Two Halves of a Whole
The muted morning sunshine filters through the white flowy drapes. Groaning, I wipe the sleep from my eyes. I’m alone, but the bathroom door is ajar. Fragrant steam floats through the sliver of space. Someone is in the shower. When the water stops I shut my eyes, playing possum. If I see Hunter and Candy walk out the bathroom together, I don’t think I would be able to keep my sanity a second longer.
Footsteps shuffle against the dark grey carpet. There’s a pause before Hunter pounces on the bed. I say Hunter because even with my eyes closed tight I know his touch and the scent of his body. I know him so well I’m positive I can distinguish him from others in my sleep. He drags his damp body up mines, wedging his hips between my legs. Hunter nuzzles his face in the crook of my neck and deeply inhales. The strands of his wet hair tickle my collarbone.
I slowly open my eyes. “Good morning to you, too.”
“Morning, baby. You sleep okay?”
Holding my breath for a moment, I try to control the shiver that ripples down my spine. Hunter’s lips move across my neck—right below my earlobe as he speaks. “Yeah, I slept okay. Did you sleep okay?”
He kisses my neck before he brings his face to my line of sight. Hunter gives me a shy, impish smile that makes my heart stutter. “I can’t complain.”
“I bet,” I mutter, smiling too. I vaguely wonder if my morning breath is horrid and if I have dried drool crusted on the sides of my face. He’s so very close to me, but he doesn’t seem to mind if I do. Reaching up, I sift through his damp hair, loving the feel of its silkiness. “You’re being sweet to me today. What tragedy am I in for?”
His brows knit together but he still smiles when he asks, “Why can’t I be sweet to you without an ulterior motive.”
I hold his face in my hands, gazing into dancing blue eyes. “Because that’s not you.”
“You would be surprised,” he murmurs, lowering his head to kiss me. I tense and keep my lips clamped tight when his tongue nudges entrance into my mouth. His hands glide underneath the shirt I have on, up my hips and travels up my stomach. He cups my breasts, running the pad of his thumbs against my harden nipples. I gasp and Hunter thrusts his refreshing cinnamon toothpaste-flavored tongue into my mouth.
“I have morning breath,” I explain.
He kisses me passionately. “No you don’t. I wouldn’t care if you did.” Hunter kneads my breasts and grazes my nipples with pads of his thumbs for a moment longer, maintaining eye contact throughout it all. My body heats to a scalding degree beneath his. My blood feels like liquid fire. I’m suddenly aware of a brown towel wrapped around Hunter’s waist is the only article of clothing shielding me from him.
“Hunter?” I whisper in a needy tone.
He skims his mouth over mine. “I’m right here.”
“What are you doing?”
He removes his hands from my breasts, only for one to rest on the flat plane of my stomach and the other clasping my jaw. “I need to be inside you again, Isabel. It’s all I’ve been thinking about. It’s difficult for me to concentrate on anything else when I only want to be in one place.”
“I don’t think we should. Last night…last night was a mistake—”
He kisses me before I can say anymore and then his body begins the descent down mine. “Are you sore?”
“Sore?” I ask, unsure of what he means.
Hunter’s finger pushes inside me and I whimper. “Yes. Sore?”
“Yes.” He plunges deeper, eliciting a grunt and whimper before removing his finger.
“Do you want something for that? I have Aleve in the medicine cabinet. They’re gel capsules, so they should work almost instantly with alleviating the pain,” he murmurs to my abdomen.
I swallow loudly as I watch a mass of wavy blonde hair slide down my body. “I don’t mind. I have a high tolerance for pain.”
Hunter gives a beguiling smile and places a hand on both my knees, spreading my thighs apart. “I have to be inside you. You do understand that, right?”
Staring at beautiful Hunter for the briefest of moments, I realize that he isn’t accustomed to being denied. “If I say ‘no’, will you stop?”
My lips press together when he narrows his eyes. “Yes, but I wouldn’t want to. Just say the word and I’ll stop. Promise.”
His turbulent blue eyes hold mine steady as I stare at him for a moment longer, considering if I want to proceed. But I was a goner when he smiled and whispered, “Morning baby.”
He never said those words to me. I sometimes imagined he did, even wished he did at times. Waking up to those words and his smile is enough to stun me into utter awe and submission. Hunter can have whatever he desires from me.
“Okay. I’m ready.”
“Figured,” he says through a smug grin, mockingly trailing his finger through the wet that pools between my legs.
My hips buck at his touch. “You don’t have to be so cocky,” I half moan and half murmur, teasing.
“I can’t help but be self-absorbed when you look at me the way you do.”
He slips two fingers inside of me, causing my back to arch. “How do I look at you?” I ask, genuinely curious. If I get his perspective on the way he sees me, maybe it will help guide me in the right direction with Hunter.
Should I stay with him and work through this tangled mess together?
Or should I leave while I have the sanity and determination to do so?
“Like I made the stars, like I’m heaven’s gift,” he whispers, kissing the sensitive skin of both inner thighs.
