Page 80 of The Christmas Holiday
‘Is there any of that left?’ he asked, nodding at the chocolate as he picked up the cushion from the floor and tossed it back onthe bed.
‘This?’ I asked, holding up the last bit.
He levelled his gaze at me. ‘Yes.’
I popped it in my mouth. ‘No. sorry,’ I said, abandoning manners to get him back for the shameless dig.
He gave a little headshake but I could see a smile desperately tugging at the corners of his mouth as he headed off to take a shower.
The rain had set in and I lay in the dark listeningto the steady sound of it, unable to sleep. Across the bed, Hunter’s breathing was just as rhythmic and I closed my eyes again, willing either of the sounds to soothe me back to sleep.
As I finally began to drift, I dragged myself awake again, aware that something was different. Wrong. But unable for a moment to focus enough to work out what the change was. And then I realised what it was.Hunter. The steady, deep breaths he had been taking earlier were now short and shallow. With no one to overlook our room, we’d left the curtains open, but with the moon obscured by rainclouds, it was still hard to make anything out. As my eyes gradually adjusted, Hunter’s breathing got more and more ragged and he began mumbling, broken sentences and names I didn’t recognise. I got out of bed andput the lobby light on, throwing a little illumination into the room, but not enough to wake him, before returning to the bed. As I leant over, his arm thrashed out, his fist gripping the sheet next to me, the knuckles white as the muscles strained to hold on. His brow was deeply furrowed as he called out again, this time in a language I didn’t even recognise.
‘Hunter?’ I called, softly.
His head and arms continued to thrash, the momentum building as his voice became more desperate and strained. A sheen of sweat broke on his face as he suddenly clutched his stomach and cried out in such pain I felt the burn of tears in my throat.
‘Hunter!’ I called again, louder this time but still not touching him, unwilling to get physically pulled into his dream. I’d never been frightenedof Hunter’s size – it had been one of the many things that had attracted me to him in the first place – but I knew he was in a different place right now and, until I knew more, I wanted to keep us both safe. Behind his eyelids, a flash of something stilled him momentarily at my call. But it was fleeting and, almost immediately, he was back in the nightmare.
As his arm thrashed out close tome again, I called once more, louder and more forcefully. His eyes opened and he looked at me. But he was unfocused and I could see he wasn’t really there with me, not quite yet.
‘Hunter. It’s Mia. You’re safe. You’re in the hotel room with me in Malaysia.’ As I watched, his gaze gained recognition and his breathing gradually began to slow. The hand that had gripped the sheet with such strengthand desperation earlier now gradually opened and relaxed. ‘You’re OK,’ I reassured him, taking his hand and holding it. This was yet another view of the Hunter I didn’t know. The Hunter who “had reasons”, according to Sandeep, for his behaviour. The Hunter who’d cried out in such horrific pain that I knew I’d never forget the sound for as long as I lived. He told me he knew me but I knew forsure now that there was another side to Hunter Scott I had absolutely no idea about. I fully expected him to take his hand away as he focused on me and his breathing returned to normal. But he didn’t. Instead his fingers curled around mine as he closed his eyes and said nothing.
We sat there in the quiet, his hand holding mine, the only sound around us the rain as it fell, lighter now thanit had been but just as steady. After a minute or two, Hunter opened his eyes, the deep blue rimmed now with red. His thumb stroked back and forth over my hand as he stared past me before his gaze drifted back. A flicker of something passed across his face as his hand tightened around mine. It was like a faint shaft of light as he finally decided to remove the barrier and open up to me. And then,just as quickly, all was dark again as he let go and sat up in the bed, scrubbing both hands back and forth quickly over his hair, freshly cropped by the hotel’s barber that morning.
‘I need a shower.’ He threw the sheet back and swung his legs round, moving quickly to the bathroom, leaving me where I was, wondering what the hell had just happened.
When he finally came out, my eyes wereclosed but I was still awake. When I opened them he was standing with his back to me, dressed in training shorts and pulling a clean T-shirt over his head. I propped myself up on one elbow and the sound of movement made him turn.
‘I thought you’d gone back to sleep.’
‘No. Are you all right?’
‘Yes. I’m sorry I woke you. Get some rest now, OK?’ He moved towards the balcony.
‘Whereare you going?’
‘Just out here. Go back to sleep.’ Hunter stepped out and a moment later I heard the creak of the wooden lounger as his muscular bulk settled on it. I blew out a sigh, kicked the sheet away and got up. Slipping on the silk dressing gown Liv and I had found in a tiny little shop in the city a couple of days earlier, I grabbed two bottles of mineral water and padded out to thebalcony.
A pale streak of light from the garden hit the balcony and, as I stepped out, I could see his expression was set to unimpressed at my ignoring his instruction. So what else was new?
‘Here,’ I said, handing him the bottle. He looked at it for a moment before taking it and opening it.
‘Thank you. Now please would you go back to bed? It’s the middle of the night and I alreadyfeel bad for waking you.’
‘No. And don’t. I wasn’t asleep anyway.’ I plopped down onto the lounger next to him.
He put the bottle to his lips. ‘Impossible woman.’
Nothing I hadn’t heard before.
‘Hunter. Please talk to me. I’m worried about you.’
He turned the cap of the bottle over and over in one hand, twisting it in and around his fingers. ‘Don’t be. I’m fine. There’s reallynothing to talk about.’
‘We both know that isn’t true.’
‘Mia. Leave it. Please.’
