Dial M for Ménage (8 page)

“I’m sorry.” Liam sighed. “I have to be honest. I need more than this.”

A sudden weight dropped in Hunter’s gut. “Keep talking.”

“I don’t want to talk to you on the damn phone,” Liam said. “I want to see you. When are you coming back to D.C.?”

“If you’re calling this off—”

“
No
. Jesus. The traveling and the long-distance are driving me crazy. Except for last weekend, I’ve only seen you long enough to fuck you. I didn’t want you for another lover. I wanted you for another partner.” Liam slammed a door, and then Hunter heard a bottle cap go flying into the kitchen sink. “Kat’s my friend as much as she is my lover. I want that with you, the same as I have it with her.”

Silence fell. Figuring Liam wasn’t finished yet, Hunter kept his mouth shut. As he looked around the room, waiting for Liam to resume, he caught sight of his reflection in the long mirror mounted on the back of the closet door. He wore civilian clothes, but his stance was anything but. He had unconsciously planted his feet wide and loosened his knees into a combat-ready crouch. Shaken by his instinct to fight, he straightened and turned away from the mirror. His pulse was fast, and his muscles felt hot and confused, ready for a threat that hadn’t manifested. He closed his eyes and blew the aggressive urges out through his nose.

“I’m going to be in Baltimore Saturday morning,” he said into the static of Liam’s breathing.

“Is golf too much of a pussy sport for you?” Liam asked a moment later.

Hunter didn’t make a habit of walking eighteen holes, but wasn’t a stranger to the game. He grasped at the opportunity to defuse Liam’s tension. “I’m down with golf. Does your course do club rentals or do I have to borrow a set from a friend?”

“I’ll hook you up. We’ll head out after our meeting with Kat and get back together with her for dinner.”

“Yeah, cool. Have you talked to her about that thing with Jen?”

Silence.

Hunter swore. “Man, you cannot surprise her with this.”

“I don’t want Kat to worry yet. Jen could change her mind and decide to keep the baby. I need to get a better read on Jen before I bring all this to Kat. Then there’s still the matter of you. I want to know how a kid will affect your part of what we have going,” Liam said. “And don’t fucking shrug at me. I can’t see it, and anyway, it didn’t tell me anything the first time I asked you.”

“What do you want me to say? I’m in this. You, me, and Kat, we’re in this. I won’t choose a kid over the two of you and I won’t tell you it’s either me or a kid. If the two of you want to adopt Jen’s baby—if Kat gets pregnant—” He stopped talking, suddenly unable to breathe.

Shit. Fuck. The image that popped into his head nearly knocked him on his ass. Hunter lowered the phone from his ear and braced his hands on the edge of the counter. As he stared at the green-and-gold-speckled laminate, his entire paradigm shifted off center.

Liam’s voice through the phone snapped Hunter out of his emotional free fall and he clapped the phone back to his ear. “Does Kat want kids? Why the hell didn’t we discuss this?”

“She wants—Christ. We can’t do this over the phone.” Liam was breathing hard, as if he, not Hunter, had suddenly stared into the eye of his future and seen it morph into something foreign. “Look, forget about Jen right now. Get Kat from the airport tonight, let her work through her list of rentals tomorrow and we’ll figure this out later.”

Later wasn’t good enough. “If she gets pregnant, the two of you should have legal guardianship. I want to be involved but I don’t want a kid to suffer because I’m deployed. And no DNA tests unless there’s a medical emergency. I don’t want that knowledge between you and me. You might need DNA testing to apply for my death benefits, but I have savings and investments that aren’t tied up by military regulations. Those will go to a kid. Or kids.”

“Hunter. Shut up.” Liam paused like he was waiting for Hunter to keep going. After a minute, he continued. “Nobody’s dying or getting DNA tests or, Jesus, deciding between singular or plural. This is not something we need to deal with right now.”

“Saturday. No later than that. This is fucking important, and thanks to Jen, it’s also urgent. If you don’t bring it up at our meeting, I will. Am I clear?”

“Crystal,” Liam said.

“Fine.” Hunter closed his eyes.

Liam sighed. “All right. I’m taking Jen’s kids to dinner. Tell Kat I love her.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Later.”

