Eruption (The Hunted Series Book 3) (14 page)

Thursday

"Did you ask him yet?" Sierra said when she
returned to her desk with a cup of coffee.

I looked up from my computer screen. Earlier this morning I
had texted Melissa about hanging out tomorrow night, but I still hadn't heard
back. Every day her silence weighed on me more and more. It was getting hard
not to think about it. "I'm sorry, Sierra, I keep forgetting. We've been
so busy with..."

"Ask him during lunch today."

"Yeah, okay, thanks for reminding me." For the past
few days my fellow interns had been nagging me nonstop about meeting up with
James and me after work one day this week. And the more they asked me about it,
the less I wanted to ask James. It was pretty clear that they didn't care about
getting to know me. They just wanted to meet him. But I couldn't really blame
them. Who wouldn't want to spend time with James? "What day are you guys
all free?"

"I could do tonight," Tavon said and put his hands
behind his head. Sometimes he leaned back so far in his chair that it seemed
like it was going to tip over.

"Tonight would be great!" Sierra said. "But
I'm free pretty much every night." She laughed awkwardly after saying it,
which just made me feel bad. She was new to the city. I should be helping her
out, not avoiding her. What did it matter if she had a crush on James? Every
single girl in New York probably had a crush on James.

"We have a cake tasting after work tonight, but maybe
tomorrow..."

"How about after the cake tasting tonight?" Zach
asked.

"Yeah, I already have plans tomorrow. Come on, let's do
it tonight, it'll be so much fun. We promise not to embarrass you," Tavon
said.

I laughed. "I guess that could work." I glanced
down at the time. It was a little early, but I was already hungry. "I'm
going to take an early lunch. And I promise to ask him." Tonight would be
the best time to do it this week. Even though I was free tomorrow night since
Melissa and Tyler weren't talking to me, James still had plans with his
friends. And I'm sure he wasn't going to cancel on them to hang out with a
bunch of interns that were obsessed with him. I bit the inside of my lip to
prevent myself from laughing. I was an intern that was obsessed with him too.
He didn't seem to mind my obsession at all.

Sierra clapped her hands as I walked toward James' office.
She probably thought I was out of earshot.

I wove my way through the different departments. Tonight I
thought I'd play up the student/professor role playing idea I had come up with.
If anything could get James to cave, it was whispering Professor Hunter
seductively in his ear. That dynamic between us never got old. It reminded both
of us about when we first started our relationship. And no matter what anyone
else said, I loved how we met. I could relive our first time together in his
office over and over again. I absentmindedly licked my lips. Sex seemed to be
the only thing on my mind recently.

The blinds on James' office windows were open, so he saw me
approaching before I even knocked. He immediately smiled and waved his hand,
gesturing for me to come in. I walked in and closed the door behind me.

"Sounds good," James said into his desk phone.
"Reach those numbers and then we can discuss it." He smiled at me as
he listened to whatever was being said on the other end of the line. He stood
up, eager for the phone call to be over. "Thanks. You too." He
immediately hung up the phone and grabbed my waist, pulling me close to him.
"I was just thinking about you."

"I'm always thinking about you." I stood on my
tiptoes, drawing my face toward his. James' lips were immediately on mine as
his palm pressed against the small of my back. The past few days had been
filled with the sexiest make out sessions imaginable. Apparently we were both
addicted to sex, because not taking it further than a kiss always took all my
restraint. I laced my fingers behind his neck, making the heat between us
almost palpable.

He groaned and grabbed my thigh, lifting it around his waist.

I laughed and pulled back, but he kept my thigh in his hand.

"You're killing me," he whispered. "I need
you."

"I need you too." I looked up into his eyes and ran
my hand down the side of his face. "It's just going to make our wedding
night that much better, you know."

He smiled and kissed my forehead. "There's no way you
can wait until then."

"There's no way you can wait until then," I said
and poked the center of his chest.

"You're right. I can't." He grabbed the back of my
neck and kissed me hard. When he pulled back, I was completely breathless. He
released my thigh and smoothed my skirt back into place. "And neither can
you, baby."

I pressed my lips together and shrugged. "Are you
hungry?"

His eyes gravitated down my body. "Starving."

I laughed. "For lunch, James." I sat down in one of
the chairs in front of his desk.

"In that case...I guess I could eat." He grabbed
our sandwiches out of the small fridge and sat down beside me.

