Bound, Spanked and Loved: Fourteen Kinky Valentine's Day Stories (60 page)

Crap. He stomped toward the dining room. Well, at least the dinner part would be over quickly.

*****

W
ould dinner never end?

The food had been eaten, but people lingered over conversation. Not only was he separated from Ariel, but Sienna had touched him at every opportunity. Her fingers brushed his when he passed the salt at her request, her foot nudged his under the table, and she laid a hand on his arm just about every time she addressed a comment to him—which was often. The woman hadn’t stopped talking since dinner started.

Ariel, seated at the table directly in front him, focused on her plate. He tried to catch her eye, but she never seemed to glance his way.

Hunter drained his iced tea glass and turned to Sienna. “Would you get me another glass of tea, please?”

Annoyance at being asked for a favor flitted across her face before her eyes narrowed. He could see the wheels spin in her head as she calculated how to capitalize on the request—to further the charade of intimacy.

“I’d be happy to.” She smiled. “Can I get you anything else while I’m up?”

“Tea is all. Thank you.”

Sienna took his tumbler and her wine glass and left the table. Hunter leaned close to his mother on his left. “Why did you put Sienna and I together?”

“I didn’t,” she murmured. “Sienna must have changed the name cards. Dinner is winding down. You want to make your announcement?”

“Yes. Please.” That should move things along, and then he could focus on Ariel.

Sienna returned to the table with his tea and another glass of wine for herself. Her third? Fourth? She seemed to be hitting it a little hard, but he didn’t care what she did as long as she left him alone.

“Thank you,” he said, and accepted his glass and took a sip. Ugh. He shuddered. He drank his tea unsweetened. He’d swear the drink contained more sugar than tea and was certain she’d done it deliberately.
Nobody
drank iced tea with that much sweetener.

Ding. Ding. Ding
. His mother tapped her spoon against her water goblet to get the attention of the chatting, laughing guests. When the room quieted, she glanced at her husband before standing up. “I’d like to thank you all for sharing Valentine’s Day with Jake and me. He asked me to marry him on Valentine’s Day, so it’s always been a special holiday. It might seem a little strange to celebrate a day for lovers with a big group, but Valentine’s Day brought us together as a family. To spend this evening with all of you means the world to us. Our daughter Reagan baked a scrumptious red velvet cake, but before we have dessert, our son, Hunter, has a little announcement.”

Next to him, Sienna nodded and smiled. Hunter sought out Ariel. She was finally looking his way. Her eyes were wide.

His mother’s introduction of his “little” announcement somehow made it sound more important than it was.

He’d quit his job with the engineering firm to start his own company with the idea of moving back to town. He could have opened his business anywhere, but he needed to be closer to pursue Ariel. A distance of hundreds of miles wasn’t conducive to courtship.

Sienna touched his forearm—again. It was all he could do to not rebuff her, but he didn’t want to cause a scene. Annoyed, he pushed back from the table.

Ariel’s chair crashed to the floor as she bolted from room.

*****

A
riel kept her emotions in check until she hit the front sidewalk. Then the sobs burst out in a great gushing force, the tears blinding her as she ran to her car, parked halfway down the block.

No. No. No!

She could not listen to the man she loved announce his engagement to that she-witch. It had been bad enough to watch them converse through dinner, Sienna touching him, smiling so lovingly when she fetched him a glass of iced tea. Ariel had hoped against hope the clinging behavior was just Sienna being Sienna, but Hunter had done nothing to discourage her.

Her mother had seated them together. Then Hunter had readied to make his announcement. Sienna had gripped his arm, smiling up at him, her huge diamond solitaire gleaming on her
left
hand. It had been on her right hand earlier in the evening. Obviously, they’d intended to keep the engagement quiet until the big reveal.

Ariel flung herself into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine.

“Ariel! Wait!” Hunter charged onto the porch and waved. “Ariel!” He ran toward her car.

She gunned it and screeched away in a blaze of burning rubber.

She’d made a fool of herself by running away without any explanation. How embarrassing. She couldn’t imagine what they all were thinking. Hunter, her mom. Reagan. Her brother-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends. Remaining would have been far worse. No way could she congratulate him with any kind of grace.