Hunter ended the call and threw his phone onto the kitchen counter, where it skidded into a corner. After several deep breaths to get his shit together, he grabbed the phone and his jacket and left the apartment. He needed the dose of Marine-style reality that wings and a few beers with his Basic buddy promised to deliver.

Chapter Seven

As soon as the pilot cleared passengers for cell phone use, Kat called Liam. His voice mail picked up and she ended the call without leaving a message. Instead, she sent Hunter a text to let him know her flight had landed and stood to pull her carry-on out of the overhead compartment. Within about ten minutes, she had joined the crowd of debarking passengers looking for their people in the terminal.

Her person leaned against a wall directly across from the exit, his shoulders mouthwateringly broad. Hunter wore civilian clothes. Faded jeans replaced his camouflage pants and a distressed leather jacket hung open over his snug gray Henley. Kat took a certain amount of pleasure from seeing him in uniform, all stern and untouchable, but she had never really been the men-in-uniform type.

Uniforms just got in the way of all the delicious male hardness underneath. His street clothes weren’t exactly giving her the eyeful she craved, but they at least suggested at the treasures they hid. Take, for example, the faint outline of his six-pack, which showed where his shirt clung to his stomach.

Yum.

Plus, he was a little less physically distant when out of uniform. Or she was less rigidly aware of his public touching rules. Tonight, needing the physical connection with him after being alone with her troubling thoughts, she was relieved by the jeans.

Hunter seemed to appreciate her attire equally. He didn’t even try to hide his interest in her legs, which she knew were displayed just right in calf-hugging suede boots and a jersey wool skirt that clung to her hips and stopped just above her knees. A smile played over her lips as she approached, watching his eyes change even while his face remained expressionless.

Eventually they made eye contact and her insides flexed in response. Kat tried to remember how long it had taken her to move past lust at first sight with Liam. Considering she and Liam had barely made it to the parking garage before getting into each other’s clothes when he returned from Vegas recently, and they’d been sleeping together for more than a decade, she resigned herself to a very long stretch of public arousal around Hunter.

“I am so screwed,” she said when she drew even with him.

“Did you break some kind of in-flight rule? Should I be on the lookout for security?” He took her carry-on, leaving her with just her purse.

“Well, I turned my phone back on before the pilot gave the all-clear, but that’s not the kind of screwed I’m talking about.” She chuckled.

The crowd flowed around them as the plane emptied. Hunter spread his hand at the small of her back and drew her closer, out of the path of a large, loudly complaining family. He held her there for a minute and Kat took advantage of the opportunity to lean against him, breathing in his clean, warm scent.

“I think it’s just circumstances,” she said, thinking back to a few days earlier when she was the one meeting Liam at the airport after a business trip.

“What is?” Hunter’s voice came from several inches above her head and Kat realized she’d been rubbing her cheek against his chest. And he wasn’t stiffening up or pushing her away, despite their public position. Interesting.

“I just realized I get all hot and bothered every time I lay eyes on you. I tried to figure out when Liam and I got so comfortable with each other that we stopped acting like oversexed newlyweds, but then I remembered picking him up from the airport last week. So I think it’s situational. Every time I see you, it’s after a few days apart, so of course my panties get all wet. Absence and reunion, see?” She tilted her head back to look up at him. His grin made her narrow her eyes. “What?”

“It’s not situational. Record yourself at home sometime and you’ll see.” He dropped his hand from her back and patted her hip. “Let’s get out of here. Do you have any other luggage?”

“No, this is it. I could only get away for a day, and I’ll pay for it on Friday when I’m scrambling to fill orders and get everything shipped before the weekend starts. I don’t want to have to worry about that when we have our relationship meeting Saturday morning.” They made their way through the terminal, Kat taking directional cues from Hunter as he led the way toward the exit. “You’re driving back Friday night?”

“Yeah. My ETA will depend on traffic but I’ll be at your house Saturday morning.” He shouldered through a pair of glass double doors and held one door open for Kat.

