A long, heavy pause.
Then her voice cracked. “You must hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” he said immediately.
Doubtful eyes held his. “How can you not? I’ve lied to you.”
“No, you’ve lied to Archer and weren’t forthcoming that you’ve obtained a new name and a new identity when you were vetted for Phoenix,” he corrected. “That’s something you will need to square up with him. It’s none of my business. I do not work for Rhys or for Phoenix.” She stiffened, lips parting to respond, but he forged ahead. “You have never told me enough about yourself to lie to me. You’ve withheld things, yes, but never outright lied to me.” He hesitated to tuck her hair behind her ear and smiled gently, hoping she read his truth. “I live in a world that is not black and white. I see evil every day. You, Lottie, are not evil.”
Tears slid down her cheek. “But my past—”
“You cannot help what you were born into,” he said, adamant, cupping her face, desperate for her to hear him. “Besides, I can only imagine how hard it was for you to leave everything you knew behind.” Everything began to make sense. All the pieces that weren’t adding up over the couple of years of knowing her slowly coming together. “Which was why you never told Rhys or Archer the truth about your identity after you became friends with them outside of the club. Phoenix is too important to your future, isn’t it?” he guessed.
A nod. “When I first came to Phoenix, I came in with Andy,” she explained, a quiver to her voice. “When Rhys offered me a show and the financial gift, I thought it was a one-time deal. I never thought I’d become friends with anyone. I never thought I’d…”
“Care about everyone and have them care about you,” he offered.
Silently, tears falling from her eyes, she nodded again.
He let the quiet live on, giving her time to sort through her emotions and finally give him the truth. She eventually wiped the tears on her cheeks. “I wanted to say something, I did, so many times. But it was justme. Me to support myself. Me to make my dreams come true. If I admitted the truth, I wouldn’t have been allowed back to Phoenix. I wouldn’t have the money for vet school and my future. Most of all, I didn’t know how to tell everyone that I care about now, that I’ve been lying to them.” She bowed her head and whispered, “I didn’t want to lose the life I found here with all of you.”
Every word she said he understood and read as true. For so long, he couldn’t figure her out. Now his heart broke for her. To carry all this was a weight very heavy to bear. As Hunt processed, another realization hit him. The one thing that had never made any sense. “How do I tie into all this?” he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Is the real reason you’ve been pushing me away is because you think I’ll hate you for your past?’”
She lifted her eyes, dripping in sadness, to his. “One of the reasons.”
Curious, now, he asked, “What are the other reasons?”
She drew in a big, deep breath and rose, moving to the wall of windows, staring out at the skyscrapers and into the dark night. “Because how would that look for you if my identity is exposed? What do you think would happen—I’d come to your cop backyard BBQs? To the community events? Hunt, the cop moving quickly up the ranks, and his girlfriend, the fraud, who stole dirty money to pay for a fake identity, and the daughter of a drug lord. Can you even imagine?”
Heat coiled within him at the image that presented. He could see Lottie there at his side when he attended the annual Christmas party. He knew she’d fit right in with his team, and their wives. Like he could from day one, in a way that never made any sense. He could see her in his bed every morning, waking up sleepy and satisfied, just like he did this morning. “Yeah, Lottie, I can.”
“You’re crazy,” she said sharply with her back to him.
Needing to feelher,he closed the distance. “I am crazy—crazy about you.”
7
Ahundred words hung on Lottie’s tongue. Her heart leapt at the possibilities of a relationship with Hunt. She wantedhim,and she wanted to trust that everything could work out, but nothing was ever that easy. Having no shields against him anymore, she refused to look away from the window, staring out at nothing. “You’re not seeing things straight,” she told him adamantly.
His intensity burned at her back. “Why?” He sounded closer now.
“Because the second anyone finds out about my past, it’ll hurt your career.”
She knew the moment he closed in on her back, the strength behind her brushing against her flesh, raising goose bumps. She shivered as he said, “Are you protecting me, Lottie?”
He said her name so surely, like it didn’t matter what she was called before. Like, he knew her wholly…Lottie.Like she was the only one who mattered, and her heart melted under the truth in that. “I…” His body pressed against hers, his hard cock—that she’d seen wasbig—rested against her bottom. Heat flared from the tips of her toes to her head and pooled deliciously low in her body.
“Lottie,” he said firmly, his breath brushing over her ear.
Her eyes fluttered, and she moaned at the pleasure his voice promised, but she forced herself to turn to face him. Desire-filled eyes met hers. “I don’t want to ruin you.”
“What ruins me is not being allowed to touch you.” He slid his hand across her cheek, tangling his fingers into her hair. She began to lose herself at the tight grip. He leaned in closer, nearly brushing his lips with hers. “What ruins me is watching another man taste you.” He leaned in, his breath scenting of beer and ofhim—musk and man—filling the air between them. “What ruins me is knowing I want you and not being allowed to have you.”
“Hunt,” she whispered. “So much could go wrong.”
“How about you let me worry about that.” His lips met hers, and she had a second to remember that her past made it impossible for her to be with a cop. Until he slid his tongue between her lips, swiping up to the roof of her mouth and then sucking on her bottom lip, reminding her of just how talented his mouth was elsewhere.
He kissed her until she couldn’t think straight. He kissed her until her knees went weak. He kissed her breathless.
