Exposed - Part Two (The Exposed Series, #2) (3 page)

"I don't want to talk about that." I push against him again and his chest is so unyielding. It's too strong. It's too much.

"I've never wanted a woman more than you." He's leaning closer now. I can feel his breath whispering across my cheek. "I think about you every second of every day."

"Don't." I hang my head down. I can't look at him. I can't think about that night. In spite of everything, I've imagined feeling his hands on me again. I've imagined the depth of the pleasure when I came under his tongue and when I felt him filling me.

"You can't deny you wanted me." His lips are grazing my neck. Why aren't I moving? Why haven't I pushed my way past him?

I don't respond. If he knew how wet I was becoming from his very presence, he'd know that my body still longed for his. He'd know that I wanted to push down all my doubts and just let him take me right here.

"You still want me." He traces his lips down my neck and I shudder under the touch. "You want me to fuck you now."

I do. Please. I want that. I want him to push me down. I want him to pull my dress from me. I want him to bury his face between my legs.

"I want you to leave." I find the will to pull back from his lips. "I don't want you," I lie.

"You don't want me to go anywhere." His hand is pulling on my ponytail. My hair tumbles over my shoulders. "You want me to make you come until you scream my name."

"You lied to me," I mumble. "It was all a lie."

"No." He brushes his lips over mine. "This was never a lie."

I feel the weight of his kiss and I pull my hands instantly to his hair. I weave my fingers into it, pulling him harder into my mouth. His hands are on my back. The faint pull of the zipper at the back of my dress gives way to a burst of cool air as my skin is exposed. He's going to fuck me. Right here, now. He's going to make me come. I crave him. I'm so addicted to him.

"Sunshine. I need to taste you," he breathes into my mouth as the dress slips from my shoulders. A chill courses through me and I shudder.

He glides his tongue down my neck. I glance down and watch him trace a line with his kisses down my scar. My scar. The scar. Coral's heart.

"No." I jump back. "No. Stop." I push on him so hard he falls backwards onto the floor.

"Sadie. Please." He jumps to his feet. "Don't push me away. I need you."

"I can't do this." I feel the bite of tears at the corner of my eyes. "I can't want you. Everything is a lie. Go."

He moves to sit next to me and I bolt to my feet pulling my open dress to cover my chest. I point to the door of my bedroom as I cover my mouth quieting a sob.

"W
ait." Alexa grabs both my shoulders in her hands. "You're telling me that his girlfriend's heart is inside your body?"

I nod. It's taken every ounce of strength I have to confess everything to Alexa. "Coral. It's Coral's heart."

"So he tracked you down and then what?" The confused look on her face speaks volumes. "Decided to fuck you in memory of her? I don't get it."

I wince at her words. It's brutally direct but it resonates through me. It's exactly the same thing I've thought about for days. "I have no idea why he did it."

"You don't want to know?" She eases herself back onto the couch. "You didn't ask him why?"

"He never gives me a straight answer." I pull on a thread that is hanging from the bottom of my sundress. "He just said he wanted to meet me and he was worried I'd react badly to him knowing my donor."

"That kind of makes sense." She purses her lips together tightly. "It is a little freaky that he used to date a girl who had the same heart inside of her."

I smile slightly at the irony of her words. It's true. It's more than a little freaky. "It's too bizarre. I just need to forget about him."

I reach for the remote to turn on the television. I invited Alexa over for a movie and my sudden need to admit everything to her has sidelined that.

"We're not forgetting anything." She jerks the remote from my hand. "You need to get more answers. We need them."

"We?" I laugh. "We don't need any answers from him." I wave my hand in the space between us. "It's my heart now. I get to make the decisions about what we need to know."

"You can't just drop this." Her tone is insistent and wearing on me.

"I can and I am." I push back. I don't need Alexa to tell me what to do. I decided last night after I ushered Hunter out of my bed and my life that I wanted nothing to do with him anymore. Any lingering curiosity I've had about my heart donor had been satiated when I saw Coral's picture and learned how she died. I just wanted to refocus on what was important to me. School and work was all I really needed.