"So, the other marketing interns want to go out for
drinks tonight. And they were hoping my fiancé could come too." I smiled
at him as I slowly unwrapped my turkey sandwich.

"Should we meet up with them after the cake
tasting?" He took a huge bite of his sandwich.

"You actually want to go?"

He shrugged as he finished chewing. "If that's what you
want to do. You keep saying you want to bond with them. Wasn't that why you
didn't want them to know we were together in the first place?"

"For some reason I thought you were going to say
no."

"When do I ever say no to you?"

I smiled at him. "You usually don't say no. You just do
whatever you want regardless. Or else I wouldn't even be eating lunch with you
right now. I'd have a different internship."

"Fair enough. But I think it'll be fun. I should know
all my employees better. It will be good for me too."

"Are you sure?"

James laughed. "If you don't want to, we don't have
to."

"No, it's not that."
It's just that Zach jumped
to conclusions because of the bruises on my face and Sierra has a crush on you.
"I don't want to force you to do things you don't want to."

James leaned forward and kissed me again. "All I ever
want to do is hang out with you. And I'm excited to meet your new
friends."

"Just to give you a heads up, I'm pretty sure Sierra is
going to try to steal you away."

"I love how jealous you get."

"I'm not jealous."

He smiled back at me. "And maybe after drinks we can go
home and reevaluate this whole no sex before the wedding thing?"

"You're incorrigible, James Hunter."

 "Is it working?"

I shook my head, but we both knew he was wearing me down. 

Thursday

I took another bite of the dark chocolate mousse cake.

"Is that one your favorite?" James asked as he took
a bite too.

"I don't know, they're all amazing."

After the pastry chef had reprimanded us for waiting until a
week before the wedding to pick a cake, he had laid out an assortment of the
most delicious cakes I had ever tasted. It was good we had skipped dinner
because I apparently didn't have any self control around wedding cakes.

"You know what this one reminds me of?" James
asked.

I nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. Even though
it's not lava cake, it tastes like that chocolate cake from your country
club."

"Our country club."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"It kind of takes me back to our first date. Our first
real date I mean. Not just when I seduced you in my office." He took another
bite of the cake.

I smiled up at him. "I seduced you."

He laughed and shook his head.

"You pretended that I was your wife on that date. Do you
remember?"

"I remember." He was looking at me in the most
loving way.

"Did you ever think we'd be here right now?"

"At that moment?" He ran his hand through his hair.
"I think I was just terrified by my own reaction to you."

I knew he was referring to his addiction problem. I looked
down at the cake.

"I wasn't really in a good place when we met,
Penny."

"I know, I just meant..."

"You saved me."

He had never said that to me before. I swallowed hard. I felt
tears welling in my eyes.

"Suddenly the only thing I wanted in life was to see you
smile." He reached out and took my hand. "So yeah, I thought we'd
eventually be here. This is everything I've always wanted. We certainly had our
ups and downs getting here, though." He smiled at me.

"You mean, you certainly enjoyed pushing me away?"

"I'm not going to ever push you away again." He ran
his thumb along the palm of my hand.

"I know."

He pulled me into his chest and put his hand on the side of
my face. "You're quite sentimental tonight."

I breathed in his heavenly scent. "Sometimes I think
about when you said you wanted to go to Vegas and..."

"This is what I want too."

"Are you sure? You said you didn't want a big wedding
and I..."

"Penny. The first time I got married, I wasn't in love.
I didn't have a say in any of the plans. I wasn't excited to walk down the
aisle. And before I met you, I never thought I'd get married again." He
ran his fingers through my hair. "No one's ever loved me like you love me.
This is what planning a wedding is supposed to be like. I liked looking at
venues, picking flowers, being excluded from helping you pick out a
dress..."

I laughed.

"I've had fun doing all of it. This is going to be our
wedding. And I'm so excited to marry you. I thought I didn't want this back
then, but I want it now. I want to see you walk down the aisle toward me. I
want our friends and family to clap when we have our first kiss. And I want to
have a first dance. I want all of it with you."

"I think we should choose this one then," I said
and looked down at the chocolate cake. "I'm still going to try all the
others though. This place is amazing."

James laughed and released me from his embrace. "There
is one last thing to do here."

"What's that?"

He picked up a piece of cake in his hand and lifted it toward
me.

"Don't you dare, James."

