Blake
Hunter.I like the way his name rolls off my tongue. I don’t understand why he is so nice to Charlie and me. I am terrified that the other shoe will drop soon.
That’s why I have been lying here for the past hour and a half, just staring at the ceiling or watching Charlie sleep. I can’tget my mind to shut off. After we finished eating the pizza that Hunter so graciously bought, we came to lay down again and Charlie fell back to sleep pretty quickly.
If I am not thinking about Craig and what he will do to me once he finds me, I am thinking about how Hunter looked when I knelt between his legs. There are two different obsessions happening inside of me on two totally different scales. One is terror, the other lust—a feeling I have no right to feel for this man in the first place.
He is clearly part of something bigger than bike riding alone. He must be a part of a biker gang. That is really the only way to explain away some of the things I’ve overheard so far.
Shortly after I came to the room, Viper, the guy I saw earlier, came out of his room and talked to Hunter about some drug shipment that was short a couple of ounces. Hunter was so mad that I heard him from all the way in here when he yelled back at the man. There was a sound like something being thrown across the room, and since then, it has been quiet.
I hear the creak of a screen door opening, and my curiosity gets the best of me. I slowly climb out of bed, making sure not to wake Charlie, and head toward the bedroom door. When I don’t see anyone, I look out the back door window.
Hunter sits in a chair, leaning back with a cigarette in his mouth. His shirt is off, displaying a chest full of colorful tattoos. He rakes his hand through his beard, and I have to stop myself from rushing out there. What the fuck is wrong with me? Probably the fact that I have basically been alone for the past nine years. All Craig ever cared about was his own pleasure. He never even held out long enough for me to have my own release.I would always just fake my orgasms so he didn’t make me feel bad afterward. Hunter seems like the guy who would wait forever if it meant forcing pleasure from me.
I gently open the door, hoping I don’t upset him by joining him on the porch. “Can’t sleep?” he asks without even looking to see who it is.
“Unfortunately. I don’t do well with unfamiliar places.” I sigh, walking over to lean against the railing. “How is your knee feeling?”
“Ah, the old knee is fine. I just rode it too hard today,” he grumbles, then takes a drag of his cig.
The way his mouth perks around the end and draws in the delicious smoke has me staring directly at his lips.
He raises his brow. “Would you like one?” He holds out his pack to me, and this time, I nod and grab one.
“Thank you,” I whisper, leaning down to let him light it for me. I sit in the empty seat across from him and take in a big drag, then blow it out with a sigh. I forgot how good these used to make me feel.
Hunter laughs. “You look like you have done that a time or two.”
I nod, taking another drag. “I used to smoke before Charlie was born. But after I found out I was pregnant, I gave them up.” I let the smoke out of my lungs. “They say that after a long time, the craving goes away. But mine never has.”It didn’t help that Craig forced me to quit, saying I always tasted like an ashtray.
He leans forward in his chair and rests his elbows on his knees. “I figure I’m too damn old to quit now. I have been smoking for so long. What would be the point of quitting?”
He takes in another long drag and then puts out the cig in his ashtray. I still have all of my cigarette left. But the anxiety of him waiting for me to finish eats away at me, so I smoke it faster.
“You’re going to give yourself a headache,” he smirks.
I wave him off and take another long drag. “Yeah, yeah. I know. But I don’t want to hold you up if I can help it.”
“What would you be holding me up from? I have nowhere to be.” He motions around the deck.
I raise my brow. “Oh, I figured you had things to handle with your biker gang or something.” It’s a low blow to just throw it out there like that, but I am really curious what he does that would involve the drugs being short.
His eyes widen. “What do you mean?”
I shrug. “I overheard you yelling at the guy from earlier.”
He stares at me for a moment and then schools his features. “I am sorry that you heard all of that. But it is none of your concern.”
I bristle.None of my concern?“I think I should know whose house I am currently staying in with my child.” I tilt my head to the side.
He turns his gaze to the night sky and sucks in a breath. “Well, first of all, we are not a gang we are a club, and yes, there is adifference.” he scoffs. “Gangs are filled with young boys who are only out for the glory. Clubs are in it for a family, a brotherhood. There is so much more to us than the violence and the illegal shit.”
He lights up another cig and continues when I don’t speak. “What you heard was basically my guy telling me about the drug shipment being short. It’s the one I was carrying with me when you hit me with your car.”
Shit.Am I the reason his drugs were short? “Are they going to come after me now?”
He looks at me as if I grew two heads. “What? No, why on earth would you think that?”
