“Sounds boring.” Hunter’s voice dropped to a low rumble that rippled through her. “And lonely.”
Itwaslonely, but it was also necessary for her growth and independence. And her pride. Hunter wasn’t just charismatic—he was in charge of his world. And Mackenzie needed to make sure she didn’t let him take charge of hers.
“Are you okay?” he asked, taking her hand.
“I think the wall got the worst of it,” she joked, but he didn’t laugh.
“I wasn’t talking about today,” he said, and she could feel him taking in every nuance of her face, tracking down her neck.
“Why are you here?”
“I was worried about you. Wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m feeling a little awkward after last night,” she admitted. “But nothing so bad it won’t pass.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I’m feeling a little awkward myself,” he said softly. “We’re still feeling each other out, seeing how we fit.”
“What if we don’t fit anymore?” she whispered.
“What if we fit better than before?”
Always the optimist,she thought. She could even picture that crooked grin of his slowly lighting up as he said it.
Her hands ached to glide over his laugh lines, through his hair, feel if he still kept it a little shaggy. Would his smile make her heart two-step like it used to?
“Do you want me to show you what I look like?” he asked.
“How did you know?”
“You keep scanning back and forth like you’re trying to figure out what’s changed and what’s the same.”
“Old habit.”
Hunter brought her hands to his lips and brushed a light kiss over the tips of her clasped fingers. “Let me show you.”
Mackenzie almost said no. The reality that he’d be different, that he wouldn’t look like the image she carried with her to bed each night, was terrifying. It wasn’t the him-looking-different part that ate at her. It was finally having concrete proof that everything had changed that had her hesitating.
They were different people now, with different desires and needs. Once she touched his face, the last piece of the fantasy would finally shatter.
Maybe that’s what she needed to move forward. To let go completely. Push past theignorance is blissandwhat-ifsso she could accept the here and now.
With a hard swallow, Mackenzie lifted her hands to his face, her fingers trembling as they lightly brushed his cheeks. She let him guide her at first, breathing in the scent of him as her thumbs slowly trailed over his wide jaw, hard and masculine, the scent of his skin rising from the heat of her touch.
He released her wrists, dropping his head slightly, encouraging her to explore. After a moment’s hesitation, she moved her hands toward the high planes of his cheekbones, then smoothed them over the ridges of his eyebrows.
His long lashes fluttered shut and twitched lightly under her gentle inquiry. Willing her hands to stop shaking, she trailed her fingers down the bridge of his nose, detecting the slight bump earned in a bar fight in Denver. She smiled.
Hunter’s hands slid down her arms to her shoulders, finally settling on her waist, sending a familiar zing through her body. And what a zing it was. Electric, exciting, and tempting.
He tugged her closer, their hips brushing, her breath hitching.
She continued her exploration, lingering at a puckered slice of skin over his right brow, brushing back and forth over the angry mark. “A cut? It’s recent.”
His hands splayed across her waist, urging her even closer, their bodies perfectly aligned. “Brody and I had a, uh ... minor difference of opinion over his decision to keep you a secret.”
“A minor difference, huh?” She laughed softly, because nothing was the same, yet nothing was all that different either.
Sure, his stubble was rougher, his hair thicker, shorter. He even seemed bigger, his arms and chest more muscular, defined. But that smile.
