And I Love You (22 page)

“What’re you looking for?”

“Condoms.”

“Bathroom. Medicine cabinet.”

“Stay put.”

“Couldn’t move if my life depended on it.”

She got up and went into the bathroom that adjoined his bedroom and found the condoms right where he’d said they would be. Remembering what had happened last night with six of them, she took half as many tonight and returned to where she’d left him, laid out on the bed, fully erect and absolutely gorgeous. Before her eyes, he got even bigger.

Megan tore open the packet, and with her lip between her teeth, she concentrated on rolling it down his length. Satisfied with her work, she straddled him and leaned over to kiss him.

“We don’t have to. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t.”

“Megan …”

Another thought occurred to her then. “Unless you don’t want to.”

“Said no guy ever when a gorgeous babe like you is naked in his bed.”

He was so free with the compliments, and she loved them all. She loved that she turned him on so thoroughly, and that he wanted her so badly was a huge turn-on to her as well. Because she was, in fact, still sore from their sexual marathon the night before, she took him in slowly, loving the way his eyes closed, his lips parted, his jaw throbbed and his fingers dug into her legs as he fought for control that she wasn’t prepared to surrender.

Taking him in wasn’t the easiest thing she’d ever done. Despite how well he’d prepared her, her abused tissues fought the invasion, and for a minute or two she didn’t think she could do it. But she forced herself to relax, to recall the incredible pleasure she’d found in his arms last night and again tonight.

Hunter cupped her breasts, playing gently with her tender nipples, which helped to ease his entry below. “Nothing has ever felt this good, Megan. Ever.”

“For me either,” she said breathlessly. And it was true. Sure, she’d had way too much sex when she was younger, but what she’d done then and what she was doing now with him could hardly be compared. Everything about this was different, and it had been from the beginning. He was different, and she was falling in love with him one minute at a time even if she hadn’t planned to let that happen.

It was truly astonishing to her that he could’ve been so close and yet so far away all this time, and the idea that she could’ve missed out on this, on him, was truly humbling.

Ten full minutes after they started, she finally was able to take him completely inside her, and for a long moment, he stayed perfectly still even as he gritted his teeth from the effort. “Okay?” he asked, sounding tortured.

“So good.”

“Move, Megan. Please … Move.”

With her hands flat against his chest, Megan began to swivel her hips, slowly at first and then faster as her body yielded to the invasion. Soon, soreness was forgotten, overtaken by the pleasure they found together.

He took hold of her hands and drew them up and over his head, bringing her down close enough to kiss him. The thrust of his tongue, the rub of her nipples against his chest hair and the fullness within her had her climbing again.

Needing air, she tore her lips free and sucked in greedy gulps. Without missing a beat, Hunter rolled them over so he was on top, pressing into her rhythmically but gently at the same time. “Feel good?”

She looked up to find him gazing down at her with those soft brown eyes that
saw
her the way no one ever had before. “Amazing.”

“For me, too.”

Under him, she squirmed, trying to get closer, needing him deeper. “Hunter …”

“I’ve got you, honey.” Seeming to know what she needed better than she did, he hooked his arm under her left leg and bent it to her chest, opening her fully to his deep strokes. He got the angle just right, making her moan.

“Let me hear you. There’s no one around. You can be as loud as you want.”

He bumped up against her clit, and she cried out.

“Again.” He did it again and again until she screamed from the orgasm that ripped through her.

She felt it everywhere, from the tips of her fingers to the bottoms of her feet and most intensely in the place where they were joined.

He pushed into her hard and fast, and then came with a shout that triggered another wave for her.

Four orgasms in thirty minutes was another first for her. With him warm and heavy on top of her and throbbing with aftershocks inside her, Megan knew a rare moment of perfect contentment, and it was all because of him.

S
ince there was no time to spare before Nina and her husband left town, Hunter used his morning coffee stop to set up a meeting with her for that afternoon, after the diner closed at two. Like always, the diner was full of people enjoying coffee and breakfast when Hunter came in at quarter after seven.

Megan caught his eye immediately, smiling and pointing to her wrist, letting him know he was right on schedule. He loved that no one in the diner knew she’d left his bed just over an hour ago. She made him want to shake things up, to bust out of the rut he’d been in for the thirteen years since he’d graduated from college. Until recently, the rut had worked well for him. But now he wanted to examine life outside the lines.

He’d begun his new experiment by not shaving again that morning. Two days in a row broke all his personal records, and his siblings would be all over him about it when they saw him. He planned to explain the stubble by telling them he was growing a beard. Let them wonder. The idea of him being even slightly unpredictable was preposterous to everyone who knew him, which made it fun to embrace the unexpected.

That it made Megan happy was the ultimate payoff. All she’d had to say was that she liked him with some stubble, and he’d put down his razor.

He chose a spot at the counter that gave him a full view of the diner and Megan as she went from table to table, talking, refilling mugs and smiling. She was smiling a lot. Did he dare to think he might have something to do with that? God, he hoped so.

Nina poured him a mug of coffee and slid the creamer and sugar across the counter.

“Can we talk later?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“My office after the lunch rush?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Thanks.”

Megan worked her way to his end of the counter and slid onto the stool next to him. “Could you hand me a mug, Neen?”

Her sister put one on the counter in front of her.

“Thanks.” Megan poured the last of the coffee in the pot she’d used for refills into her own mug and stirred in cream.

Hunter fought off a powerful urge to lean over and plant a long wet one on her in front of the hometown audience.

She glanced at him, as if she knew what he was thinking, and said, “Don’t.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Megan.”

She giggled behind her hand.
“Hunter.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t act so innocent. I know better.”

“Mmm, yes, you do.”