Her cell phone rang in her purse. Her stepmom’s ringtone. Driving, and in no condition to speak to anyone, she let it go to voice mail. Moments later, it rang again. Reagan. Then Hunter’s ringtone. Her heart almost stopped.

She got to her apartment without any memory of driving. Grabbing her purse, she stumbled inside. Her chest hurt like her heart had contracted but forgotten to let go.

Her family would worry. She couldn’t speak to them, but at least she could text them she’d gotten home. Pressing voice mail, she listened.

Her stepmom: “Honey, are you all right? What happened? Call me.”

Reagan: “Sis? What’s going on? You ran out like your chair caught fire.” Pause. “But nobody noticed.” A snort of laughter erupted from Ariel’s nose despite her pain. Her sister was a terrible liar.

Final message. Hunter’s. “Ariel, I’m coming over. We have some things to discuss.”

No! She could not talk to him. Not now, maybe not ever. She fired off a group text—
I’m Ok. Don’t worry
—and charged for the bedroom. If Hunter was headed here, she had to leave. She tossed a few things into a tote bag then dashed out the door.

*****

H
unter grabbed his jacket from the closet.

“What in the world made her run away?” his mother asked.

“I’m going to find out.” He shrugged into his coat.

“Hunter...where are you going?” Sienna’s sharp voice was plaintive, slurred. Her drunkenness didn’t surprise him.

She’d downed wine like it was soda. He grimaced before turning around. His parents were standing right there, and he wasn’t so much of a cad that he would embarrass a woman in front of an audience, but Sienna had hung on him all evening, and the discomfort in his gut hinted she might have been part of the reason Ariel had fled.

“Sienna, that’s none of your business.” He looked at his parents. “When she’s ready to leave, you shouldn’t let her drive.”

“I’ll bring her home, or she can spend the night in one of the spare rooms,” his stepdad said.

Hunter hoped it would be former. Sienna had spent way too much time in the Peyton home, but his stepfather was ignorant of Sienna’s machinations. He had a hunch his mother was catching on, though.

“I’ll let you know when I find Ariel.” He left.

On his way to his car, he called her cell again, but she didn’t pick up. He arrived at her apartment to find it dark and closed up. Her car was gone. He’d been so sure she would have run home.
Dammit!
Could she have gone to a friend’s instead? Stopped at a coffee shop?

He, his mom, and Reagan had received a text so he knew she’d received his message. Was she
avoiding
him? Now that he’d made up his mind, he wouldn’t let her go. Not unless he heard from her lips that she no longer loved him.

If she was on the run, where would she go?

A hotel? A friend’s?

No.
Hunter smiled, confidence surging. He knew. He glanced at his watch. Good. He had enough time to stop at a couple of stores and pick up a few things.

Chapter Three

––––––––

A
riel squinted in the darkness as she drove up the winding mountain road to her parents’ vacation cabin. They’d spent many happy weekends and holidays at the log home. Hunter had taught her to swim in the nearby lake one idyllic summer. Her childhood diary chronicled what he’d said and done, how he’d supported her, his hands strong and sure under her back, his attention all on her. Then reported how all of three of them had played, she and Reagan ganging up on Hunter to overpower him but ending up getting dunked instead when he’d picked up each girl and tossed her into the drink with a big splash.

Maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea.

But it beat facing Hunter, and at least she could be alone to lick her wounds and regroup.
Dear Diary. It finally happened. My heart broke today
.

She didn’t keep a journal any longer. What would be the point? She would be saying the same thing over and over.
I love my stepbrother. He doesn’t love me, and we can’t be together
. She’d filled notebooks and notebooks with laments just like that. What had ever happened to those volumes, she wondered?

Ariel slowed, watching for the turnoff to the narrow lane. Tires crunched over the gravel as the car rolled up to the garage. She didn’t have the opener to raise the door, so she left her vehicle in the driveway and stomped through a light dusting of snow to the front door.

