“Goodnight, dear. See you in the morning.”
I walked down the hall and toward the front door, slipping my shoes on and heading out to my car. I didn’t care if I threw these keys into the trash, but I wanted them out of my house. I felt terrible for not being truthful with Grace, but a little white lie to protect her and me was something I was willing to live with. I couldn’t have Hunter coming around anymore. Just a few hours ago, while I was quivering in orgasm, he’d felt like the best thing that had ever happened to me. Now, I knew that all that was an illusion. A delicious, sexy illusion, but an illusion none the less. He was more like a drug that I needed to clear out of my system. Some poison that gave me a rush of pure ecstasy, but would destroy me and my life if I let him. I wasn’t going to let that happen. No matter how strong his hold on me was, no matter how much I wanted to throw myself into his arms and have him crash inside of me again, no matter how much I wanted to feel his lips pressed on mine like I was the only thing he needed to survive. I sat in my car and thought about touching myself. I thought about Hunter’s hand around my throat while he looked me dead in the eye as he opened up my core like I had never felt. I thought about sinking my teeth into his broad shoulders.
“Kelly,” Grace called from the front porch. “You forgot Dennis’s keys, you silly girl.”
Grace walked down the steps and passed the keys to me through the driver’s side window.
“You all right, baby? You look a little flushed.”
“I’m okay, Grace. I’m just satisfied from a good meal.”
“Yes, well, that is the look of satisfaction now that I think about it. Hurry home, dear. The sofa bed will be waiting.”
I waved to Grace as I pulled out of the driveway. I was going to drop these keys through the mail slot of the auto shop. Hunter would find them there in the morning and I’d be done with this. I’d be done with him. It had only been a day, and it was like he’d taken over my life already. I remembered why I liked being single. The loneliness was a small price to pay for not having my life taken over by a complete animal. Anyway, I had more important things to worry about than this schoolgirl crush on a dangerous, tattooed drifter, and it was time to stop living in a fantasy. I had Lucas to think of.
All of this silliness ended tonight.
Chapter 22
Hunter
I LIT A SMOKE AS I parted ways with Deacon at the stairwell to my apartment and started to make my way down the block to the auto shop.
There wasn’t a soul on the street and barely any signs that anyone lived on it. I might have actually been able to get used to this place if I would have kept fucking quiet and minded my own business. It could have actually been okay. I should never have taken work with Dennis and I should never have mingled with civilians. I should have just found a quiet place to crash, drink and sleep. I could have lain low during the day, and let myself out to breathe at night. It’s how I lived back in Boston except that city pulsed just as hard at night as it did during the day. Or at least that’s how it was in the neighborhoods I spent my time in. It was a different crowd than the day, but it was one I was more comfortable in. Hookers, druggies, drunks, criminals, general fucking lowlifes. Those were the people that came out at night and filled my streets. Those were the people I could live with because they minded their own business. No one gave a flying fuck who you were, so long as you kept to yourself and stayed out of their way. Nobody looked twice if you were beating someone down with one hand and chugging a bottle of whiskey with the other in the middle of the goddamn sidewalk. No one gave a shit if you fucked some broad up against the wall in an alley before you dropped her on her ass and you both went your separate ways. No questions asked and every bastard for themselves.
Even that shit grows tired though. Same faces, same bullshit. People are people and most of them get sick of being alone. They want to talk to someone. Even if that person has, Don’t fucking talk to me, tattooed across his forehead, like I did.