The party outside vanished. The music, the kids, the laughter, my parents, the team, the elective, the entire careful structure of my life disappeared until there was only Hunter and me and the terrible, impossible knowledge that he had walked in at the exact wrong moment.
My body had not caught up to reality. It was still inside the fantasy, still hot and aching, still breathing hard under the force of wanting him. The shame had not arrived yet. Neither had common sense. For a few heartbeats, I was trapped in the space between imagining him and being seen by him, unable to do anything except stare back.
His throat moved as he swallowed. That small motion broke something. Reality rushed in so hard I almost swayed. I was naked. He was in the doorway. I had not covered myself or attempted to move. And he had seen more than my body. He had seen my face, my breathing, the truth of the moment he had interrupted, and the possibility of who had been in my head when he opened that door.
Color burned up my chest and into my cheeks. Hunter blinked hard, like he had snapped out of a trance, and his eyes jerked away from me so fast it was almost violent.
“Jesus,” he rasped, the word rough and broken. “CC, I—shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t?—”
He stumbled back a step, still not looking at me, one hand lifting as if he could somehow erase the last ten seconds by refusing to see me now.
“I didn’t know you were in here,” he stuttered. “I thought I heard the water, and I thought one of the kids left it running. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I still couldn’t speak. My hand finally moved, but it felt distant, like it belonged to someone else. I reached for the towel hanging beside the shower and pulled it against me with shaking fingers, my body still struggling to understand that the moment had ended.
Hunter backed out of the bathroom, his gaze fixed firmly on the wall, his jaw tight enough that it looked painful.
“I’m leaving,” he said hoarsely. “I’m gone. I’m sorry.”
The door shut between us. For several seconds, I stood beneath the water with the towel clutched to my chest, even though it was already getting soaked. My knees felt weak, my face burned, and my pulse was still hammering as if I had run across the entire ranch.
Then I turned off the shower. I stepped out slowly, wrapped the towel properly around myself, and gripped the edge of the sink while I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Wet hair clung to my cheeks and shoulders. My eyes were too bright. My mouth was parted from breathing too hard. My whole body looked like evidence. I looked like a woman who had been caught wanting the wrong man. A woman who had not moved fast enough to hide it.
A woman who had just blown a hole straight through the professional, responsible version of herself before her elective had even begun. Hunter had seen me naked. I pressed a trembling hand to my stomach and closed my eyes. This wasterrible timing. I had to keep it professional with the team. Daddy always said I deserved better than a hockey player who would be on the road most of the time, and he wasn’t wrong.
Even worse, Hunter was my father’s captain.
The man I was supposed to see in a professional setting for the next several months while I shadowed the team doctors and tried to prove I belonged there. There were too many lines I couldn’t cross. So much that could go wrong.
But my body was still trembling with need, and beneath the humiliation, beneath the panic, beneath the crushing awareness of everything we could ruin, something dangerous sparked to life.
I was still hot and bothered, so I locked the door this time and slipped my fingers between my thighs, getting myself off to a fantasy where Hunter stripped off his clothes and came into the shower with me. Where he took me against the wall. I came so hard my legs gave out, and I found myself on the floor.
That’s when I understood how royally screwed, I was. I would not pass up the opportunity to work with the team. Not after I had spent years of my life sacrificing for my goals. Whatever I was feeling for Hunter would have to end. I had a job to do. And I planned to do it right.
CHAPTER 3
Hunter
By the time I zipped Isla’s suitcase for the third time, my ten-year-old daughter was standing in the doorway of her bedroom with her arms crossed.
“Daddy hurry up.”
I pressed my palm against the top of the suitcase and tested the zipper again.
“You already checked the zipper,” she said. She was too perceptive.
I didn’t want to let her go. That was the problem.
“I’m going to miss the flight,” she said.
She was mature for her age. Sometimes I worried she was too mature, and that made me feel guilty.
“I’ll make sure to get us there on time,” I assured.
I had been starting out my career in the NHL when she was born. Life was busy. I had taken six months off initially, but I couldn’t take more than that if I didn’t want to risk my career, which meant I was living with a lot of guilt. My sister, Quinn, helped me when I was out of town. Hell, she helped me when I was in town. I didn’t know what I would’ve done without her.My parents were also a big help. There were times they spent months on end taking care of Isla. When I told them I was leaving Chicago when Isla was three, Mom was devastated. Dad understood that my job was taking me to Dallas. My parents and Quinn picked up and moved across the country with me.
“I’m going to miss, Bug,” I said trying not to mope.