Page 59 of Regret

Chapter 19

Present

When Hunter stepped out of the shower, he wiped his face with the towel—a very fluffy towel. God, Adam was a real pansy.

Grabbing a pair of sweatpants he found in Adam’s closet—which was the only thing that would fit—he pulled them on and tossed the wet towel over the shower rail before turning around.

Staring at himself in the mirror, his wet hair one big mess around his face, he wished there was a way he could kick his own ass. Why he needed to get himself tangled up in Scarlet’s shit was beyond him. If he had just kept his nose out of it, left Twisted Fable that night without a second thought, he would be back at his apartment fucking some random little submissive chick with only his own demons to bear.

The tattoos on his body showed exactly how deep his root to hell was planted. It was quite the collection he had, and each one of them had some sort of meaning to him.

Regret.The word inked from one hip to the other. Big, black, bold letters spelling out the name of the biggest demon he had to live with. The motherfucker of all his shit. Regret followed him everywhere. It never left him, not even for a goddamn second. Even when he slept it was there—which was why he hardly ever closed his eyes. There were so many things he regretted, like not tellingherhe loved her more. Regretting not being able to hold on toher, not beating the odds withher. But most of all, the regret of not being able to keephersafe.

Bluewas inked on his right rib cage in delicate calligraphy. Delicate, because that was exactly what she was—an angelic beauty, a delicate soul. Above it, an eagle flying with a leaf in his beak, reminding him of what he’d lost.

There was the bleeding human heart being crushed in a giant hand inked on the skin right above his own heart. That tattoo was pretty much self-explanatory. Till this day not a minute went by that his heart didn’t feel like the life was being squeezed out of him.

Then there was the skull on his right arm, usually the last part of a human that remained after death. That was what happened to him the day he lost Blue…he died, and nothing but an empty shell was left of him.

There was also the tattoo on his back, but he didn’t want to think of that one. He never wanted to think about it, but needed it close, which was why he chose to cover his back with it.

The art on his skin was a constant reminder that he had failed the one person he had vowed never to fail, the one person he would have given his life for. So he made sure the pictures were there, engraved in his flesh so he would never forget the fact that he had lost what he loved the most, and that he would never allow himself to love again—ever.

After taking a few deep breaths, he squared his shoulders and prepared himself for the woman waiting downstairs. He wasn’t sure anything could prepare anyone for her though. Not only was she annoying as shit, she was also fucking beautiful. The more time he spent with Scarlet, the more tiny little details he noticed about her. Like how she bit her lower lip whenever she was thinking hard about something. Or how she would frown when she was trying to come up with some smart-ass comeback to everything he said. But the most beautiful thing he had noticed about her, the thing that seemed to drive him crazy, was the look in her eyes whenever she unintentionally let her guard down. It had only happened once or twice in the short time he had known her, but he noticed it. The first being when he cuffed her to his couch and she begged him to loosen the cuffs. That alone made him think that she probably wasn’t into the whole being cuffed to a bed while being fucked thing—which was too bad since he would have really loved to have control over that hot body of hers.

Then there was the freak out session she had in the elevator which led him to kiss her—which he enjoyed a lot more than he was supposed to.

And then the moment in the car, when he asked her to let him help her. He saw it. He saw in her eyes just how much she really wanted to trust someone—him.It made him wonder when the last time was she allowed anyone to get close, and what happened to her that made her lose all her trust in people around her.

Scarlet was a damn enigma, and the weirdest part was that he really wanted to figure her out. A damn puzzle he was desperate to solve.

It was probably a PI thing.

Hunter grabbed his chain off the bathroom sink and paused. The silver Celtic symbol of eternal love was the one thing that made him feel closer tohersomehow. Which was why he never wore it when he was screwing another woman. Maybe he shouldn’t wear it around Scarlet either since he was already having thoughts about screwing her senseless. It felt wrong having Blue close to him when he was with someone else, even though his heart wasn’t a part of it. He lost his heart the day he lost his Blue.

He walked out of the bathroom and placed his chain in the bedside table drawer. Now he had to go downstairs and try to have a grown up discussion with Scarlet. That was the only way he would get answers, by coaxing them out of her somehow. Maybe he should get her drunk, give her a shit load of tequila and then hope like hell she would get a bad case of verbal diarrhea.

He already suspected she would be halfway done with the bottle of Olmeca by now, which would make this part a lot easier.

When he got downstairs, Scarlet wasn’t where he left her. “Goddammit.” It was a huge house and it took him about twenty minutes to confirm that she had in fact…bailed.

“Fucking…”

When he glanced at the counter and saw that his wallet was missing, he cursed. F-bombs had nothing on the words that came out of his mouth. Grabbing a tumbler off the counter, he threw it against the wall right next to the television set, glass splattering everywhere. How the fuck could he be so stupid? Where were his so-called PI skills now? Did he really think that if he left her alone, uncuffed to something, she wouldn’t bail? All he wanted to do was help her, but instead he got an entire fucking wannabe SWAT team on his ass, and then robbed by the same woman he wanted to help in the first place.Way to go, Hunter, you fucking dildo.

To think that he actually thought she was beautiful. That he actually thought there was more to her than just being a stubborn bitch who probably gave her dear old cousin reason to be pissed off with her in the first place.

Oh, he was such an asshole.

Thinking of assholes…motherfucker! Adam’s car!

Hunter rushed to the front door, feeling like he had an entire legion of demons inside of him raging for him to kick the shit out of something. He was fucking seething, all his blood pumping to his fists.

Just as he flung open the door, he collided with someone—hard. Bags and pieces of fabric got tossed in the air and landed all around them. It was fucking chaos.

“What the fuck?”

“Hunter, what the hell, man?”

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