Eruption (The Hunted, #3)

by Ivy Smoak

"How was lunch with my parents?" "They canceled again." "You're kidding. They're really holding out." "Holding out for what?" "James to change his mind, I guess."

"I'm pretty sure he's sabotaging me from getting any other jobs." "I'm sure that isn't true." "You have no idea." I took a sip of my champagne. Bee laughed. "I think he and Mason are pretty similar. They're both used to getting whatever they want. I'm not sure they understand the word no."

"You should have a bachelor party," I said and looked up at him. "Isn't that like a rite of passage?" "Yeah, but I've already had one." Every now and then I let myself forget about his past. I downed the rest of my champagne and picked up the sex on the beach. I kind of hoped it was laced with something. I hated thinking about finding a job. I hated thinking about James' parents not wanting to meet me. But most of all I hated being reminded of Isabella. I took a huge sip of the drink. "You should still go, James. You'll have fun."

"See you tomorrow, Penny," Bee said as she hugged me. "Don't encourage them, Penny," she whispered. "You seriously don't want Mason to plan it. Trust me." She pulled back. "Congratulations." She gave me a small smile Weird. "Thanks, Bee. See you tomorrow."

"Did you say something to Melissa? To make her not want to stay with us? I was really looking forward to it." "Although I am excited that I get to keep you all to myself, I don't think her not wanting to stay with us has anything to do with me." James nodded back over to them. "What do you mean?" James laughed. "They're obviously sleeping together."

"What, does that upset you?" He lowered his eyebrows slightly. "Of course not. But they're not sleeping together." Tyler was sweet and kind and Melissa was my best friend, but she was Melissa. They weren't a good fit. James laughed. "I'm pretty sure they are." "Melissa would have told me. Tyler would have told me." "Maybe they thought it would be awkward." I laughed. "Why would that be awkward?" I swallowed hard and looked back over at them. They were just friends. All three of us were just friends. Melissa laughed and lightly pushed Tyler's shoulder. They are just friends, right?

"How'd you like the rest of that drink?" Rob asked. "Are you feeling frisky yet?" I laughed. "I didn't finish it." I was feeling a little frisky, but not at all toward Rob. The man with his arms wrapped around me was the only guy I ever wanted.

I looked over at Tyler, but he didn't seem to have any reaction to what Rob had just said. After I had moved to New York, Rob and Melissa had a short fling. Tyler knew about it because we had talked about how weird it was. If Melissa and him were dating now, it would make him uncomfortable to hear about it again. Tyler didn't seem to care at all that Rob wanted to do gross things to Melissa, though. And I didn't doubt at all that they'd be gross.

"What, do you two need to finish whatever it was you were about to do before Penny realized there was a whole room of people watching?" "I wasn't about to do anything," I said. "That was a complete misunderstanding. I was just making sure James' outfit looked good. Checking his buttons and stuff." Worst excuse ever.

"I'm pretty sure we were all just a few seconds away from witnessing quite the graduation celebration." Melissa glared at him. I couldn't tell if she looked jealous or if she was just mad at him for further embarrassing me. I couldn't read either of them tonight.

"Well, as much fun as this has been, we should probably get going," Melissa said and put her hand on Tyler's knee. I looked at her hand on Tyler's knee and then back at her face. She immediately moved her hand. Oh God, they are sleeping together. Why didn't she tell me? I bit the inside of my lip. "Yeah, we probably should head out." Tyler stood up. Melissa immediately stood up beside him. "I'll see you tomorrow, Penny."

I wanted Melissa and Tyler to be happy. Why did she think I'd be upset about them dating? I looked down at my lap. My first thought had been that they weren't a good fit. Maybe she was right for not telling me. "I think you're right," I whispered to James.

"James, I love you so much. You are the sweetest man I have ever met. But you are just terrible at telling when people care about you." He smiled at me. "I know that you care about me."

They were pictures of really beautiful rooms. Really beautiful, huge rooms. Each room was elegant, yet modern at the same time. It was exactly James' style. Which had become my preference as well. I let my eyes meet his. "Now, before you say anything..." "I don't want to move." We had discussed this in length. And I thought we had agreed to stay here for at least a while longer. Graduating, starting a new job, getting married, it was all too much at once.

"When we get married, we're going to need a bigger place." "This place is big. It's way too big actually." James laughed. "It's cozy. That's why we picked it." "I think I remember telling you that it was too big to be cozy, but this was the place you wanted. So I said yes."

"You're going to be my wife." He cleared his throat. "We're going to be a family."

"More rooms to have you in, maybe." His hand slid up my thigh.

He leaned down and kissed the inside of my thigh. God was he good at distracting me.

