Page 25 of Reclaim Me

“Is that what you’re wearing?”

I glance down at myself and laugh. “The outfit is on my body, so yeah, this is what I’m wearing.”

Will rubs at his forehead, his nose wrinkled with agitation. “Rae, you—please change. Our guests are going to be here any minute.”

“My guests,” I say, placing an emphasis on ‘my’ to remind him that everyone who’s coming to the house tonight is coming to celebrate me. They’re my friends and some of our extended family, and most importantly, they’re all aware that I’m a grown woman who has breasts and thighs. “It’s my party, Will. I can wear what I want.”

He steps back as I move through the doorway and out into the hall. “Why does everything you wear these days have to be so….provocative?”

As I head down the stairs, I fight to hide my smirk. The realization that I’m in love with Hunter prompted a change in my wardrobe that Will hasn’t really been a fan of. I would care more about his stances on my fashion choices if it wasn’t having the intended effect on Hunter. In the week that I’ve been home, I’ve caught him eyeing me more than once. Last night, when I came downstairs for dinner in an old pair of cheer shorts and a cropped tank with no bra on, it took him a full minute to pick his jaw up off the floor. Will was out with some friends from work, so he wasn’t there to see it, which was just as well because the last thing I wanted was for my big brother to see me sporting under boob at the dinner table.

Tonight, though, I don’t have the option of sparing him from the art of my subtle seduction, so I hope he has the good sense to look away.

“It’s a romper, not a lingerie set, Will. Please relax.”

Even though he’s behind me, tracing my steps as we move down the wooden stairs of the old house that’s been in Hunter’s family for generations, I know that he’s rolling his eyes at me. He hates when I remind him that I’m not a little girl anymore.

“I’m relaxed,” he insists, still on my heels when I enter the kitchen where Dee is standing at the island stealing a cup of the punch I made before I went upstairs to get dressed. “Don’t I look relaxed, Dee?”

She lifts her ill-gotten gains to her lip and snorts into the cup. “You look like you’re about to have a stroke.”

“Who’s stroking out?” Hunter asks. His voice a loud boom that fills the kitchen and settles low in the pit of my stomach as he comes in through the backdoor. He rarely wears an expression that isn’t laced with stoicism, but today, he’s all smiles. Both corners of his mouth pulling his full lips up into a curve that, to me, spells sin. I dreamed about that smile last night, about watching it disappear between my thighs as he kissed me in places I haven’t let any other man explore at length.

“Is it you?” He turns a questioning, yet concerned gaze on me, crossing the room and taking my face into his hands. My breath leaves my body in a low wheeze that makes my knees weak and adds to Hunter’s misplaced concern. “You okay? It’s not too hot in your room, is it? I picked up a fan on my way back, and I’m going to set it up after I get the food on the grill.”

This man.

How the hell can I not love him when he treats my every need, spoken and unspoken, like his own personal initiative?

“She’s fine,” Will says, tearing the moment apart with a dismissive wave of his hand on his way to the island to take Dee’s cup of punch. “I’m the one struggling to come to terms with my baby sister’s new wardrobe.”

He takes a long swig of the fruity concoction and closes his eyes like he wishes there was just a little bit of alcohol in there to ease his troubled mind.

“Oh.” Hunter steps back and runs dark eyes over my body. There’s not much to the outfit, but he takes his time looking me over. Goosebumps pebble on my skin in every place his eyes touch, and I wonder if now is the moment to tell him that I never want him to look away from me. Finally, his gaze finds its way back to mine, and he smiles. “I think she looks nice.”

I’d look even nicer in your bed.

The words are on the tip of my tongue, and I don’t allow myself a second to think before my lips part to set them free. Caution be damned. I love this man. I want this man. And I don’t care who knows.

“Nice? She looks sexy as hell, like she’s trying to celebrate getting a degree and catch her a man at the same time.”

I don’t recognize the voice coming from behind Hunter, and he’s so damn big I can’t see them. No, not them, her. I can’t see her, so I look to Dee and Will, but mostly Dee, for confirmation that they heard the phantom voice, too. Will is still lost in his head, probably tuning out all talking points that put me and the word ‘sexy’ in the same sentence, but Dee is completely in touch with what’s happening right now. She’s staring at the person behind Hunter, who I still can’t see, and the expression on her face speaks straight to the alarm bells sounding off in my mind.

Something isn’t right.

Hunter turns away from me, lifting one of his long, ridiculously muscular arms up and allowing it to come to rest on the shoulder of the woman whose disembodied voice I just heard. She’s pretty. Even as I grow to hate her, to resent how comfortable she looks pressed against Hunter’s body, I still can’t bring myself to lie about that fact. Her face is round and full, her eyes twin pools of brown the color of hot cocoa, her nose a perfect, button shape that makes her seem adorable and delicate next to Hunter’s rugged imperfections.

“I’m Indigo,” she gushes, leaving the safety of Hunter’s orbit to step into mine. At first, I think she’s going to do the thing you’re supposed to do when you meet a perfect stranger and try to shake my hand, but then she opens her arms wide and says, “I’m a hugger!”

And then we’re hugging.

I stand with my arms pinned to my side for a long second while she squeezes me like we’re the best of friends. Will stretches his eyes wide, silently imploring me to remember that our mother did raise me with manners, and I finally give in, wrapping my arms around her and holding on for just a second because I can’t stand to go any longer.

Finally, the hug ends, but Indigo remains in my space. “Hunter has told me so much about you, Rae!”

“That’s interesting because we haven’t heard a thing about you.”

For just a second, I think the words—which were swirling around in my head—have found their way out of my mouth on their own, but then Indigo’s head full of honey blonde curls spins in Dee’s direction, and her smile falters a bit.

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