Stolen Memories: A Novella (9 page)

“I’m in love with you, Megan. If I’m honest, I’ve been in love with you for a long time. You know how bad my parents’ marriage was and I think it scared me off the idea in general. I never planned on spending my life with anyone, but when you texted me I realized it was the perfect excuse.”

“The perfect excuse?”

“To convince you to marry me. I hated it every time you would bring some asshole back to the apartment while we were in college. I was jealous and it was horribly pathetic. All of our friends saw through my attempts at distracting myself.” He sighed before continuing. “The reason I didn’t tell you sooner about why we got married is because I was scared.”

I tried to turn towards him, but he stopped me. His lips rested against my neck and suddenly I didn’t want to move.

“Our marriage meant more to me than I wanted to admit, and if you didn’t feel the same way I didn’t know what I would do. I don’t want to get divorced, unless you do. You said something that made me think you’ve had feelings for me too, though.”

I took in a deep breath. “I ran into Samantha at the coffee shop earlier and she told me that it was about fucking time that we were married. It shocked me, but, when she explained everything, it made sense. She told me that everyone already knew that we should have been together. I told her we eloped instead of the whole long story, but she knew something was wrong because I sobbed like a fucking baby.”

I sucked in a breath and tried not to let the tears filling my eyes fall. “I did have feelings for you in college, but after we almost slept together back then, I pushed everything away because I was afraid that it was just a hookup to you. It would have killed me for you to discard me like every other woman you were with.”

“I would never do that to you. I promised you that no matter what happened between us that we would still be friends, and I meant that, Megan.”

I tried to turn again and this time he let me.

“I don’t want to fight my feelings anymore. It’s killing me, little by little.”

“Me either, baby, but I want to do this right.”

I settled my head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms tighter around me. For the first time since I’d left his place I felt calm. Hunter was right; no matter what happened between us, we couldn’t lose our friendship.

I promised Hunter I would be ready by six. He was being tightlipped about where we were going even though I had bugged him several times. All he would tell me was that I needed to wear a nice dress of some sort. After I searched my closet for an hour, I finally settled on a black, full length, long sleeve maxi dress that had slits cut thigh high on either side. When I paired it with strappy heels, it was perfect. My makeup was flawless, but somehow I had butterflies in my stomach.

The butterflies were annoying. It was only Hunter, damn it. The same Hunter that tried to get the horse to bite me when I was nine, pushed me in the pool and tried to drown me at twelve, and teased me mercilessly when I finally got my first kiss at sixteen. Except now we were married, and I promised that I would let him take me out on a date.

What the fuck am I doing?

When he texted me to say he was on his way, I took the elevator down to the lobby to wait for him. I knew he wouldn’t want me to, but he could kiss my ass. There was no way I was going to sit in my apartment for another ten minutes waiting for him to get here. The doorman moved to let Hunter in and my breathe caught in my throat. I probably had drool running down my face as I gawked at him. He looked amazing in his Armani suit. His step faltered as he caught sight of me.

“What’s wrong?” I rushed the last few steps towards him.

His answer was to grip the back of my head and kiss me hard. I was breathless by the time he pulled back.

“You look amazing, Megan.”

I smiled shyly and tugged at his hand. “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

“Totally worth it,” he mumbled from behind me.

The doorman winked at me as we walked by, “It’s about time you two kids wised up. Good evening, Ms. Douglas.”

“Goodnight, Tom. It’s Mrs. Abbott now, by the way.”

He smiled widely. “Congratulations you two, I’d always hoped it would end that way. Take care of her, Hunter.”

“Yes, sir. Always.”

Hunter shook the older man’s hand and my heart skipped a beat in my chest.

I looked across the table and smirked. Hunter was trying to figure out a way to get one of our old college friends away from our table and it wasn’t going well. The long table cloth covered my actions, so I wasn’t in any hurry to get rid of our company. I was taking full opportunity to tease Hunter. My foot was caressing his inner thigh, and in about a minute, I planned on finding a new target. His sharp intake of breath each time my foot moved was enough to keep me entertained.