“Good. I think we all need to reconnect after all the travel we’ve been doing. We should finalize moving plans, but it’ll just be nice to all three be in the same room together.” As she stepped into the damp evening, she lifted her face to the sky and took a deep breath. The scent of rain and muddy earth surrounded her senses, different from the exhaust-soiled snow and frozen ground she’d left behind in Baltimore.

“It really is different here, isn’t it? It’s only about four hundred miles but it feels like a completely different season.”

“Don’t get used to it. The locals say it’s only going to last about a week and then it will be winter again.” Hunter pulled his keys from his pocket and pressed a button on the key fob. His alarm system beeped and flashed from a few spaces away.

Kat covered her ears. “Don’t tell me that. I’m pretending this is spring break.”

“You’re wearing too many clothes for spring break.” Hunter circled to the passenger side of the car, where he held the front door open for her.

“Just wait until we get to my hotel.” She winked before sliding into the car.

Hunter didn’t say anything but Kat thought she heard him growl before he closed the door. Grinning, she buckled up and waited for him to stash her carry-on and join her in the car.

“I got something for you,” she said once they were on their way out of the parking lot.

“Yeah?” His tone was distracted, his attention on pulling up to the tollbooth.

“Mmm-hmm.” She didn’t elaborate and he didn’t ask. Kat held her purse on her lap and fingered the strap. Excitement fluttered in her abdomen but nerves tempered her desire to come right out with her surprise. Deciding to wait until she had him locked in the hotel, maybe without pants, she shifted her bag to the floor.

“What is it?” Hunter asked a minute later, taking his eyes off the road long enough to glance at her.

“Not telling yet.” She diverted him by giving directions to her hotel, which was part of a large middle-of-the-road chain. It would be a far cry from the fancy establishment Liam chose for Valentine’s Day, but Kat was okay with that. Well, she would have preferred an invitation to stay at Hunter’s new apartment, but he hadn’t offered and she hadn’t asked. She took Hunter’s public appearance limits very seriously. Since his public image would naturally extend itself to his neighbors, many of whom were probably also working at Lejeune in one capacity or another, she doubted she would ever see the interior of his rental.

She suspected Hunter would be more comfortable at a hotel, anyway. And she needed him comfortable if she was going to successfully coax him along the path he had been resisting.

He reached across the space between the seats, wound a lock of her hair around his fingers, and gave a tug. “You’re quiet. What are you planning?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” She was unable to suppress a mischievous smile. “Trust me.”

“You know I do.” He released her hair but spread his fingers across her thigh, maintaining contact.

“Yeah,” she murmured, thinking about her plans for the evening. “I do.”

The interior of the car was suddenly hot, the air thick and heavy. Kat breathed it in through her nose, relishing the tension. She enjoyed fast and hard as much as the next person—and Hunter certainly knew how to deliver that—but building anticipation was a lost art.

Kat feathered her fingertips along the length of Hunter’s fingers. She couldn’t see the fine, dark hairs in the dark of the car so she concentrated on the sensation of touch. His fingers were lean, his knuckles rough from the old, tiny scars he’d acquired during his years of service. She knew how they felt spreading across her stomach, gripping her thighs, stretching her for his pleasure...and hers. The sight of his strong hands encircling Liam’s cock was enough to steal her breath and send bolts of lust through her extremities. But she wanted more. She needed to see his warrior’s hands fisting in the bedcovers, clawing and digging for more.

She cleared her throat and opened her eyes to the glow of traffic. “How much farther?”

“Next exit.” Hunter’s words were clipped. Kat glanced at him, noting his tense jaw. She couldn’t be sure in the erratic light shed by oncoming traffic, but she thought she detected a flush of arousal staining his neck.

Throwing him a bone, she said, “It should only take a couple minutes to check in. I booked everything and paid online so I just need to pick up my room key.”

Hunter nodded, flipped the turn signal and shifted lanes to exit the highway. The sign for her hotel was visible from the end of the exit ramp. Hunter dropped her off at the front entrance and circled the full lot to find a place to park. By the time he strode into the lobby, Kat was waiting near the elevator bank with her key card. Neither of them spoke until the hotel room door closed heavily behind them.

“Don’t move.” Hunter stood behind her. He gathered her hair in one hand and pushed it over her shoulder, baring the back of her neck above the collar of her coat.

