I woke up late the next morning. I blamed Hunter for that. His cocky attitude, his hot and cold demeanor, he got under my skin. After I’d returned to my room, I’d spent hours keeping myself busy in an attempt to not think about him. It hadn’t worked.

I hid in my room until the early afternoon. I unpacked all my boxes and put everything away. I wanted to make my mom happy and the way to do that was to show her how well I adjusted to her decisions. I was determined to be supportive of her new life.

My stomach brought me downstairs sometime after two. I’d half expected everyone to be out enjoying the sun, but I found them all in the kitchen.

“Good afternoon, sleepyhead.” Mom got to her feet and poured me a cup of coffee. “I hope you slept well.”

“Yeah. I slept fine.” I sipped my coffee and ignored the fact that Hunter stared at me again. “I spent the morning unpacking and settling in.”

“Good, sweetie, I’m glad.” Mom turned to David. “Do you think ice sculptures would be too over the top?”

David shook his head. “If you want ice sculptures, we can have ice sculptures.”

I furrowed my brow. “Ice sculptures? For what?”

“The family reunion.” David reached for my mother’s hand. “I want to introduce my new bride to the whole family.”

I felt the blood drain from my head. The whole family. I flicked my gaze to Hunter. He looked un-phased. The whole family. Everyone.

“Will Aunt Angela be coming?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah, she’s already confirmed.”

“Is Mitch coming with her?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t he?”

Hunter pushed himself away from the counter. “No reason. I just wanted to know if we should hide the hard liquor. You remember the last time everyone was here, don’t you?”

David grimaced. “Good plan.”

I didn’t listen to the rest of the conversation. I tried to figure a way out. I could feign illness, which wouldn’t be hard. My stomach churned and rolled when I remembered how Mitch had acted toward me at the party. I left my coffee on the counter and mumbled an excuse to go upstairs.

I paced the floor. My hands were balled into fists. I needed to hit something. Mitch, I needed to hit Mitch.

My door opened and Hunter stepped in.

For reasons I couldn’t imagine, tears sprang to my eyes. “Here to enjoy my misery?”

Hunter shook his head. “I can tell my dad what he did. I can have him uninvited.”

I wiped the tears away. I felt ridiculous, crying over a guy who meant nothing to me. “No. It’s okay.”

“Are you okay?” He took a step toward me, his brow pinched with worry. Gone was the cocky, arrogant ass who seemed to enjoy tormenting me.

I took a deep breath and sat on my bed. “Do you think I could just hide in my room through the whole thing? I could pretend to wash my hair.”

Hunter sat next to me. He ran his fingers through my long, chestnut tresses. A moan almost escaped, but I managed to swallow it—hard. “You’ve got this, Summer.”

“Everything is fucked up.” I shook my head, then Hunter cupped my face. I shut my eyes to avoid his piercing gaze.

“Everything is fine.” His other hand blazed a trail of fire up my arm.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

My eyes were still closed. I didn’t want to open them. I leaned into his touch. I wanted to pretend we were still in my dorm, but it didn’t matter where we were. He was my stepbrother now. I wrenched away and stood, but he grabbed my hand. I made the mistake of looking into his eyes. I couldn’t pull away. He pulled me back.

“I like you, Summer.”

My laughter came out huskier than I expected. A warmth spread through me. It started in my stomach and went down, down to my pussy. I bit my lip when I thought of his fingers and how they felt when they were deep inside me. I wanted him so badly I ached. There was an emptiness in me that only he could fill.

“You like tormenting me.”

He stood and threaded his fingers into my hair. “I love tormenting you.”

His lips grazed my ear, then my neck. I felt his smile on my skin. He kissed his way up my neck and glided his hands down my back. He cupped my ass and pulled me into him. His erection pressed into me, but it was his words that melted me and made me want him.

His lips grazed my ear. “I won’t let him hurt you, Summer.”

Chapter Nine

His touch satisfied something deep inside me. It was like listening to a song you’d thought about for days. The lines rolled through your mind on repeat and nothing was able to match the thrill you get when you finally break down and listen to it. He was music. We were music. Our heartbeats, the sound of our breathing, it was all a part of our symphony.

Our mouths crashed together, and I frantically fumbled with his belt.

Hunter took my bottom lip between his teeth. He raked them across the tender flesh and growled as he released it. He rocked his body forward, pulling me tighter. He roamed his hands over my breasts. His touch was light, controlled. I didn’t want him to hold back. I wanted him to take me. I needed him to devour me.

I worked his belt open, then ran my hand down the front of his jeans. I licked my lips at the thought of tasting him, taking him deep into my mouth. I worked his cock free and then sank to my knees.

“Summer.”

His voice was strained. I looked at him and ran my tongue up his shaft. He wove his fingers into my hair as I swirled my tongue over the head of his dick. I made mental notes. Every groan, every growl, every time he tensed, I made sure to remember what I did. He sighed as I parted my lips and slid my mouth over his cock.

I sucked him slow, because he loved to be tortured like that. I never took my gaze off him. He liked that too. Even more intimate than my tongue on his shaft, my lips around his cock, was the look in his eyes as he stared down at me. I increased my pace, and he wound his hand tighter in my hair. He moved his hips. He fucked my mouth now. He threw his head back, gripped my hair even tighter, pushed my head harder, fucked my mouth deeper.

“Fuck, Summer, fuck.”

His forehead creased as he slammed his eyes shut. He tried to pull away, but I gripped the back of his legs and held him there. He stiffened, twitched, thrust. His cum spurted over my tongue. The thick, salty liquid ran down my throat.

I let him slide out slowly, then rose to my feet. Hunter peeled his shirt off and dropped it onto the floor. I skated my hands over his ribs as I wrapped my arms around him. He slid a finger under my shirt. His hand was hot on my back.

“Why did we waste so much time arguing and competing when we could have been doing this?” Hunter asked as he pulled away and lifted my shirt over my head. He dropped it next to his, then looked at my pants. “Get those off and get on the bed.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What if I say no?”

He smirked. “I’ll spank that cute little ass until you can’t sit for a week.”

My hands went to the waistband of my pants, but I paused. “What if I want you to?” I had no idea where this side of me came from. I was saucy and defiant. He made me want to be bad for him. Only for him.

I wiggled out of my pants, but didn’t move toward the bed.

He took a step forward. He was huge—his broad shoulders, his height. He could snap me in half. I should have felt intimidated, instead I felt safe somehow. He’d never hurt me. I could give myself over to him, put all my trust in him, and know I’d come out the other side unscathed.

“I said get on the bed.”

“Make me.”

Hunter scooped me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing at all. He lay me on the bed, then stood there for a moment and stared at me.

“What am I going to do with you?”

I slid a hand inside my panties and traced my fingers over my clit and through my dripping folds. “Anything you want.”