“You are heaven’s gift. You’re the best gift I’ve ever gotten.” I watch in complete fascination as his facial features get soft and his eyes sparkle with an emotion I can’t quite comprehend. Whatever it is, it makes Hunter appear more desirable; I wouldn’t have known that was possible until now.
He kisses my knees and crawls back up my body. “I was going to eat your pussy until you shoved at my head again and begged for mercy.”
“How romantic,” I say, voice laced with sarcasm. Reaching up I cradle his face in my hands.
“Now all I want to do is hold you in my arms and gaze into your eyes all day.” He smiles and shakes his head. “This is bad.”
My brows snap together and I pout, disappointed at what he has to say. “Why is that bad?”
He nuzzles my neck with his nose, causing me to shudder. “Because I’m not thirteen anymore, Isabel. But with you, I still feel like I’ll always be that lovesick boy, whose world doesn’t revolve unless Isabel Charm Waters is a part of it.”
My fingertips trace the contours of his devastatingly handsome face. “Hunter Star Knight, I felt that way since you shoved me off the swing. You were mean and demanding back then too.”
He smiles, placing kisses on random parts of my face and neck. “I get like that when I see something worth protecting. But, then again, I guess that’s just me.”
“But, then again, I guess it’s just you,” I whisper through a smile, my fingers sketching his full lips.
He draws index finger into his mouth, nipping it.
I gasp and drop my hands to his smooth and muscled body, running my fingers down the line of his spine.
“Never put your fingers near a greedy animal’s mouth. You will always get bit.” Hunter sweeps kisses from my cheekbones, down to the edges of my jaw, to my lips.
“Savage,” I accuse.
Hunter sucks on my earlobe. “I’ve been called worse.” Groaning, I shut my eyes and just feel the immense power of his entire body engulfing mine, his impossibly hot skin rubbing against mine, spicy and sweet cinnamon breath beating against my neck. “I never thought I’d be here with you like this. I never thought I wanted to be here with you like this. But, more importantly, I never knew I needed you to be here like this.”
Opening my eyes, I hold his face in my hands. We search each other’s eyes for what seems like an infinite amount of time. He smiles and kisses the tip of my nose. It’s a meaningful gesture that I always loved from the very beginning. Warmth settles in my stomach, causing me to feel light-headed and queasy. My heart is beating a mile a minute.
“What’s happening? What are we doing?” I ask, fully terrified of his answer and afraid and bewildered of actually taking down my guard and being emotionally vulnerable to him as well as physically. But being emotionally defenseless against him will be more harmful…when he decides to leave me again.
“We’re going to explore this, whatever this is. Are you with me?”
I manage to nod, my heart beating erratically in my throat. I don’t trust my voice enough to answer.
His hands cup my backside, pushing my torso up to meet his. “Good. I’m glad we can agree on something for once. That’s a start.”
Grinning mischievously, I reach down and yank the towel off from Hunter’s waist, tossing it somewhere on the floor. “Are you going to talk me to death or fuck me now?”
He laughs softly, his blue eyes shimmering. After I’m satisfied with staring at his striking face, I notice the heat and hardness of him. His erection grazes the sides of my thighs. I glance down at his magnificent body—he’s all toned muscle and hard edges and tanned skin but his erection is just huge, thick, and beautiful like everything else attached to him.
So unbelievably sexy.
Hunter harshly grasps my jaw, jerking my face back up to him. “Didn’t I say we have to work on that smart mouth of yours? You don’t fuck me. I fuck you. Always.”
“You don’t like a woman on top?” I provoke, bringing my legs up and squeezing the sides of his ribs with my thighs.
His fingers curl into my flesh, it’s not painful exactly…just demanding. A menacing smile with many white teeth is his only response.
“Luckily for you, I get off on my back—” Hunter reaches down between us and slips a thick finger inside me, swirling in a slow motion.
I moan and shut my eyes, then I feel his supple lips at the shell of my ear. “You don’t want to piss me off while I’m between your legs, baby,” he plunges his finger deeper inside of me and my hips buck and my heels dig into the mattress, “I might not let you come at all. But, luckily for you, I like the taste of your pussy way too much to ever pass it up.” Without another word Hunter withdraws his finger and kisses and nips his way down my belly. I inhale sharply once his hot mouth is on me. His ravenous tongue and mouth licks and sucks away. I writhe and twist from side to side, attempting to escape him, but his long fingers wrap around both wrists and pins my hands down at my sides. The more I squirm, the harder he holds me down and the more aroused we both get. I’m incapable of moving any further.
Hunter skillfully slides his warm tongue up and down my wet and sacred flesh, eliciting breathy screams and sobs. He explores and opens me up with his mouth, his tongue surging inside of me with an eager persistence. Then he growls into me and I feel the vibration all the way inside my chest.
“Ohmigod…God, this feels…I can’t take anymore.” I shake and helplessly convulse with an overwhelming orgasm on top of his hungry mouth.