“You’re now officially five minutes over your allotted breakfast time.”

“Don’t tell my dad. He’ll dock my pay.”

“Wouldn’t you be the one to dock your pay?”

“Yeah,” he said, scratching at the stubble on his chin, “I guess I would.”

“So you can stay for another five minutes?”

“That can be arranged.”

“Good, because there’s something I want to show you in the office. Can you come see?”

Hunter tried to get a read on whether she actually had something she wanted to show him or if she wanted to be alone with him. Like a lovesick fool, he hoped it was the latter. “Lead the way.” He followed her into the kitchen, past Butch, the cook, who stopped what he was doing to give him a once-over. There was a dude Hunter wouldn’t want to screw with. He nodded to Butch, but the cook never so much as blinked.

Megan led him into a cramped office that had a desk, a chair and not much else. Squeezing around him, she closed the door to Butch’s prying eyes.

“What did you want to show me?”

“I made that up so I could do this.” She drew him down and into a kiss. “Before you did it in front of everyone.”

Hunter pinned her against the closed door and tipped his head to kiss her again. “You surprise the hell out of me, you know that?”

“Why? Because I wanted to kiss you as badly as you wanted to kiss me?”

“Yeah. I keep feeling like I’m going to wake up, and I’m still going to be wishing I could touch you like this.” To make his point, he cupped her breasts through her thin cotton T-shirt and felt her nipples harden immediately.

She returned the favor by caressing the erection that pressed insistently against his zipper. “You feel very much awake to me.”

All the air left Hunter’s body in one long, low sound that was part exhale, part moan.

The sound of a bell ringing snapped Hunter out of the desire-induced stupor.

“Megan!” Butch barked. “Pick up!”

“He’s such an ass,” she said, right before she initiated another kiss that involved tongue this time.

Hunter was actually weighing whether they could pull off a quickie in the office when the bell began to ring incessantly.

“Megan!”

“I don’t have any orders in, and he knows it. I’m going to kick his ass.”

“Is he into you?” Hunter asked. The thought had never before occurred to him, and the possibility left him reeling.

“No! He’s like a brother to me and Nina.”

“Does he know that?”

“Yes, Hunter,” she said, exasperated. “He’s very protective of us.”

The bell continued to ring repeatedly, which had to be annoying the patrons by now.

“Damn him,” Megan said, the second before she threw open the door. “What the hell, Butch?”

“You’re working.”

“I’m taking a break!”

“Not in there alone with him you’re not.”

“I’m going to be twenty-eight years old in a week. Leave me the hell alone.”

“No.”

“Yes!”

Hunter made a mental note of her upcoming birthday as well as the cleaver Butch held in his left hand. “I’ll see you later?”

Megan never blinked in her stare-down with Butch when she said, “Don’t go yet.”

Hunter stood awkwardly by her side until she finally ended the staring contest.

“Leave me alone, Butch. I mean it.” She took Hunter by the hand and all but dragged him out of the kitchen and back into the crowded diner right as Hannah and Nolan came through the door. They stopped short at the sight of Megan dragging Hunter around by his hand.

“Well,” Hannah said with a big smile for her brother, “looks like things are going well with you two lovebirds.”

Megan immediately released his hand. “I, um, I should get back to work.”

“I’ve got it, Meg,” Nina said. “Hang out with your friends.”

Though she had no good reason to be nervous, the thought of “hanging out” with Hunter’s twin sister and her husband filled her stomach with angry bats. She missed the butterflies.

His hand on her lower back helped to calm her as they followed Hannah and Nolan to a booth in the back of the diner.

Conversations halted and the volume dropped considerably as every patron stopped what they were doing to watch them walk by. No doubt Mrs. Andersen had already told the whole town she’d seen them together at the grocery store. In Butler, walking through the diner with Hunter Abbott’s hand on her lower back counted as a public coming-out party.

She appreciated that Hunter guided her into the side of the booth that put their backs to the prying eyes of the town. Across from them, Hannah, already glowing from her pregnancy, positively beamed at her brother.

“You two are so cute together,” Hannah said.

“Cut it out, Han.”

Megan glanced at him and was surprised to see him looking tense and out of sorts. “What’s wrong?” Was he embarrassed to have been caught with her by his sister? Was he not ready to make such a public declaration in front of the town? Did he not want people to know about them? The thoughts rifled through her mind one after the other, making her feel dizzy.

“Nothing. Sorry.” He put his arm around her and pulled her in tight against him, kissing the top of her head.

Megan’s face flamed with embarrassment as Hannah and Nolan watched with increasing amazement and curiosity.

“I take it things are going well?” Hannah asked.

“Hannah!” Hunter and Nolan said together.

“Leave them alone, babe,” Nolan said with a sympathetic look for Hunter.

“Like everyone left us alone when we were first dating?” Hannah asked her husband.

“That was different,” Hunter said.

“How so?” Hannah asked.

Had Megan ever noticed before how much the two of them looked alike? Right down to their expressions, the warmth in their brown eyes and their silky dark hair. She was the female version of Hunter and obviously shared his dry sense of humor.

“That was you. This is me. So it’s different.”

Hannah’s ringing laughter had her husband smiling at her mirth. “You’re so full of shit your eyes are brown,” Hannah said.

“That must be why your eyes are brown, too.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, and Megan held back a laugh she knew Hunter wouldn’t appreciate. They were too cute together. Pressed up against him, his arm heavy and strong around her, his incredibly appealing scent filling her senses, Megan felt herself relax ever so slightly. It felt good to be held in public by him, to sit with the sister who meant the world to him and have him tell his twin, with only his arm around Megan’s shoulders, that she mattered to him.