When Romance Prevails (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

The older man nodded his head with a smile while the young woman twisted in her seat. All Hunter could do was acknowledge them with a smile of his own. Too many forced smiles in that room. “It’s a pleasure.” He didn’t remember them at all, but he did not doubt that they were important donors. Or at least the older gentleman was.

“Bradley Carter,” he said, holding out his hand for Hunter to shake. “Your dad and I go way back.” Bradley gestured to the young woman beside him.
New wife?
Hunter wouldn’t be surprised either way. “This is my daughter, Sally. She came up here with me all the way from San Diego.”

“How do you do?” Sally had a crisp voice that cut right into the stuffy air. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Indeed.” Hunter took a step back before Sally could touch him.

Another clap to the shoulder. “It occurred to me that you and Miss Carter may be a bit bored with the discussions today. Why don’t you take her out and show her around for a while? Would be good for you kids to get out and have some fresh air in your lungs.”

Hunter glared over his shoulder. It pricked Terrence, who hopped back and tried to laugh off the tension.
Thought so.

“Now, now.” Hunter’s father took him by the arm and jerked him out of the office. “Be right back, Mr. and Miss Carter!” The door shut behind them, and they were alone – somewhat – out in the hallway. “What’s eaten through your shorts? Don’t tell me this is about that other girl.”

That
other
girl was Hunter’s girlfriend. The same one he hadn’t seen in three months. Otherwise known as half an eternity. “Excuse me if I’m not ecstatic about you trying to hook me up with some random woman who walked into your office today.”

“Excuse
you,
indeed! That ‘random woman’ is the daughter of one of my biggest donors. She’s also a very nice and sweet young lady. You couldn’t do much better than being seen with her right now. Might help to quell some of the rumors going around.”

“What rumors?”

Terrence shifted between feet and drank the last of his brandy. “Now, son…”

“Father.”

“All right. There is some buzz going around that you’re still seeing that Mitchell girl. I have a hard time believing Raymond would let her out of his sights for two minutes right now, so I’m disinclined to believe it.” Terrence cleared his throat. “I’m not
wrong,
am I?”

Hunter refused to answer. He wouldn’t lie and put both himself and Kerri in danger, but he also wouldn’t give his father the satisfaction of thinking that affair was over.

“You’ll do best to forget about that girl. Now that half the country knows about it…”

“I’m sure that woman in there is quite lovely.” Were Hunter not hung up over Kerri, or indeed never been involved with her, then he would flirt with Sally to keep his father happy. Unless Sally proved to be insufferable, of course. In political families it was always a high possibility. “But I’m not going to string her along and make her think I’m interested in her just so she’ll talk highly of us to her father.”

“The hell you won’t! Get your ass in there and give the girl a smile!”

What a belligerent ass.
Hunter turned to head down the other side of the hallway.

“Where are you going?” No one could say that Terrence took off after his son. Nor could they say he did more than hold up his empty brandy glass.

Hunter didn’t know where he was going. Not yet. All he knew was that he had his car keys in his pocket and enough anger in him to drive off toward the sun. He didn’t say anything to the interns greeting him or the guard at the door. Why should he, when they were probably judging him as he walked by? He could only take so much of that and still hold in his frustration.

The afternoon was still young when Hunter got in his car and tore out of the garage. He had to avoid a section of traffic backed up by road construction. Then a line of first graders holding up cars as they took their time crossing the street.
Then
a series of red lights that prevented him from throwing his foot on the pedal and making like a felon down the interstate.

Why go on the interstate at all when the empty roads of the countryside called to him?

He took the fastest route he could think of, cell phone flashing in the passenger seat next to him.
Kerri should be there.
Sitting with her sunhat drawn down over her eyes as she pursed her lips and watched the beautiful world go by. Sometimes she would let her hand rest on Hunter’s thigh as they drove along – close enough to give him comfort, but not
so
close that she almost caused an accident. When Hunter reached a stop sign, he leaned over and turned off his cell phone. None of that today.

Of course he realized that he was being foolish. Surely his father would give him an earful when he returned later. But for now he was content to act like a stupid teenager because…
because.
Hunter didn’t appreciate his father using him as bait.
Is this how Kerri feels every day?
God, he would give anything to be with her. She was the only sane person left in his life.

And if Terrence won the election…! Things would only get worse. The power would go to his head and he would be as effective as a match in a raging fire. But that didn’t matter to politicians like Terrence. Once they were in office, they had achieved everything they wanted. They also knew how to play the constituents into reelecting them. That’s what Raymond Mitchell had been doing for years.

But if he hadn’t, then Hunter would have never met Kerri.

He parked on the side of a country road and folded his arms over the steering wheel. The empty road pulled away both in front and behind him. Cows dotted the pastures as they chewed cud and swished their tails in the autumn air. Hunter stared at the world around him and wondered why he had to fall for a woman the cosmos would never let him have.

I fell for her.
What an idiot. Hunter thumped his head against the steering wheel and sighed. That beautiful woman he saw standing by herself in an elegant ballroom… the same one he took into a garden and kissed as if the stars had aligned and said it would be so.
The woman I made love to that same night.
In the beginning Hunter was content to call it a good experience and move on with his life. Then like a damned idiot he called Kerri and asked her on a date. Everything went downhill from there.

Downhill because Kerri turned out to be more than she seemed on the outset. Not only beautiful, but feisty, opinionated, and someone Hunter could see himself spending the rest of his life with. How dare she be so wonderful.

