THE QUEEN'S GAME

Chapter 23

"Charlotte." Hunter kissed the side of her head as she slept blissfully in his arms. She'd fallen asleep after he made her scream so loud he swore the paintings on the wall rattled. He loved her screams, and she told him she wanted different. He'd never dominated her like he had today, but it was thrilling to have her that way. It opened up a whole other level of intensity for them.
"Hunter, leave me alone." She threw a pillow at him, inciting a hearty laugh.
"Aawh, baby, you're so grumpy. I thought you'd be so peaceful after all that. I only did what you asked. You kept screaming harder, deeper, faster, and I think I complied."
Another pillow flew at his head and he ducked. "I guess you don't want to get dressed before our friends get here."
She shot up in bed. "What time is it?" She looked at a bedside clock and ran her hands through her disheveled hair. "You're being facetious and gloating does not look good on you. How could you let me sleep so long? I told you thirty minutes."
"Thirty minutes passed when we were still—" She smacked his lips.
"Stop making fun of me. You're proud of yourself, huh?"
"No, I'm proud of you."
"Why?" She looked at him, and he wished he could have taken a picture of her expression. She was glaring at him and he found it to be completely adorable.
"You said my full name in one breath. That's an accomplishment."
"Don't talk or you're never going there again. I've never been that loud before. It's embarrassing, Hunter."
He grabbed her from behind, wanting to make her feel less self conscious, but dropped it when she chuckled with her back against his chest.
"You were enjoying yourself. There is nothing wrong with that. I was loud as well. And besides, you wouldn't do that to me because it would mean you'd have to go without. As much as you love punishing me, you love me being inside you even more."
She didn't say anything, she just shrugged, and he knew he had her. He'd loved the space they were in. He could hold on to her all day if they didn't have people arriving soon.
"I may love it, one could even say it's the highlight of my day, but we will see how soon it is before you get close again."
"Is that a challenge?"
"No. We're just going to go without for the rest of this trip."
"You won't last."
"You're on."
She slid off the bed and slipped into the shirt she'd tossed off when they fell into bed. She was dressed quickly while he just watched her. Her head tilted as she noticed him staring at her.
"What?"
"You said we're not having sex, you didn't say I couldn't look at you."
"You're making it hard on yourself."
"No, that's your job."
"Will you get dressed?"
"Sure." He stood behind her, making sure to brush his present erection against her back as he pulled at his scattered clothes. She inhaled sharply. Seducing her would be easier than he thought.
He maneuvered into his clothes, teasing her along the way. He'd slip his hands to grab her hips as he moved around her, placed quick chaste kisses along the back of her neck when their skin made contact, and finally he twirled her around, trapping her between him and the dresser.
"Hunter." She breathed heavily, placing her hands on his chest.
"Charlotte." He just stared at her, wondering how he'd ended up with this perfect creature in his life.
"Are you going to let me go?"
"Not anytime soon."
She smiled, obviously realizing he didn't mean now. "I wouldn't let you do that." She pushed at his chest and he stepped aside, swinging their door open.
"So what do you have planned?" He wrapped his arms around her waist as they walked.
"How do you always know I have something planned? What if I wanted to just sit in front of a fire and hold you?"
"That would be nice, but you're known for ambushing me with these grand gestures."
He'd wanted her to feel like they weren't just some couple that only laid around and had sex in between work and events. She needed to know she meant the world to him.
"When you told me you'd never been on a date that really stung. I didn't know that, and we had been together for months. You deserved much more from me. I should have made you feel special long before we ever had sex. I hadn't earned it yet, and I just jumped the gun."
"Why?"
"I was jealous. I thought it wouldn't matter—that I could just be your friend, but that was a lie. I couldn't stand by and let another man lay claim to you. I needed it to only be me, but I didn't take into account how it must have made you feel. You've had guys do things without asking, and I didn't give you a choice when I came into your shower. I don't know if that's what you were expecting, but I needed you that day. I couldn't wait. I felt like I'd waited forever and seeing you standing there—God, you looked so good, so perfect. I'd dreamed about a moment like that."
"You dreamed of me naked?"
"Yes—I mean—not like that. I just wanted you so much, and after kissing you and feeling you that night you're all I dreamed about."
"Really? That one mini make out session gave you that many memories and feelings?"
"I told you, I loved you before, but that was the night I fell in love with you. So seeing you calling out to me, I couldn't stop myself. I just want to fix it now. It wasn't right."
"What are you talking about? It was right, it was perfect. I dreamed of you too, I could hardly breathe. My heart was racing. I expected what happened, well I didn't know it would feel so amazing. I invited you in, and with that there were certain expectations that you met. Besides, taking me places and spending your money on me doesn't make me feel special. You inviting my parents on a trip because you knew I missed them was special. The way you hold me at night even when we're too tired for anything but sleep makes me feel special. The way you look at me makes me feel like I'm all you think about. I appreciate everything you do, but you don't have to swoop in and try to fix all the bad experiences I've had. That could grow to be exhausting."
