Page 21 of Imperfect Saint
What would happen once they crawled into bed and turned off the lights? Would he press her for more? Would he turn to her and take her into his arms again? Would he hold her close and make her feel as safe and as cherished as he had when they’d been dancing? Would he kiss her again? Kiss her until she felt dizzy and unable to breathe for how much she wanted him? And if he did, would she let him?
She wanted him. She couldn’t lie to herself about that. Not anymore. Not when he’d been nothing short of perfect over the last few hours. He’d walked into this situation willingly. Lemon hadn’t forced him to come here as Millie’s date. He’d chosen to do it just as he’d chosen to take it a step further and convince her family that he was her boyfriend. He’d told her, more than once now, that he wasn’t acting, and she knew that she couldn’t keep up the façade of indifference now that he’d kissed her.
He’d said he wanted her. He’d showed her with his kiss. And she wanted him too.
She just wasn’t sure she was ready for him.
“Millie?”
She jerked her eyes up from the ground at the sound of her name and saw Hunter standing in the doorway between the bathroom and the bedroom. He was wearing a pair of flannel pajama pants that sat low on his hips and absolutely nothing else. Her mouth went dry at the sight of him, shirtless and gorgeous, standing in front of her.
He was absolutely breathtaking. All of those firm, hard muscles with that golden skin stretched taunt. He was built like a GI Joe, which she supposed was fitting considering he’d spent much of his life in the Army. She wasn’t surprised to find that he was beyond fit. She’d seen that patch of hair leading into his pants and the indentations of his abs earlier when he’d had his shirt unbuttoned. What had her mouth falling open was the dark ink that wrapped around his right arm from just above his wrist almost to his elbow.
“You…” She blinked, starting to reach out and then catching herself, “You have a tattoo.”
His face flickered into an expression she couldn’t read before he nodded, “Yeah. I do.”
She remembered then all the things he’d rattled off about her earlier in the day. He’d known she had a small tattoo even though she kept it hidden and out of sight. Yet he had a much larger span of ink covering his arm, in a place that she would have seen easily if he’d ever worn short sleeves in front of her, or even pushed up his button down, only she’d never known it existed.
“Why?” The word fell from her mouth and Hunter raised an eyebrow.
“Why what?”
“Why do you keep it hidden? I didn’t know. You know about mine but…”
“It wasn’t like we ever discussed ink, babe.” He shot her a knowing look, “It never came up.”
“But…” She frowned, not liking the easy way he dismissed it, “You keep it covered on purpose. If you didn’t, I’d have seen it before now.”
“I figured little miss professional boundaries might not like me showing off ink at work so…” He shrugged and she glared at him, seeing straight through the sarcasm.
“That’s not why you kept it covered.”
He sighed and pushed up from the doorframe, strolling towards her, “It’s partly why. I didn’t figure you’d like it, and I wanted you to like me.”
“I do like you, Hunter.” She admitted softly and when he smiled down at her she mustered all her courage and reached for his wrist the way he’d done with her so many times today.
She pulled him closer and he let her. He was standing directly in front of her again while she sat on the bed. Just like they’d been standing before, when her brother had interrupted them. Only this time it was dark outside, the mood felt completely different, and they were hardly wearing any clothes.
Millie bit the inside of her cheek and slowly traced the lines of the tattoo. It was a twisting, twirling pattern that wrapped around his forearm. He didn’t move, hardly even breathed, as she ran her fingers over all of that dark black ink, not until she found what she hadn’t known she was looking for. Deep grooves and raised slashes of skin. Scars. Hunter sucked in a sharp breath as she traced those too and when she glanced back up at him, he was staring at her with a seriousness that completely unnerved her.
“You got it to cover these?”
“Yes.” His tone was sharp but his voice was soft. “I didn’t want to see the reminder every day so I tried covering it up. It didn’t work. I still think about it all the time.”
“Think about what?”
“The day it happened.”
“Tell me about it?” She asked, her eyes studying his face so thoroughly that she saw it when he closed his eyes, his brows furrowing for a fraction of a second before he opened them again and gave a slight nod.
“Not much to tell. You know I was in the Army. We were at war. I was in Afghanistan with my unit.” He shrugged as if that should explain it all but Millie didn’t release his arm.
“What happened, Hunter?”
He let out a whoosh of air, “Millie…”
“I want to know.” She slid her hand into his. “Please. Hunter? You know so much about me already. I want to know you too.”
