Licked (L.A. Liaisons Book 1) (24 page)

Life. It was ironic at the best of times.

I’D TRIED TO wait for Hunter to open up to me. Really, I had. But after a full twenty-eight and a half hours of having the images of him and who I assumed was his daughter playing on a loop in my mind, my curiosity was winning out. I knew it was time to say something when I was still thinking about it even as he kissed me with my arms pinned over my head against the wall.

Which was where we currently were.

“I think we should play a game,” I said as he cupped my breast over my clothes, his mouth gently nibbling down my neck. Yes, this wasn’t the ideal time to bring it up, but I couldn’t focus on how good everything felt when my head was a million miles away. Hell, you know we females never have the best timing with these kinds of things—gimme a break.
 

“I ask you a question, you answer, and then I’ll lose an item of clothing. And vice versa,” I said.
 

“Or I could just get us naked right now instead.” He pushed me onto my bed and then raised his shirt up over his head. Okay, so this was a distracting view…a
really
distracting view…

Focus. Ask him questions. Make him talk.
 

“Is there anything you want to know about me?” I asked, sitting up on my hands as he walked toward me, my eyes going again to his ripped abs.
 

“Are you asking me to play twenty questions right now? Seriously?”

“I need to know more about the guy taking up so much of my time.”

“In bed,” he said with a sexy grin as he climbed onto the bed, pushing me down to the mattress, his body covering mine. He sucked my bottom lip into his mouth, and I moaned, half out of pleasure, half out of frustration. He was way too good at taking my mind off everything but him.

“Question one,” I said, before things could go any further. His lips were on my neck, leaving a hot trail of kisses, and it wouldn’t be long until he rendered me completely useless.
 

“You’re not really quizzing me while I do this, are you?” he said, as his mouth made its way over my collarbone. Then he lifted his head, an indecent promise in his eyes. Tempting,
oh so tempting
. But I was determined to make him talk to me.
 

“What can I say? I’m a multitasker.”
 

He groaned then pulled the top of my strapless dress down over my chest. “Fine. My question is, do you like it when I do this?” He flicked his tongue over my nipple, and I gasped, my fingers spearing through his hair.
 

Oh, fuck, he doesn’t play fair.
 

“Yes,” I said, squirming underneath him. “I love that and you should feel free to do it whenever you like. But that’s not a good question.”

“It’s all you’re getting out of me at the moment.”

“Okay, I’ll go. Do you have kids?”

His face nuzzled my breast as he inched my dress down to my waist. “Not that I know of.”
 

Wrong answer.
“Are you sure?”

He lifted his head, chuckling. “I’m pretty sure I’d know.”

Okay, if he’s not gonna fess up to the kid thing, I’m busting out the big guns.
“Where do you go on Tuesdays and Thursdays?”

His body went still for a moment, and then his lips were warm on my stomach. “Come on, I don’t wanna talk about this right now.”

“Well, I do.”

“Ryleigh—”

“Please?”

Sighing, he rolled off me onto his back. “I told you I had appointments. I don’t know why you can’t just leave it at that.”

“Because it feels like you’re hiding something.”

“Should I give you a calendar of everywhere I’ll be? Is that how relationships work? Forgive me, it’s been a while.”

His sarcasm stung, but there he went, deflecting again.

After pulling my dress back up to cover my chest, I turned on my side to face him. “Don’t change the subject.”

“Jesus Christ,” he said, rubbing a hand over his face.
 

“If, for instance, you had a child, I’d be totally understanding—”

“I don’t have a fucking kid,” he said, his voice echoing off the bedroom walls. “What the hell do you keep asking me that for? Do you know something that I don’t?”

“Hunter, I saw you.” It came tumbling out before I could stop it.
 

He didn’t answer right away, only stared at the ceiling, unblinking and weighing his words. “You saw me what, exactly?” His voice was low, like the quiet rumbling of thunder in the distance. The kind that warned of an impending storm. But I’d already said too much now.

“I was worried it was something bad, so when you left yesterday, I followed you and I saw—”

“Wait, stop for a second. You
followed
me?” His head jerked to look at me, his brow raised in disbelief.
 

“I… Well, I mean, I happened to see—”

“No, you didn’t
happen
to see anything. You deliberately followed me. Is that what you’re saying?”

“When you say it like that—”

“What did you see?”

“You were at a school and there was this little girl who looked like you—”

“I don’t fucking believe this shit,” he said, sitting up and yanking his shirt over his head before getting to his feet.

Oh God. I’m an idiot.

“I know, I’m sorry, it’s just…you were being so vague about it, and then I got paranoid and—”

Hunter turned around, pinning me with an angry stare. “And what? Did you think I was off dealing meth? Cheating? Skipping out on the job to go to the beach? Please explain to me what the
fuck
you thought I was doing to warrant being followed, Ryleigh.”

Shit, he’s pissed.
I couldn’t blame him, but I also needed him to see where I was coming from. “It was stupid, I get that, but when were you going to tell me you have a daughter?”

“That I have a—” He ran his fingers through his hair and gripped the ends as he paced the room. When he stopped, his eyes were wild. “Let’s get a few things straight. First, I love that you assume things about me from watching a snippet of my life
out of context
. Second, that you,
you
, of all people would do something like that blows my fucking mind. Did someone put you up to it or was it all your idea?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but he put his hand up.
 

