Taking Him (Lies We Tell) (22 page)

She knew what she’d been like at sixteen. All her emotions had been new and raw, and so very, very deep. And if Hunter had thought he was in love with Liz, what chance had he at saying no? If Hunter had done to her what Liz had done to him, she would have laid herself at his feet without even thinking about it. Before she was ready for it.

“I told him about Liz,” Hunter said unexpectedly. He didn’t look at her, still concentrating on his bike. “I told him because I thought I loved her and I thought she loved me, and I imagined telling him was the right thing to do.” Hunter shifted slightly, his attention on the bike and what he was doing. “But he didn’t believe me. Called me a liar. Even now he still thinks I made it up because I was going through a ‘phase’.”

There was no emotion in the words and the detachment in his voice brought tears to her eyes. How could he think this didn’t affect him?

“But he must have known,” she murmured, anguish sharp inside her at the thought of Hunter gathering his courage to tell his father—because it must have taken courage. And then his father calling him a liar. Jesus.

“Of course he knew.” A thread of bitterness crept into his tone. “He would have had to have been blind not to see what was going on. He just didn’t want to admit he did. Because then he’d have to take some fucking responsibility.”

“Oh, Hunter…” She stopped, her voice gone thick with pain.

His hands dropped from the bike. “So now you know why I never went into law. Dad places a lot of store on his career and Justin’s. Think of the scandal if it ever got out his wife was screwing his teenage son. It would have meant the death of his career. Justin’s too.”

“Bastard,” Ellie said fiercely as anger swept through her. Anger for Hunter and how he’d been treated. “Your father was a complete bastard.”

He stared at her for a moment. Then rose to his feet in a graceful, fluid movement, coming over to the workbench where she sat. Gently he put his hands on her knees and pushed her legs apart, leaning in to stand between her thighs. Ellie blinked as he took her face in his hands, stroking her jaw with his thumbs. A tender touch. Her heart swelled inside her chest, a balloon filling up with air.

“It’s okay, sweetness,” he said softly. “It was a long time ago.”

She looked up into his face, at the concern in it and knew it was for her. As if it had happened to her, not himself. Looked like his father wasn’t the only one in his family capable of denial.

Ellie knew she should push it, but when he touched her like that, gently and with tenderness, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The walls would come up and she would lose him again. And she didn’t want to lose what little she had of him already. She couldn’t.

So she said nothing. Closing her eyes as he bent down, his mouth brushing hers. Tightened her thighs around his hips and slid her hands around to his back. Holding him as he kissed her. The kiss was hot and slow and consuming.

Until suddenly he was ripped from her arms.

“What the fuck are you doing?” someone shouted.

For a minute Ellie couldn’t move, dazed by the kiss, struggling to make sense of what was going on. Because she couldn’t get her head around it. What the hell was Vin doing here? He stood behind Hunter, a look of murderous fury on his face. Bloody hell, she’d never even heard him arrive.

Hunter had been pulled round to face his friend, and now he shifted so he stood directly in front of her as if shielding her.

“Tell me what the
fuck
you’re doing with my sister!” Vin shouted again.

Hunter stepped toward his friend. “Kissing her. What does it look like I’m doing?”

Vin lashed out, right fist connecting to Hunter’s jaw in a punch that knocked Hunter’s head back and sent him down to the ground, the crack of it echoing around the garage area. “I trusted you, you prick!” Vin drew his foot back, kicked him in the stomach. “You were supposed to be looking after her, not screwing her!”

A shot of adrenaline burst through Ellie’s veins, shattering her paralysis. “Stop it, Vin!” she yelled, propelling herself off the workbench and straight at her brother. “Leave him alone!”

Vin wasn’t looking at her, his face twisted with such rage it shocked her. Vin was usually the cool, calm and collected one. Always in charge and knowing what he was doing. She’d never seen him so angry. Putting herself between Hunter’s figure prone on the floor and her brother, she pushed Vin hard in the chest. “I said, leave him the hell alone!”

