Page 17 of Hunter

I felt Adair begin to pull on the edges of my shirt, a faded AC/DC shirt I had picked up at a thrift shop in Ohio, and gave up on the jets, figuring I would make sure Adair didn’t freak out at the sensations of them. Then I turned around to pick him up and …

Holy mother of bubbles!

It was like a great avalanche of bubbles had come spewing over the top of the huge bath and down the sides, moving like a swarm covering almost all the visible floor.

“Adair!” I called. His blond hair was out of sight.

I plunged my way into the bubbles, moving cautiously so I didn’t kick Adair if he was somehow hidden under the massive pile. I tried to suppress the frantic instincts kicking in to protect my son.

“Adair!”

“Mommy!” I turned toward the voice and saw Adair’s little green eyes pop up from the sea of bubbles.

A rush of relief hit me like a truck. Mother instincts were a freaking roller coaster.

I made my way toward him, scooped up his bubble-encased form, and made my way back toward the control panel where the bubbles had already made their way to.

Turns out the green light didn’t mean the jets were on.Oops.

Adair proceeded to giggle, trying to wiggle out of my arms to play in the bubbles some more until I gave up and sat him down in the shallow end. Then, my hands on my hips, I turned to face the mess. Good thing Hunter wasn’t here, or he would have had my head.Hurray for big-tittied hoes!

The door slammed open as my brain finished its cheer, and there stood the hulking figure of the very same grumpy biker I had just mentioned.

I take that back. Big-tittied hoes need to learn to last a little longer.

“What the hell is going on here?” he asked, not moving from the doorway as he proceeded to look over the bubble-covered floor, then at Adair, who was rolling around now and trying to bite the bubbles, and then at me. When his eyes hit me, they seemed to go down then back up again and stop around chest level.

I followed his gaze down, only to see where the grey shirt had become transparent and my pink polka dot bra was on display.

I squeaked and threw my arms over my chest, which seemed to snap Hunter out of his shock.

“What happened?” he demanded, eyes now level with mine in a gaze that made me think zombies weren’t scary after all. In fact, a zombie apocalypse sounded good right now. That would take his mind off the problem.

It had been a long time since I had felt my submissive side come out. Being a single mother, trying to move halfway across the country and working until I couldn’t feel my feet, there wasn’t much room for submission. Under Hunter’s heavy gaze, though, I felt my head duck away in a heartbeat, at the same time as my mouth dropped open.

I knew it was bad when I opened my mouth, but as the words began tumbling out at high speed, I watched as my situation went from bad to worse. I began to ramble, and for the life of me, I wished I could stop.

“I was trying to run Adair a bath, and the green light was on, and I thought it was the jets and was trying to turn it off, and it turns out it wasn’t the jets, but the bubble bath which, by the way, is misleading since the light is more above jets than bubbles, and”—Hunter took two strides into the bathroom until he was nearly on top of me, which made me vomit words a little faster—“I didn’t realize until there were thousands of bubbles, and—”

He pressed a finger to my lips, silencing me. I tried not to squeak at his proximity or the way his aftershave seemed to envelop me. I took a deep sniff, loving the way the smell made me tingle. There was nothing better than a man’s aftershave.

Hunter let out a long, ragged breath before he removed his finger. “Get Adair and get him dressed before he catches a cold.”

“But what about—”

“Just leave it.”

I could see he was raging for calm as he refused to look away from my face, not looking at the overflow of bubbles or Adair, who chose the perfect moment to sneeze again.

Not one to poke a bear with a stick, I took the opportunity to duck around him, scoop Adair up, and escape into our room, hoping to God that Hunter wouldn’t stay mad.

* * *

Itiptoed down the stairs, leaving Adair to his nap. Even forgoing his bath, the excitement of the bubbles seemed to have worn him out. I put him in my bed in case he woke up and couldn’t smell me like he had always done.

I could have joined him for a mid-afternoon nap, or re-read one of the few books that travelled with me, or played with my hair, or licked air, but nope. Instead, I was seeking out the beast.

Though I had said I would never intentionally provoke a bear, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t go looking for one. Or hunting for one. Get it? Hunter. Okay, that one was pathetic. I couldn’t help it. My go-to for stressful situations was humor, and nine times out of ten, it was only borderline funny at best.

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