of remorse or what I’d known as my previous reality. Hunter insisted that I wear one of the t-shirts he brought with him instead of one of the minidresses Dana had packed. It was long enough to pass as a shirt dress on me, and his consideration and awareness of my feelings made me feel reassured. Maybe this wasn’t going to crumble to pieces after all.
With my jacket covering my lap so I could sit cross-legged, I squinted at him in the glare of the sun. “I still don’t see why we had to come out here to eat.”
His little snort as he stuffed the remnants of his lunch into one of the empty bags was more adorable than I wanted to give him credit for. “We didn’t. It’s just… nice out here. No one’s clawing at my throat for a photo, no one’s coming up to me because they know who I am. I can be outside here and just relax. I can’t do that back home.”
“Oh,” I said around a mouthful of nuggets. “I guess that makes sense.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I love Boulder, it’s my home, but spending time away from it can be freeing. I can do whatever I want with whoever I want,” he said, flashing me a little grin. I wasn’t sure if I liked what he was saying, maybe I was overthinking again but I suddenly felt insecure. “Boulder’s not that big in the grand scheme of things.”
I nodded and shoved another nugget in my mouth to keep myself from saying something stupid. There was a part of me that knew when he asked this favor of me that I wasn’t like the girls he would normally surround himself with. Boulder was full of ski girls, ski bunnies, and when they couldn’t get the professional athlete they were lusting after, they’d inevitably go for the business tycoon’s son. Tall, thin but athletic blondes, with big breasts and tiny waists. I never judged them, but I would never look like them. A part of me envied them.
But that’s not who I was. I wasn’t ugly or unattractive, I just wasn’t the type of woman he was usually seen photographed with.
“Do you think horses know when they’re sleeping? Or do you think they just, like, open their eyes and think, ‘wow it sure got dark during that blink?’”
Hunter blinked at me in confusion before a big, full laugh escaped him. “I-I don’t know,” he chuckled. “I don’t think I’ve ever considered if they understand the concept of sleep.”
“Imagine you blinked and the sun was gone,” I said, trying to contain my smile from the absurd change of subject I’d brought to the table to avoid what was going on in my head. “I’d probably have a panic attack.”
“I’d assume the world was ending,” Hunter laughed.
“Poor horses.”
————
After lunch, Hunter decided to take me on a shopping spree to buy me clothes that I could actually wear. We walked up and down what appeared to be Austin’s equivalent of Rodeo Drive. I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. He’d dropped thousands on me.
