Page 49 of Submission

“Megan, are you okay?” Lacy asks, crouching next to me.

I look over to see the kitchen staff huddled in a corner, and then a few men in suits guide both me and Lacy away from the kitchen to Hunter’s office.

“Wait!” I try turning back in panic. “Hunter’s out there! We can’t just leave him out there.“

“You can,” comes Christian’s firm voice as he nods at the men. “He knows what he’s doing. He’ll be fine.”

“But-“ Involuntary tears rush to my eyes, and Christian looks startled.

“Hey, there.” He hugs me, whispering fiercely, “Hunt will be fine. Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying,” I sniffle, rubbing my eyes but finding comfort in his hug. “I’m just worried, and I’ve got allergies.”

When Christian gives me a disbelieving look, I avoid his eyes. “Allergies from all that bullet dust? That’s not even a thing,” he chuckles, and I glare at him like he’s got one screw loose.

“There’s nothing funny about this right now. I was almost kidnapped, and now he’s out there in a hail of bullets. What is wrong with you? What kind of friend are you? Go help him!”

“Yeah, so that he can shoot me as well?” Christian scoffs. “Not fucking likely. You two stay here.”

Lacy is clasping my hand and I’m pleasantly surprised at how kind this usually very quiet girl is. “He’ll be fine. You’ll see,” she says with a hope I’m not sure I totally share.

“You have more faith in him than I do,” I mumble to myself.

A few minutes later, true to Lacy’s words, the door to the office opens, and Hunter strides in, talking out loud to no one in particular. “Fuck, he got away, but I’ve put men on his trail. And you!”

He rounds his eyes on me with a look so angry that I nearly shrink into my chair.

“What did I do?”

“I gave you a security detail for a fucking reason!”

He looks really mad right now, and I press my lips together, my voice quivering with guilt. “They were following me around in the club and hindering my ability to work.“

“There is only a certain amount of recklessness I can tolerate, Miss Taylor. If you want to behave like this, put yourself at risk like this, then I’ll just lock you up somewhere!”

The mixture of adrenaline and the fear of being kidnapped, mixed in with Hunter shouting at me, makes tears rush back to my eyes, and this time, there’s no pretending.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Lacy says, sticking up for me. “You have no idea how upset she was for you! Why can’t you be nicer?”

My heart nearly stops in my chest, and I wonder if I’ll have to throw myself across this brave girl who might be the next person shot for standing up to Hunter, although he does claim to have a no-hurting women policy.

I see his eyes turn towards Lacy, and then, to my surprise, his expression softens. “You go wait outside. Christian, help her.”

Christian gets to his feet, and when he approaches Lacy, she looks uncertain, either for me or for herself. “Megan?”

“I’ll be fine,” I say to assure her because, of course, she doesn’t know that I just had this man’s dick in my mouth not too long ago. He’s not going to hurt me. If anything, I’m probably about to get an ear full of a Hunter Middleton lecture.

Lacy still looks reluctant but allows Christian to lead her outside. Since Lars and Parker appear to be on the hunt for Johnathan (or at least I hope they are), now there’s just me and Hunter left behind.

We stare quietly at each other for a moment, each of us visually inspecting the other for wounds and perhaps for words.

“I’m –“ I begin, but he cuts me off.

“Are you hurt?”

“No, not really.”

He moves closer to me, brushing the back of his hand down the side of my face. It's a tender move that he usually reserves when it's just the two of us alone in his penthouse, but I welcome it right now. It calms me.

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