Behind her she could hear Hunter moving and she braced herself, waiting for his retaliation. But it didn’t come.

Vin had gone back a couple of steps, his chest heaving, his furious gaze switching to her. “Did he hurt you? Did he?”

“No, of course he didn’t! Where the hell do you get off? And what are you doing here anyway?”

“I came to apologise. But fuck that. How long has he been screwing you?”

“That’s none of your fucking business! It’s got nothing to do with you.”

A blue flame burned in Vin’s eyes. “Nothing to do with me? It’s got
everything
to do with me! I’m the reason you’re staying with him. I’m the reason you even met him in the first place. And he was supposed to look after you, not go screwing you behind my fucking back!”

Ellie felt her own rage boil up inside her. “Like I had no choice in the matter, right?”

“No, you didn’t,” Vin said with such certainty she nearly hit him herself. “You’ve been in love with him for half your life. You would have done anything he said.”

“You really think I’m that stupid? A little girl who does whatever the big scary man says? Are you completely out of your mind?”

Vin’s mouth twisted in a sneer. “You know what happened to him, right? With his stepmother?”

She found she was shaking. “Yes,” she said, lifting her chin. “I know.”

“Then you’ll understand why I want to deck the bastard.”

“What?” Ellie demanded, incredulous. “You can’t think he seduced me like Liz seduced him.”

“Why shouldn’t I? History has a habit of repeating itself.”

“Oh Jesus Christ, Vin! It isn’t anything like that!”

“It’s exactly like that, sweetness.” The words were soft, slurred.

Ellie whirled round.

Hunter had gotten to his feet, hand on his jaw. His lip had split and he was bleeding, a bruise beginning to darken his cheekbone.

Anguish clenched hard inside her. Hunter didn’t look angry. He looked resigned, as if the axe had fallen already. “No, it’s not,” she said hoarsely. “
I
seduced
you
. That’s how it happened.”

“And I let you seduce me.” His gaze shifted over her shoulder to where his friend stood. “So I could get you right where I want you. Under me.”

A statement so completely wrong that Ellie opened her mouth to contradict him. Only to be unceremoniously shoved to one side by Vin as he launched himself at Hunter again.

“Vin!” she shrieked as her brother hit Hunter with his other fist. This time he didn’t go down, only stood there as Vin hit him again. Stood there and took it.

Oh God, had her brother lost his mind? Okay, he was protective but this… This rage wasn’t only about catching her and Hunter together. It had to come from something else.

Like the jealousy Hunter had mentioned earlier, maybe?

Whatever, she had to stop it somehow.

Throwing herself at her brother, she tugged hard on his T-shirt, physically dragging him around to face her. Then she slapped him. Hard. “I said, leave him alone!”

The fury in Vin’s eyes leapt and he took a step toward her, bloody fists clenched.

“Not her, Vin,” Hunter said in a thick voice. “Fuck’s sake, not her.”

For a moment her brother just stared at her. Then abruptly all the violence seemed to leak out of him, the coiled tension leaving his posture, but not the rage. That rage stayed there, glittering in his blue eyes.

“You think he’ll make you happy? Is that it?” Vin demanded, low and harsh. “Because he won’t. You know he won’t. He’s playing out a fantasy, Ellie. A sick fucked-up fantasy where he gets to be the one in charge.”

Shock held all her muscles tight. “I don’t care,” she said hoarsely.

“He’ll hurt you. And that’ll be my fault too.”

“What do you mean your fault?”

But Vin was already turning back to the garage entrance. He paused near Hunter who hadn’t moved, more bruises on his face, his mouth a bloody mess. “If you screw with her the way Liz screwed with you, I’ll kill you.” Then he spat on the floor at Hunter’s feet. “Don’t bother coming to work tomorrow. Or the day after.”

As he walked out of the garage, a heavy, leaden silence descended.

Ellie stared at Hunter, shock still coursing through her system. He looked awful, blood dripping off his chin onto his chest, one eye darkening. But he made no move to stop the blood, no move to do anything. He merely stood there, looking back at her, no reaction at all in his face.

