“Yes,” Walter said with a self-satisfied smile. “And I want to hear her scream my name while I do it.”
I snatched the fabric of his jacket, slamming him against the car.
“Stop, Hunter, stop!” Meg grabbed me, pulling me off Walter. Her hair was half-undone around her face. “What is wrong with you?” she screamed at me. “You can’t just keep showing up on my dates and ruining them.” Her hands were clenched in anger.
I put myself between Meg and Walter. I would deal with Meg later. “Get out of my town,” I told Walter.
“This a free country,” he said, not moving.
“Care to take that bet?” I asked. I may not have been my father, but I could mimic his cold, reptilian demeanor if I felt moved enough to do it. It was unnerving, I knew, because I had been on the receiving end of it. It had felt as if my dad was just on the verge of letting the monster loose.
“We’ll reschedule,” Walter said to Meg after a moment.
Meg shoved me after Walter left. “Stop running my life!”
I grabbed her arms. “I’ll make it up to you,” I promised her.
“No you won’t! God, I can’t believe I ever thought you had changed.” She turned away from me.
“I have changed,” I said, frustrated, following her back inside the building.
“You haven’t,” she cried, rushing to the stairwell. “You’re the same self-absorbed, egotistical prick you always were. You think you own people.”
“I don’t think that,” I said, slamming the stairwell door behind me and following her up the stairs as she jogged up. “I just know that you and I are meant to be together. I know that I’ve obsessed about you. I need you, Meg,” I begged, running up the last flight of stairs to catch her before she left the stairwell.
“Get out of my way, Hunter,” she said, eyes narrowed.
I opened the door for her. “You can’t tell me,” I insisted, as she went down the hall to her studio apartment, “that you don’t want me.”
She backed up against the door, fumbling for the handle, not taking her eyes off me, her chest rising and falling hypnotically. I grabbed her, crushing our mouths together. I wanted to claim what was mine.
Meg’s fingers tightened in my hair, then she seemed to think better of it and released me, hopping back into her apartment.
45
Meghan
Maybe if Hunter had been more smug or more obnoxiously self-assured that I was going to cave with him, I could have dredged up a little more resistance. But instead, he seemed slightly ragged.
“Meg,” he rasped. “I need you. You’re all I can think about. You ruin my nights. I’ve been waiting for you for years. Please take me back.”
It was thrilling. “I don’t know,” I drawled, slowly unbuttoning my top.
We’re just messing with him. Not sleeping with him.
Yeah, sure,my inner sex goddess said.Totally, yeah, uh-huh.
Hunter’s eyes were glazed over.
“I think Walter is actually more my style. You know, he’s well established, experienced.”
“I’m better than him.”
“Perhaps,” I said as another button on my shirt came undone.
He followed the movement like a hunting dog.
“But in order to be extra sure, I’m going to have to sleep with him first.”
