Eruption (The Hunted, #3)

by Ivy Smoak

"What? I'm sorry, did you say something?" "Secret fiancé, secret troubled past, a secret black eye..." Tavon had counted off the secrets on his fingers so that he was holding them up in front of me. "You're quite mysterious, Penny."

My phone started buzzing again. I didn't bother looking at the caller ID, I just ignored it. "And you're trying to avoid someone." "Leave her alone," Zach said. "Clearly she doesn't want to talk about it."

My phone vibrated again. I picked it up. "I'm a little busy right now. Can this wait till after work?" James sighed. "I figured you saw her when I had pizza waiting for me. I'm sorry about lunch. Can you please come to my office real quick so I can explain?" I tried to lower my voice. "After work. Please, James." "You're upset. I just want to tell you why she was here. If you're worried about people knowing, just say you need to go to the bathroom and excuse yourself." I didn't care why Isabella was there. I didn't care about anything she had to say. What I cared about was why he decided to talk to her and keep me out of the loop. He let me wander off to Brooklyn so I'd be out of the way. It felt dirty and I just needed some time to calm down about it. "Later. Please." I hung up.

My phone vibrated again. "Aren't you going to answer James the telemarketer's phone call?" Tavon asked. "I'll let it go to voicemail this time," I said and continued to stare at the computer screen without actually reading anything. "Dirty spammers." "Oh my God, he's coming over here," Sierra said.

"Maybe she should have talked to me instead of you then. You seriously couldn't take two seconds to tell me you couldn't make lunch?" "I thought she came to make a scene. It wouldn't be the first time. And now I have you here to worry about embarrassing too. It seemed like the best option was to hear her out." "So is that how it's going to be our whole lives? You're just constantly going to put her first?" I knew it wasn't fair. He had talked to her in part to avoid her embarrassing me. But I was pissed. And hadn't he just embarrassed me? He knew I wanted to keep things professional here and he just completely threw that out the window because I asked him if we could wait and talk after work. He hadn't gotten his way so he disregarded everything I had asked him not to do. He was being ridiculous.

"You're seriously upset that I talked to Isabella for a few minutes?" He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You know how I feel about her. There's no reason to be upset." "I'm allowed to be upset! You can't control my emotions when you control everything else." "I don't..." "Why am I here, James? I applied to dozens of places. How could I not have heard back from a single one? What did you do?" "I thought you'd want to work with..." "I would have told you if this was what I wanted. It's not. I know that everyone is going to judge me when they find out we're together. Which you kind of just gave away. I needed to do this on my own. I want to be independent. I don't want to have to rely on you for everything."

"Penny..." "You don't respect me." I stood up and threw the rest of my pizza slice in the trashcan. "At all. Now can we please just talk about this at home like a normal couple?" His mouth was set in a straight line. I knew I had hurt him. But for one second I wanted to focus on what I wanted instead of what he did. Ever since we had moved here I had tried to give him everything he needed. I had been hyper focused on making him happy. And I had completely forgotten about what I wanted somewhere along the way. He couldn't always get his way. This was my life too.

"She asked if we could start over as friends. I told her that we could be civil if we run into each other in public, but nothing more. I told her if she ever stepped foot inside my office ever again I'd have her thrown out. And I said if she ever reached out to you or me I'd get a restraining order against her. I know I can talk to whoever I want, but I don't want to talk to her. Ever again. I have a past. I can't change what's happened, but I will never, ever put someone before you. I can promise you that."

"You knew no one would hire me because of that, didn't you? I'm such an idiot. I was giving you a hard time and you were just being nice and offering me a job because no one else..." "No." He cleared his throat. "You were right before. I screened your applications." "What does that mean exactly?" He shrugged. "I made it clear that you were working at Hunter Tech. I'd rather not go into the specifics."

"I think I've just been really stressed out. For the past few years I've been so focused on finishing school and officially becoming an adult, that I forgot to plan for this point." I had been so eager to graduate. All those extra classes to make up for the semester I had lost switching schools. Maybe I had rushed all of this. Now I was officially an adult and I felt lost. "That's why I thought fixing you up with a good job..." "But you should have talked to me about it. Your intentions are always good, but I want my opinion to count." "It does. And I do respect you. If I made you feel like that wasn't the case, I'm sorry." He cupped my face in his hand. "But I like taking care of you. You can't expect me to just sit here and see you struggling and not try to fix it."

"Do you ever think sometimes that it was easier when you were my professor?" He laughed. "No." "But everything was so clear cut. We each knew where we stood." "Penny, I never knew where you stood." I laughed. "Maybe you're right. I just thought this boss/intern thing would be a little easier if we just stuck to those roles and didn't mix in our personal relationship." "Penny, I don't want to sneak around. I thought we were done with that when we moved here. We're getting married at the end of the month. All I ever want to do is be with you. And when we're not together I want to talk about you. If you're embarrassed..." "I'm not embarrassed about us. That's not it. I just didn't want all my new coworkers to judge me before they got to know me." "Knowing that we're together is part of getting to know you."

