Chapter 14

"You won’t be alone. I will be there and so will Jason,” Hunter reassured me.

“Who is Jason?” I asked.

“One of my oldest friends, definitely the best one. He is also my partner, we started the company together.”

“And he will be there as well?” I had a hard time understanding why someone like that would put his neck on the line for me. But Hunter nodded.

“Of course. There are very few people I trust so completely as I trust Jason. We will have other men stationed nearby as well. But it will be the three of us that will attend the meeting,” he explained.

“What should I expect?” Hunter smiled at me as if he was proud of me for asking the right question.

“The restaurant where we will meet is one that Aksakov owns. It will be filled with his men and, depending on how big of a threat he sees us as, some women as well,” Hunter started.

“Women as well?”

“For entertainment mostly,” he said and I could swear I saw a light blush creep up over his beard.

“Oh.” It only took me a moment to realise what he was referring to, but when I did, I felt my own cheeks heat. To distract myself and not look like a virgin, I took a cinnamon roll and tore a piece of it and plopped it into my mouth.

“When we arrive they will search us. Both for weapons and recording devices. They will find the former on me and Jason, as they expect, but not the latter. We need to be smart. After that they will most probably take us to Aksakov. He will make sure he looks as intimidating as possible, and he will try to exert dominance by shocking you. He might kill someone, draw a gun on you or entertain one of his lady friends in front of you,” He explained. I nodded and continued to take pieces of the bun and put them into my mouth. There was a pause in the conversation.

“Should I have some kind of weapon with me?” I asked. When Hunter didn’t answer straight away I looked up at him and found him staring at me. “What?” I asked.

“Oh, ahem, sorry,” he said, looking flushed. “You have some…” he made a gesture at the side of his mouth. I ran my thumb over the same place on my face and felt a spot of icing.

“Oh, sorry.” I wiped the icing off with my thumb and before I thought about it I had put it into my mouth. Hunter was watching my thumb and as it went into my mouth I could swear I heard a groan escaping from him. But it was so low and the moment was over so quickly that I brushed it off as my overstimulated imagination playing tricks on me. Hunter cleared his throat and looked at his coffee.

“You had a question? Right, weapons. No,” he said.

“Excuse me?” I said as I didn’t really follow.

“You won’t be wearing any kind of weapon. I saw what you did to the pillow the other day. Let’s leave weapons to me and Jason,” he said. I should feel embarrassed by his words. He was bringing attention to one of my mistakes. But his voice was full of humour and warmth and there was no trace of taunting or belittling me. I found myself giggling and felt as surprised as Hunter looked at the sound. Then he fired off a brilliant smile that took my breath away and chuckled.

“Okay, so no weapons for me. If he offers me something to eat or drink should I refuse? Or is that rude?” I asked.

“He won’t try to poison you if that is what you are afraid of. If you are dead, he will have a harder time getting his money back. He will want to keep you alive,” Hunter reassured me. I nodded and watched him.

“There is something you aren’t telling me,” I said. “If I’m going to do this, I need to know everything. I can’t be blindsighted.” He sighed and nodded.

“I wish I didn’t need to tell you this, but you are right. Aksakov’s goal in all of this is getting his money back. It works in our favour as he isn’t going to kill you. But there are ways to get money back that are less… optimal,” he told me. I furrowed my eyebrows as I tried to figure out what he meant.

“I don’t get it,” I finally said. Hunter sighed again and rubbed his face with his hand. He was clearly not comfortable.

“Human trafficking. He would make good money selling your body,” he then said. I felt my spine snap into a rigid iron stick as the rest of my body tensed up. “But Jason and I won’t let that happen,” he then reassured me.

“But you are only two, you said the restaurant would be filled with his men, that they would take away your weapons,” I pointed out.

“We have gotten out of worse situations, sweetness. Trust us,” he told me. I looked into his eyes and despite a small voice telling me I shouldn’t trust anyone, especially not Simon’s father, I nodded.

“Okay. I trust that you will keep me safe,” I agreed. He looked serious as he nodded.

“We talk with him, we offer to pay back the money he is owed, and we get out. That’s the plan,” he said.