He slowly pushed up the bottom of my dress, following his fingertips with a trail of kisses. He hooked his thumbs in the sides of my thong.

And he knew exactly what to say to wear me down. I lifted my hips and let him remove my thong. "Okay, fine. We can make an appointment with your realtor and go look at it together. Happy?" He smiled. "We don't ne...

My anger had been replaced by a more primal need, somehow making my want for him even stronger. I unhooked my bra as his mouth moved to my clit, sucking on it hard.

Why did I always give into him? Why did I always let him manipulate me with sex? He curved his fingers, hitting that spot that always made me lose control.

I knew why I always let him have what he wanted. Because I could never resist him. Not when he looked at me like that. Who was I kidding? I could never resist him. He started to unbutton his shirt.

"You can't just buy a new apartment and not tell me about it. We're getting married. We need to make these kind of decisions together. And we had already discussed this. It's too much change, too fast."

I quickly looked back up at his face. "What are you doing? James, we need to talk about this." His eyes were ablaze. "I like when you're mad at me." Fuck it. I grabbed the back of his head and pulled his mouth to mine. He was always right. When I was mad at him, it just made me want him even more.

up late studying so many nights. And for waiting to get married until after I graduated. For putting your life on hold here while I finished school. And for not getting mad at me when I'm stubborn for no reason. And for just being you." "You're awfully sentimental tonight." He pulled me into his chest. I'd never get enough of the sweet scent of his skin. "You've given up so much to be with me."

"You're everything that I've ever wanted. These past two and a half years have been the happiest of my life. We're getting married in a few weeks. You're the one giving me everything." "I'm worried that I'll always be a burden. I don't know what I want to do now that I've graduated. I don't know what I want to be."

But Jen said that their parents not wanting to meet me was weighing on James too. It was hurting him. Which meant I was hurting him. And it killed me. I ran my hands up and down my arms. It was freezing.

A few months ago, I had found their address and gotten a taxi to their house. I had stood outside the gate for several minutes before retreating. I had wanted to barge in on them and tell them they were being ridiculous. That they were horrible for treating their own son like this. I hated them for making him feel like he was unlovable. They had hurt him, in more ways than James would ever admit. But my telling them that wasn't going to help. They didn't respect me, so they wouldn't care about my opinions. I couldn't force it.

"I love you." I wasn't sure why, but the sincerity in his voice made me want to cry. Like it was the only fact in the world that he was certain of. "James, I love you too. I'll always love you." He immediately thrust inside of me.

James rarely ever let me take control. He knew I got distracted when I was setting the pace. Staring down at his chiseled abs always made me forget what I was doing. He knew what I needed better than I did. And we were both aware of that.

"You're so sexy, baby." His voice sounded husky. Even though I could only see his legs, it was still getting harder and harder to focus. His hands on me were suddenly all I could think about. I loved the way he loved me. I couldn't set the pace anymore. I couldn't even think straight. As if he knew, his hands on my hips slowly started guiding me more than I was guiding myself. "James," I moaned.

James kissed my temple and whispered, "I couldn't live without you." I smiled up at him. I didn't have to say it back. He knew. Just like I knew how he was feeling by looking into his intoxicating brown eyes.

"They're perfectly nice," Bee said. "You have nothing to worry about." "Wait, you've met them?" I couldn't believe it. Bee had never mentioned meeting James' parents before. Bee took a sip of champagne from her mug and then cleared her throat. "I mean, yeah. At their annual New Year's Eve party." "You never told me that you had met them." She took another sip of champagne to avoid answering me. I looked over at James. "Annual New Year's Eve party?" James had never mentioned that party to me. We always went out to dinner on New Year's Eve and walked around Central Park before the clock struck twelve. Last year it had started to snow right before midnight and I could still picture the snow falling around us as we shared our first kiss of the new year. It was romantic and perfect. But had we only done it because his parents had told him I couldn't come to their exclusive party?

"I don't know," Bee said. "They were polite to me. I don't really know them, though. Well, besides for the fact that Mason doesn't like them and they refuse to meet one of my best friends. I was just trying to make you feel more optimistic. But clearly they're the worst. Sorry, James," she quickly added. James laughed. "You all already know how I feel about this. As far as I'm concerned, you guys are my real family."

"Shouldn't you be getting ready?" Ellen asked. I ran the back of my hand against my forehead. I knew I was a mess. All day I had been delaying getting ready to go to James' parents. Just thinking about it made me unbelievably nervous. "Dear, I know you're worried. Just be yourself." Ellen put her hand on my forearm. "If they wanted to know me, they would have done it months ago. No, years ago. They don't want me to be me. They want me to be someone else." Isabella.