"I know that look," she says it offhandedly. "You're turning back into boring Sadie."

"Boring Sadie?" I arch a brow. "What does that mean?"

"That means that you're going to pull back inside your shell again."

"It's not like that," I scoff. "I'm just being realistic. I have responsibilities. I need to focus on those."

"You have questions." She reaches to squeeze my hand. "Now is your chance to get answers. Go talk to him. Don't let him lie to you anymore."

I stare at her face. I see the persistence in her eyes. She's right. I do have questions. I have loads of questions and Hunter Reynolds is going to answer them.

***

"I
would have picked you up," he says as he opens the door of his apartment.

"I was fine." I step past him and hear the door close behind me. "I just took a taxi."

He motions towards the couch. "I was glad you called." He smiles thinly.

I don't reciprocate. I don't want to leave here without some solid answers. I'm tired of him pushing the truth aside. I want to know his true intentions.  "I just need some clarification," I whisper dryly. "It's all been a lot for me to absorb."

He nods. I expect him to sit down next to me but he doesn't. My eyes follow him as he moves towards a desk and pulls a large book from it. As he nears the couch I realize it's a leather bound photo album.

"Hunter," I say his name not knowing what to say next. He must sense my trepidation. He has to know this is hard for me.

"Let me talk." His tone is reassuring and gentle. "I've been an asshole. I've handled all of this in the worst possible way."

I smile slightly at his words. He's right. He has been an asshole. He has been lying to me since we met.

He sits down next to me. I don't move when I feel his thigh resting against mine. I vowed that I wouldn't get too close to him but I don't want to recoil and risk losing his vulnerability. I feel as though he's ready to finally confess to me what's really going on.

He opens the photo album slowly and I'm greeted with the vibrant face of a young redheaded girl. It's Coral. She can't be more than six or seven-years-old in the photograph.

"Coral's mother gave me this after she died." His hands are trembling as he speaks. "I don't look at it anymore. I keep it close to remember her though."

I watch in silence as he turns the page and my breath catches. There beneath the hazy page protector is the letter. The letter I'd written to my donor family so many years ago. I hesitantly reach for the album. "May I see?"

He hands it to me and I rest it in my lap. I pull my head down to study the paper. The handwriting is so clean and perfect. I remember sitting at the desk in my room for hours working with tireless care to get it to look flawless. I must have rewritten it more than fifty times. I start to read the words and my emotions flood to the surface. I watch as a single tear falls onto the page. Before I can wipe it away, Hunter's large hand scoops it up.

"Her mom gave me the letter." He pulls the album back so it's resting on his knees. "I cherish that letter."

My gaze moves to his face. His eyes are moist too. It's the most exposed I've ever seen him. "I wrote it so long ago," I whisper.

"I didn't know I'd feel what I feel for you." He snaps the book shut sharply. "It's not about Coral."

I glare at the book. I want to see more. I want to know more about her. I need to know who she was. What her life was like.

"It is about her." I sigh heavily. "You wouldn't have come to look for me if I didn't have her heart."

"That part is true." He acknowledges with a quick nod. "Everything else is about you. What I feel now has nothing to do with Coral."

"What do you feel?" I snap. "I need to know."

"Like you're my destiny."

T
hey're the words that fairy tales are made of. I'm his destiny. He said it. I heard it leave his lips. I see it in his eyes.

"I can't explain it." He reaches to cover my hand with his. "I've never felt like this before."

"You did with Coral," I shoot back. I know that he must have loved her. If he didn't, he wouldn’t be cradling that book of memories so carefully in his lap.

"Coral was great." His face brightens as he says her name. "We were kids though. It was a crush."

"I think it was more than that," I counter. "She's obviously still a big part of your life." I nod towards the album.

He reaches forward to place it on the coffee table. "It's very complicated."

"Explain it." I challenge.

"We were in a lot of the same classes at school." He lifts his head to look directly at me. "She had this mess of red hair. She was cocky and brutally honest and I was a teenage boy."

