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My stomach fluttered at his pet name, and my chest cheered that he knew me well enough to sense my dishonesty.
I trailed my hands down his chest, attempting not to feel all sorts of sparks, and then I dropped my gaze to the ground, trying to think of how to get out of this without embarrassing the hell out of myself.
Hunter placed his knuckle beneath my chin and lifted it.
“Luna, talk to me.”
I bit my lip. “I don’t date, not seriously, and I don’t want to lead you on.”
His mouth curled up on one side. “And you and I would be serious?”
Heat engulfed my chest.
His knuckles brushed softly against my face once more, each touch sending electric charges down my torso and intensifying the heat between my thighs. Every fleeting contact seemed to crumble my carefully built defenses, challenging the resolve that I clung to.
But I had to hold on to my rational reasons. Every second I stayed on this counter, a fog of temptation swirled around me, but the damage it would cause if I surrendered fully was too big to bear. It was like a delicious cocktail that had far too much alcohol in it. Yes, it might be delightful while you were consuming it, but the next day, you would feel like crap.
“Why don’t you date seriously?” Hunter asked gently.
I shook my head.
“Luna, if I have any hope of controlling myself around you, you’re going to need to give me a damn good reason.”
When I twisted my hands on my lap, Hunter released my face and put his hands on mine.
“Tell me you don’t want this,” he said.
My eyes burned. “That’s the problem,” I said. “I…can’t.”
“Because?”
“It’s embarrassing.”
“Try me.”
I didn’t want to answer the question, but he needed to realize that this boundary was firm and uncrossable.
“I have a hard time trusting people,” I admitted.
Correction: I never trusted people. I never felt safe enough around anyone to do so.
“Because people assume your dad is guilty?”
I shook my head, unable to look him in the eye as I said, “People will claim to be there for you. They may even claim to love you unconditionally. But when push comes to shove, they’ll break your heart by turning their back on you and abandoning you when you’re most in need of their support.”
To put it bluntly, people will betray you.
This time, when he stroked the side of my face with his knuckles, he brushed my skin with a gentle, reassuring warmth rather than the underlying fire.
“Who hurt you, Luna?” A mixture of vengeance and worry pulsed through his words.
My heart’s fracture cracked opened slightly, like it always did when these thoughts invaded it.
“Everyone claimed they loved my father, and when he was first arrested, they believed in his innocence. I thought it wouldn’t matter how many times my dad was cast as some cold-blooded killer on the news, but I was wrong. Because one by one, they started to drop like flies. It was like a fire burning my home with us inside of it, and instead of helping us put out the flames, some of them doused it with gasoline, giving stories to the media that made him look bad.
“Once my dad was convicted, they all turned their backs on my mom and me. Every single one of them. No one wanted to talk to us anymore. The people that shocked me the most were our family members.”
A particularly sharp memory breached my dam and flooded my heart.
