World of Reverie
I wake with a sudden jolt and with my throat constricted, gasping and choking for air.
Just a dream.
I’m not drowning.
It was just a horrible nightmare.
At first glance I notice that I’m alone in his massive bed, soft moonlight beaming through the wide windows. Sitting up, I rub my eyes and swing my legs from the bed. I pick up Hunter’s wrinkled T-shirt off the ground and slip it on, wandering down the corridor and staircase to find him but I freeze on the last step, my heartbeat deafening in my ears. Within the soft glow of the kitchen, Hunter and Sally talk quietly among themselves. Hunter is reclined against the sink countertop with his thick arms crossed at his bare chest, though he has jeans on. Sally wears a stylish black cocktail dress and dainty black heels I’m sure costs more than my entire wardrobe put together. Her shiny blond hair is loose, silky straight and flows elegantly down her back. Sally’s neck and ears are dripping with diamonds. She is sheer grace and elegance.
As I inch closer her sweet yet musky perfume wafts from the kitchen and clouds me in a light mist that’s very intoxicating to the senses.
God, she even smells expensive.
Sally stands a foot away from Hunter, smiling evilly. Attempting to decrease my heart rate, I press up against the wall and listen.
“…you haven’t returned any of my phone calls. I had to check in on you myself,” Sally purrs.
“I want you out of my fucking house,” Hunter growls.
“That’s no way to treat your fiancée, is it?”
“Ex,” he corrects.
She smirks and moves closer running a manicured fingernail down the skin of his neck, leaving a deep red mark in its wake. He growls again, gripping her wrist. He squeezes it when she strains to reach for him. Her wrist appears so fragile in his solid grasp.
“Touch me again and I’ll break your wrist.” He isn’t joking either. Hunter’s face is as serious as a heart attack. He is definitely not in the mood to be toyed with.
To my surprise, Sally actually moans and licks her lips. “Promise? You should check to see how wet I am right now.”
He makes a disgusted face, releasing her as if her wrist caught fire. “Are you going to put me in the hospital again, Hunt?” She moves closer, prowling like a seductive feline that’s about to rip the man I love to shreds. “What will be my excuse this time, huh? I fell down the stairs? I tripped? Whatever the reason, I’m sure it’ll work just like all the other times. Isn’t that right, honey?”
What?
Did he beat her?
His arms uncross and his head drops. It’s as if his entire body goes lax for the brutal punishment Sally is about to unleash. Hunter blankly stares at his bare feet, breathing in deeply as Sally advances. It looks like defeat and she is ready to attack; it hurts my heart to witness. When she reaches out to put her filthy paws on him, I step into view like a wild and untamed animal ready to defend what’s mine.
“Don’t fucking touch him!”
She jumps, startled momentarily and then grins as I make my way to Hunter, gladly stepping between the two. “Don’t you ever touch him. I’ll fucking kill you.” I’m astounded at the weight of my words…and the honesty behind them. I’m so blinded with fury that I’m sure I can follow through.
I’m stunned when Hunter’s fingers swiftly threads in my hair, yanking me toward the floor. “Kneel and be quiet, Isabel.”
The strangest thing happens: my knees actually bend until I catch myself. Following his commands is just as natural as breathing, but I don’t want to look weak in front of The Bitch. “No way!”
He growls, tugging my hair from its roots. “Kneel! NOW!”
With a sudden surge of pain, my knees hit the tile floor. Unaware by rage before, I now notice a male kneeling, poised by the opposite side of the wall. He has on a simple dark jacket and jeans. His skin is a flawless dark brown and his eyes are a deep shade of chocolate. His features are very handsome. His body is athletic with a lanky kind of gracefulness. I immediately want to smack him clean across the face, though. Although I am one third African American, I still feel that this is wrong on so many levels.
What is he?
Her submissive?
Her slave?
Can’t he understand how taboo this really is?
Being a part of the African American and Mexican American community means a great deal to me. I feel like he and I share an unknown bond just because we are ethnic. Enraged, I narrow my eyes at him but he simply shrugs as if reading my mind. He glances at Hunter, silently saying I’m no better.
My cheeks heat because he is absolutely correct. I lower my gaze to a fixed spot on the floor, breathing heavily.
Why should I care who people get their kinks from anyway.
“She has such a mouth on her, Hunt. You should teach her proper manners,” Sally suggests, her heels clicking my way. The tip of her sleek-looking shoe glides underneath the hem of Hunter’s shirt. “Is she bare under your shirt? I can show you how to punish her correctly.” I jerk forward from Hunter’s grip to try to bite her leg as she attempts to lift the shirt up.
“Still yourself, Isabel,” Hunter warns quietly, wrenching my head back in place.
Sally giggles. “So feisty. I bet she’s a wonder to mold. The lively ones are always a challenge, but Chance there…,” she points at the beautiful, poised male by the wall, “is my finest. I adore him so much. It’s been five years strong for us. He brings me great pleasure.”
