“Okay…and we’d spend time together outside of the bedroom, too?”

“Of course. I’ll always make sure you eat before I eat you.”

I squirmed a little at the thought. “So the difference between what we’d be doing and a relationship is…”

Our gazes locked. “Expectations.”

Since we were laying our cards on the table and having a little heart to heart, I figured I’d push a bit further. “You said you had one serious relationship that lasted years.”

Hunter nodded. “That’s right.”

“I married my only real serious relationship. That disaster is the primary reason I’ve been avoiding anyone with real relationship potential. I lie to myself and others by saying I don’t want a relationship because I need to focus on my work and Izzy. While that’s partially true, if I’m being honest, it’s also because Garrett burned me pretty bad, and I haven’t fully gotten over it yet.” I paused for a few seconds. “Does your not wanting a relationship have to do with the one serious one you had?”

He looked away, staring over my shoulder and out into the lit-up city before returning his eyes to mine. “Yes, but not in the way you probably think.”

“Did she break your heart?”

“We broke each other’s.” He cleared his throat and took a step back. “How about we go eat?”

“Okay.” I followed Hunter to the kitchen and offered to help. But he’d already done all the prep work for a dinner of chicken and broccoli pesto bowtie pasta. It was put together in a sauté pan, and all he needed to do was warm it up. He turned the gas cooktop on and filled my wine glass again while I sat on a stool at the island, watching him.

“Do you cook often?” I asked his back while sipping my wine and admiring the way his ass filled out his jeans.

He glanced back and caught me checking him out. Flashing a knowing, cocky half-smile he said, “Only when I want to eat.”

“You don’t order in a lot?”

“I like to try to eat healthy when I’m home. I travel a lot, so I have no choice but to eat out a lot. So when I’m home, I attempt to avoid eating crap. Plus, I like to cook. How about you?”

“I cook most nights to feed Izzy a balanced meal. In the mornings, she grabs a bar and runs out the door at six-thirty before school and doesn’t get home from sports until almost seven most nights. Dinner is the only chance I have to make sure she gets decent nourishment. Plus…” I smiled. “I like to cook, too.”

“You’re really good with her.”

I sipped my wine. “Thanks. I’m totally bluffing it. I have no idea how to raise a teenager.”

“You’d never know it.”

“My mom always said good parenting was spending half the amount of money you think you should and double the amount of free time you have with your kids. Lucky for Izzy, I’m always broke and have no life.”

Hunter chuckled and turned his attention back to the stove. He lifted the pan off the flame and flicked his wrist a few times to stir dinner before setting it down again. Then he lowered the heat to a simmer and came to lean across the other side of the island from me with his wine in hand.

“So what are your limits?”

I sipped. “My limits?”

“In bed. What’s a no for you?”

I was mid-swallow of my wine, and the casual way he’d asked the question caught me so off guard that I gulped it down the wrong pipe. I sputtered and coughed.

“You okay?”

I nodded and put my hand up while catching my breath. My voice was strained when I could finally speak. “Stop doing that to me. Who talks like that?”

“What?”

“You just asked about my sexual limits so casually, like you were asking if I wanted a glass of water.”

“How would you have liked me to ask?”

“I don’t know. Maybe less business and more personal, perhaps.”

He nodded. “Okay. I can do that.” Reaching across the counter, he took my hands into his. “Sweet pea, you have a mighty fine ass. What are your thoughts on my tapping that?”

I felt my face shade pink, and a knowing grin spread across his.

“You’re a jerk.”

“Pretty sure that’s not news to you.”

A crackle popped from the pan on the stove, forcing Hunter’s attention back to heating dinner. I watched him move around the kitchen with grace as he plated two meals and cut up a loaf of semolina bread. Though there was a dining room table, without discussing it, we ate in the kitchen on the island across from one another. It reminded me of hanging out and enjoying a meal with a friend, rather than forcing the formality of eating in the dining room. I liked that he just went with the flow. Garrett would never have eaten in the kitchen.

