Hearts on Fire (The Hunter Family) (9 page)

            Zane leaned over and kissed me and before he could say anything I flipped him over and pulled off his t-shirt and jeans.  He pulled off his boxers and I moved down to his member but he captured my wrist with his hand, stopping me, pulling me back up to him, and growled in my ear.

            “You can do that another time, right now I want to be inside of you.”

            In one movement he flipped me over on all fours, slid on a condom, and held onto my hips as he guided himself into me with a long, slow stroke.   A deep groan escaped his lips as he entered me and I grabbed the sheets, wringing them in my hands, as sensations of pleasure washed over me.  Zane was slow and steady at first and then he began to move harder, faster, his body crushing against mine.  His breath came in spurts as a low growl escaped his throat.  His hips steadily gained momentum as his thrusts went deeper, his fingers digging into the flesh of my hips.  He reached around to my sensitive bud and feverishly stroked it as he fucked me and I could feel my muscles tensing, my orgasm ready to tear through me.  I flipped my hair back and turned to look at him with a sexy grin.

            “Come for me, baby, give it to me.”

            That sent him over the edge, he grabbed my hair and with one final thrust, his back arched as he exploded inside of me.  The rush of heat was too much and as he stroked my nub one last time I had another explosion, my body shuddering uncontrollably.  We were both gasping for air as we collapsed on the bed together and our bodies were flush and slick with sweat.  Zane tossed the condom in the trash and wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the lips as he smiled at me.

            “That was intense.”  He put his hand over his heart.  “I think you’re trying to kill me!”

            I gave him a teasing smile.  “Me?  Never!”

            “Seriously, Abby, that was amazing.  I have never met a girl like you.  Smart. sexy, beautiful, and great in bed.  You’re the total package.”

            I smiled at him.  “I could say the same about you.”

            He turned on his side and propped himself up on his elbow while he casually played with my hair.

            “Tell me more about your family, I don’t know very much about them. You have a younger brother, right?”

            “Yeah, Jonny, he’s in high school and he’s my little love bug.  I love him to death.”

            “And your folks?  Are you close with them, too?”

            “Yep.  We always ate dinner together when I was growing up if my dad was home. He travels a lot for work, but whenever he was in town he always made a point to be home in time for dinner. My family is really big on together time.”

            “That’s awesome.  My family was the opposite.  I have a younger sister and from about age 12 I had to pretty much take care of both of us.”

            I looked at him, completely surprised.  “Are you serious?”

            “Yep, I had to grow up really fast.”

            “I’m sorry Zane.”

            “It’s no big deal.  Both of my parents had to work to put food on the table, I understood that.  My mom worked as a cashier at a grocery store and my dad was a stock manager.  I knew they loved me, they just had to pay the bills so I didn’t see them very much.”

            “That’s no way for a child to grow up.” 

“Yeah, but some people had it way worse than me so I’m okay with it.” 

I felt incredible guilty as I listened to his story, because my life was so different.  I suddenly felt really embarrassed about the money we had and I didn’t want him to know.  I was worried that he would think of me differently so I tried to change the subject.

“Well, you turned out pretty awesome.  You are so talented Zane, I could listen to you sing and play all day.”

“Thanks, sweetie.  So, what do your parents do?”

“Um, they’re in finance.”  This was exactly what I did not want to talk about.   
Please don’t ask me anything else.

“Oh yeah?  What do they do?”

Great.
  “My dad owns a financial firm and my mom works there too.”

“Oh, cool.  What’s it called?  I may have heard of it.”

Here we go.
  “Hunter International.”

He sat up and I could see it register in his eyes.

“Are you
kidding
?”

“No, that’s my dad’s company.”

I could see the wheels turning.  “Your Upper East Side address makes more sense now.  What would your dad say if he knew you were dating someone like me?”

“How do you know that he doesn’t already know?”

“Does he?”

I hesitated and then answered him.  “No.  I think my dad just wants me to be happy.”

Zane gave me a cynical smirk.  “Yeah, right.  Why didn’t you mention who your dad was before now, Abby?”

“Because it doesn’t matter Zane, does it?  I’m an adult, I can date whoever I want to date.”

He leaned back on the bed, stared at the ceiling for a minute and then looked over at me.

“I hope that’s true.”  He was silent and I could tell that he was bothered by what he had just learned so I wanted more than anything to make him feel better.

“Listen, it doesn’t matter who my dad is.  All that matters is how I feel about you so don’t make a big deal about this, please?”

He was silent for a few minutes, the silence was getting really uncomfortable, and then he looked at me.

“I’m not the type that is putting all my cards on making it with the band, I do have other plans for my future.”

“Zane, I have no doubts or concerns about what you are planning for your future.”

“I know, I just don’t want you to think that I don’t have big plans.”

“I’m sure you do, baby.”

He sat up and looked at me.  “I do.  Logan and I have talked about opening a bar one day.  We have really learned the business since we’ve been bartending so we decided we want to have our own bar.”

I sat up and grabbed his hand.  “I think that’s great!  I know you guys can do it and I bet your bar will be really successful.”

“We’re just in the discussing phase, it’s something we want to do down the line.”

“Well, whenever you do it I’m sure it will be a huge success and I will be there on opening night to support you.”

Thankfully, that seemed to satisfy him and we changed the subject.

“I’d love to come to your performance next week, Abby.  I’ve never seen you dance.”

“I’d love for you to be there but since I am Claire’s understudy you won’t see me.”

“Talk to me about that a little bit more.  What will it take for you to be the lead?”

His words made me feel a little bit defensive. “Haven’t we discussed this?”

“Yeah, but I just want to understand how it works.  The dance world is so foreign to me and I’ve never met someone who was part of a professional dance group. I’m not trying to piss you off.”

“It will take a lot of hard work.”  For some reason talking about it
was
pissing me off.

“Okay, I’ll drop it.  I have to get up early tomorrow so did you want to stay over or do you want me to take you home?”

Now he was annoyed.
Great.

As much as I wanted to stay, our wonderful evening had just turned into a load of tension and I figured it was best if I left.  Not thinking, I said something that I probably should not have said which magnified the glaring difference between us.

“I should probably go home, I can just call my driver.”

“You have a driver? Wow, it just keeps getting better.”  He rolled his eyes after the words came from his lips.

I felt my cheeks get red and I was starting to get hot so I knew that the anger was growing inside me. I became increasingly aware that I was totally naked so I grabbed my clothes and started to get dressed as I glared at Zane.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Look, I don’t want to argue with you.  It’s just kind of shocking that you’re part of the Hunter International family and it’s a lot for me to process.  I almost feel like you kept that from me on purpose.”

I let out an exasperated sigh.  “That’s not true.  Why is it a big deal anyway?”

He got up and put on his jeans. “It’s not.”

I grabbed his arm as he reached for his t-shirt because I didn’t want to fight with him and our argument was on the verge of escalating.