"I don't mind. I'd do anything for you."
She turned in his arms, locking hers around his neck. "The sex freeze out is over."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that." She nodded. She laid her palm against his cheek, and he swallowed hard. The look in her eyes made him weak.
"Can I take you somewhere?"
"Isn't this somewhere?" She waved her hand around the room.
"Yeah, but there is something I want to do with you."
"We just got dressed, Hunter."
"Not that kind of something." He smirked. "Just grab your coat."
She disappeared into their room and emerged bundled up in her coat and scarf. She was adorable. Her golden locks bounced as she neared him with his coat in hand. He'd forgotten his own coat.
"Thank you."
"I figured you'd need this." He reached for it and she shook her head, motioning for him to turn around. "I got it." She slipped his coat over his shoulders and kissed the side of his neck. He loved the sweet side of her.
"You think of everything."
"Only the things you don't think of first."
She kissed him and his world seemed to stop. She would never know the power she had over him. His hands slid to her hips and her arms crossed around his neck. He picked her up, dragging her hips closer and got lost in the wonderment that was their love.
He wanted to show her a special place—it was forgotten. Her lips were like heaven, her hands resting on his neck like furnaces set to burn him alive, her body pressed against his like a tight glove that was made to fit only him. He needed her again.
"It can wait," he whispered against her lips.
"No, show me." Her low and sultry voice threw him. He wanted her now more than ever. "Hunter." She nipped at his neck.
"Charlotte, you're making me crazy. How do you do that?"
"You do the same to me. I want you like all the time. It has to be illegal to want someone as much as I want you."
"We should do something about that, shouldn't we?"
He picked her up and she squealed. He loved the way she laughed—it was so pure and innocent. She was everything that was good in the world. He'd always nurture the person she was.
He stared at her in his arms and she ran her fingers over his stubbled cheek. "Sometimes when you look at me—"
"What?" He brushed his hand through her hair.
"Do you really think we could be—"
"What?"
She was nervous. He could feel her trembling. "Hunter, I'm so in love with you. It hurts when I'm not near you... I lost that once before. I don't ever want this feeling to disappear."
"I'm going to marry you one day."
She froze. Maybe it wasn't what she needed to hear, but it was how he felt. The words had just spilled out.
"Hunter." She had tears in her eyes, this was one of those moments that was make or break for them.
"I don't know much about love and nothing about marriage, but I know there is never going to be a day that I don't want you to be it for me. I need you like the air I breathe, and I feel like you need me just the same. You get scared when I talk about forever, but I get scared when I think about forever without you."
"I don't get scared because I don't love you, don't ever think that. And I'm not afraid to be with you forever. I'm just afraid of things changing. The last time I got serious and gave extra parts of myself to someone was when it went bad. Things were good before then. I don't think you would ever do that, but change makes me nervous."
"Things are going to change, but never in that way. The impulse to do anything but love you is foreign to me. I can't imagine what it would take to make anyone want to hurt someone like you. We're going to fall deeper, we're going to get so much closer, and we're going to be better than we ever were, but I am never going to hurt or disrespect you."
"I want that." She nodded and tears descended her cheeks. He hated seeing her cry, but this was different. The fragility she displayed let him know he was truly breaking her barriers.
"Let me give it to you."
"You give me so much."
"And I'm going to give you so much more."
She held him, her arms clasping around his neck. "I didn't think this feeling could ever be real for me."
"Baby, it's always been real."
Gazing into her eyes he knew it wasn't a question of if, but when. When would he give her the ring he'd had his mother send to him long before their breakup? When would he fly to North Carolina and nervously ask her parents for their blessing? When would he grab her beautiful hand and tell her she was the best thing that had ever happened to him and beg her to one day share his and their future children's last name? He'd known the very night they were finally together that he'd end up on one knee for her and that there would be no greater feeling for him than being with her.
"Hunter, I—we're going to be happy, right?"
"Aren't you happy now?"
"The happiest I've ever been."
"I only want to make it last forever." She nodded, hopefully really hearing him. He smoothed away a tear and made her look him in the eye. "Forever began for us a long time ago. We had no idea, but it's been building so long neither of us could stop it if we wanted to."
"I don't want to. I never want it to stop. I know I'm difficult—I know you're constantly having to overcompensate for my insecurities—and I get how exhausting that can be."
"Don't apologize. Don't ever do that. I wasn't there for you. I saw the bruises and I didn't ask. That night, I saw them and I let you go back there. I will never forgive myself for that."