After fifteen minutes of talking business and the repeated reminder that Charles was shocked that we’d actually ended up together, I was bored and Hunter was ready to throw the guy out of the restaurant. My foot found its target and I watched as Hunter’s eyes practically rolled back in his head. I stifled a giggle, earning another dirty look.

“Charles, it was great seeing you, but we are celebrating tonight. Why don’t you call next week for lunch?” I said, finally taking pity on the poor man that had a raging hard on under the table.

“Sounds great. I’ll see you soon, Hunt.”

Hunter gritted his teeth. “Looking forward to it.”

They shook hands and he finally left. The look that Hunter shot me from across the table had me wiping tears from my eyes because I was laughing so hard.

“You little minx; if I could, I would spank you right here.”

“What, you don’t like it when I play?”

“I would like it better if I wasn’t getting blue balls as we speak.”

“Well we can’t let that happen.” I glanced around the restaurant to see if anyone was looking in our direction. We were in a dark, secluded corner; the only reason Charles had known we were here was because he’d seen me slip off to the restroom. I leaned down next to my chair, pretending to pick something up off the floor, and slipped under the table cloth. He jumped a little when my hands reached for his belt.

“What in the fuck are you doing?” he hissed through clenched teeth.

“Just enjoy it. Try not to make an ‘O’ face and you’ll be fine.”

I pulled his hard cock out of his pants and wrapped my lips around the head. His fingers tangled in my hair as I swirled my tongue around the tip. My fingers dug into his hips as I balanced myself on my heels. He tugged harder on my hair as I took him deeper in my throat. His hips thrust towards me. If he wasn’t careful he was going to knock my head into the table top.

“Sir, are you ready for dessert?”

“I’m not sure. My wife went to the restroom, and I’m not sure if she will want anything.”

I pinched his inner thigh and he jumped a little. Hunter knew I wanted anything chocolate and might cut someone if I didn’t get it.

“On second thought, go ahead and bring the mousse for her and I’ll take the chocolate cheesecake.”

Nice recovery.

“Very good, sir. I’ll bring those out in a few minutes.”

“Really, Megan?” he whispered.

I sucked on him harder and bobbed my head along his cock, determined to make him come. He tried hard not to pump his hips, but as he got closer he was having a harder time controlling his movements. My head hit the table hard and I bit back a curse.

“Is everything okay, sir?”

“Yes, sorry. I just hit my knee on the table.”

Hunter needed to finish. It was getting risky for me to be under the table much longer. I took him as far as I could down my throat and sucked. His fingers digging into my shoulder was the only warning I had that he was coming. I swallowed, careful not to let any of his come fall from the sides of my mouth, and tucked him back into his pants.

“Is it safe?”

“Yes, just hurry up.”

I sat up right before our waiter came around the corner. The smirk on his face made me think he might have known what we were up to. Without another word, he sat the amazing desserts in front of us.

He looked a little dazed. I took a bite of my chocolate mousse, then stole a bite of his cheesecake. My husband was speechless for the first time that I could ever think of and I smiled that I had finally done it.

“So, did you make an ‘O’ face?”

When we got into the car, Hunter looked over at me, but still didn’t have words. I smirked, “Cat got your tongue, sweetie?”

“I can’t believe you fucking climbed under the table and sucked my cock. We were in a nice fucking restaurant. Holy shit. Do you do that often?”

“No, but we can try again soon if you want. It was kind of fun. Our waiter totally knew what was going on.”

I smirked.

He opened his mouth and shut it several times. Finally, he shook his head. “Will you come back to my house tonight instead of your apartment? Your mom and sister would be so happy to see you tomorrow morning.”