Five years?
She was with him while engaged with Hunter?
While she was with Hunter?
“Leave her alone, Sally.”
At his harsh tone, she removes her shoe. “You’re no fun anymore, Hunt. You’ve gone tremendously soft on me. She’s changing you into a domestic role model. Where’s my feral beast, honey? Does he still live?”
“Shut your damn mouth you stupid whore,” I snarl.
Hunter’s hand twists cruelly into my hair, forcing my head down and my face into my lap. I grunt uncomfortably from the feel of my stomach pressing in on itself. “I said quiet. Do not test my patience, Isabel.”
Tear spring to my eyes. My face is sticking to the thick material of his shirt from the rivulets running down my cheeks. I’m only shedding tears because Hunter is humiliating me when I’m trying to stand up and defend him.
“Hmm. Does your mother know she stays with you?”
“It’s none of your fucking business,” he mutters, easing some of the pressure off my head.
“Oh, but it is, especially if she doesn’t know. How am I supposed to take care of you if you’re keeping secrets from me?”
“Sally,” he cautions in a menacing voice. “What you fail to understand is that I don’t need your care. What I do, in fact, need is for you to stay the hell away from me, away from Isabel. Do not intervene in my life. I promise you I am capable of getting by on my own.”
She’s silent for a long moment that feels like years. “Does she know, Hunt?”
“Sally—”
“No, Hunter. You love her yet you tell her nothing. You leave her in the dark to suffer. And it seems that she has suffered long enough by the scars on her arms.” She gingerly strokes my hair before Hunter growls viciously. “Well suffer no more pretty, Isabel. Are you interested in why Hunter left me all on my own?”
Hunter’s hand twitches in my hair. I don’t respond when she lowers her voice to barely a whisper and leans further down so that her lips are at my hair. “Hunter will make such a lovely father. You would understand completely if you saw him with children. He loves them all to pieces. You should have seen Hunter when I told him I was with child. His face—God, it was like seeing the sun for the very first time. You also should have seen him when I told him I aborted it. That happened three times and each time the devastation grew worse for poor Hunter, each time he would drop to his knees and beg me to keep it. He would promise me the world, sweet thing. But can you imagine Hunter’s spawn growing inside of me?” Sally pauses and makes a gagging noise. “No thank you. I don’t need a demon baby. He is clearly too erratically unstable to do much of anything—the man is a great fuck though. He would probably kill us all in the end, anyway.”
My heart ices over and I feel like I’m about to vomit as she stands and smooths her dress.
Three aborted babies?
Hunter’s babies.
“Hmm. I wonder will she stay after she finds out the truth about you, Hunt. What do you think?”
“Get the fuck out.” His words are barely audible.
“Pleasure chatting with you, sweet thing. I insist that we must have tea sometime.” She snaps her fingers at Chance, and I watch them disappear from my view.
I’m so focused on what she said that I didn’t feel Hunter’s hand free my head.
“Baby, are you okay?”
Tilting my head up a little, I peer into concerned blue eyes that remind me of the sea. I didn’t notice him kneeling too. “Is it true?” I whisper, feeling shaky.
He screws his eyes shut as if pained. “Yes.”
“Why?” My tone is still hushed, salt from my tears drips into my mouth.
Hunter’s eyelids flutter open, gazing steadily and somberly into mine. “She’s evil, Isabel. At the time I thought I deserved that.” He shrugs, inhaling deeply. “Karma, I guess.”
“You didn’t deserve that, Hunter. No one does. She needs help. Any woman would be so very lucky to be the mother of your child.”
He wipes my tears with his thumbs and then presses his flat palm against my stomach. He stares at me with wide, hazy eyes. “Even you?”
My breath catches in my throat, then his hand on my belly feels like scorching iron.
Me… a mother?
That forbidden thought is quite laughable.
I’m a mess and way too young to be a mother right now.
“I would love to have your babies…sometime in the future. Maybe ten years from now. I don’t know, Hunter. I don’t even know what I’m say—”
Hunter crushes his mouth down on mine, knocking me down to the floor. My back slams against the cold tile. “This is going to be fast, baby. I can’t guarantee that I’m going to be gentle with all the shit running through my head right now.”
“Fast, rough. Yes,” I pant throughout kisses.
“Turn around,” he growls.
Breathlessly and trembling, I flip on my stomach. Hunter’s fingers trail up the backs of my thighs, bringing up the hem of his shirt. He makes a deep gravelly noise in the back of his throat, then smacks me hard on my ass, biting along the aching spot.
I moan and tilt my backside against his face, searching for more of his mouth. The stinging sensations lead to an overwhelming pulsating between my legs.
Hunter harshly tangles a hand in my hair, shoving my face to the floor. “Pain slut.” I can’t respond fast enough when he swiftly sinks into me.
After everything that just transpired, I would have never in a million years thought that Hunter Knight would end this night sadistically fucking me face down on his kitchen floor.