My knuckles brushing against James' lips pulled me out of my own head. I smiled up at him. "I'm sorry about how much this has been weighing on you. I know that I was annoying you, pushing your parents to meet me." He kissed the back of my hand again. "Nothing you do annoys me. I just want you to be happy." "I am." I rested my head against his shoulder. And nervous, excited, angry, and anxious. I needed to calm down. James' cologne always seemed to soothe me. He continued to stroke his thumb against my palm. It didn't take long for me to calm down.

"I thought it started at seven." James looked at his watch. We were half an hour early, but the gate was already open and there were tons of cars parked along the long driveway. It looked like there were going to be way more than 30 people inside.

"They said they wanted to meet you one on one first, without everyone else around." Now James sounded tense too. "Maybe I got the time wrong." That was doubtful. James was rarely ever wrong. And even if he was, he never admitted it.

Ian pulled the car around to the front. James quickly got out of the car and put his hand out for me. He didn't look tense anymore. He just looked pissed. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me to my feet. "James." I grabbed both sides of his face. "It's okay. But please, please don't leave me alone in there." He smiled and gave me a quick kiss. "I don't know what my parents are up to. I'm not letting you out of my sight."

man standing outside the front doors grabbed the door handle, but paused before opening the door when he saw us. A huge smile spread over his face. He let go of the door handle. "You must be Penny," he said. James squeezed my hand. "Eric, this is Penny. Penny, this is Eric. He's worked for my parents for as long as I can remember. And he's a good friend."

I immediately shook it. "It's so nice to meet you." "The pleasure is all mine, Penny. James has told me so much about you. You are just as lovely as he said." "Thank you, Eric." If everyone was this friendly inside, I had nothing to worry about.

"The party was supposed to start at seven right?" "No, it started at six. A last minute change. You didn't know?" James laughed, but it wasn't his normal contagious one. It sounded forced. "I must not have gotten the memo."

A hand wrapped around Rob's arm, pushing him to the side. Isabella was standing there with a smug look on her face. She looked me up and down and then whispered something to James' mother. Both women laughed. "Hippopotamus," I whispered. When we had first moved to New York, James had always made me promise to tell him if I was ever uncomfortable. That was our word. Whenever I said that, he knew I wanted to leave. I had never used it before. When we had chosen it, we thought that whatever the situation, it would make us laugh. Neither one of us was laughing now.

"They invited his ex wife to our engagement party." "Yeah, my parents suck. That can't come as a surprise to you. They're the fucking worst." I laughed and wiped away a few tears that had fallen down my cheeks. "You're going to be my little sister. I'm going to help watch out for you. But you can't let them get under your skin. Show them that you don't care. That's what the three of us do." I took a deep breath. Rob always joked around with me. It was nice to hear that he truly cared.

"Let's go. I've already made our excuses," he said. "But I haven't even met your parents yet." "And you're not going to. Let's go. Now."

"I do mean it. Don't you see what they're doing? They're trying to force Isabella back on me. They don't want me to marry you. They won't even give you a chance. They want me to be miserable. They don't care about me." "They do care. They think that's what's best for you. But I'm going to wear them down. I'm going to make them see." "They're not like your parents, Penny. I'm not having a fight with them over something small and insignificant. This isn't just a misunderstanding. They're torturing me. They're trying to break me. Again."

"Actually, Melissa, I was hoping I could talk to you about Tyler. I just want you to know that if you two are dating, I'm totally okay with it." "I don't need your permission to date someone, Penny." "I know, that's not what I meant. I just thought that maybe because of our history, you thought..." Melissa laughed and placed her glass of wine down on the bar beside mine. "Thought that it would be awkward because you've slept with him? Yeah, well you have nothing to worry about. I would never date Tyler Stevens. I'm sorry, I need to use the bathroom."

"You don't have anything to worry about. James is completely addicted to you. You're like the only sustenance he needs. Ow, fuck! What is wrong with you?"

James' mother shook her head. "There's no reason to be formal, Jonathan. We all know why we're here." She stared at me for a second like I was completely dense and walked over to the desk. She opened up a drawer and pulled out a checkbook. You've got to be kidding me. "I don't want your money. That's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the way you've been treating your son." She tore a check out of the booklet and stuck her hand out to me. I bit my lip, trying to prevent myself from crying. How could they think that's why I was dating their son? "I'm in love with James." "Of course." She sounded disgusted as she pulled out another check. She set them both down on the desk and slid them toward me. I looked down. Both checks were already made out to me. And they were each for one million dollars. They had already written them. They never had any intention of getting to know me. This had been their plan the whole time. "Don't you want him to be happy?" My voice sounded small and sad.