Before I had even completed the sentence, he smashed the cake
against my face. He laughed as I wiped it off my nose.

"Oh, I'm going to get you." I picked up a piece of
cake and chased after him.

***

James opened the door for me. As soon as we were both inside,
he put his arm across my shoulders.

"They're over there," I said, nodding toward where
Sierra was waving her hand in the air. They were sitting at a table and there
were two empty seats. "I'll sit next to her."

James laughed. "You're so cute."

We walked together toward my fellow interns.

"Hey, guys," I said. I was about to sit down next to
Sierra, but she tapped on the chair. "You can sit here, Mr. Hunter. It's
so great that you could join us."

James squeezed my shoulder. "Thanks." He smiled at
me and sat down next to her. "But please, you can all call me James."

Sierra beamed.

I internally rolled my eyes and sat down between James and
Zach.

"Hi, Penny," Zach said. He was the only one that
seemed to realize I had said anything. "You have some icing in your hair,
I think." He pointed to the left side of his head.

I wiped above my right ear.

Zach laughed. "No, not mirrored. It's on your
left."

I wiped above my left ear.

"You got it." He took a swig of his beer.

James put his arm back around my shoulders. "How are you
guys liking the internship?" he asked.

"It's awesome," Tavon said. "Anderson is
letting us go through your current marketing strategies to see if we have any
ideas."

"And do you have any?" James asked.

Tavon cleared his throat. "Well, we just
started..."

"I'm just kidding," James said. "We don't have
to talk about work. Did any of you grow up in the city?"

"Yeah, I did," Zach said. "I went to NYCU like
Penny, but we didn't have any classes together. You went to Harvard,
right?"

"Yes."

"Did you get a masters there too?" Tavon asked.

"No, I just went to undergrad. I started laying the
groundwork for Blive Tech while I was still in school, so I jumped right into
that instead of going for my masters."

"And you were one of the youngest millionaires ever
right?" Tavon asked.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"That's freaking awesome. What made you sell Blive Tech
when it was going so well?

"A number of different things. Mainly I just wanted a
new challenge."

"And that's why you started teaching?" asked
Sierra.

James smiled down at me. "Yes. I taught in New York for
a little bit and then transferred to the University of New Castle. I really
enjoyed it."

"It's a shame you had to stop."

"Not really. I got everything I wanted from it."

"What, a girlfriend?" Zach asked.

Zach, what the hell?

James laughed. "No. I loved teaching. It was a nice
change of pace. But I missed running a business. Well, yeah, and I guess I got
an amazing girlfriend out of it."

"Weren't you still married when you moved to
Delaware?" Zach asked.

Is he purposely trying to torture me?

James cleared his throat. "I had filed for divorce before
moving."

"I was reading about your first wife too," Sierra
said. "It's so sad what happened. Were you really childhood
sweethearts?"

James looked uncomfortable. "No. It's a long story. Did
you guys want refills?"

"That would be great," Tavon said.

"I'll be right back." James squeezed my shoulder
and walked toward the bar.

"Oh my God, he's even sexier in normal clothes,"
Sierra said as soon as James had walked away. "I've never seen him in
jeans before."

"What is wrong with you guys?" I said.

Zach laughed. "We're just trying to get to know
him."

"No, I agree with Penny," Tavon said. "You
guys are being embarrassing. Sierra, stop flirting with him."

"I'm not flirting with him," she said and crossed
her arms.

"Penny?" Tavon was looking at me for help.

"You kind of are."

"I'm so sorry. I'll stop." Her face had turned
slightly red.

"It's okay," I said.

"And Zach, why are you attacking him?" Tavon asked.

Zach shrugged. "Just trying to figure him out." He
was looking at me. "Gauging his reactions to different things."

"Zach, I asked you to drop it..." my voice trailed
off when James came back over. He had a beer in his hand and a waiter was
following him with a tray of drinks.

"I opened up a tab for the table," James said as he
sat down. He immediately draped his arm back around my shoulders.

"Thanks, man," Tavon said. "So what made you
get into tech in the first place?"

"Honestly, it was forced on me."

Everyone laughed. I looked up at James. I had never asked him
that question and I was curious about the rest of his answer.

"I liked reading in my free time. And my parents hated
that. They put a computer in my room and kept giving me games to play on it
until I finally got interested."

"You do realize that's the opposite problem all our
parents had with us, right?" Sierra asked.

