Taking Him (Lies We Tell) (27 page)

By someone she knew. Hunter.

As his familiar dark eyes met hers, a wave of emotion swept through her. So intense she had to grab onto the seat to keep from swaying, her eyes prickling with ridiculous tears. And all she could do was stare at him, completely unable to process the fact that he wasn’t where she thought he was, still back in Auckland, but here, with her, on the freaking plane.

“What are you doing here?” she said finally, thickly.

“I’m going to Tokyo.”

“But you—you said…I thought…”

“Sit down, sweetness.”

The stewardess was still standing there and Ellie had no choice but to sit. It was either that or continue gaping and crying like a lunatic.

Hunter nodded to the stewardess who smiled and left, while Ellie started noticing dumb things like how much wider, roomier and more comfortable the seat was than back downstairs.

A dumb thing to notice that when the love of her life was sitting next to her and not, apparently, in Auckland like she’d thought.

She clasped her hands in her lap, her jaw clamped shut, furiously blinking back the tears that seemed to keep leaking from her eyes.

Beside her Hunter had gone quite still and she was so achingly conscious of him she couldn’t bear it. He was so familiar. So warm. In jeans and a black shirt, long sleeves rolled up to expose his long, tanned forearms, he was also so damn hot too.

Jesus Christ. Was that all she could think about? How hot he was? Shouldn’t she be angry with him? For being here when she knew he could never offer her more than what they’d had?

“Look at me, Ellie.” His voice was very soft.

It took her some effort but she did, lifting her chin, meeting his ink-black eyes. “Is this some kind of joke you’re playing on me?”

“You seriously think I’d do that to you?”

“I don’t know what you’d do to me, Hunter. You haven’t exactly been communicative the past few days.”

He remained silent a moment. Then he said, “I went to see Liz. I wanted to see her. Tell her what she’d done to me.”

Ellie’s heart slammed to a halt. She should say something but couldn’t think of what, so she just sat there, staring at him.

Hunter looked back. “As soon as I saw her, I realised. I realised you were right about one thing and wrong about something else.”

“What things?” she croaked.

“What you said about me being in love with Liz. That it was a lie. You were right about that. I think I knew it all along. But I couldn’t admit it because being in love was better than being her victim.”

Ellie’s throat tightened and she had to swipe at her eyes, unable to stop the tears and no doubt smearing her eyeliner like a bastard.

“But you were wrong in thinking I don’t know what love is.” The look in Hunter’s eyes had become very focused, intense. Pinning her to the spot and squeezing all the air from her lungs. “I do know. I learned all about it every time I came to look after you. The way you used to look at me, the way you took my hand. Talked to me. I never had that in my life, Ellie, not from anyone. The only other person who showed me affection was Liz and that was the wrong kind.”

She swallowed. “But what about your dad? Your brother?”

“Dad wasn’t a great believer in affection and Justin was too full of himself to pay attention to me.” He leaned forward in his seat, took her hand, the warmth of his touch flowing up her arm and into her heart. “It was you, Ellie. You taught me what love was when you were only a kid. And now that you’re an adult, you’re still teaching me.”

She should probably take her hand away from him. But his touch was too good and she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “That only works if you actually want to learn.”

He turned her hand over in his, his thumb stroking her palm. “That’s just it. I do want to learn. I want to learn more.”

A shiver went through her. She didn’t want to hope. “Y-you do?”

“Yes, more than anything.” Bending his head, Hunter kissed her palm. “I want to come with you to Tokyo. I want to be at your side wherever you go and whatever you do. You’re more my home than my family ever was.” He looked at her and she could see suddenly how tense he was, how vulnerable. “I love you.” The words were a whisper. “I always have. I just couldn’t let myself feel it until you showed me how.”

Ellie knew she had to say something, to answer the desperate question she saw in his eyes. But the words were difficult to get out. “I want everything, Hunter. You know that, right? You know I’m not going to settle for anything less. For just sex. Or just a few weeks. Or months.”

His hand held hers tightly. “I know. It’s going to take some time to…put Liz behind me fully and I’m probably going to make some mistakes but…” He hesitated. “You wanted forever and I want to give it to you.”

Stupid bloody tears. When was she ever going to stop crying? “Are you sure?” she said in a choked voice because she couldn’t help herself. “Are you really sure that’s what you want?”

Hunter didn’t say anything. Instead he reached for her, hauling her over the space between them and into his arms, giving her his answer in a hungry kiss, then kissing her face, her neck, her throat. His fingers in her hair, tangling hard, his arms around her, holding her tight.

And she was kissing him back just as hungrily.

After what felt like years but was probably only a couple of minutes, Ellie pulled back. Then hit him hard on the shoulder. “That’s for not telling me about this earlier. For letting me say goodbye at the airport, thinking I was leaving you behind.”

He had the decency to at least look slightly rueful at this. “I wanted you to have some time by yourself to say goodbye to Vin. Plus, I wanted to surprise you.”

“Consider me surprised.” She touched his face, letting her finger trace the outline of his mouth. “Did Vin make things up between you two?”

“Yeah. He threatened me with death if I hurt you and I said ‘likewise’. It’s all good.”

She grinned. “Jesus, men are stupid.” Happiness, like spring sunlight on barren winter ground, began to creep through her.

“He wasn’t too pleased about me leaving the business either.”

“You left the business?”