"I was hoping you'd say that. And maybe tomorrow you can tell all the new friends you made today that you're shagging the boss." "Telling them we're engaged sound so much better." "Going all in right away?" "Sierra keeps talking about how sexy you are and it makes me extremely uncomfortable." He laughed. "You sound jealous." "I'm not jealous." I bit my lip. "Fine, maybe a little. But what about the flowers you sent me? Marking your territory right away?" "I sent you flowers because I'm an awesome fiancé and I love you."

"And I wanted to force you to tell everyone we were together. Like I said, I'm done sneaking around. Besides, I haven't locked you down until you say 'I do.' I'm not going to risk losing you to a younger man at the last minute." I laughed. "You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Before we know it, we'll be married. Right there." I gestured to the tree in front of us.

"This is so awkward." "Tyler." "I'm not going to talk about my sex life with you, Penny." "That's what friends do." "Not when one of those friends used to be in love with the other friend." He stood up. "Not when we've had sex. Not when I compare every girl I'm with to that night we had." He shook his head. I didn't know that. My hanging around all the time maybe hadn't been as fun for him as it was for me.

"Why is it complicated?" "Because she thinks I'm still in love with you."

"There's nothing to apologize about. I hope that you two can work it out," I said, repeating the same thing I had said to Melissa. I grabbed my shoes off the ground and left as quickly as I could. When I closed the door behind me, it felt so final. Melissa and Tyler were the last parts of my old life I was holding on to. I didn't want to lose them too. But it wasn't my choice.

"She's uncomfortable with my friendship with Tyler. It's stupid." "Were you wearing this?" He lifted up the bottom of Tyler's old shirt. "Yes." I shrugged my shoulders. That was the exact thing that had bothered Melissa. He laughed. "You two do have a weird relationship." "We do not." "I'm not complaining. But I can see how it might make her uncomfortable." I frowned. "Does it make you uncomfortable?" "I'm confident in our relationship. Melissa and Tyler just started dating, so she's not confident in their relationship yet. Just different circumstances." "But does it make you uncomfortable?" "It used to. But I trust you. And I trust him. Besides, you do look good in baggy t-shirts." He pushed the fabric up my torso and kissed my hipbone.

"I wasn't really in a good place when we met, Penny." "I know, I just meant..." "You saved me."

"Suddenly the only thing I wanted in life was to see you smile." He reached out and took my hand. "So yeah, I thought we'd eventually be here. This is everything I've always wanted. We certainly had our ups and downs getting here, though." He smiled at me. "You mean, you certainly enjoyed pushing me away?" "I'm not going to ever push you away again." He ran his thumb along the palm of my hand. "I know." He pulled me into his chest and put his hand on the side of my face. "You're quite sentimental tonight." I breathed in his heavenly scent. "Sometimes I think about when you said you wanted to go to Vegas and..." "This is what I want too." "Are you sure? You said you didn't want a big wedding and I..."

"Penny. The first time I got married, I wasn't in love. I didn't have a say in any of the plans. I wasn't excited to walk down the aisle. And before I met you, I never thought I'd get married again." He ran his fingers through my hair. "No one's ever loved me like you love me. This is what planning a wedding is supposed to be like. I liked looking at venues, picking flowers, being excluded from helping you pick out a dress..."

"I've had fun doing all of it. This is going to be our wedding. And I'm so excited to marry you. I thought I didn't want this back then, but I want it now. I want to see you walk down the aisle toward me. I want our friends and family to clap when we have our first kiss. And I want to have a first dance. I want all of it with you."

I knew Mason knew about James' problems. But I hadn't realized that Bee knew. It made sense though. I knew that Mason was a man-whore because James had told me. And she knew about James because Mason had told her. "James knows how to pace himself." I didn't want to be having this conversation in front of Marie and Kendra. "It's going to be fine. They're just gonna have fun." Now I was trying to convince myself. I thought about what James had said yesterday when we were playing two truths, one lie. One time he was with Mason he had gotten so drunk that he blacked out and lost a ton of money gambling. That was probably a long time ago, though. James didn't do that kind of stuff now.

swallowed hard. I still didn't really understand what she was getting at, but I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach. I hadn't had sex with James all week. He was just as horny as me. And Mason had just taken him God knows where.

