Page 40 of Hunter

“I give up!” I snapped, sweeping the needle across the surface and hearing it ping as it flew into the sink.

I looked down into the drain and realized that it was my only needle, feeling all the anger go down the pipes with it, leaving me tired and exhausted.

I slumped against the marble surface and felt like crying.

“My life is far too stressful,” I whined into my palms.

I could feel his gaze from across the other side of the room.

Don’t look! Don’t look!my brain cried, but I looked anyway.

Hunter had his arm thrown over the back of the chair, his face fully on me, and he smirked.

I take it back.

If looks could kill, it wouldn’t be the needle first.

It would be Hunter.

Chapter Fifteen

Hunter

“I’ve given you money,” I repeated for what seemed like the ten-thousandth time.

“I don’t need it.” She spun away on the kitchen stool, looking down over yet another pair of jeans that had torn. It was the second this week.

“Go out and get some clothes.”

“I have clothes.”

“They,” I growled, pointing down at the pile of material on the countertop that was barely held together by a single thread, “are not clothes. They’re rags. Go buy new ones.”

“No, they’re not!” She pulled the leftover fragments close to her chest. “They’re my clothes!”

“Like I said, they’re not clothes.” I reached over to pull them from her, but she leaped out of the chair faster. My hand remained in the air as my gaze rose to meet her face. “I’m warning you, Mallory.”

“Warning me?” she scoffed. “I’m not some petulant child.”

“You’re acting like one,” I snapped back, stalking around the breakfast bar until I faced her as she took a small step of retreat toward the stairs. “I’m fed up with this shit. Buy yourself some new clothes.”

For the last four weeks, I had seen her wearing those tiny clothes, and at first, I hadn’t minded the way her jeans hugged her ass, or the way her shirts crept up a little too much, or the way her nipples almost peeked out of the top of her bras. But after seeing that third pair of jeans rip out of the five pair she owned, I’d had enough.

“Go buy yourself new clothes before I take it upon myself to burn them all.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”She tightened her hold on her jeans as she looked up the stairs to where her bedroom and that tiny suitcase shestillhadn’t unpacked lay under her bed.

“Oh, I would.” I took a step toward her, and she took another one back. “You want to walk around naked?”

“It’s not like there’s anything to see.”

I stopped and let my gaze rake down her body, making sure she felt it.

When she shivered, I knew I had made my point.

“Don’t look at me like that!” she snapped, straightening her back. “I’m not buying new clothes, and that’s that. If you want to spend your money that badly, Adair needs new shoes, and a hat for the sun, and—”

I grabbed her arms and yanked her forward, bringing her flush against mine. “Stop that.”

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