“I bought a one-way ticket.” He lifted a shoulder. “I figured I could find something else to do in Tokyo.”

“Hunter, you can’t—”

He laid a finger on her lips. “I can. I’ve got lots of savings so we’ll be okay money-wise. And Vin is going to hire someone to take over my workload and help him manage things. I’m keeping my stake so it’ll be there when and if I come back.”

“If?”

His hand spread on her hip, warmth filling her at the subtle touch. “That all depends on you. I’m not leaving you, Ellie. Not ever again.”

The warmth expanded, running through her blood, into her heart. “If you think I’ll let you, you’ve got another think coming.”

Slowly he smiled, a rare, beautiful Hunter-smile. “Do you have any idea how much I love a possessive woman?”

“Actually no, I don’t. But I can be extremely possessive if you want me to be.” She moved experimentally in his lap and heard him take a sharp breath, his gaze going even darker. “So,” she murmured. “Does First Class have any of those bedroom type things?”

He cursed. “Not this plane, sadly.”

Very sadly. “That wasn’t very well thought out, was it?”

“Hey, I spent a lot of money on these tickets.”

She kissed him gently. “You shouldn’t have.”

“Yeah, I should. You deserved it.” His arms curved about her. “Tell me again, sweetness. I want to hear you say it again.”

Ellie settled back against him, not wanting to move. She knew what he meant. “I love you, Hunter. I love you so much.”

He sighed, turned his face into her hair. The hand resting on her thigh moved. “Do you think anyone would notice if I did this?”

Ellie shivered. Then she reached for the blanket that had been pushed to one side of the seat, hauling it over the pair of them. “Not now they won’t.”

Hunter laughed and the sound of it made her shiver again. His laughter, like his smile, was rare. Then his hand moved again and Ellie closed her eyes.

It took around eleven hours to get from Auckland to Tokyo. And somehow she didn’t think they’d have any problem filling the time.

About the Author

Jackie has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. Mild mannered fantasy/SF/pseudo-literary writer by day, obsessive romance writer by night, she used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to throw off the shackles of her day job and devote herself to the true love of her heart—writing romance. She particularly likes to write dark, emotional stories with alpha heroes who’ve just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines.
 

She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, the inimitable Dr Jax, two kids, two cats and some guppies (possibly dead guppies by the time you read this). When she’s not torturing alpha males and their stroppy heroines, she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, posting random crap on her blog, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.

You can find Jackie at
www.jackieashenden.com
, or follow her on Twitter
@JackieAshenden

Look for these titles by Jackie Ashenden

Now Available:

Falling for Finn

Black Knight, White Queen

Coming Soon:

Having Her

Living in Shadow

Living in Sin

Living in Secret

When you’ve been burned, the heat of the moment is the scariest place to be.

Falling for Finn

© 2013 Jackie Ashenden

Six months after a sexual assault, Anna Jameson has decided enough is enough. She's sick of being a victim, of letting the experience have power over her. She wants her fear of physical intimacy gone, as in
now
.

In the quest to reclaim her sexuality, she needs a man. A man she trusts absolutely. A man like her best friend, Finn.

Finn Shaw is all about taking risks. He does it every week on his extreme sports TV show. But there’s one boundary he’s never pushed, and that’s his friendship with Anna. When his hyper-intellectual family kicked him to the curb over his dyslexia, Anna stuck by him.

Her request to become friends with benefits throws him for a loop. He can’t deny her anything, but this is a whole different ball game. Once they’re skin to skin, there will be no hiding the fact that he’s loved her for years.

When their chemistry burns out of control, Finn decides he’s the one who’s had enough. It’s time to break out of the friend box—and show Anna that risking her heart is a risk well worth taking. Even if it costs him her friendship.

Warning: This book contains a strong-willed heroine who knows what she wants, a daredevil hero intent on showing her how much more she could have, sexy love scenes that’ll melt your heart, and a grand gesture you'll need a tissue for.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Falling for Finn:

“Jesus Christ. Anna. What are you doing here?”

Okay. So it was official. Finn was not pleased to see her.

Anna gripped the strap of her backpack tightly. Well, she’d always known this would be difficult. She hadn’t been the world’s greatest friend for the past six months, and he was probably pissed off about it.

Actually it looked like he’d bypassed pissed off and gone straight to furious.

“Hey, Finn.” She hoped the friendly smile on her face would be enough of a white flag. “Long time no see, huh?”

He leaned casually against the doorframe, arms crossed. The shocked look on his face had faded, to be replaced by an expression she’d never seen before. At least one that had never been turned in her direction before. Hostility.

“Yeah,” he said on a long breath, no softening in his dark eyes as he looked her up and down. “You could say that.”

Anna resisted the urge to shift nervously on her feet. She couldn’t blame him for being angry with her. She really couldn’t. She’d been the one who’d gone into hiding. Who’d cut everyone off. Who’d avoided everyone. Avoided everything until she couldn’t avoid it anymore.

And that wasn’t Finn’s fault, was it? Oh no, that was all hers.

An awkward silence fell, and she realized she was waiting to be invited in, though it didn’t look he was going to be producing a gilt-edged invite anytime soon.

Oh hell. She’d really stuffed up then. Because no matter how much they’d argued, no matter what problems they’d had in their friendship, Finn had always been there. Had never shut her out.

Until, apparently, today.

“Soooo…” She kept the smile firmly in place. “Shall I stay here in the hallway or are you going to ask me in?”