"Babe." She laid her forehead against his. "Stop it. Stop feeling like it was your job to know the things I wouldn't share. I lied to everyone, including myself."
He had no idea it would hit him so hard, but looking at her, feelings of doom washed over him. Anything could have happened to her. He'd been a coward and left her to the mercy of one of the vilest people he'd ever encountered.
"He could have killed you. I should have asked—I should have made you tell me. I was so afraid of ruining the family I'd come to love by giving in to my feelings that I left you. If you had been able to trust me he wouldn't have been able to get to you that last time. I know he hurt you because of me. I just think about what you went through and I can't help but to want to make it all better. I know I can't make it go away, but I can try, can't I? Baby, just let me try."
He was shaking. The weight of what he'd felt, knowing she was probably crying out to him was crushing. He thought about the countless emails he'd ignored from her, the calls that had gone unanswered, and he couldn't breathe, all he could do was feel.
"He hurt you, and I didn't do a thing to stop it. When you fell asleep in my arms I looked at the bruises and I didn't wake you because I knew I was going to run. I wasn't running from you, I was running from how you made me feel, but I left you. I'm so sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt. I never want to hurt you. If I'm trying too hard it's because I don't ever want to lose you and I know I could have. I failed you then but I won't this time around."
"You didn't lose me. I'm here, and you didn't fail. He didn't break anything you didn't put back together, and I got out of there before he could."
"If he had it would have been my fault."
He zoned out, she was probably calling his name, but Chyna's words echoed in his brain. He broke down her bathroom door. The bastard she'd beaten with a baseball bat had taken something from both of them. He'd taken her security and his clear conscience. Maybe he hadn't dealt with his feelings either.
"Hunter." Once he'd calmed enough to breathe normally, he felt her hands on him and heard her calling his name. She was trying to do for him what he'd done for her on so many occasions.
"Just breathe." Her voice was soothing. She'd centered him, he was coming back to reality. "Look at me and take deep breaths."
He listened to the sound of her voice and nodded, she leaned him against the kitchen counter and he gripped her hand as she laid her head against his chest. She didn't say a word, she just stayed with him. She held him, and he allowed himself to be held. He'd needed this. He had been so focused on making her feel comfortable he'd ignored the enormous guilt he'd felt.
It took him a minute to gather enough courage to address her, but just as he was about to open his mouth she spoke.
"You have to take care of yourself too. I know you worry about me, but I worry about you too."
"I'm sorry if I freaked you out."
"You didn't. I've been waiting on you to let it go. I know why you keep doing all these things, and I don't need it."
"You deserve to be treated well."
"Hot dogs in the park would be fine to me as long as I was with you."
Her smile warmed his heart. He had needed this more than he'd known. Now he understood what she meant when she said it was the best feeling in the world to have his support.
"I really needed you just now."
"I know."
"You always know, don't you?"
"Just about as much as you do. You're always there for me, and I'm glad I was here for you." He had to learn that their bond would only grow if he allowed himself to be vulnerable with her. "So the place you wanted to take me, is it still an option?"
"Yeah." He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it before leading her to the door. The cold air smacked them in the face as soon as they were on the porch, as did a huge snowball. "What the hell?" He shook the snow off of his clothes and brushed it out of Charlotte's hair.
Scanning the yard he realized they'd miscalculated the arrival time of their friends. They were in the front participating in a huge snowball fight.
"Nice of you two to climb off of each other to join us," Ivory greeted as she prepared her next snowball for launch.
"You're going to pay for that," Charlotte warned. "And besides, we were taking a nap." It hadn't been a complete lie.
"Yeah because during naps we all scream out Hunter Hearst Helmsley." So they'd been there a while. Charlotte's cheeks flushed bright red. She never would have been so loud if she'd known they were there, or maybe she would have. He didn't really give her a choice when he'd started his deep rough strokes.
Ivory was ready to further her attack when a snowball plopped into the back of her head. "Are we here to talk or are we here to show what team kicks the most ass?" Lita had saved Charlotte and Hunter from further embarrassment, but the fight was on.
Hunter and Charlotte split up, running to opposing sides and stood facing each other, ready to attack. It wasn't what he had planned, but she seemed to be enjoying herself, and that was exactly why he'd invited the people he had.
Adam was beside him, lobbying an attack on Trish, Charlotte, and Ivory as Lita, Chyna and Christian battled it out. Billy was in the snow laughing with Jeff, and making fun of both sides. When a snowball was lunged at them, they quickly chose sides and joined the fight.
Charlotte was laughing, Hunter was able to creep up on her she was laughing so hard, and smacked her with a snowball, catching her off guard.
"Hunter!" She shook out her scarf and brushed the remaining snow from her shoulder. "That wasn't very nice."
"This is war, we don't play nice here."