James laughed. "I think they knew there was an
opportunity for advancement there. Whereas being an author wasn't something
they wanted for me. My older sister was already interested in literature. And
they were right. The opportunities in this field are endless."

"So you originally wanted to be an author?" Sierra
asked.

James shrugged. "No. I don't know. I was young. I didn't
really know what I wanted to be."

I bit my lip. He was never allowed to dream about what he
wanted to be. His parents had decided that for him early on.

"Did you play any sports growing up?" Tavon asked.

"Some. Never for very long. I always went back to
tech."

"So, were you like a nerd in school?" Sierra asked.
"I can't picture that at all."

"I'm still a nerd," James said.

"You are definitely not nerdy looking, " replied
Sierra.

James laughed awkwardly and turned away from her. "What
about you, Tavon? Did you play sports?"

"Soccer. Second team all-conference my last two years in
high school."

"My little brother was good at soccer too. I used to
love going to his games," James said.

I took a sip of the beer that the waiter had handed me. I
knew that Rob had played soccer growing up. He liked to brag about how awesome
he was.

"You like beer?" Zach asked me.

I turned toward him. "I'm used to hanging out with the
guys."

He smiled. "I pegged you for only drinking girly
drinks."

"You pegged me wrong."

"And what about you, Zach?" James asked, cutting
our conversation short. "Any sports growing up?"

"I ran track."

"Do you still run a lot?"

"Almost every day through Central Park before or after
work."

"I like running through Central Park too. I always try
to get Penny to come with me, but I haven't convinced her yet."

Sometimes James ran with Mason. They always made everything a
competition. Whenever James came back completely worn out, I knew he had been
racing Mason through Central Park. Bee and I always joked that they complained
about us on their runs. But I had a feeling that they just talked about real
estate. Or mergers and acquisitions or something super boring. Bee and I went
to yoga classes together at least once a week and we never complained about
James and Mason. We were happy. There wasn't anything to complain about.

"You should try it sometime," Zach said, pulling me
out of my own thoughts.

James pulled me a little closer to him.

I laughed. "Running? Oh, no. I do not like
running." As far as I was concerned, James gave me plenty of cardio
exercise. Although, I'd never pass down a walk through Central Park with James'
hand in mine. "I'll stick to yoga," I said.

"You do yoga?"

"A few times a week, yeah."

James cleared his throat.

"I played volleyball in high school," Sierra said.

"So did I," I said. "What position did you
play?"

"Outside hitter," Sierra said and turned her
attention back to James. "James have you ever played before?"

"Just in gym class," he replied. "And I guess
some beach volleyball, but that's pretty different."

"Beach volleyball is the best. Where have you
played?"

James shrugged. "It's been awhile. The last time I
played was probably spring break my senior year of college."

"That's not that long ago," Sierra said.

"For you guys, maybe." James laughed. "I'm
turning 30 next month."

"Thirty isn't so bad. Isn't that the new 20 or something
like that?" Tavon asked.

"It sure doesn't feel like it."

I smiled up at him. Was he upset about turning 30? He hadn't
mentioned it to me. But it was definitely a milestone. Everything that was
going on was a lot of change for him too. I needed to plan something really
special for his birthday. Meggings weren't going to cut it.

"At least you got the whole hot young wife thing going
on," Zach said.

I laughed awkwardly.

James set his beer down on the table. "Penny, do you
want to dance?" He stood up before I had even answered.

"That sounds great." I grabbed his hand and let him
escort me onto the small dance floor. There were only a few people dancing.

"Zach seems to like you quite a bit," he said and
pulled me in close, despite the fact that it wasn't a slow song.

"He doesn't. He's purposely trying to push your
buttons."

"Why?"

"I think he's trying to see how you'll react."

"He wants me to knock him out?"

I laughed. "No, I don't think either of you want
that."

"He's certainly tempting me."

"I think he's more so trying to see if you'll hit
me."

"What?" James pulled back slightly.

"Remember when I told you that one of the interns
thought you were abusive because of the bruise on my cheek? That was
Zach."

"Oh." James touched the side of my face where my
bruise was still slightly visible. "It kills me that anyone would think I
did that. I would never hurt you."

I grabbed his hand and moved it back to my waist. "I
know, James. Try to ignore him. The last thing you want is to get in a bar
fight with one of your employees. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen."