Page 52 of Reforming Hunt
“I agreed emotional involvement would be bad. But I’m thinking physical involvement will only benefit us both, as we figured out the other morning.” He shot her a cocky grin.
She elbowed him lightly in the stomach on her way out of bed, and he choke-laughed.
Hunt lay on his back, both arms behind his head, smiling. “I’m here whenever you need me.”
And that was the problem. She needed him too much.
Chapter 23
Hunt looked around the kitchen he’d seen yesterday for the first time in over a decade and grimaced. What idiot thought it was a good idea to move back into this old place? He could kick himself right now. “Tear it all out,” he said to Lewis.
Lewis brought out his measuring tape. “I’ll give our designer measurements to reconfigure the kitchen, but otherwise, we can get started in a couple of days.”
Hunt considered what else it would take to make the space livable, with all the sad memories it held. “I also want you to tear out the entry. The crown molding too. Might as well get rid of the flooring while you’re at it. And I want all new interior doors.” He spun in a slow circle. “Let’s also knock out the walls between the kitchen and the dining room. The one between the kitchen and the living room as well. Too many damn walls in this place.”
Lewis raised an eyebrow. “You said this was an update.”
Hunt swallowed the sour taste in his mouth that had risen the moment he stepped inside. “I changed my mind. If I’m going to stay under this roof, I need it to look like a different house.”
“Why don’t we knock it down?”
Hunt glanced over. “Can we do that?”
Lewis chuckled. “Hell, Hunt, I was kidding. This house must have cost a fortune to build, and it’s in excellent shape. But don’t worry. We’ll switch everything out and it will look like a different place.”
“You’ll knock down the interior walls too?”
Lewis moved between the rooms. “I will if they’re not load bearing. Let me get the guys up into the attic and the designer over. What style are you looking for?”
Hunt pondered that for a moment. “Something that won’t clash with the exterior. Warm. The way Abby has her house set up.”
“You want the designer to talk to your wife?”
Did he? His brothers might object, given Abby was brand new to the family and this was the house they’d grown up in… But they’d given him free rein, and Abby had a way of making a house a home. Even the crap-tastic cabin she and Noah rented. “Yeah. Have the designer meet with Abby. I’ll go with whatever she picks.”
“Smart man. Gen would approve.” Lewis jotted down notes. “She really liked Abby, by the way, after meeting her at your wedding. Said you’d picked a good one.”
Lewis was older and closer to his brothers’ ages, but still a part of the pack they’d grown up in. And apparently Lewis’s fiancée Gen had excellent taste, because Abbywasa good one.
Abby was like no one Hunt had ever met. Beneath the scrubs and dark circles under her eyes was a beautiful woman. Frankly, Hunt thought she was hot in her scrubs too, and the dark circles were already fading now that she worked fewer hours. But all of that was on the surface. She was an incredible mom, funny, feisty, and—dammit—sexy as hell. She might not know it, but Abby was slowly killing him, sharing a room.
Hunt had had a taste of Abby on their wedding night, and now all he could think about were the soft sounds she made when he pleasured her, the smooth texture of her skin beneath his hands, and the look of joy on her face when she reached her peak. He wanted to make Abby come every day, all day long. But he held himself in check. Which meant he might burst.
Lying next to Abby at night and not being able to touch her? Torture. The sweetest torture. But he refused to make a move until she gave him the okay.
* * *
A week went by,and Hunt threw himself into the remodel. It was either that or throw himself over a cliff in sexual frustration.
This was good for him. He’d never denied himself the pleasure of women. It was character building, he reminded himself.
God, if his brothers only knew how long he’d gone without sex since meeting Abby. They thought he was living it up with his new wife. Little did they know that this was the longest dry spell Hunt had ever experienced.
Lewis and his crew of demolition animals got the kitchen and baths torn out, and the downstairs walls removed. One of the walls was load bearing, but Hunt wanted it out anyway. He agreed to pay a small fortune to have a giant support beam set into the ceiling, and it was worth it. The more the place changed, the less it reminded Hunt of his childhood. Now if he could only get his temporary wife to welcome him into her bed figuratively.
Hunt might be going crazy. Not from abstinence—though that wasn’t helping—but from lying beside a woman he craved more each day.
The more Hunt thought about Abby and theirarrangement, the more he was convinced a physical relationship was the right way to go. Okay, fine, he was horny as hell, and his fake wife was incredibly beautiful. All she had to do was bend over to grab the plastic wrap from the bottom drawer, and he hardened. It was driving him mad.