She dropped the keys then couldn’t find the slot in the dark. By the time she let herself in, her fingers were half-frozen. She flipped the light switch then cranked up the thermostat. They kept the temperature just high enough to prevent the pipes from freezing. Ariel rubbed her cold hands together.

A fire. That’s what she needed until the house warmed up.

She returned to the great room. Somebody—her dad, probably—had set the fireplace with logs to be lit at the next visit. The day after Christmas at her parents’ house in town, the family had convened here, but Ariel had begged off, claiming she’d planned a ski trip.

I can’t spend my entire life running from him
. She couldn’t continue to avoid family gatherings because he would be there.

What I need is a backbone. A stiff upper lip. A set of balls, maybe. Like Sienna. If any woman has cojones, she does.

Ariel used the gas-log lighter to the start the fire and in no time toasted her hands over the crackling flames. The central heating had begun to work its magic, too. Now that she was here and could think straight, she remembered all the things she should have brought with her.

She’d packed PJs, flannel pants, and a long T-shirt style top, but nothing for the morning like fresh clothes or even underwear. She might have things here though. A robe maybe. Between her sister and her mother, all of whom kept a few items, she could find something to wear. She wouldn’t go naked.

She left the warmth of the fire and snagged her tote. In her bedroom, she stripped out of the red dress, leggings, and boots she’d worn to the ill-fated party and donned her jammies. Her pink fluffy robe hung in the closet, and she slipped it on before going to the bathroom. She’d cried off most of her makeup already, but she removed the rest then washed and moisturized her face and brushed her teeth.

Better. Far from perfect, not quite human, but better. If there was some ice cream or chocolate in the cabin, that would help a little, too.

In the freezer, she found a near-empty gallon container of chocolate mint chip. Ice crystals had formed, and it was hard as a rock, but for emergency rations, it would do. Back in the great room, she tugged a comfy chair closer to the flames and curled up with the container and a soup spoon.

How would she face this new paradigm? Her family was very close, social. How could she bear seeing Hunter and
his wife
at birthdays, holidays, barbecues? How could she attend their wedding and wish them well when she wished was she was the bride?

Why couldn’t she get over her infatuation and fall in love with a nice man? Like Mark. Or any of the others she’d dated. Why did they all seem so boring, so lackluster? Why had she fallen for the one man she could not have?

Her stepbrother of all people.

“I knew I’d find you here.”

Ariel screamed, and her ice cream container went flying. The spoon clattered to the floor.

*****

T
he pinkness of her nose matched her fluffy robe. Ariel had been crying. Something had upset her. Of course, he’d figured that out from the way she fled the party. Hunter picked up the empty carton and the spoon. He tossed the carton in the kitchen trash, the spoon in the sink, and returned to the great room.

“What are you doing here?” Ariel stood on her feet.

“Isn’t it obvious? I came after you.”

“You didn’t need to do that. I’m fine.”

“Is that why you ran? Why you were crying your eyes out? Why you’re sitting here alone? Tell me what’s happening.”

“I can’t. Go home. Go back to Sienna.”

“I’m not going home until you and I talk. And I’m damn sure not going to Sienna.”

“But-but—I thought...”

“You thought?” he prompted.

“Didn’t you announce your engagement?”

“Hell no! Are you kidding me? Why would you think that?”

“The way she kept touching you, staring at you. You didn’t discourage her.”

Hunter grimaced. “Yeah, she did that. But I didn’t want to cause a scene at Mom and Dad’s party.”

“What about the ring?”

“Ring?”

“The one she was wearing.”

He shrugged. “She was engaged to some other guy but didn’t give back the ring. Is that why you ran? You thought Sienna and I were getting married?”

Ariel nodded and ducked her head.

Hunter had to try hard to keep a stupid, relieved grin off his face.
She’s jealous.
“Look at me, please.”

For a moment, she didn’t respond then she raised her head.

“I am not, nor will I ever be, interested in Sienna.”

“You were once.”

When he was young, horny, and stupid and would have fucked anything that moved. But Sienna had been a pretty package with nothing inside the box. “Only until I wised up.” But almost not fast enough. He’d been too dumb to see what had been right in front of him all along. “Forget Sienna.” He dismissed her with a wave. “I came to see
you
.”