"Okay, suit yourself." She shrugged, and as soon as she did a bucket of snow came crashing down over him, courtesy of Billy.
"Really, Billy?" Hunter joked. "You turned on me for them?" Charlotte, Ivory, and Trish had obviously been the culprits of this plan.
"Hell yes. Look at them. You're on your own if they ask."
"Nice to know where your loyalties lie." Hunter feigned hurt and shook his head.
"I don't know if you've looked at all of them, but I'm trying to get me a piece of at least one of them." Billy's tone had dropped a few octaves as he leaned into Hunter's side.
"Leave her friends alone. You're a dog."
"So Charlotte is off limits and now I can't even bang her hot friends? Hunter, seriously, where does she keep them? In her purse or her travel bag?"
"What?"
"Your balls."
"I leave them in his pants where I can reach out and grab them whenever I want," Charlotte interrupted. "They're pretty huge, much too big for my small purse." She threw her arms around Hunter's waist and Billy cleared his throat before walking away hurriedly.
"Really?" Hunter laughed.
"No one makes fun of my man."
"But did you really have to talk about size with my friend? Guys don't talk about things like that."
"Well obviously you don't because if you did he'd never accuse you of being small." Her smirk made him smile and before they knew it, they were covered in snow and knocked to the ground.
"Really, girls?" Charlotte poked her head up, looking at Trish and Ivory.
"Yes, really." Ivory could always be counted on for her explanation, even if no one wanted it. "You invited all these single people on a trip with your love sick selves. It's honestly making me catch hives."
Charlotte laid her head against Hunter's snow covered jacket. He held her as she laughed. Her lips snuck up to his and he gripped her hips as she moaned. "I love you, Hunter."
"I love you too." They'd become this amazingly public couple and he'd stopped fighting showing it off.
"That's it." Ivory started throwing more snowballs, and pretty soon it was Charlotte and Hunter against the entire yard, and hiding behind a car as they launched their attack she leaned into his side and whispered.
"You go right and I'll go left and meet me in the middle."
He grabbed her before she could leap out and gave her a quick kiss. "Show them no mercy."
"Do I ever?"
He laughed, shaking his head. "They're dead."
"We're going to make them regret ever trying us."
They both ran to their separate sides and the fight was on. She took a few hits, so did he, but they ended up in the middle, alternating between covering each other's backs. The fight became seemingly even when Trish and Chyna joined their side along with Billy, and for a while they had the upper hand.
Hunter had to admit, this was one of the best days they'd had with friends and at the end of it all he got his cuddling in front of the fire with her wedged between his legs. They all cooked dinner and shared a meal, and at the end of the night he drew a hot bath and relaxed with her against his chest.
"I loved today," she admitted as he ran a loofah over her shoulders.
"I did too. Maybe there is something to these group trips."
"It just makes you feel good to be surrounded by people who love you and only want what's best for you."
"I'm glad that you have that."
"You have it too."
"Maybe I do."
Once they were out of their long bath, he toweled her off and carried her to bed. She fell asleep almost instantly and he just sat awake. He wasn't bothered or burdened, actually quite the opposite. He'd accomplished getting her to relax, he'd gotten her understand that he was intent on spending his life with her, he'd finally given her the chance to be there for him like he'd always tried to be for her, and he'd finally forgiven himself.
Mickey would always be a reminder of the pain she'd suffered, but he refused to let him be an obstacle for them any longer. They were going to move on from that nightmare. It was going to remain in their rear view.
Finally settling into bed, taking her into his arms, Hunter was only able to relax for a minute before his phone rang. It was Ric. It was late into the night, so as he answered, he prepared himself for whatever news was shared, and just as he assumed, it wasn't good.
He looked at her after hanging up. He didn't know if he should wake her or let her enjoy her peaceful slumber before breaking her heart. When grief was beginning to overwhelm him, she rolled over and her eyes cracked open, taking the choice out of his hands.
"You're not asleep." She touched his face.
"Did I wake you?"
"I just felt you watching me." Their connection was so strong.
"I was watching you. You looked so peaceful."
"But you don't." She continued to run her fingers over his cheek. "What's wrong?"
He took her hand and held it tightly. "I want you to know that you're perfect. You're the best kind of person the world has to offer there will never be a more pure person. I don't know why these things happen—"
"Hunter." She slid up in bed. "Is it my dad? My mom? Who is it?"
"Your parents are fine. Your dad just called and Mickey's mom called him. He just died."
He saw the shock and horror wash over her. "I killed someone."
"You didn't—you didn't mean to do this. He'd tormented you, he threatened your life and mine—you were just protecting yourself."
"Someone is dead and it's my fault."
She was inconsolable. He'd tried to soothe her but failed. What could he say? How could he make this better? He just have to support her as best he could. She was going to need him to stay strong once this hit the media along with everything else.