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The man turns to Hunter, his eyes narrowing. “So, you’re Hunter Bennett?” he says. “You’re all grown up. Who’d have thought…?” He saunters over, full of swagger. “I’m an old friend of your dad’s. I’m in the city for a few days, and thought I’d drop by and see him.”
“But Dad’s been dead for over a year.” Hunter looks confused, and I have to admit, I am, too. If this man was a friend of Theodore Bennett’s, surely he’d have known about his death, wouldn’t he?
“Hmm… your secretary just told me,” the man says. “It’s such a shame. I’d been hoping to show him what genuine success looks like.”
Hunter’s demeanor changes. He stands up straight, towering over the other man. “Who are you? What do you want here?”
The other man smiles. “I just told you what I want. I came to show my old friend Theodore what a proper businessman looks like. As for who I am…” He shrugs his shoulders. “I guess I can’t blame you for not remembering. You were just a kid when I left town.” The man pauses and Hunter frowns, waiting. “I’m Ken Bevan.”
It’s like all the air is suddenly sucked from the room. I don’t know why, but that’s how it feels and even though Mr. Bevan holds out his hand for Hunter to shake, he ignores the gesture, his face paling.
Mr. Bevan doesn’t remove his hand, even after an abnormal length of time. He just stares at Hunter with a slight smile on his face. This is embarrassing, and I lower my eyes to my desk for a moment. Whoever this man is, he’s obviously someone from Theodore Bennett’s past… someone Hunter knows, too. There’s something about him I don’t like, and I wish he’d leave, although that doesn’t look likely and I wonder if I should suggest they move into Hunter’s office, just to break the interminable silence. I raise my head again, noticing that Hunter is now staring at me. I can’t make out his expression, other than that he seems bewildered. Or is that upset? Or maybe angry? I can’t work it out. All I know is something’s wrong. Something’s very wrong.
I step forward, wanting to help, and although Mr. Bevan opens his mouth to say something, Hunter ignores him, barging past and coming straight over to me.
“How could you?” he thunders and I step back again, fear coursing through me.
“Hunter? What are you saying? I don’t…”
“Don’t tell me you don’t fucking understand.” He shakes his head. “I knew your name was familiar.”
“My name?”
“Yes. Your fucking name.”
Okay. This is definitely anger. I can hear it in his voice… see it in his eyes. But behind that there’s fear, and hurt… hurt, like I’ve never seen before. Tears fill my eyes and I reach out for him. He steps back, though.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t you dare touch me.”
What? “Hunter, please… you’re not making sense.”
“I’m not making sense? That’s rich, coming from you. Everything you’ve said to me has been a goddamn lie.”
“That’s not true. I’ve never lied to you.”
He glares at me, breathing hard, and although I don’t know what’s going on, I’ve never been more scared in my life. I’m losing him, and I don’t even know why.
***
Hunter
I sit at my desk, wishing it could be evening already. I may have just told Livia I’d come in here and deal with my long list of emails, but I also told her I wanted to fuck her the moment we get to the house tonight… and that’s too distracting.
She’s always distracting, it seems. Even when she doesn’t mean to be.
I can’t help smiling when I think about last weekend and how nervous she was on the journey to Newport, how she barely said a word throughout dinner, and how scared I was by the time I took her upstairs… all because her period had started.
She was worried we wouldn’t be able to make love, but we did, in the shower, and it was spectacular. It always is, and afterwards, once we’d dried off, we climbed into bed, and I held her in my arms. We were quiet for a while, but then she leaned up and looked at me, a troubled expression on her face.
“Can you explain something to me?”
“Sure.” I’d explained quite a few things to her since our first time together, and I’d grown accustomed to her questions, and to answering them. I enjoyed it. To me, it brought us closer, and I gazed into her eyes.
“Why is it you only use certain words when we’re…?” She let her voice fade, and although I knew what she was trying to say, I was intrigued.
“What words?”
“You know what words, Hunter.”
