Page 52 of Behind the Scenes

Panting, he pressed his forehead to hers and stared at her like he needed to know what she experienced and the answers lay in her eyes. It was the most intimate act she’d ever experienced. She couldn’t pretend a single emotion like that, so he got all of her.

The vulnerabilities she kept hidden from the rest of the world. The unvarnished and untouched real image of who she was.

And in return, she saw in front of her the man she’d wished all her life for. Raw, hard, and animalistic, he possessed her body like it was his to take. But she also saw more than that.

As Hunter’s release roared through him, the guttural noise of a satisfied man escaped his throat, and then his body stilled. Alexis gently ran her hands over the back of his head and down his neck, feeling the dampness of the sweat from their lovemaking.

Placing a soft kiss on his lips, she sighed and smiled. “That was…”

He kissed her and finished her sentence. “Incredible.”

“I was going to say phenomenal.”

“That too.”

As pain began to course through her hips, she groaned and said, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to walk tomorrow. I think I need to get down.”

Setting her on her feet, he pulled up his pants and zipped them, leaving them unbuttoned and his belt undone. As he sat down on the bed next to her, Alexis couldn’t help but think Hunter looked just as comfortable at that moment as he had before they had sex. She admired that in him.

“Why so quiet?” he asked, leaning over to kiss her sweetly as she still worked to recover from their rendezvous.

“No reason. I was just noticing how comfortable you always are in your own skin. I wish I could say I was like that, but I think it must be something you’re either born with or not.”

Hunter ran his hand over the top of his head to catch a few beads of sweat. For a moment, he didn’t say a word, but then he smiled in that way that made her stomach do flips and tucked her hair behind her ear.

“You’re one of the most beautiful women in the world, Alexis. Don’t try to be anything you’re not. You’re perfect just like you are.”

Perfect.

No man had ever called her that. Not her ex-husband. Not a single photographer who fawned over her. Not a director on any of her films.

No one else in the world.

And yet, in those dark green eyes, she saw he truly meant that. He thought she was perfect.

“Thank you, but I don’t feel perfect.”

Hunter slid down the pillows and pulled Alexis over next to him. Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed the top of her head.

“Well, you are to me,” he whispered and hugged her to his body.

Alexis curled up against him and lay her head on his chest. So much bigger than her, he held her in his strong arms as his words echoed in her head.

Perfect. You’re perfect to me.

She didn’t want to make more of what they’d done than it truly was. He wouldn’t be staying in her life forever. As soon as he found her stalker, he’d leave and go back to his life.

A life she knew almost nothing about.

As she lay there in his protective arms, she felt safe, and for the first time since moving to New York, she didn’t feel trapped in her home. She wasn’t hiding now. The apartment didn’t feel like a prison anymore.

Because of Hunter.

But how hard it would be when the day came when he had to leave. Alexis didn’t want to let herself feel attached to him. She wasn’t an inexperienced girl who knew nothing of the world. She understood the difference between sex and love, and all they had between them was sex.

Despite all that, as she lay there listening to him breathe in and out as he held her to him, she knew what they had between them was more than sex. He’d given her something she needed so desperately and hadn’t been able to find on her own.

That strength she’d always believed she held inside.

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