Closing her eyes, she tipped her head forward but otherwise held perfectly still. Hunter’s breath touched her first, a warm caress that preceded the stroke of his lips. A shiver rolled down her spine.

“Hunter.” She meant to divert him, to warn him she had plans that put her behind him instead of the other way around, but instead his name came out as a moan. He pursued the low sound of pleasure by repeating the caress. Kat leaned back into him and he reached around her to loosen the toggles that secured her coat.

Her breasts responded instantly to the light pressure of his fingers working down the front of her body. When her coat hung loose on her shoulders, Hunter gathered the hem of her thin sweater and dragged it up to bare her stomach.

Palming her bare belly, he pulled her back against his hips and spoke against her cheek. “You’re always so damn silky. I want to strip us both naked and rub myself all over you.”

That visual sent her erogenous zones onto high alert. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of the way her nipples stabbed the lacy cups of her bra and the abrasion of elastic at the join of her pelvis. Craning her neck, she grazed his jaw with a kiss. “Let’s do the naked part right now. We’ll negotiate the rubbing.”

“Negotiating? Like we’re discussing a business deal?” Hunter straightened and divested her of her coat and sweater before she knew what was happening. Her hair floated around her head in a mussed cloud, temporarily obscuring her vision. By the time she had pushed the heavy mass out of her eyes, Hunter had her bra unhooked and was skimming the straps down her arms.

“I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” She turned in the circle of his arms and gathered handfuls of his jacket. While Hunter ran his fingers around her waist in search of her skirt’s hidden zipper, she pushed his jacket off his shoulders. Hunter paused to jerk his arms from the sleeves before resuming his quest.

“What would you say, exactly?” He found the zipper at her hip. A moment later, the soft material slid down her legs and puddled on the floor, leaving her in her boots and a thong.

Kat tipped her head back and raised her eyes to meet his. “I want you to trust me tonight.”

Hunter stilled. His hands rested on her ass, one hand gripping each cheek. Kat could feel each fingertip pressing against her flesh, ten small points of tense contact. Before he could question her, she asked, “Do you think you can do that? Trust me to show you how it would feel?”

“You’re talking about me taking Liam in my ass,” he said flatly.

Kat held herself motionless, trying to minimize any threat he might detect. She waited until her breathing pattern matched his before saying, “Yes. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s been almost two months since you let me touch you in the shower, and you haven’t said anything else or given any indication you’re interested in testing your limits. I think we should revisit. I want—would really, really
love
to touch you again. Please be open to this.”

He released her ass and took a step back. A muscle ticked at the corner of his eye. “Was this Liam’s idea?”

“No. Yeah, he wants to fuck you. He loves you and he wants to be able to express that without boundaries. But for all his flaws, he one hundred percent respects your physical limits. Even when he asks, he respects your refusal. I’m the one who is impatient.” Kat licked her lips, watching him carefully as she spoke. Under her scrutiny, a variety of emotions crossed his face. She stared, stunned by the realization that he wasn’t currently wearing his stony Marine mask. Awed by the gift he gave by letting her see his confusion, trepidation and, in the end, arousal.

But he still wasn’t completely sold. “Why do you want this?”

Kat shrugged and lowered her gaze, giving him a moment of emotional privacy. “I haven’t given it a lot of thought in a psychoanalysis sense. I just want it. More and more often, that’s the fantasy I get off to. The thought of fucking you makes me so wet, my pussy aches. I’ve had to stop in the middle of my work day to find relief because I want it so bad, I can’t think about anything else except taking you.”

Hunter’s voice was strangled. “Jesus, Kat.”

“I wanted to tell you sooner, but the timing never seemed right.” She fingered the hem of his shirt, gravitating to his body heat. The hotel room was cold and she abruptly realized she was shivering. “Listen, you don’t have to decide right now. And you can say no, of course. At any time, about anything.”

When he didn’t say anything after a minute, Kat’s confidence started to flag. “Hunter, I mean it. If you don’t—”

He covered her hands and pressed her fists hard against his stomach before pushing them away. The ragged quality of his voice hadn’t softened. “Just give me a minute, kitten. Take off those boots and get in bed. You look like you’re freezing.”