“My baby is sore, so I’ll take it easy on her today.” He kisses me softly there and then makes his way back up my body. My knees clamp together but he spreads me open like a blooming flower that’s ready to be extracted. He stares down at me with a solemn expression. “I’m going to be careful this time. I promise.” Then he slowly and carefully sinks inside, stretching me.
My lips part and my eyes widen, my hands fisting in the sheets underneath me. “Oh, God. Oh, God.” My body trembles around him and my eyes rolls to the back of my head.
He kisses my parted lips, whispering, “It’s only the tip, Isabel. Try not to come until I come. No. Don’t come until I say so. If you break my command, then you better prepare for the consequences…and it might not feel as good as my dick.”
Instead of thrusting into me, he effortlessly, inch by inch, slides into me. He grunts lowly once he reaches the base of his shaft. I never felt so full and stretched in my life. Though my eyes are closed, I feel his heated gaze boring into me. He kisses my parted lips and settles his weight on his elbows, caging my head in so I have no choice but to look up at him when I open my eyes.
I unconsciously place my hands on his scorching, smooth chest. The fire inside of him is enough to keep me warm forever. His lips trail my jaw line, his teeth scarping the skin there. “Why are you fighting me?”
“I’m not.”
He partly draws out and then pushes into me. My breath hitches as I feel my internal muscles clench around him. If he keeps this up, then I’m going to orgasm and I’m dreading the “consequences.”
“You are. You’re physically pushing me away now. Let me in.” He withdraws and plunges into me.
Every fiber in my body quivers and tightens. “I’m trying,” I whine.
“Try harder,” he whispers, sinisterly. He slides out and rears up, causing my legs to wrap around his hips and stiffen.
Pleasant and overwhelming sensations ripple throughout my body. I push through the warm tingly waves and suppress my orgasm. A fine sheen of sweat coats our skin. The arousing scent of sweet musk from our bodies is causing me to become dizzy. He pushes into me over and over again, each time I have to remind myself not to give in, and each and every time it gets more difficult to do so. Though he isn’t using his full strength to thrust into me, what power his does wield is enough to make me beg and surrender.
Tears form in my eyes and leak on the sides of my face. “Why are you crying? Am I hurting you?”
My hands automatically thread into his shaggy golden hair as I open my eyes. The expression of pure concern on his stunning face makes my heart hurt. “No you aren’t hurting me. I just…” I tilt my pelvis up.
He glances down at where we meet and nods, understanding completely what I need. Hunter gently rocks in and out of me with a steady, unrelenting rhythm that feels phenomenal. “You feel like heaven, Isabel. Christ, you’re made for me. Only for me.”
“Harder. I don’t want you to be nice to me.”
Growling, Hunter mercilessly grinds into me, holding my wrists down, his nails cutting into my scars there. Marvelous pleasure explodes in every fiber of my body, robbing me of oxygen.
I gasp for air as fierce convulses surges through me and I climax.
My arms hug his smooth back, pressing him closer into me, wishing I can somehow absorb into the pores of his skin and stay there forever. I can hardly breathe with his weight bearing down on me but it feels all kinds of wonderful. He fucks me through my orgasm. “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God,” I chant like a mantra.
His thrusts deeper and at a faster tempo, hitting a sweet spot inside of me that makes vivid colors burst behind closed lids and steals every wisp of oxygen from my burning lungs. “I’m sorry to disappoint, baby, but it’s only me.”
My limps twitch around him, the sensations too much to process. “Hunter!”
“Give it to me, Isabel,” he growls into my ear, driving into me. We both come in unison, holding each other the best we can. His scorching semen fills me, oozing down the sides. I feel hot, sticky, exhausted, and sated. We gaze into one another’s eyes, chests heaving and breathless. Staring into darkening blue, I realize this is where I want to be too.
When I try to rise, Hunter doesn’t allow it. “Stay here with me for a while,” he murmurs, still hard inside of me.
“I have to clean up.”
“After.”
Smiling, I reach up and caress his face, touching his cheekbones, nose, lips, and ears. “Okay.”
He groans, dropping his sweaty forehead on my shoulder. “I want you to come watch me with my kids.”
My throat and muscles tighten to a painful degree. “What kids?”
“At the hospital,” he whispers to my collarbone, “I promised them chocolate chip cookies and a piano piece today.”
My heart swells with pride and wonder. “I would love to.”
“I’d love for you to.” His fingers tangle in my hair and massage my scalp.
“I love you, Hunter Knight.”
I feel him growing harder. “Love you, too. Always had, always will,” he says, tenderly sliding in and out of me.
“Harder,” I whisper.
He gives me a beguiling smile that I don’t fully trust because it doesn’t reach his eyes that are shrewd and calculating.
My devious Hunter.
I smile my own cunning smile. We’re in this together and if we crash and burn, we’ll go up in flames holding hands.
His hand suddenly wraps around my throat, he doesn’t use enough strength to strangle me…just enough so my breathing is labored.
A scorching orgasm washes over me and I come with shame and guilt lurking in the shadows of the back of my mind. My lungs burn and spots float around his smiling face, reminding me to breathe.
“Love you, too. Always had, always will.”