I laughed. “He’s been traveling all day. He’s probably starving.”

“My point exactly.” My little niece began to mewl in the background. We’d been talking on the phone for a long time. “Damn. She’s wet. I need to change her. Can you call me back in a few minutes?”

“Hunter should be home soon. How about if I call you tomorrow.”

“Oh my God. Call me right after it’s over.”

I chuckled. “Sure. I’ll call you while he’s taking off the condom.”

“Okay!”

I wasn’t quite sure if she knew I was joking or not. “I’ll call you tomorrow, crazy lady.”

After I said goodbye, I went to the bathroom to freshen up. While I was in there, for a half a second I gave serious consideration to what Anna had suggested. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Hunter would be thrilled if I answered the door buck-ass naked. But I was still on edge and needed the passion to build between us before I could let go that much.

As I was brushing my teeth with my finger, I heard the front door quietly open and close. Oh my God. He’s home. I was half giddy, fully nervous, and buzzing with a sudden surge of adrenaline. Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths and then looked in the mirror before heading out to see the man responsible for my heart hammering a million miles a minute.

Only, when I walked out, it wasn’t Hunter standing in the living room. It was a woman. Just as I emerged from the bathroom, she dropped her coat to the floor.

And I froze in place, standing there staring at her beautiful, naked body.

Chapter 23

Natalia

“Shit!” The woman mumbled as she bent to pick up the trench coat pooled around her bare feet. “I thought someone else was staying here.” She seemed to have a British accent.

I blinked a few times, at first stunned at the turn of events, but then in an attempt to unglue my eyes from the statuesque redhead. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Tall, thin, with creamy porcelain skin, perky boobs, and legs that ran for miles. I didn’t tend to be overly self-conscious, but standing in a room with her fixed that real quick.

Before I could form a coherent sentence, the woman spoke again while pulling on her coat. “I’m so sorry. I’m in the flat next door. A guy I work with sometimes stays in this one, and I knew he was in town. When I asked the doorman who was staying in this apartment, he told me it was him.”

“How did you get in here?”

She pointed over her shoulder. “The door wasn’t locked. I knocked first, but no one answered, so I opened it.”

“Who are you?”

“Brooke. Brooke Canter.” She cinched her coat at the waist. “I do apologize. I thought you were someone else. I’m mortified.”

The dread that settled in my belly knew the answer, but I asked nonetheless. “Who did you think was staying here?”

“Hunter Delucia.”

Seeing my face falter, the woman’s eyes closed. “Shit. Hunter is the sublet here, isn’t he?”

I nodded slowly.

“We used to…” She shook her head. “Never mind. I should get going.”

Before I could say anything else, the embarrassed woman scurried back out the door. I, on the other hand, seemed to be immobilized.

***

“Such a goddamn idiot.” I jabbed my finger at the elevator panel a second time, grumbling to myself. The damn thing wasn’t moving, and all I wanted to do was get the hell out of here before Hunter showed up. I shouldn’t be so upset, but I couldn’t help it. It was stupid of me to expect that someone who’d proposed we have a short-term affair hadn’t had others. It didn’t even sound like she’d spoken to Hunter since he’d arrived in town weeks ago, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

The elevator car finally started moving. In my haste to get out of the apartment, I thought I might’ve forgotten to grab my new cell. As I dug frantically in my purse to check, the elevator doors slid open on the ground floor. Frenzied, I found my phone, grabbed my roller bag, and stepped off, without first looking up. Which was the reason I crashed right into a man.

Of course, that man had to be Hunter.

He grabbed my shoulders and steadied them to keep me from falling over. “Hey…where you running off to?”

He said it playfully and with a smile on his face, but when he got a look at my scowl, his smile wilted fast.

“Move.” I demanded.

“Natalia? What happened? What’s going on?”

“I’m leaving.”

“Why?”

“You don’t need me here.”

“What are you talking about? Why are you so upset?”

His hands were still on my shoulders. “Let go of me!”

He lifted his hands in surrender. “Okay. But talk to me. What’s going on?”

I leveled him with a scathing look. “I met your neighbor.”

His brows drew down as if that wasn’t enough information. Who knows? Maybe it wasn’t. I hadn’t gone door to door to see what other women he was fucking on the floor. I rolled my eyes. “Brooke. The redhead.”

Hunter’s eyes shut.

I waited until they opened again to finish my description. “And she’s a natural redhead, in case you’d forgotten. Lucky me, I got to verify that first-hand.”

I started to walk around Hunter, but he grabbed my arm. “Natalia.”

Stopping, I answered like a sullen child. “What?”

I’d been speaking to his chest, and he kept quiet until I looked up into his eyes. His tone was firm, yet calm. “Let’s talk about this. You can decide to go after, or you can stay, but either way, please hear me out.”

I was weary, and he read it on my face.

“Please,” he pressed.

Our lives were intertwined through mutual friends. It only made sense that things end on a better note than my storming out. I nodded, and the look of relief on his face made me realize he was a lot better at controlling his temper than I was.

Almost as if he was afraid I might change my mind, he pushed the button to call the elevator, slipped the handle of my roller bag from my hand, and put his other hand at the small of my back to usher me inside the car.

You could’ve heard a pin drop on the ride up. Yet even being pissed off and hurt, I found sharing a small space with Hunter had an insane effect on my body. He was just so right there. He filled a room with his intoxicating smell and the way he planted his feet wide in that masculine, alpha-male way.

I was relieved when we arrived at his floor. I needed air that wasn’t shared with this man to keep my head on straight. Our silence continued as we walked down the hall. Still feeling off kilter, I didn’t even realize we’d passed the door to his apartment until he was knocking on another door.

“Why are you knocking?”

Before he could respond, the stunning redhead swung open the door. Her eyes lit up to find Hunter on the other side, until she caught the look on his face and me standing next to him.

“Brooke.” He nodded.

She looked between the two of us. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“When was the last time we saw each other?” Hunter asked, again in that calm but firm tone.

“A year ago, maybe?”

“How about the last time we talked?”

She shrugged. “A few emails on the Cooper project, but I don’t think we’ve spoken in a year either.”

Hunter nodded. “Thank you. I’m sorry to bother you.”

His hand still at my back, he guided me to the next door. His hold only briefly loosened so he could unlock it, and then he was ushering me inside. Setting my luggage down, he turned to face me, brushing the hair from my eyes.

“What happened?”

“I was in the bathroom, and I heard the door open, so I thought it was you. When I came out, she was standing in the living room and had just let her coat drop to the floor. She was completely naked.”

He nodded and seemed to contemplate that information for a minute before speaking again. “If I’d been waiting for you and some dude let himself in and I walked out and was greeted by his cock, I’m pretty sure I’d be pissed off. Pretty sure he’d also have gotten a black eye before I stormed the fuck out.”

Ten minutes ago, I couldn’t have imagined he could say anything to make me feel better. But somehow, him putting himself in my place alleviated a lot of the anger. I was still hurt, but he’d cooled my fire.

“Did she have to have such an amazing body and be such a knockout?”

“She doesn’t hold a candle to you. Not by a mile.”

Either he had poor vision or was a good liar, because he sounded pretty damn sincere.

Reaching out, he took one of my hands in his. “It was once after a holiday party a long time ago. I didn’t even know she was in town and wouldn’t have cared if I had.”

I nodded.

He pulled me to him, and I didn’t fight it when he wrapped his arms around me for a long, tight embrace. Somewhere along the line, I lost the rest of my fight, and I hugged him back.

“Sweet pea,” he lowered his head to my neck. “Never knew what it smelled like until I met you, and now I can’t stop smelling it everywhere and thinking of you.”