I winced. I felt guilty because I’d only called my mom once since I left his house. At the very least I should have been checking up on Cassie, but instead I was being a selfish bitch. I nodded, but I couldn’t talk around the lump in my throat. Hunter put his hand on my leg and rubbed.

“They understand why you left, baby, and they aren’t upset. Your mom actually told me she was going to kick my ass if I didn’t fix things with you. She said she wants grandkids sometime soon.”

My head whipped towards him, “Grandkids?”

“That’s what she said.”

“It’ll be a while before that happens. Besides I’m still on birth—”

Actually, I didn’t remember the last time I had taken my pill. Had I even packed them for the trip to Georgia? I couldn’t remember. Stupid fucking memory loss. All I knew was that my alarm wasn’t going off on my phone because I hadn’t put it back in there after Michael shattered the old one.

Fuck.

He looked at me expectantly and I blanched.

I stared at Hunter as the realization hit me that I might be pregnant. After some quick mental calculations, I knew it was highly possible. Oh God, I was already three days late. Throughout the years Hunter had been very verbal about the fact that he didn’t want to be a dad. He was terrified that he would end up being just like his own father. That was one of his worst nightmares.

“Baby, talk to me.”

“Drive to a drug store.”

“What?”

“Don’t ask questions. Just drive to a drug store.”

I panicked a little as he drove, but I tried to hide it from him. My mind went over every time he had filled me. If I didn’t get pregnant after this, I didn’t think it was possible.

He took my hand in his. “Baby, we’re here. Do you want me to come inside with you?”

I shook my head. He kissed my hand and looked at me with his beautiful, emerald eyes. I’d never noticed the gold flecks before, but now, as my life continued to fall apart around me, I saw them.

“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered. “We’ll figure it out.”

“You don’t want kids,” I whispered back. A single tear fell down my cheek and his fingers brushed it away. He pulled me closer and kissed my forehead.

“I
didn’t
want a lot of stuff, Megan, but things change.”

I walked out of the bathroom and perched on the bed next to Hunter. He started the timer on his phone and we sat in silence as the seconds counted down. I wanted to laugh because the whole situation was so fucking ridiculous, but I was afraid he would think I had really lost my mind then. The whole memory loss thing was still in the back of my head. We needed to have a conversation to fill in some blank spots.

His phone chimed and Hunt looked up at me.

“Do you want to go or do you want me to?”

“Can we just ignore it and pretend I didn’t just go pee on a stick?”

“Ignoring it isn’t going to make it go away.”

“I know, but I just wanted one fucking minute that there wasn’t drama attached to us. We couldn’t even go on a date without something happening.”

“For God’s sake, woman. You gave me head under the table and you’re complaining about a little bit of drama? If the test is positive, we’ll celebrate. If it’s negative, then we’ll celebrate.”

“That simple, huh?”

“Yep. Now, go look or I’m going.”

I took a deep breath and stood up. He slapped my ass and I shot him a dirty look as I walked to the bathroom. The boyish grin on his face was irresistible.

“You’re impossible, Hunter Abbott.”

“But you love me.”

I came out with the test in my hand. “I sure do, daddy.”

He stood up and took the test from me. “Holy shit. We’re going to be parents. Who in their right mind would trust us with a kid?”

“I have no fucking clue, but my mom is going to be over the moon. Maybe we can convince her to raise it.”

Hunter wrapped his arms around me and spun us around. I giggled as he threw me back on the bed. He lay down next to me and curled up close to my stomach.

“Hey little guy, I’m your dad. Your mom and I will try not to fuck you up too bad while you’re growing up. Stick close to your grandma and you should be okay.”

I wanted to cry because he was talking to the baby, but I also wanted to laugh because this whole situation was so insane. The pregnancy might explain why I had cried buckets for the past few days. Between the stress and the hormones, I was surprised I hadn’t completely fallen apart.

“Can we just keep this between us for a few days?”

“Sure, baby.”

“Hunt?”

