Page 106 of Back in the Saddle

‘What?’ He passed her the bottle.

She furrowed her eyebrows, looking at it suspiciously.

‘Don’t you want some? We can get glasses if you want, I’m sorry if I offended you or—’

She let out a small noise – half-laugh, half-sigh, and shook her head. ‘No need.’

She squeezed his fingers back and took the bottle from him. Taking a slow sip from it, she observed Hunter.

His face was pale, creased with worry lines that visibly aged him.

If she didn’t know better, she wouldn’t know he was five whole years younger than her. His grey eyes, although focused on her with warmth, hid bottomless grief. The kind that wasn’t even buried deep. It was just there, a constant reminder of what struggles his life held. Somehow, that realisation made her insides ache.

‘Here, let me have some too,’ he said, taking the bottle from her. He lifted it to his lips, not moving his eyes from her face.

She blushed under his unblinking attention – his eyes might as well have been undressing her right there.

‘On second thought,’ he murmured in a low voice, setting the bottle back on the console table. ‘I’d prefer a taste of you.’

He closed the distance between them before she could open her mouth and slid his hands under her T-shirt.

‘Do you make a wish for when the clock strikes midnight?’

‘No, do you?’ Hunter propped himself on the pillow, checking the time. ‘we have six minutes.’

‘I used to.’When I still believed in love and happily ever after, she added in her head. Visibly, she just shrugged, pulling the duvet further up to her chin.

He shook his head, amused. ‘You know I’ve seen you naked, like … I don’t even know how many times. You don’t have to hide from me.’ He touched her wrist and something heavy lodged in her throat.

‘It’s different.’

‘Is it?’

‘Yes. When we’re busy kissing and—’

‘Getting hot and sweaty?’ he offered, with a wide smile.

Caroline grabbed the pillow from under his elbow and smacked his head with it.

‘Hey!’ He laughed, trying to shield his head with his arms. ‘I surrender!’

‘Good.’ She put the pillow down, avoiding his eyes. ‘And I know all that. But after feels a lot moreintimate,’ she finally said, turning her head away. She felt like an idiot. She was thirty-one years old. Yet with how everything had turned out in her adult life, she still felt inadequate and very young when it came to certain aspects of relationships.

‘Hey.’ He lifted her chin and forced her to look at him. ‘It’s just us.’

And somehow, that simple sentence was enough.

She nodded, pressing her forehead against his.

‘You’re right … On that note, you know you can talk to me, right? About your dad, about how you feel …’

Hunter dropped his hand so quickly she opened her mouth in a silent‘oh’. He sat up against the metal frame of the bed, eyes darkened with an unreadable expression.

‘I—I don’t know how to. Talk about it,’ he choked out, his voice strained.

She reached for his hand. He didn’t look at her.

‘You don’t have to know. No one knows; that kind of sorrow is unspeakable.’ She felt his fingers twitch in her grasp. ‘And I’m not pushing you. Just … if you want to talk, know that I’ll listen.’