“You know what, it doesn’t even matter,” he said. “What I choose to do in my time away from you is
mine
, and if you can’t trust me enough to understand that, we have no business being together.”

Those words were a hard slap across the face. “I…I do trust you. I just made a mistake. But can’t you see that you’re at fault here too? How can you say you want me in your life when you’re hiding this huge part of you?”

“I’m not hiding anything from you. I have a past, just like you do, and all that heavy shit comes out eventually.
Eventually
, Ryleigh. When I’m ready to talk about it.”

He stalked into the kitchen and grabbed his keys from the counter.
 

“Wait, please don’t go,” I said, my voice cracking as I blocked him from the front door. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

“Mad at you?” he scoffed. “The only person I’m mad at is me for thinking I’d finally found someone I wanted to spend time with and get to know. But
this
girl? The one standing in front of me? I don’t want to know her. This was a mistake.”
 

My breath caught as he pushed past me, and I grabbed his arm. “What was a mistake? What are you saying?”

“I’m saying this,” he said, pointing at me and then back at himself. “You and me. I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“A good idea,” I repeated, wrapping my arms around my waist as if I could hold myself together. My insides felt like Jell-O, like a wobbling mass that could tip over at any moment. “So, what, you want to end things? Break up? Is that what you’re saying?”

“I need some space.”

“Space like…permanently,” I said, not wanting to believe him, but I could see the disbelief and rage still warring in his eyes, in the set of his clenched jaw, in the tension rolling off his body in waves. And the sadness—there was a bit of that too, and that was the part that made my eyes sting with tears. He didn’t answer me, didn’t have to. His silence said enough.
 

“I see.”

“And that’s the thing. No, you don’t.” He turned his back on me and opened the front door before pausing. Then he looked back over his shoulder as if he wanted to say something else, but then shook his head as if he’d thought better of it.
 

The door shut, heavy footsteps going down the stairs, and then another door opened and closed. The tears that had threatened to come out finally rolled down my face, and when my legs went unsteady, I reached for the door, resting my forehead on the cool surface.
 

What just happened? What have I done?
 

As quickly as our relationship had ignited, the flame had been snuffed out.
 

Permanently.

I WOKE UP numb the next morning. Actually, I shouldn’t say “woke up,” considering I didn’t get more than a half-hour of sleep all night. My mind was turning, I’d stayed sick to my stomach, and I was seriously considering calling in. To my own business. Which I’d never, ever done.
 

Instead, I’d trudged to the shower and stayed under the hot water until it ran out. Then I put on black pedal pushers with a green and black polka dot halter and threw my hair up in a messy bun. Yes, messy.
’Cause why not?

Luckily, I had just planned to work in the kitchen that day, so it wasn’t like I had to talk to anyone. Or look toward where I knew Hunter would be all day. I was in the safety zone—at least I was until I covered Amber’s lunch break.

“Good afternoon,” I said, addressing the young couple that walked in from where I was manning the front register. “Ready to Get Licked?”

Geez, I was really phoning it in today, my words coming out less than enthused. With the contest a week away, I couldn’t afford to have my head out of the game, so I plastered a smile on my face and willed it to stay there.
 

“What can I get for you two today?” I asked.
 

“Something to share, I think,” the woman said, smiling up at the man. His arm was around her, and he gave her a quick squeeze.
 

“Anything you want,” he said.
 

Oh, gag.
Fucking gag me with a spoon already.

“Ooh…what’s a Magnum bowl?” she asked, giggling.
 

“Our specialty Magnum bowls are the largest size you can get, and we currently have four different options. I’m guessing neither of you are here for the Heartbreak Special or the Pity Party for One, so I’d go with either The Diabetes or the Greedy Motherfucker.”

“Wow…um.” The woman glanced at her partner. “I think the Greedy one sounds better, what do you think?”

“That one works for me.”

“Great,” I said, not feeling so great at all. “Just let me know which flavor you’d prefer for your handfuls of balls.”

They both chuckled, the perfect picture of happily dating bliss. Was this what Hunter and I had looked like? Had people wanted to beat us in the face with an ice cream scooper too? I guess I’d never know.

Once they’d chosen a flavor, I scooped a massive ton of ice cream onto the frozen slab of granite we usually kept in the freezer. Making a large indention in the middle, I began to pile spoonfuls of every topping we offered on top. And I do mean
every
topping. It wasn’t called the Greedy Motherfucker for nothing. Then I pulled out what I referred to as “the sledgehammer” and began beating the ingredients into the ice cream to mix them together.
 

Hmm.
Maybe this was the perfect way to release some of my tension. I could offer a special on this one today to get more people to let me smash stuff.
Good plan.
 

The pounding continued as I hammered away, still going even after the ice cream was thoroughly combined.
 

A hand touched my arm. “I can get it from here,” Zoe said. She pushed me back and scooped the battered dessert into a dish bigger than my head and piled it high with whipped cream, nuts, and cherries before sliding it over the counter. “Enjoy,” she said, before grabbing my arm and tugging me into the kitchen.