Page 17 of Imperfect Saint
“Hunter…” She said his name again, barely managing a whisper but he only smiled softly.
“I’ve been paying attention, Mills.”
“I… but… you…” She couldn’t quite get a handle on the English language but he chuckled and pulled on her wrist, tugging her close again so that she had to tilt her head up to meet his gaze.
“I might be your fake boyfriend to them.” He nudged his head towards the door, “But you and me, that’s not fake. You know that. You’ve known it since the day we met even if you try to ignore it, and me. You know I like you. You know I want you. Lemon asked me to come here as your date but I didn’t say yes for her. I’m here for you and there’s nothing fake about this to me.”
Her heart thumped hard in her chest and she could practically feel the heat between them begin to sizzle. He was still half dressed. Their bodies were brushing against one another. If she leaned up a bit, his mouth would be right there and in that moment; she wanted to kiss him. Not just because he was sexy or funny but because he’d been paying attention to her, all this time, because he said he liked her, he wanted her and he didn’t want her to think he was faking it.
The way her own body responded to him wasn’t fake either but she couldn’t admit that, not right now, not when they’d just arrived and she’d already seen Joshua storm off angry. Not when she had no idea how she was going to make it through the weekend. Instead of facing any of that, she tackled the only thing she could at the moment.
“I…” She forced an unsteady breath and dropped her gaze away guiltily, “I don’t know that much about you. Hunter… I… I’m so sorry.”
“Shh.” He tiled her chin back up and stroked a finger over her lips, “We have all the time in the world to fix that, beautiful. Anything you want to know, I’m an open book for you. All you have to do is ask. Just not right here and not right now. You’d better go get changed or else your family is going to think I’m up here doing highly inappropriate things to you in your childhood bedroom.”
She managed a smile, glancing up at him from beneath her lashes, “I think you’re actually the first boy that’s ever been allowed in my room with the door shut.”
His grin was big, wide, and sparkling, “I’m first huh?”
She nodded and he winked.
“Plan to be the last too.” He kissed the top of her head and then all but pushed her towards the bathroom so that she was forced to go and get ready for dinner.
She stumbled a little but accepted the retreat he’d given her. She shut the door behind her and leaned against it. She closed her eyes and breathed. She could still smell hints of him, feel the soft touch of his hands on her. A shiver worked down her spine and she forced her eyes back open.
She hadn’t expected this Hunter. The one she dealt with at work was loud and funny and over the top flirtatious. She knew how to deal with that Hunter. This one, the one that touched her so gently and shielded her from intruders, that knew all her likes and dislikes and swore this wasn’t as fake as she knew it was meant to be, completely unnerved her.
Millie had a sudden, dawning realization that Joshua wasn’t half as sexy as Hunter and if her panties were going to get charmed this weekend, it wouldn’t be by her ex.
6
Hunter had been making progress upstairs. He knew he had. He’d seen it on Millie’s face. He’d felt it when he touched her. He’d shown his hand earlier than he’d intended but it had seemed like the right moment. It had been a lot for her to take in though. She’d been overwhelmed that he knew so much about her so he’d given her a reprieve and some time to think it over, to adjust to knowing he wasn’t here just because Lemon had asked him to come. But he could see now that letting her go had been a mistake.
She hadn’t just retreated to the bathroom to get ready for dinner. She’d retreated from him. When she’d come back into the room after her shower, she’d looked more beautiful than he’d ever seen her… and completely untouchable.
Her dark hair long and curling over her shoulders. Shoulders that were bare save for the tiniest scrap of fabric that held the long sheath dress up over her thin, petite body. The wedge sandals she’d put on added to her small stature but more than that they added a sway to her hips that accentuated her pert little breasts in a way that made his mouth water for a taste of her.
She’d looked perfectly polished, completely put together, and he’d wanted nothing more than to muss her up, but he’d known better than to reach for her. The sharp upward tilt of her chin and the stiff way she held her shoulders back and her spine ramrod straight told him more than her words ever could. Millie had this way of holding herself apart from people, even when they were right next to her, and she truly excelled at it when it came to him.
Even now, hours later as they sat together under the giant old oak trees behind the Turner home, his arm was around the back of her chair but whenever his fingers brushed her shoulder she visibly tensed. He hated that she all but recoiled from him now when earlier he’d felt like he was finally breaking through but it was more than just frustrating and damaging to his ego. It was also highly detrimental to their cover story as an intimate couple when she all but jerked away every time he touched her.
The others at their table had noticed. He was sure of it. Or maybe all the looks they kept shooting his way were because he looked as out of place as he felt.
Hunter had been in the security business long enough that he’d protected some truly wealthy clients. He’d been in mansions and limousines. He’d attended black tie functions and rubbed shoulders with celebrities. He had always worn his suit, done his job, and gone home to watch a baseball game in his sweats and have a beer or two without worrying what anyone thought of him. But being here, in the Turner family compound, with Millie, made him feel like the fraud he truly was.
The Turner family had the kind of money that could fund a small nation. The kind of money that built and destroyed empires. They sat at the top of the heap in a city with more celebrities and entrepreneurs than normal everyday workingmen and women. The Turners were more than just movers and shakers. They were world builders and destroyers.
He was nothing like them. He was decidedly middle-class. He’d been an Army grunt and when he’d come home from war his only useful skills had been put to use in his older brother’s company. He was the muscle. Not the brain. Not the idea guy. He was the one that stood in the back, blending in, becoming a shadow, but being here as Millie’s date, as her boyfriend, had put him center stage and he hated being in the spotlight.
There were more people here for dinner than he’d expected. Two full tables, long and lined with chairs on each side. The grooms sat together at the head of the family table. Their parents, siblings, and friends filling the seats beside them. With so many people, Hunter had assumed he would be able to slip in beside Millie and eat in relative peace but of course her ex refused to let that happen.
He and his date had taken seats just across the table from them and Joshua Bell had spent the entire night interrogating Hunter and Millie with questions. Chuck Turner had joined in occasionally but for the most part, he’d sat back, drinking his whiskey and smirking as the man he wanted his daughter to marry whipped questions and snide remarks at her date. Colin and Reed had tried to intervene numerous times but it didn’t matter because despite it being their wedding it was clear that everyone’s attention was on Millie and the new boyfriend she’d brought home with her.
Hunter smiled to himself at that thought. Boyfriend. He could hardly believe it earlier when Millie had told him that Joshua was the only boyfriend she’d ever had. She was beautiful and wealthy, smart and talented. She must have been on the radar of every available suitor in Nashville. But then Hunter remembered that the Turner and Bell families had been side by side for generations, that Millie had grown up with Joshua, and then he’d known that the bastard had gotten his hooks in her early and refused to let her go, even when he had no problem playing the field himself.
“So, you told us how you met. Tell us about your first date.” The blonde sitting next to Millie’s ex was leaning her elbows on the table, smiling and looking to all the world as if she was truly curious.
Maybe she was.
