Since I honestly had no goddamned clue how to respond—nor was I sure how I’d feel about not knowing after making the monumental decision to find out—I was glad she wanted to be the one to talk first.

“I thought about it a lot today. For the last ten years, you chose to not get tested. You only made this decision because of me. And you plan to walk away if you find out because you think that will spare me. Well…I’m not willing to risk that. I’d planned on telling you that tonight. But then when you got freaked out because you forgot to put a condom on, it made me realize that if we never found out, we’d never be able to have kids.” She paused. “Now…I realize I’m jumping the gun here. Who knows, our relationship might not work out for a million normal reasons, so it could all be a moot point. But I needed to give some thought to how I would feel about not having kids because your genetic status would be unknown. And I decided I don’t care about giving birth. I have Izzy, and she’s no less of a daughter to me than if I’d delivered her myself—and we’ve only known each other for five years. If we decided we wanted a child of our own someday—a long time down the road—I’d be fine with adopting.”

Hearing her say how much she’d be willing to sacrifice for me made my heart ache and swell at the same time. “Natalia, I don’t know what to say. The fact that you would be willing to offer such a huge thing, sacrifice something so important is…” I shook my head. “It means the world to me.”

She looked me straight in the eyes. “I want you, Hunter. The rest we can figure out. I don’t ever want you to be inside of me and feel like it’s wrong again. If things between us go the way it feels like they will…one of us can get fixed so we don’t have to ever worry about condoms or getting pregnant.”

She’d just given me the biggest gift anyone could ever receive. She offered so much and wanted nothing in return except me. I wasn’t sure if I deserved it or not, but I was selfish enough to take it.

I’d known how I felt about her for a while now; I just didn’t have the balls to put it out there. But it was time. It was long past due.

I walked to her and dropped to my knees at her feet where she sat on the edge of the bed. “I love you, Natalia. I’m so fucking in love with you that my chest feels like it could explode with everything in my heart.”

“I love you, too, Hunter.”

I kissed her lips softly.

“So we’re good?” she said. “You agree we shouldn’t find out?”

“Give me some time to think about it. Okay?”

“Of course. It’s a big decision, and we have a few days, right?”

I nodded. “The test results probably won’t be back until Friday morning.”

“Okay. So we’ll sleep on it and talk about it again tomorrow with a fresh outlook.”

That sounded like a great plan. Then again, you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

Chapter 41

Natalia

I was confused when I woke up to the sound of a phone ringing. The blinds were drawn, and I wasn’t sure what time it was or where I was at first. But the hard chest acting as my pillow reminded me. Hunter was out cold—he didn’t even flinch at the sound of the phone, so I reached over to the nightstand and grabbed his cell. The phone stopped ringing just as I picked it up, but the missed call read Uncle Joe. I checked the time before setting it back down. 9 a.m. Damn, we’d both slept late.

I gently nudged my sleeping giant. “Hunter.”

“Mmm?” His eyes pinched shut tighter.

“Your phone rang. And it’s late. Almost nine.”

He opened one eye. “Sit on my face.”

I laughed and smacked at his shoulder. “That’s your response when I wake you up and tell you that you missed a phone call?”

“What? I like to eat right away when I wake up.”

“It was your uncle.”

Both his eyes opened, and his face turned serious.

“What?”

He leaned up on his elbows. “It’s only six in the morning in California. If he’s calling me this early, there’s a reason.”

“I didn’t think of that. Well, hurry, call him back.”

Hunter swung his legs and sat up on the edge of the bed. But he didn’t immediately reach for his phone. At first I thought he was taking a minute to wake up, but then I caught sight of his face. “What’s the matter?”

“Uncle Joe ran the test. He said he’d call as soon as the results were in.”

“But it’s only Thursday. You said results weren’t due until Friday.”

“He said probably Friday. I don’t know. He could be calling about something else. But…”

His cell phone started to ring again. We looked at each other for a few rings before he answered. “Hey, Uncle Joe. Give me one minute, okay?”

He covered the phone. “You sure this is what you want? You don’t want to know. It’s a big decision, Natalia.”

I wasn’t sure of much, but I was certain of one thing. “You’ll leave me if it’s positive. Your life won’t be the same. I’ll leave it up to you. But I don’t want to take those risks. I don’t need or want to know.”

He stared into my eyes for a long time before nodding. Then he lifted the phone back to his ear. “Hey, Uncle Joe. Before you say anything, I want to let you know that I’ve decided to not find out the results. So if that’s the reason you’re calling, I don’t want to know.”

I heard a man’s voice through the cell, but couldn’t make out the words he was saying. Hunter stared off, listening intently.

“Uh-huh. Right.”

Hunter’s eyes raised to mine and held. “Natalia and I decided we don’t want to know.”

He looked away again while he went back to listening. I couldn’t sit still. I wrapped the sheet around me and stood to pace the floor.

Hunter kept nodding and said yes a few times. At one point, he rubbed his temples with his free hand. It made me nervous that maybe his uncle had called about something else, that something bad had happened.

After a few minutes that felt more like hours, Hunter cleared his throat. “Okay. Thanks, Uncle Joe. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.” He pressed end call and shut his eyes, looking down.

“What happened? Is your aunt okay?”

My heart jumped into my throat when he looked up. Tears streamed down his face.

“Hunter, what happened?”

Without warning, I was suddenly lifted into the air and tossed on the bed. “My test came back negative.”

I shook my head, afraid to believe what I’d just heard. “What test?”

“My DNA analysis came back negative. There’s a zero-percent chance that I have Huntington’s disease.”

Tears streamed down my face to match his. “Oh my God. Are you serious? But you told him you didn’t want to know.”

Hunter smiled. “He told me tough shit, he wasn’t sitting on a negative result until I finally pulled my head out of my ass.”

“You really don’t have it? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better because of our fight yesterday?”

“No, I’m not just trying to make you feel better, babe.” He pressed his lips to mine. “But I’m about to make you feel better.”

I felt wired with energy. “We should go out and celebrate! I can’t believe it!”

“I’m going to do my celebrating inside. Inside of you.”

Hunter unraveled the sheet I had wrapped around my body and kissed my neck. “I’ve never had sex without a condom—except for that minute last night.”

I smiled. “So it’ll sort of be like your first time then?”

“It’s always felt like my first time with you. But this time, I want to come inside of you. I want to bury myself so deep and come so fucking hard that you’re legs will shake and the people in the room next door will know my name. I want my cum inside of you, just like you’re inside of me—so far that it’s lost and never coming out again. I want to mark you as mine.”

“God, Hunter.”

He lifted my hands over my head and clasped them together using one hand while the other reached down between my legs. “Spread for me, beautiful.”

I did, and Hunter’s head dipped down to suck one nipple into his mouth while his fingers worked my clit. I moaned while he rubbed circles with his thumb. He slipped two fingers inside of me to make sure I was ready and then shifted back to align himself with my opening.

He never took his eyes from mine as he entered me. I was so wet, so incredibly ready for him. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pushed in deep. Hunter’s arms began to shake. “Fuck. You feel…so, so good…”

He started slow, moving in and out and studying the reaction on my face to each thrust. Closing his eyes, he looked like he wanted to savor every minute of the first time inside me bare, but when I moaned and said come inside of me, his willpower snapped.

What started out as making love elevated to fucking. Pure, primal fucking. Hunter pounded into me hard, his face desperate with need. Our bodies soaked with sweat as we moved in unison, me meeting each of his strong thrusts. The sound of wet, slapping bodies echoed through the room and was the most erotic thing I’d ever heard.

“Hunter…”