Hunter’s jaw ached, his cheekbone throbbing. His mouth burned too, and he could feel the blood dripping down his face. But he didn’t care about the pain. He wanted it. Because there was a terrible sick feeling gathering tighter and tighter in the pit of his stomach. Jesus Christ, what had he done?

History has a habit of repeating itself… A sick fucked-up fantasy… If you screw with her the way Liz screwed with you…

Nausea clenched hard in his throat.

“Why did you say that?” Ellie said, her voice thin and small. “Why did you say ‘it’s exactly like that’?”

Yeah, why? Oh, he’d wanted to goad Vin, a part of himself knowing he’d deserved the hits. The physical punches and the verbal ones. Had deserved them all and more, and part of him had wanted to give Vin more ammunition. More excuses to hit him. As punishment for touching the one person he never should have touched. For breaking his friend’s trust in him.

But he didn’t believe there was a comparison between what he and Ellie were doing and what had happened with Liz. Did he? And why should that thought feel so very wrong anyway?

“You’ll do anything for me, won’t you, Hunter?” Liz undoing his jeans, her hands slipping inside. He’d felt a whisper of wrongness slide over him every time she did it. A vaguely disgusted feeling churning in his stomach. And yet he’d be hard when she touched him. Aching.

“Yes. Anything.” He ignored the disgust because her hand felt good. So very good.

“And you love me, don’t you?” Her fingers curling around him.

“Yes…”

“And you’ll let me do anything I want…”

“God…yes….” Pleasure. Intense pleasure. And at the same time the nagging, confused sense that this wasn’t right…

Oh fuck.

He turned away, not wanting Ellie to see the sudden doubt in his eyes. “I was giving Vin an excuse to hit me.” Blood was dripping down his chest. Hell. He was a mess.

“Really?” Her hand touched his shoulder, gently tugging. But he couldn’t stand the touch of her fingers on his skin, and before he could stop himself, he’d shrugged it off. Violently.

“Hunter?” A tremor in her voice. “What’s wrong? Please say you don’t believe him.”

What could he say? Nothing but the truth.

“He’s right. I told you I was screwed up, Ellie. And I am.” He began to walk toward the garage door, wanting to get out. Get away.

“No. That’s not true.”

He stopped. Turned. Ellie looked small and vulnerable standing there in nothing but one of his black T-shirts, her red hair falling over one shoulder. But the look on her face… She was staring at him as if she’d never seen him before in all her life.

“Of course it’s true. What kind of guy has an affair with their stepmother? You heard him. A sick, fucked-up one.”

Silver sparks glittered in her eyes. “Why do you keep calling it an affair? It wasn’t, Hunter. Sixteen-year-old boys don’t have affairs with manipulative thirty-eight-year-old women.”

He’d taken those steps toward her before he’d even realised it, getting right up into her face, staring her down. “You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about, Ellie. So why don’t you shut the hell up!”

She blinked, taking a step back. But she didn’t look away. “Someone has to say it. Someone has to name it.”

From somewhere deep inside of him rage came boiling out. A rage he couldn’t stop. It burned in his blood, in his chest. “And what the fuck would you know about it? What the fuck do you know about anything? You’ve been sheltered, protected, cosseted your entire life, so don’t you assume you know what went on between Liz and me.”

Her eyes went wide, anger glowing bright. “That’s not fair and you know it!”

“I don’t give a shit. I just want you to keep your nose out of my fucking business.” He didn’t bother to wait for a response, turned and began to walk away.

“Hunter.”

But he didn’t stop or turn, heading straight out of the garage.

“Hunter!”

He ignored the desperation in her voice, went into the house, up the stairs and into the en suite bathroom next to his bedroom. There he filled the basin with warm water and grabbed a washcloth. Began to wash away the blood. The pain was sharp but he didn’t flinch. Let the pain mix with the fury and the nausea, a bitter seething mass of emotion that sat in his stomach like a lead bar.