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Shit.
“I’m thirty-two, Hunter. It’s the perfect time to have a baby.”
“I’m not ready for offspring.”
“But my business is booming, and we’re happy and together—”
“If we’re happy, my love, why aren’t I escorting you tonight?”
“Hunter, we’ve already talked about this.”
His shoulders dropped, and he strode to the kitchen where he poured himself a vodka on ice. He lifted the glass and pointed my way. “No, Gracie.Youtalked about it, and because your reputation is more important than me, you chose not to take me.” He took a sip. “What are you afraid of?”
I was worried about Hunter. Last Christmas, he took a tumble down the stairs at the salon and pissed himself when he reached the bottom. Alcohol and Hunter didn’t mix well.
“I never thought you’d be one to care what people think about you because you have it all. But you hide me like a dog in a shed. Is it really me you want tonight, Grace, or my sperm?”
I swung my hand, aiming for a slap, but he gripped my wrist before my palm connected with his cheek.
“Fuck you, Hunter. This is exactly why I can’t take you to serious events.” I yanked my wrist free.
“The least you can do is be honest. Why won’t you take me? What am I to you? I fix your car and your bike. I bring groceries and cook. I take you out on dates like all boyfriends do, while most of my friends stay out and party from Monday to Sunday. I go to school, I work, and I’m in what I hope is a committed relationship. Yet you’re embarrassed by me.”
He took another swig.
“Hunter, you’re wonderful—”
“But?”
“But you go to school, and you’re twenty-one.”
“Yet I’m old enough to make a baby. What’s going to happen after you’re pregnant, Grace? If you can’t introduce me to your friends as your boyfriend, how would you introduce me as the father of your child? Would you even want me in your life?”
My child.I sighed internally.
“They would talk about you, wouldn’t they? Fucking Cougar Court.” He motioned south to the front of my house. My neighborhood girlfriends, all single businesswomen over thirty, liked to talk.
“We should change your address to Gossip Court.”
My neighbors hadn’t welcomed Hunter with open arms, but let’s be honest. I did live on Cougar Court, and we all lived up to the street’s name. When Hunter first moved in, Lexie came out for a jog around the court every time Hunter washed my car in the middle of a heat wave. Carly loved Hunter’s help with the lawn mowing, and he’d drained Susanne’s pool for the third year in a row after the company botched up the liner. But after he helped them, he was mine and all mine. Day and night, he fucked me like an animal, and I screamed past the open windows. But as amazing as he was, taking Hunter to a party would be like adding fuel to a fire, and when flames flared, so did Hunter. The bounty hunter-in-training at Silver Securities lived up to his adventurous name.
“Hunter—”
“Grace, all I’m saying is that I’d love to be seen as more. I’m not one of your aunt’s manservants.”
I brushed my hand over his cheek and curled his dark hair around my finger. This evening wasn’t starting out the way I’d imagined, but I’d be damned if it didn’t end with him between my thighs and deep in my vagina.
“Please don’t insult me, Hunter. You know how I feel about you and how much I want you.”
“Do I? Your friends don’t know I exist, and your neighbors think I’m your boy toy.”
I drew back my hand, and his curl sprang off my finger. “My family knows about you, and that should be enough.”
“Yet it isn’t enough to earn a permanent spot in your life.”
The grandfather clock struck six times, and I let go of my dress. If he wasn’t hard in thirty seconds, we’d run out of time. I curved my hand over his dick, but he stepped aside.
“Fine. You wanna be this way, then be this way. I gotta go, but I’ll see you later tonight.”
