Page 8 of Bargain with the Bachelor
“Hunter! What are you doing here?”
He gave me a wry grin. “I believe you’ve already asked me that question once tonight. What areyoudoing here?”
“Me? I… well I… Harry sent me a text to meet him, and I did—I mean I thought I was meeting him, but I was meeting you, only I didn’t know it was you. I just… I’m not really sure how this happened.”
Hunter leaned back against the door, shoving one hand through his disheveled hair—through the hairI’ddisheveled. His narrow-eyed gaze fell on me like a life sentence.
“You really had no idea it was me?” He sounded incredulous.
“Of course not. It was dark. You had no idea it was me either.”
One of his eyebrows lifted.
My jaw came unhinged. “Did you?”
Confusion boiled in my brain. “If you knew it was me, why would you kiss me? I told you I had a boyfriend. I told you I was dating Harry.”
Hunter’s lips twisted to one side, and he huffed a laugh, his gaze going to the floor, to one wall, then up toward the ceiling.
“I thought you saw me. You came in and said, ‘Come here.’ You said I looked good. I thought maybe you’d… followed me in here, and…”
The color in his cheeks heightened. He shook his head and laughed again, not a happy sound but a bitter one. One hand came up to cover his mouth and chin then dropped to his side.
“Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I apologize too. If I’d realized… I never would have…”
As he seemed at a loss for words and almost as embarrassed as I was, I rushed to let him off the hook. “Don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal. No harm, no foul, right?”
I forced a laugh. Amusement wasnotwhat I was experiencing. I felt… stricken. And still a little turned on, which made everything worse.
“You won’t… tell anyone…”
Hunter’s lips folded in, turning his mouth into a hard, straight line. “No. Of course not. Your secret’s safe with me.”
My insides curdled. I didn’twantto have a secret. But even as that thought entered my mind another one superseded it. I wouldnotbe telling Harry about this.
I wouldn’t be telling anyone. Ever.
It truly had been an accident, but how could I possibly explain it? I should have known from the first second it wasn’t Harry kissing me and stroking my hair, touching my face and holding me against his hardness.
His extra-long, extra-thick hardness.
Hadn’t I even marveled over how different he was tonight?
But I’d been too lost in the fantastic feelings he’d elicited to pursue that tickle of doubt. I hadn’twantedto question it too closely… hadn’t wanted it to end.
But now it had to. This mistake, this conversation. Harry would be here any moment—and that meant Hunter couldn’t be here.
“You’ve got to leave,” I said, urgency straining my voice.
His head jerked back. “Just like that? You kiss me, scramble my brains, and send me packing?”
“Harry is on his way here,” I hissed, dashing a glance at the door. “He can’t walk in on us like this.”
“Like what?” Hunter’s tone was bruised, sarcastic. “You mean with your lipstick smeared and your hair all sexy and messed up from my hands? With me sporting a hard-on the size of Texas?”
Without my permission, my eyes dropped to the front of his pants. He wasn’t kidding. The Lone Star state had nothing onthisland mass.
A dart of sensation shot through my belly. My face heated to feverish temperatures, and my hand automatically came up to smooth my hair. I slid off the bed and moved toward the bathroom door.