“This is really good,” I said. “Did you make the cream sauce yourself?”

“I did. Thank you.”

Hunter forked pasta and chicken, and I couldn’t help watching the way his throat worked to swallow the food. The masculine bob of his Adam’s apple was hypnotic. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch him undress if the sight of his neck did this to me.

As we ate, I quietly deliberated saying something. I had no doubt Hunter and I would have great sex, but if I was open with him, the way he was with me, things could only be better. So, deciding to push my embarrassment to the side, I opened up.

“I’ve never had anal sex.”

A slow smile spread across his face. He tore a piece of bread in half and dipped it around in the sauce on his plate. “Opposed to it?”

“I’m not sure opposed to it is the right term. Terrified might fit better.”

He chuckled. “Okay. Good to know. We’ll save that for when you learn to trust me in bed. How about oral?”

I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation. “Giving or receiving?”

“Both.”

“I enjoy both.”

His eyes scorched with heat. “Opposed to being tied up?”

God, there was a lot Garrett and I didn’t do. “Never tried it. But I’d be open to it.”

“Nice. Toys?”

My face heated. “I have a vibrator, yes.”

“Opposed to using it for me?”

My mouth dropped open. I’d never masturbated with anyone watching. “I’m not sure.”

His eyes dropped to my pebbled nipples and rose back to meet mine. “I’ll take that as a yes. Any fetishes?”

“Me? No. You?”

“Not really. But would it scare you if I told you I’d love to spank your ass.”

I swallowed and whispered, “Oddly, no, not at all.”

“After I spank you, I’d take you from behind while you’re on all fours. Opposed?”

Jesus Christ. I didn’t answer, but that wasn’t because I was against it, I just couldn’t figure out how to get my mouth to move. Seeming to sense that my silence wasn’t a bad thing, his sinful mouth continued on.

“And when I’m done, I want to come all over your ass and back.”

“God, Hunter.”

“When is the next time Izzy is staying at her grandmother’s? I want a whole night the first time I’m inside you.”

In the moment, I couldn’t remember what day it was, much less which weekend my stepdaughter was scheduled to visit her grandmother. I gulped from my wine glass in a very unladylike manner and answered honestly. “Not soon enough.”

Somehow we managed to not claw each other’s clothes off after that. When we’d finished dinner, we cleaned up together and then sat in the living room talking. There was no lull in our conversation as we covered everything from work to our last vacations and places we’d like to visit. Hunter, it seemed, was an open book to most anything, except for his one serious relationship. And I, of all people, understood wanting to forget past mistakes.

Even though I hated to go, I asked him to drive me home about eleven. He walked me up to my apartment, and we said goodnight at the door with yet another amazing kiss.

“I’ll call you.” He kissed my forehead. I really loved when he did that for some reason.

“I won’t be able to answer most of tomorrow. It’s visiting day. I take Izzy to see her dad, and it’s a four-hour drive each way, plus the actual time while she visits.”

I caught Hunter’s jaw clench, but he nodded and said nothing further on the subject. “I have to fly back to California on Tuesday for a few days to work with a client on some last-minute drafting revisions. Look at your schedule and let me know if you’re free next weekend.”

“Okay.”

I checked in on a sleeping Izzy and took a quick shower. I was too awake to go right to sleep, so after, I sat on my bed, booted up my laptop, and opened my calendar in Google. Next weekend was marked off as Izzy’s monthly visit with her grandmother. She normally went on Friday, and I picked her up on Sunday, unless she had a game early Saturday morning. Then I dropped her after the game. I clicked to my bookmarked favorite sites and opened the athletics schedule for Beacon. Surprisingly, the only game this week was on Thursday evening. There was no Saturday game.

I reached for my phone and texted Hunter, figuring he would probably be home by now.

Natalia: Izzy’s weekend with her grandmother is next weekend.

The dots started to jump around.

Hunter: When do you drop her off?