Page 70 of The Mating Game
“But,” he says again.
I perk up. “A good ‘but’?”
“MaybeI could convince my editor.”
“Nate. You’re an angel.”
“I know,” he laughs. “I mean, no guarantees, just in case—but I’ve been known to be pretty persuasive. Do you have any pics you can send me?”
“Yes! I can text them to you.”
“That’s perfect. I’ll get it done, don’t worry. Call it an I’m-sorry-I-haven’t-checked-in gift.”
“Don’t even worry about it. I know how busy you guys are at the end of the month.”
“I’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as I can,” he assures me. “Keep me updated about HGTV, yeah? We’re rooting for you.”
“I will.” My face splits into a grin. “Thank you. Seriously.”
“Talk to you soon, doll.”
“Bye, Nate.”
I squeal giddily when I hang up, flouncing sideways to lie across the bed as elation wells inside me. It feels so good to be doing something again, even if it’s for Hunter’s benefit and not my own.
I’ve got to tell Hunter.
I imagine he’ll be excited, right? I think back to what he said last night and his attitude about the whole thing, and surely he’ll be grateful to find that someoneisactually interested in this place, right? Of course free publicity will do nothing but good for the business.
Unless he thinks it’s none ofmybusiness, that is.
Oh shit.
I hadn’t even considered that. What if he gets angry that I would try to do something like this without his actual permission? I mean, it’s not like we’re old friends. We’re barely even friends with benefits. Is it weird that I would go out of my way to help him like this?
I think youlikeHunter.
I roll face-first into the quilt and make a frustrated sound.
16
Hunter
When noon rollsaround the day after Tess’s and my…incident in the hot tub and I still haven’t seen her, it leaves me anxious. I can’t help but worry that I overstepped somehow, because when I offered to help her, it was abouther, and yet when she offered to touchme, I couldn’t bring myself to say no. The memory of her small hands wrapped around my knot and the head of my cock resting in her mouth will be seared into my brain until long after I’m dead, to be sure.
I work through my anxiety by spending the morning in my other form; being on four legs always makes it easier for me to think, and if it means I’m farther away from the lodge and not constantly checking the stairs to see if Tess appears, all the better. The snow under my paws is like a balm on my fevered brain, cooling the heat of the memories there.
It took every bit of my restraint not to ask for more from Tess, not to beg her to let me drag her up to my room and bury myself between her legs. Hands, tongue, cock—I’m not even particularly picky about how. I’m just finding that with every time I touch her, it only makes me want to touch hermore. And deep down, I knowthat’s dangerous. There’s a risk to keeping up what we’ve been doing, one that could end in the same heartache I’m more than familiar with, and yet…I can’t seem to stop.
I tell myself I could, if it came down to it. If Tess came to me and said she was all better, that she didn’t need my help anymore, I could put aside this aching want I seem to feel for her constantly and simply be her friend. But I know that the longer we keep this up…the less true that will be.
I’m plodding back toward the lodge when the sun reaches the highest point in the sky, deluding myself with platitudes about Tessnotbeing the reason I’m heading back. That I’mnotreturning early only to check on her.
But that would be polite, right? I mean, after last night…wouldn’t it be gentlemanly to see how she’s feeling? What she’s thinking? I don’t know the protocol, and it’s starting to drive me up the wall.
My clothes are in a small bag tied to a tree just out of sight from the back deck, and I quickly change back into them before stomping through the snow toward the lodge. I notice people piling out the back door as I approach—Tess’s brothers stepping outside, without Tess among them, I immediately note.
As I climb the stairs, I nod my head at Thomas, who does a double take, pausing what he was saying to Chase and Kyle as he notices me approaching. “Oh, hey, man.”