I smile at the thought of Hunter as a teenager. I wonder if he was as beautifully reckless then as he is now. If he took what he wanted with the same virile force that he does today.

"We dated as kids that age do. You know..." his voice trails and I realize he's waiting for me to acknowledge the statement.

"I haven't dated much." I blush. "I'm not sure I know."

"We went to the movies and hung out with friends." His eyes are searching mine for some understanding. It's so long ago. I don't want him to tell me she was his first. I can't shoulder that knowledge. I don't want my heart to belong to his first lover.

"We kissed and held hands. We didn't do anything else."

I breathe in a heavy sigh of relief at the admission. "Yes," I whisper. "I understand."

"It was volatile and we argued. Teenagers are unpredictable." He laughs. "We broke up and got back together so many times I lost track."

I smile at the statement. I've seen brief flashes of his anger and I can imagine how that would blend with an equally temperamental redhead.

"I spent so much time at her house that I became part of her family. They helped me a lot after she died."

"What's her family like?" I ask boldly. Ever since I found out I had Coral's heart I keep flashing to her parents.

"Her mom is amazing." A wide smile takes over his face. "She's great."

I take comfort in the words. "What about her dad?"

"He died a few years ago." His gaze falls past me into the air behind me. "He had a weak heart. It didn't last long after we lost Coral."

We
. The word is bittersweet. He lost Coral too. Even if they weren't as close as I thought they were. He cared deeply for her. Obviously many people did.

"Did she have siblings?"

"Two." He shifts slightly so there's more distance between us. "A brother and a sister."

"I have a brother too," I offer. "He's a jerk."

He smiles. "Coral's is too."

"What about her sister?" I've always secretly longed for a sister. Alexa is like a sister to me but it's still not quite the same as growing up beside another girl.

"Christina." He sucks in a heavy, throaty breath. "She's a year younger than Coral was."

"What's she like?"

"She's spoiled," he says tightly. "Pretentious and expectant."

"I take it you don't get along," I joke.

"We do." He closes his eyes as he pulls the knot of his tie looser. "She's just difficult sometimes. Often, very difficult."

"Do you still see them all regularly?" I ask already knowing the answer to the question.  His friendship with Jax, Coral's cousin, is evidence enough of his bond to her family.

"Fairly regularly." He offers nothing beyond that.

"I'd like to meet them." I shove my hair back behind my ear. "I think I should meet them."

I feel his body tense next to mine. "No. That won't work." His tone is dismissive and terse.

"Why not?" I raise my voice slightly. "You wanted to meet me. They probably do too."

"Coral's death was devastating to all of them." He pulls his fist across his thigh. "You'd just be opening up old wounds."

The comment hurts. I have a part of someone they love inside of me. How could they not want to meet me as much as I wanted to meet them?

"You haven't told them about me, have you?" I shoot back. "Is Jax her only relative who knows about me?"

"That's how it has to be." He's unyielding. This is obviously not a subject that's up for discussion.

"Don't you think they should decide?" His unwavering stance is annoying. I want to meet them. I want them to see what I'm doing with her heart. I want them to know the life I'm building.

"I don't discuss her with them anymore." I can see the vein in his neck throbbing.

"What? Why not?"

"I killed her, Sadie." He says through clenched teeth. "I killed Coral."

I
t's as though the words float through the air. I can't grasp them. I can't get my hands around them or my brain to absorb them. My mother said Coral died in a car accident. He didn't kill her. He couldn't have killed her.

His head is resting in his hands. I can see his measured, heavy breaths. I don't know what to say. I can't speak.

"I was driving." The emotion in his voice is thick and transparent.  "I was driving the car."

"It was an accident." I reach to touch his back and he flinches. "My mother said it was an accident."

He nods his head slowly. "There was a truck. It came out of nowhere. I didn't stop in time."

"You didn't kill her," I whisper softly as I rest my head against his. "It was an accident."

His eyes dart up and meet mine. His gaze is heavy, dark and intense. I see a flash of something obscure. "It was my fault. I was careless."