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Hunter
“HOW DO YOU TAKE YOUR coffee?” I asked, holding up a mug.
Willa sat on a barstool at the kitchen island wearing my Jane’s Addiction T-shirt, her hair a tangled, sexy mess as she gave me a lopsided grin.
After the interview and the evening filled with sex, we passed out around two in the morning. I had finally found my match in bed.
Ever since Louisa died, I never thought I could feel anything for another woman again. Then Willa popped into my life and my cock hadn’t shut up since.
“I take my coffee like I take my men—big and full of cream.”
I frowned. “It’s too early in the morning for that nonsense.”
She nodded. “Yeah, my stomach agrees. Sex-filled sass is an after-lunch sort of thing.”
Turning off the stove, I grabbed two plates that I had set aside and placed the scrambled eggs on them. Setting Willa’s plate in front of her, I grabbed the basket of muffins that was delivered this morning.
“Looks good. Ahh, the baked goods . . .” She smirked. “I was wondering when they’d show up.”
As much as I wanted to lean over and kiss her smart mouth, my stomach begged to be fed.
I sat and shoveled some eggs into my mouth so I could bring my focus back to her lips. I watched her as I ate. I knew it was weird to stare at her nibbling on a muffin but after yesterday, I realized how magical that mouth was to me. Her lips were made for sucking and fucking my cock.
“What can I say? I’m a man with particular tastes.”
She turned to me and narrowed her eyes. “Speaking of you, I know almost nothing about you.”
“Whose fault is that? You interviewed me yesterday. You had the chance to ask me anything.”
She lifted her fork and stabbed at her eggs. “That’s different. You know my interviews aren’t like that. I believe it’s up to you whether people know about your personal life or not. It’s not for me to publish just for money. I would never do that.”
My eyes widened. Willa was so different from anyone I had ever met . . . even Louisa. It pained me to have that thought, but it was true.
Louisa was a wonderful and kind woman, but she had let a few personal things slip to the press about me—things I wasn’t ready for others to find out about. We had fights about it. It wasn’t until we were together a year that she learned the hard way why I kept things private.
“I was engaged but my fiancée, Louisa, died eighteen months ago of kidney cancer. We thought she caught it in time but no . . .” I stared at the eggs, no longer hungry.
She placed her hand on my back. It felt good when she rubbed soothing circles and I forgot how much I missed loving affection.
As I cared for Louisa in her final months, there were days I needed a loving hug from someone. My brother was too far gone with his own demons and my grandma lived in Florida. She came to visit, especially toward the end, but she left a few weeks after the funeral and I felt truly alone for the first time in my life.
“That feels good.”
“I’m sorry, Hunter. I’m sorry Louisa had to hurt like that. I’m sorry that you had to watch her pain with a feeling of helplessness. I know. It can be crippling at times just thinking about it.”
Fuck. I took a deep breath and fought the tears back. I dropped my fork, which landed with a loud clank on the floor. My shaking hand covered my eyes. It had been so long, but everything flooded back like I lost Louisa yesterday.
Willa leaned closer, her hot breath drifted down my neck. “That pain you feel right now? The one that makes you want to throw your plate across the room. That’s love, Hunter. You may want her here, but understand that she died with the greatest gift anyone could ask for. Your love.”
“But I’m selfish. I want her back. I want to see her beautiful brown eyes again. If cancer’s a bitch, then death is a motherfucker. It took my parents and then it took the woman I loved. Perhaps it’s me? Perhaps, I’m the curse. Maybe you should stay away from me, Willa. You might die if you don’t.”
I lowered my arm on the counter harder than I thought, causing the plate to rattle. After all this time, I was still angry. Mad at the world for causing her to suffer. Mad at the world for taking my parents.
“We go around and tell people it’s meant to be. Love is meant to be. Death is meant to be. There’s a plan for everything. But sitting here, knowing I won’t see the people I love ever again, I think I don’t want a part of that plan.”
“Kinda sounds like a stupid plan, if you ask me,” Willa said.
I blinked and looked up. I was so lost in my anger that I forgot she was there.
“What?”
“This plan people talk about, it sounds terrible. How about we make our own plan?”
I shook my head, baffled by Willa’s ability to turn the worst thing in life into something that wasn’t so terrible. The crease between her brow appeared as she thought hard over her idea.
“Okay.”
“Here’s what I’m thinking . . . Rarely do people die of sex. So, that’s our plan.”
“Sex.”
She nodded. “We stay here, have lots of sex, and occasionally leave for food. But you’re rich, so you can just pay people to get you food. So, really, we don’t even need to leave the house that looked like my great-grandma decorated.”
“Hey—”
“Focus, Hunter.” She grabbed my face, squishing my cheeks in her hands. “This is serious. Without this plan, according to you, we may die.”
I chuckled, which was hard to do with my lips pushed together by the palms of her hand.
“Pkdlpls diess gkk—”
She moved her hands from my face, and I took a breath.
“What?”
“I said, people do die of sex. Sexual diseases, which I am free and clear of. I was tested over the summer, just so you know. But people die of that and heart attacks induced from sex. So, technically, your plan won’t work.”
She snapped her fingers. “Shoot. It was such a great plan, too. One that wouldn’t make us angry. Unless you count angry sex. That’s good too, because by the end, you aren’t angry anymore.”
Damn. I was falling hard for this woman.
“There are few people in this world who could step into a room and cause the air to sizzle. Or turn anger from grief into a sex plan, but Willa, I can honestly say, I would never want to meet any of them. Because I found the best one.”
Her eyes narrowed as she folded her arms. “If you don’t want the sex plan, just say so. No need to distract me with your feelings.”
I hopped off the barstool and grabbed her hand. “First, we have to test it out to see if it’ll work.”