I was glad the walk home from the bar was long. I needed the time to clear my head. My mind drifted back to the first time I had ever met Mason. I laughed to myself. He had been asking James if he needed his services, but I had been too love blind to notice. But James had told him he wasn't interested. James would never cheat on me. Would he? I didn't understand his issues and I wasn't sure I ever would. I took for granted the idea that he was addicted to me. Not because I wanted him to be sick, but because that was how he acted, like he couldn't get enough of me. But what if he was just addicted to sex? I had been withholding sex from him. What if he needed that? That was ridiculous. If he needed it, he would have caved days ago.

His words seemed to echo in my head. Maybe he couldn't stop, but he hadn't had a reason to. Because he was depressed. But now he had me. I was enough. I had to be enough. I grabbed the door handle of my apartment building and made my way over to the elevators. "Mrs. Hunter?" I turned my head. Sometimes people called me that by mistake. The man at the reception desk was smiling at me and held up a manila envelope.

My whole body felt cold. I wouldn't have known who it was if I hadn't seen a picture of her just the other day. Rachel. She looked older, but it was definitely her. She was more sophisticated looking. She was even prettier than she had been in high school.

I felt my chest tighten. I turned over the images. They were dated from this Tuesday. Rachel had been his errand. That's why he didn't have any bags or anything when he had come home that night. That's why he had wanted to watch T.V. He didn't want to talk to me about what he had been doing. What had he been doing exactly? Clearly something that he wanted to hide from me. We had promised each other no more secrets. I looked back inside the envelope. There was a post-it note stuck to the bottom. I quickly pulled it out and looked at the note scrawled across it: I told you that you didn't know him. He'll never love you the way he loved her. Can you live with that?

Was this why he didn't cave in our game? Because he was sleeping with someone else? "He'll never love you the way he loved her."

My heart starting beating really fast. I slowly removed the post-it note and looked down at the photo. Isabella had James' suit jacket collar gripped tightly in her hands and she was kissing him. James' hands were wrapped around her back. Like he wanted it. I shut my eyes tight. No. No. It was photoshopped. That's what it was. James wouldn't kiss her. He wouldn't do that to me. He loves me. I opened my eyes and stared down at the picture. It was in James' office. It must have been taken on Monday when she had shown up. So James told her he'd get a restraining order against her after making out with her? This is why he actually stood me up for lunch? So he could shove his tongue down his ex wife's throat? I felt like I was going to throw up. "He can't control himself, remember?"

"I'm sorry." I hung up the phone. Now I just seemed to be pushing away the people I was closest to. But if everything was slipping away, I might as well slide down the slope even faster. I might as well end up at the bottom alone if I was losing the only person in the world I loved. I ran my fingers across the picture. I loved him. Why would he do this to me? Was it something I did? Of course it was. I had been stressed out for weeks. I hadn't had sex with him in days. I was a mess. And it was more than that. It was my biggest fear coming true. I wasn't good enough for him. I had always known that. Maybe he was finally realizing it too.

Last night I had been worried about what he might do during his bachelor party. I had no idea what he had already done.

"Um, so, I was thinking I'd surprise her after work. With some flowers or something. And ask her officially. Hopefully she won't want to move out either. I've gotten used to waking up next to her." He looked a little embarrassed again. "I think she'll love that." "Yeah?" I nodded. I knew this would mean my relationship with Tyler would change. It would be different with Melissa too. But if it meant they were both happy, then I was happy too. I could adjust. The past few weeks I had handled so much change. I could handle one more thing. "Well, she gets off in about half an hour. I should probably get going. If you're okay?"

"Ian, please. I need to talk to her." "James doesn't want you to be in contact with her." Why? Because he doesn't want me to catch them making out? I swallowed hard. That wasn't fair. It was just a picture. There was so much behind a captured image. I looked down at my hands. "What, did he give you a list of places where I'm not allowed to go or something?" "I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you." I spent a lot of time with Ian. Whenever I was in the car with him, I usually lowered the partition and chatted with him. I considered him to be a friend. But he wasn't. He was polite and courteous to me because James paid him to be. Ian wasn't my friend. He wasn't even my employee, he was James'. "Okay," I said and looked back out the window. I felt like a petulant child. James had a way of making me feel like that. But he was right. I shouldn't be going to see Isabella. There would never be a reason for me to go see her. Ever.

"Yeah, he even kept me on the payroll when he went to teach at the University of New Castle for a year. So that I wouldn't have to keep my job with Isabella. We didn't get along very well. He probably did it because he knew Isabella would fire me." He laughed. "He knew he was only staying there for a year?" I asked as nonchalantly as possible. "Well, I mean, he came back before a year so I had to start back up again a few months early. With you." He smiled. "But, yeah, he said he'd be back in a year when he left." James had told me he was taking a break by teaching. He had never put a date on it though. He had never told me that his plan was always to come back to New York. I thought we had decided to make our fresh start here together. I had that same eerie feeling that I had when we had just met. That he was the hunter and I was the prey. I folded my arms across my chest, suddenly cold. Why did it feel like I still didn't know him? "Are you okay?" he asked. I had gotten lost in my thoughts. I nodded my head and smiled. "Yeah. I'm just feeling a bit tired. I'm going to go take a nap."

