Page 60 of Educating Arrogant Mr. Hunter

Desire coiled through every cell of my body, making it tight with need. I let out a soft groan of frustration.

He gave a sharp inhale. “We need to talk about something else, or this will turn into a very different phone call. And I want to be touching you the next time you orgasm.”

Oh sweet baby Jesus.

I cleared my throat and tried to get words past my raspy throat. “We can discuss the Winter Festival.” We’d been emailing all week about this and had made significant headway.

“I reached out to the carnival company, Traveling Amusements. I have some good news and some bad news.” The company we contacted wanted a minimum of thirty days’ notice. We were exactly thirty-one days from the event.

I groaned. “Bad news first.”

“They have a few rides scheduled for maintenance and ones they won’t allow us to use because the weather can be cold in December. We were okayed on the carnival games we requested and the large slide. My contact will reach out to me with our other ride options. He said it helps that we only want five to ten rides and have a huge field to host this in.”

“That’s amazing. When can they set it up?”

“The day before the event, on the fifteenth.”

I put Beckett on speakerphone and pulled up my notes app. “It sounds like you have this handled. I spoke to the food trucks we picked. All three are in. So we have the grilled cheese truck, the taco truck, and the coffee truck. They each have a minimum they need to earn, so we need to hype them up early.”

“I have no problem with that. Talking about the food trucks is making me hungry.” Shuffling footsteps and the rustling of a bag opening crackled across the line.

“I spoke to three independent co-op craft stores and the local art college. They will send out our information about the booths we want in our marketplace area this week. Fingers crossed we get applicants starting next week for us to vet.”

A crunch sounded in my ear.

“Are you eating?” So I’d been right about what he’d been doing.

“Yeah, Cheetos. I don’t indulge often, but they’re my favorite.” A satisfied hum filled my ear.

I pictured him getting cheese dust everywhere and licking his fingers. My laugh died a quick death when my mind saw his talented tongue licking and sucking on the tips of his fingers. Forget whipped cream fantasies. Apparently this is what got me hot and bothered.

I breathed through the pulse of need that surged through me and focused on my notes. “I contacted a local printing company that is able to get our sponsor booklet done within twenty-four hours. I asked Barbara to send a form home to parents and put the ad application on the website, and I reached out to businesses we previously worked with. Many have said yes to a half-page ad, and the rest committed to a full page.” We might be a private school, but what we were planning was a huge event. We needed to supplement the money we had.

“You do good work, Winter.”

“So do you, Hunter.”

“Look at us getting along and stuff.” I snorted. A month ago, I would have told someone they were crazy if they’d predicted this.

“Look at us,” he agreed.

Silence. I didn’t know what else to say.

“I guess if that’s all we have for now, I should let you go,” I finally got out.

“What are you going to do when we hang up?”

I spied the remote on my coffee table. There was no way I was ready to go to sleep yet. “I’ve been wanting to watch that movie from the ‘80’s,Overboard, for a while. They have it on my streaming service.”

His laugh rumbled through my body. “I haven’t seen that in forever.”

I didn’t want to hang up with him. “Do you want to watch it with me?”

“Uh, with Zoey here—”

“No, I meant a watch party. We watch it together but on our own screens.” I paused. Was I making this more of a date than a non-date? Now I wished I’d never used that word. “I mean, only if you want to.”

“I do. Let me get a drink, and I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

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