He looked at me with those amazingly gorgeous eyes, and I could have melted into a big pile of hormones.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Megan. We’re going to be fine. You aren’t getting rid of me no matter how hard you try now. If I hadn’t convinced you earlier, it’s too late. You don’t get a choice.” He laughed, but he was only half joking

I giggled. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The next morning, I went downstairs to find my mom cooking and my sister drinking a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. It seemed so odd to have them here, but it was also comforting. I had spent so much time at Hunter’s house as his friend that it was weird to think I would be living here permanently once we moved everything from my apartment.

“Good morning, sweetheart.”

“Morning, Momma.”

“Do you want some eggs?”

My stomach flipped at the idea of food.

“No thanks, I’ll just stick to tea.”

She crossed the kitchen and felt my head, fussing over me. “Are you feeling okay? You haven’t eaten much lately.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just not hungry.”

Her lips thinned as she looked at me with a slight frown, but I held my ground.

“I’m going to go to brunch with Hunt in a few minutes.”

She turned back to the stove and I breathed a sigh of relief. I glanced up and my sister’s watchful gaze was on me. She pinned me with a look and I turned away before she could see the blush rising on my cheeks. It was too soon for them to figure out my secret.

“You look like you’re feeling a little better, Cass.”

“I’m getting a little stronger every day. It’s taking longer than I want, though.”

My sister amazed me. She was so strong after the past few years of her life; I didn’t know if I could be as brave as her. I walked over and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. Tears pricked at my eyes. Damn hormones.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

“Good morning, ladies,” Hunter said as he walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. I yelped as he pulled me down into his lap. A smug grin covered his face as Cassie and Momma started laughing. His fingers brushed along my stomach under the edge of the table, hidden from watchful eyes. My head rested on his and I felt truly content for the first time in a long time.

The small bistro that we went to for brunch was one of our favorites. Everything on the menu was amazing. I would normally drink two or three mimosas when we ate there, but my situation made that impossible. My gaze longingly fell onto his glass and he tried not to laugh when he noticed. His fingers brushed along mine as we sat there talking. I smiled as he intertwined them.

“Hunt.”

I turned and saw a stunningly beautiful blonde standing next to our table. She was dressed in a casual Saturday outfit that emphasized her curves perfectly.

“Stephanie.”

“You never called me,” she said with a pout. “I thought we had fun when we went out in New York.”

I arched an eyebrow. Hunter hadn’t mentioned going on a date just a few hours before we got married. It wasn’t a secret that he’d had a very active sex life before us, but to have it thrown into my face was a little more than unpleasant and left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“I think you need to leave, Stephanie.”

“Fine, Hunter. I’ll just talk to you in the office on Monday.”

“No, there’s nothing for us to talk about.”

“She works for you?” I wasn’t able to keep quiet anymore. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to dip your pen in company ink? Or does that not apply to you because you’re the boss?”

“Enough, Megan.”

I stared at him in disbelief. He’d never spoken to me like I was one of his employees, and I didn’t plan to start letting him now. Stephanie stared at me as I calmly gathered my purse and stood up to leave.

“I’m your fucking wife, Hunt. Don’t ever talk to me like I’m some bitch you fucked one night,” I said pointedly to Hunter, then turned towards blondie. “Stay away from your boss if you like your job and don’t kid yourself—Hunt is a one night stand kind of guy. You never stood a chance to get more than that.”

“Wife?” she asked in disbelief.

I brushed past her and started towards the door. Hunter called out from behind me, but I ignored him and kept walking. My heart ached in my chest. How many times would this happen? I didn’t want to hold Hunter’s past against him, but he knew that I had never slept with anyone other than him. It wasn’t fair that I was going to have to suck it up every time reality slapped me in the face.

I walked quickly down the steps in front of the restaurant and gasped when fingers wrapped around my wrist. A terror like I’d never felt before filled me when I turned back and realized it was my father, not Hunter, that had ahold of me.