I wanted to grab a box of notes James had written for me, get lost in them, and forget about everything he had ever said to Isabella. But I didn't have a box of notes from James. I mostly had emails and texts. And the few handwritten notes I did have weren't anything like this. They were telling me he had gone for a run. Or to remind me about a dinner we had to go to.

"Welcome to your bachelorette party!" Bee screamed. "It's about time you got here." She grabbed my arm and pulled me into her apartment. "I was starting to think Mason forgot to call you."

"First things first," Bee said. "Put this on." She grabbed the shot glasses from me and handed me a sparkly dress. James didn't like when I wore stuff like this. At least, in public. "Melissa picked it out for you. So you know it's going to fit perfectly. Go change." "Can't I just wear what I have on?" I was wearing jean shorts and a baggy t-shirt. Kendra laughed. "Absolutely not. Get to it. We have a huge list. It's going to take us all night to get through all this stuff."

I walked down the hallway and into the bathroom. The dress was tight and ended right below my ass. My boobs weren't big, but this dress made them look huge. I looked like a total slut. Luckily I was wearing flip flops. Heels would have tipped the scales to making me look more like a hooker.

"There's a pair of shoes out here for you to wear too!" one of the girls yelled from the other room. Shit. I walked back out into the kitchen and looked down at the stilettos they wanted me to wear. "What are we doing exactly? Are we going to be walking a lot? I think I'll just stick with these shoes." "You can't wear a dress like that with flip flops," Melissa said.

"So, you need to ask a random guy to buy you a drink," Marie said as she looked down at a list she had. "Can I see that?" I tried to snatch it from her, but she moved it away too quickly.

"Well, they have this list of things I have to do, and one of them is to ask a stranger to buy me a drink. But I know you don't want to do that. So, you can tell me when they aren't looking and I'll slip you ten dollars. And could you just order me a drink with that? Then I can go back there and pretend you bought me a drink?" The more I spoke, the bigger his smile got. "I don't know, their eyes are glued on you. You might not get an opportunity."

"You know, you could have just asked me to buy you a drink. I didn't need the whole story. All a beautiful woman like you needed to do was say you were thirsty. The whole bar would be buying you drinks all night long."

"Here," Marie said and slid a napkin with a penis cookie on it toward me. I laughed. "I'm really not hungry." "Okay, then that triggers number five. If Penny passes on the cookie, she needs to convince a guy at the bar to eat said cookie." "I'll just eat it." I lifted up the cookie. "No way, missy," Melissa said and grabbed my hand. "Number five has already been triggered. Who at the bar looks hungry for a penis?" "How about that guy," Bee said. She was pointing to a guy in the corner with a plaid shirt and hipster glasses.

"I'm giving you an easy one. Hipsters will do anything to fit in. Just tell him eating normal shaped cookies is so cliché." "Fine."

"Nicely done," Bee said. "The hipster's friend seemed to really enjoy that penis. You probably should have asked him if he liked it." "I wasn't going to ask him that." "Well, you need to. Number six is verifying whether or not he liked that dick," Kendra said. "What is wrong with you guys?" Kendra laughed and slid another shot toward me.

"Let's skip to number nine. All you have to do is make googly eyes at someone until they send us a round of drinks." "You still have a million shots on the table." Kendra laughed. "Honey child, we're only just getting started." I sighed. "How about him," she said and pointed to a guy at the bar. "He's been staring at you all night." I turned to see who she was pointing to, but immediately looked away when I made eye contact with him. "Some random guy isn't going to send us all drinks. Don't be ridiculous."

"Should I shove a penis cookie in his mouth while I'm at it?" "That's not a terrible idea. I can add that to the list," Marie said and lifted up her purse. "Just let me find a pen." "Don't you dare." I got up before any of them could add another stupid thing I had to do.

"Whoever you're marrying is a very lucky guy," he whispered in my ear. "Thanks." Did James think he was lucky? I had thought so before yesterday. But I wasn't sure anymore. Does he even love me? The alcohol and my friends' laughter had momentarily distracted me from the notes he had written to Isabella. He loved her so much. I didn't want to be here right now. I just wanted to go home.

"Speaking about sex," Kendra said. "On a scale of one to ten, how good is James in bed?" "An eleven."

"I haven't met an eleven in years," Kendra said. "I think all the elevens are in relationships. And why wouldn't they be? Their dicks are like fucking Gods." Marie laughed. "You put too much emphasis on sex. There is so much more to a relationship than that."