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“Not at all, Hunter.” She gazed into my eyes meaningfully. “I’m fascinated. It would be so fantastic if you could go legit.” She leaned closer. "Spencer strictly forbade Graham from going into business with you because of your uncle." She gave me a sympathetic smile and shrugged. "He told Graham to cut you completely out of his life, but Graham refused. You two have such a long history."
"Your stepdad hates me," I said.
"He does," she replied and turned away, sighing. "When Graham said he wanted to start a business with you, Spencer said you could take the boy out of the hood, but you couldn't take the hood out of the boy."
I frowned, hating the way Spencer thought of me and my family.
"He's an idiot, of course, and wrong." She reached over and squeezed my hand again.
Warmth for her spread through me once more. It had hurt when Graham suggested we couldn't start Innova together after all. If I couldn't go into business with Graham, after all the years we’d planned to, I'd be on my own trying to make my father's business legit, and I knew I'd
get sucked into that vortex.
I squeezed her hand back and smiled. Celia was a hot one, but she was so damn smart and nice.
We released hands and I sighed, wishing Celia was someone I could keep in my life, but her stepfather would probably prevent that.
“You really want to be a Marine?” Celia said, sounding doubtful and I could see she didn't like the idea. "You'll get sent somewhere dangerous. You could die."
“I could die if I stayed and tried to take the business legit.”
That was the truth. It was hard to break ties with the family. I was proud of what my father had built—at least, the legitimate parts. But I wanted to be completely clean.
I took a long sip of beer and gazed out over the ocean, thinking of the future, not sure what direction to take in the military. I sighed heavily, and then turned to her. Her beautiful big brown eyes were liquid and so deep.
In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think that if she were anyone else, this little emotional moment would make it easier for me to seduce her. I hated myself for being so venal, but I was just as much a hot-blooded American man as any other.
"I'm proud of you," she said, "no matter what you do." She smiled at me.
I smiled back, glad that my sunglasses covered up my mist-filled eyes.
This could have been a great night. I wished Celia was anyone else but Graham’s little sister. If she had been, I would be anticipating getting to know her much more intimately.
Chapter 8
Hunter
All afternoon, each time she was alone for a few moments, guys walked up to her and tried to start conversations. She spent quite a bit of time with Greg, and while she did, I couldn't help but glare at them, trying to look as menacing at him as I could so he wouldn’t get any ideas. When she was alone, I quickly inserted myself back at her side. We spent a lot of time together as a result. Later, when I gallantly tried to leave her, feeling like I'd overstayed my welcome, she grabbed my arm and stopped me.
“Stay with me,” she whispered. “You’re the only person I know here besides Greg. I’m not good at this mixer thing.”
Of course, I couldn’t say no. While Greg was busy talking up some pretty young thing, Celia and I ate our dinner together, and even danced together around the bonfire. I ignored all the other young women I could have been seducing, not wanting to leave Celia alone with Greg.
Finally, just after sunset, we lay on the beach on a blanket to watch the stars, the party continuing a few dozen feet farther up on the beach. She truly did want to watch the stars—the Perseid meteor shower. We lay on the beach, the sound of the waves crashing a few feet away from us drowning out the sound of the party. My mind was focused on the location in the sky where the comet tail was, and where most of the meteors would appear.
We saw a few, and they were impressive. Still, my mind kept wandering to her lying beside me in the dark. I couldn’t stop imagining turning over and lying on top of her, my hands roving over her curves, squeezing a deliciously ample breast, and sucking on her tiny hard rosebud nipple, then moving down and sucking something else tiny and hard between her thighs…
Fuck.
Then, out of the blue, she rolled over on top of me, her hands on either side of my shoulders. When she leaned down to kiss me, I put one hand firmly on her shoulder to stop her. Believe me, it was the hardest thing I had done in a long while.
“Celia, no.”
Saying that took just about every ounce of chivalry I had in me, but I did it.
“Hunter," she said in a breathless voice. "Tell me you don’t want me and I’ll leave right now.”
“Of course, I want you but I can’t.” I could see her eyes in the darkness and her brow was furrowed.