“I like that plan.” There was a moment of silence as we both processed what we had just talked about. Then he asked me about how my interview had gone and we talked about it for a while. I was happy he didn’t hurry off the moment he was done talking business. Hunter seemed to enjoy himself and we went from talking about the interview to talking about our favourite movies and books. Time just slipped away and before I knew it the coffee cups were empty and the platter was as well. Hunter helped me to clear the table and once again asked about my feet as he noticed the slight limp I was desperately trying to hide.

“You should let me take a look at your feet,” he said as we stood by the sink.

“No, it’s fine,” I told him.

“It’s not fine, Hana. You are limping. I can see it even if you try to hide it. I did a good job looking after your hand, didn’t I?” he asked. Without thinking about it I looked down at my palm where the wound from the glass splinter was still healing. I could remember his soft touch as he had bandaged it for me. Hunter followed my gaze and he took my hand in one of his. His hand looked so much bigger than mine as it fitted around it. His thumb gently stroked over the injury. “It’s healing nicely,” he said. I nodded as I couldn’t make my brain form actual words. All my focus was on his hand touching mine and then I made the mistake to look up. When had he got so close to me? Our eyes locked and I could see the different shades of amber and gold in his eyes. I could swear I felt tingles emanating from his hand and spreading all through my body. My breath hitched in my lungs and it was like Hunter had his own gravity, pulling me closer. My phone chimed, bringing both of us back to reality, making us step apart and find a new focus. Hunter let go of my hand and I reached for my phone. More to have something to look at as I tried to gain control over my runaway emotions. It was Wictor asking how I was holding up. I put my phone to the side without responding. Hunter was rinsing out the cups. When he was done he turned to me with a small smile. “I better be going,” he said. I felt the disappointment wash over me, but tried to tell myself it was for the best. I didn’t seem to be able to control myself in his presence and I didn’t want to end up making him uncomfortable and embarrass myself.

“Sure. Just one moment. I have something for you,” I told him and walked over to the box I had prepared. “It’s not much, but it’s my way of saying thank you,” I said as I handed him the box.

“You didn’t need to get me anything, Hana,” he objected as he lifted the lid. His eyes grew big as he saw what it was inside. “Did you make these?” he asked.

“Yeah, I bake when I’m stressed. It’s a dozen doughnuts with coffee cream filling and a dozen with cherry and chocolate filling. I hope you like them.”

“They look wonderful and smell delicious,” he told me. “Thank you, this is an amazing gift.” He sounded sincere and it made me happy that he seemed to like it. We said goodbye and he waited outside my door until he knew all the locks were in place and I watched him until I could no longer see him through the peephole. My body was still feeling the effects of our moment in the kitchen. I wasn’t used to feeling sexually aroused. During my marriage I had learnt I was useless at sex, that Simon only came to me for it when there was no one else. There had been no enjoyment in it for me and so I suppressed the need. But now my body was making up for lost time it seemed and I felt like a teenager. Maybe a bath would calm me down? But as I submerged myself into the hot water, my thoughts kept going back to Hunter. My body responded and I knew it was getting worse, not better. My mind conjured up the image of Hunter’s eyes. Calm, radiant and fixed on me. The way he sometimes looked at me, like I was the single most important thing in the world. The way his thumb had felt as it brushed over the skin of my palm. How much I wished it would explore other parts of my body, parts I only had a vague sense of would appreciate it. I saw his broad shoulders and strong chest in front of me. The way his shirts always seemed to emphasise his body. My hands ached to be free to explore what was underneath his clothes. My breathing was picking up pace and my hand slipped beneath the water and travelled down my body. In my mind I was naked on my bed with a naked Hunter leaning over me. It didn’t scare me, it filled me with calm and ease. As I fantasised about him kissing me, my fingers found my clit and I started to draw circles around it. My body was already on the edge and when I made fantasy-Hunter cover my body with his and slide deep inside me, I tumbled over the cliff and a massive orgasm rocked through my body. It left me a panting mess as I got out of the tub, afraid I would fall asleep if I stayed.