Chapter 63 Chapter 63: Moving Too Fast
Cathy’s P.O.V
The moment Hunter's lips met mine, something inside me exhaled, like a breath I had been holding for months. His hands were at my waist, firm and certain, and the kiss was everything I had been starving for. Warmth and wanting like my life depends on it.
His fingers tangled in my hair, pulling me closer, and I felt my breath hike when I heard the soft click of the door behind me, before he pushed me against it and kissed me like I was the only thing that mattered.
His lips were surprisingly soft, but demanding in a way I had never been kissed before. Heat travelled to my stomach, then lower, a surprising contrast to how cold I sometimes felt with Xavier. I deepened the kiss, my fingers grasping at his shirt, unwilling to let him go.
But just as we were getting deeper into it, Hunter suddenly stopped, as if a light switch had gone off inside him.
He pulled back, chest heaving, and pressed his forehead against mine for just a second before stepping away entirely. I missed his warmth immediately, my hands itching at his side to pull him back, but then I noticed the expression on his face. His jaw was tight. His eyes, dark and full of worries, and he looked away suddenly as if the sight of me was too much to bear.
That stung, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions just yet.
"This isn't right, Cathy," he said, his voice low and rough around the edges.
I stood there in his doorway for a moment, unsure of what to do, the night air still cool on my bare shoulders. My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my throat, nervousness and desperation warring inside me. I looked at him then, the way his hands had dropped to his sides and curled into loose fists, and I felt something shift in me, something I can't really phantom. He wanted this...that much was evident from the way his pants seems to pull a little tighter at his groin. Then why was he refusing this?
So, I decided to take the initiative. I reached for the collar of my coat and let it fall off my shoulders. It pooled at my feet with a light susurration of a sound that felt more sensual than I had anticipated.
The red dress underneath was short and off the shoulder and I had spent twenty minutes making sure every detail was right. I watched Hunter's eyes drop before he caught himself and looked away again, his throat working. I could tell he was holding himself back by the tenseness of his jaw.
"Do you still think this isn't right?" I asked, my tone coming out a breathless whisper. “Don’t you want me, Hunter?”
He groaned, a low, frustrated sound that came from somewhere deep in his chest. He turned away and pressed one hand against the wall, his back to me for a moment.
"I've always wanted you," he said, still not looking at me, but his voice sounded strained. "I won't pretend I haven't. But Cathy, you are still a married woman. I can't cross that line with you. Not yet. Not like this, definitely not, please."
I let out a short and sharp laugh. Even to my own ears it sounded strange. "Married," I repeated. "I am technically married, yes. But my husband just looked me in the eye this evening and told me to open our marriage."
Hunter turned around then. His brows pulled together and he stared at me the way people stare when they hear something so absurd they need a moment to process it.
"He said what?"
"He offered me a free pass," I said, and I hated how calm my voice sounded when everything inside me was still boiling. "Said I could go out and find someone to vent with, get his betrayal out of my system, and then we could close the marriage and move forward. His exact words."
Hunter was quiet for a long moment. He stepped back from the doorframe and let me in without saying anything else. I walked past him into the apartment, the familiar smell of it settling over me like something safe. He followed behind closely, his face drawn.
"Xavier actually said that to you." It wasn't really a question anymore.
"He did." I crossed my arms over my chest, not out of modesty, but because I needed to hold something steady. "And I know what it really is. This isn't about giving me a free pass. This is about him wanting one. He wants to carry on with Caroline openly and not feel guilty about it. He wants me to agree so that whatever he does next has my permission attached to it and that alone is really crazy. Because he went on dates without an ounce of guilt in his mind. He slept with hundreds of women without caring…then why does he suddenly need my permission?"
Hunter nodded slowly. He moved to the kitchen without a word and I heard the soft sounds of him filling a kettle, opening a cabinet, setting a mug down on the counter. I stood in the middle of his living room and stared at the city lights through the large glass windows.
"There's something else," I said.
"Tell me."
"I watched the CCTV footage from the house earlier. I caught the two of them talking in the living room." I paused. I had told myself I was past the worst of it, but saying it out loud scraped something raw again. "He told Caroline that I won't get anyone to even look at me. That the only men I'd attract are men like Mr. Hawthorn." I swallowed. "He said I was plain as fu-." I stopped. "He compared me to her. Said I didn't even come close."
The kitchen went quiet like a graveyard.
When Hunter came back out, he had two mugs in his hands and his expression was carefully controlled, but his eyes were hard. He set the mugs on the coffee table and gestured for me to sit. I did, folding myself onto the couch and pulling my knees together.
"And what did Caroline say to all of that?" he asked.
"She laughed." The words came out flat. "She said it was good. Because if I agreed to the open marriage, they could be intimate right in front of me and I wouldn't say a word." I picked up the mug and wrapped both hands around it. The heat helped ground me, even though it was already warm inside the apartment. "Xavier said I was like an obedient dog. That I wouldn't disobey because I'd risk losing everything."
Hunter sat across from me and was silent for a moment. Not the uncomfortable kind of silence. The kind that meant he was actually thinking before he spoke.
"I need you to hear something," he finally said.
I looked at him, waiting. Some part of me already knew what he was going to say.
"What Xavier offered you tonight, it could very easily be a trap."
I opened my mouth but he held up a hand.
"Think about it, Cathy. If you take him up on the offer and he has proof or even just his word that you agreed and acted on it, he flips everything. He uses it against you. A cheating wife changes the entire landscape of what you're dealing with."
The mug felt heavier in my hands suddenly. I thought about how I had stood in the guest room, still buzzing with anger, and how quickly I had decided to come here. How it had felt righteous and satisfying and earned in the moment.
I felt like a fool, a big and extra large fool.
"I didn't think about that," I said quietly.
"You weren't supposed to," Hunter said, and his voice was gentler now. "That's the point. He said it when you were already hurt and angry. He expected you to react."
I set the mug down on the table and pressed my palms against my thighs. Outside, the city hummed its indifferent hum. I thought about Xavier and Caroline sitting at the Dalton estate right now, probably relaxed, probably not thinking about me at all. An obedient dog.
"So what do I do?" I asked.
"You don't do anything without knowing what you're standing on." Hunter leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "I need to ask you something. Have you had a chance to look through the prenup yet?"
The question pulled me back to something concrete. I reached for my bag, which I had dropped near the door when I first came in, and unzipped it. My fingers found the folded document near the bottom, tucked underneath my phone and my wallet.
I set it on the coffee table between us.
It was a thick packet, slightly creased from being folded in half. I had found it in the back of my closet not three hours ago, behind a stack of old sweaters in a box I barely touched. My own copy. I had signed it years ago and never looked at it again. Never thought I’d need to.
"I found it," I said. "I grabbed it before I left the house." I stared at the cover page, at the formal typed heading and the date of our marriage. "But I haven't opened it. I kept picking it up and putting it back down."
Hunter looked at the document. Then he looked at me.
"You don't have to read it tonight," he said. "But when you're ready, Cathy, that document is the beginning of everything. Whatever is in there tells us what you're actually working with."
I nodded. My eyes stayed on the prenup. The paper was just sitting there, quiet and still, but it felt like something with weight. Something that knew things I didn't.
I reached out slowly and touched the corner of it with one finger.
"What if what's inside changes everything?" I asked, though I was almost talking to myself.
Hunter didn't answer right away. When I looked up, his eyes were steady and serious and focused completely on me.
"Then we deal with it," he said. "Together."