“This is ridiculous.” He snatched up his phone, turned it on, and ignored the angry voicemail from his father. Instead he brought up Kerri’s number and attempted to call her for the hundredth time in three months.

No answer. There never was an answer. Just endless ringing mocking him as he attempted to contact the only woman he ever cared for in this way.

How could he get to her? How could he make sure she was safe? Happy? Secure?
I wish I could see her.
Not just her body, but the tips of her nails, the shine of her hair, and the way her face scrunched up when she laughed too hard.
I want to hear her voice.
The peals of humor, the snorts of chagrin, and the moans she uttered when they made love. But the thing that gnawed at Hunter the most was the possibility that she didn’t want to see him.

Impossible.
It had to be.

Evening was coming by the time Hunter got a crazy notion into his head. He turned on his car and pulled out into the still empty road, but he did not head home. No. He headed in the opposite direction, out toward where Terrence Hall could only imagine living.

Dark had fully descended when Hunter reached the street of the Governor’s Mansion. He did not go down it, however. That would be suicide. Surely guards would be patrolling it, and they would recognize him in an instant.
Probably on some wanted poster.
Hunter pulled his car off to the side of the road and made sure it was hidden by some bushes. Fine thing if the press caught wind of him being there.

Getting onto the property was another ordeal entirely. The grounds were fenced off. Not with electricity, thank God, but too tall to climb and too narrow to slip through. Hunter had to trace it all the way to the edge of the property and find a dip low enough to hop over.
Hope there are no cameras around here.
Here went nothing.

He vaguely remembered where Kerri’s room was. Far side. East side. Overlooking a patch of wild irises just beneath the balcony. Yes, it had to be that one with the ivy growing next to it. Not just ivy. But a terrace! Hunter stayed in the shadows as he assessed how high Kerri’s balcony was and if he was really still as fit as he thought he was.
I don’t work out every other day for nothing.
The lights were on in Kerri’s window. Hunter only had to find a way up there and hope nobody but her saw him.

His fingers gripped the bottom of the vines crawling up the side of the mansion. This was probably the craziest thing Hunter had ever done.

***

Time to get out the pumpkins.
Kerri slumped into her seat in front of her vanity and lit the pumpkin-scented candle her mother had given her earlier. Instantly the aroma of pumpkin pies, breads, and lattes filled her bedroom. It made her feel good for a little bit, but then she was right back to being depressed.

She dropped her comb on the vanity and shook her head, damp hair covering her fingers as she massaged the back of her neck. Kerri had just finished showering not twenty minutes ago. Used to be a good, hot shower would make her feel ten times better than before. Now it couldn’t even make her feel clean.

She wondered when this horrible funk would end. Whenever she “broke up” with a guy before, it had been on her terms. Sure, there were some that left her upset for days. But for weeks?
Months?
No, it wasn’t that she had broken up with Hunter and felt like crap. It was that they wanted to see each other, be together for as long as they could stand each other.
I want to see him. That’s what hurts.
Kerri took a deep breath. When election season was over, she could try getting back to a somewhat normal life. Maybe she could even find Hunter again…

Enough of that. Kerri got up, her long, silk robe scraping against the carpet. She walked to her bureau and debated what she should wear that evening. Her parents said something about entertaining someone for dinner, but Kerri claimed to have an autumn cold and was skipping out to read a book in bed.

Something moved in the corner of her eye.

“Huh?” Kerri whipped around, nearly tripping over the hem of her robe. The curtains to her balcony were open, but all she saw were streams of moonlight shining through an old tree dangling from overhead. One of the branches scraped against her window.

Just the outdoors.
Kerri walked to the doors leading out to the balcony. With a gentle push they were open, and the warm autumn night washed over her skin.

It was the kind of night that would be wonderful for a romantic date. A walk through a park, along the beach, or dining on a balcony just like this.
Hunter.
Kerri held herself against the edge of the balcony overlooking the wild irises.

Not fair. It wasn’t fair. Why should she be the daughter of her father, and he the son of his father? Of all the fathers in the world, they were born to the ones they were. And by some cruel joke of the cosmos they had fallen for one another in such a short amount of time.

If someone had told Kerri five months ago that she would lust after and love a man like Hunter Hall, she would have scoffed. Not even laugh. No laugh was worth the mockery such an idea was.
And yet.
Kerri draped herself across the edge and looked up at the crossing stars. “Why the hell are you a damn Hall?” There were a few more curses Kerri could utter before the day was through.

A hand slapped onto the railing beside her.

“Oh my…!” Kerri jumped back, hand clutching her heart. She tried to scream. To call for help.
Anything!
But before she knew it, a head of dark hair appeared by her balcony. Those eyes could only belong to one man. “Hunter?” Carefully Kerri approached the edge to see this mysterious man –
her
mysterious man – heave himself up with the might of Hercules. “Hunter!” She caught another shout in her throat should it alert someone. “What are you doing? Hunter!”

He almost had himself over by now. Almost. The man Kerri called hers struggled to get his weight shifted to the other side of the railing, his teeth gritting and his fingers turning red. “Help…” he muttered between exasperated grunts. “This isn’t as easy as it looks…”

“Why the hell are you doing something like this?” Three months, and this was how they were reunited? Hunter breaking into her room? What a crazy moron! Kerri could have kissed him and smacked him on the head at the same time. “Are you mad?”

The look on Hunter’s face belonged to someone who was on the verge of letting go. “Because I love you, Kerri!”