Exposed - Part Two (The Exposed Series, #2) Read online

  "We're not friends." I blurt out before wincing at my own choice of words.

  "Technically we're..."

  "Nothing." I move to stand between them. "We are nothing."

  "Stop being so rude, Sadie." My mother's hand hovers just above my shoulder as if she wants to give the impression she's touching me. She never touches me.

  "I'm not being rude." I stare at Hunter with my back still turned to her. "I didn't invite him."

  "I brought the gift Sadie picked up for you." He dangles the gift bag from Whispers of Grace in front of her.

  She snatches it greedily from his grasp. "How thoughtful of you to bring me a gift."

  "It's from your daughter, not me." He corrects her in an even tone but she's ignorant of anything but the prize that awaits her inside the bag.

  "These are spectacular." She turns the box into the light so the sapphire earrings sparkle. "How did you know sapphires are my favorite gem?"

  "I didn't." I can hear the exasperation in his voice. "Sadie got these for you."

  "I'm going to put them on right now. Don't you move an inch." She pats him on the chest and trots off towards the staircase.

  "Why are you here?" I ask as I lift my eyes to his face.

  "You forgot the gift at the restaurant." He reaches in his suit jacket and pulls out my credit card. "You forgot this too."

  I snatch it swiftly from his grasp. "You can leave now." I seethe. I don't want him here. I don't want to be near him. I can't be.

  "I just got here." He expertly scoops a wine glass from a tray being carried by a waiter. "We have a lot to talk about."

  "We don't." I sigh. "You lied when we met. You lied in the restaurant the other day. Hell, you even lied about being in San Francisco. Is Hunter Reynolds even your real name?"

  He chokes on the mouthful of wine he's just taken. I stand in silence watching his body heave with heavy coughs. I stand stoic hoping he'll believe my unemotional reaction is real.

  "You need to let me explain." His voice is a tender whisper. I can tell he's still trying to catch his breath. "I..."

  "Why?" I cut him off. "So you can lie to me again and again."

  "I'm not going to lie to you." He moves closer and I catch the hint of his cologne.

  I take a step back. He's like a drug. I can't be anywhere near him. I don't trust my resolve even after everything that's happened. "If I want answers, I'll find Coral's family myself."

  "No." His gaze darkens slightly. "I'll answer your questions."

  "I don't trust you." I snap. "See yourself out."

  I tense as I feel him grab my elbow. "I'm not leaving until we talk."

  "Hunter." My mother is back and in full display mode. "Come. Let's toast my birthday."

  His eyes search mine for an escape route but I just smirk as I tug my arm from his grasp and slip into the crowd.

  Chapter 4

  "They're going to cut the cake soon. Don't you want to come back down?" Alexa runs her hand softly over my forehead. "You're not fevered. Are you sure you're not just hiding from the hag." She laughs and clenches her teeth.

  "She's in one of her moods." I roll over on my bed. I hate looking directly at her when I'm being dishonest. "She won't even notice I'm not there."

  I feel the bed shift under her weight as she sits. "I saw him, Sadie." She tenderly strokes the back of my hair. "I saw Hunter."

  "He was just dropping something off." I meter my tone so she won't suspect I'm breaking into a million pieces. "He's gone."

  "Sooner or later you have to tell me what went down between you two."

  "Later, okay?" I turn back slightly to look and her as I pull a weak grin across my lips. "Much later."

  "Okay." She leans down and softly kisses my forehead. "I'll go down and lead the masses in singing to the old witch."

  I can't help but laugh as she tosses me a wide smile when she leaves the room. Just as I settle my head into my pillow the unmistakable click of the door opening jars me. "What did you forget?"

  "Sadie." His voice startles me and I'm jerked to a sitting position.

  "Get out." I jump to my feet, tumbling forward as I do.

  He catches me before I hit the floor. "Slow down," he says gently. "I need to talk to you. I can't leave until I explain a few things."

  "You shouldn't be in my room." I feel lightheaded. He's here. He's in my room. A few days ago I'd imagined that exact scenario but he was sprawled out naked on my bed while I gave him the same pleasure he's given me. I shake my head to try and chase away the images.

  "Five minutes." He motions for me to sit on the bed. "Just five minutes."

  I need to tell him to go to hell but the pleading look on his face is tempting. It's only five minutes. Even though my better judgement is screaming at me to tell him to fuck off, my heart won't let me say the words. I just nod.

  "It wasn't all about Coral," he says softly. Hearing her name on his lips tears through me. She's no longer a fleeting teenage crush. She's a part of me now.

  "Most of it was." I know the words will bite him.

  "It might have started out that way." His voice cracks before he continues, "But none of what's happened between us is about her."

  "How can you say that?" I snap. "It's all been about her."

  He squats in front of the bed. His face is so close to mine now. I can see the moisture beading at the top of his lip. His lips are so elegantly shaped. They're so soft. I have to stop looking at him.

  "Coral was a part of my life when I was a teenager, Sadie." He rests both his hands on either side of me on the bed. "I'm twenty-six now. She's a very distant part of my past."

  "She's not." I shake my head for added effect. "You came here that night because of Coral."

  "I came here for you, not Coral," he whispers. "I wanted to see you."

  "It was a private fundraiser." I point out. "How did you even get invited?"

  He bows his head silently for a moment. I know he's searching for something to say. "I've known about your mother's charity since I first learned your name. I've been contributing anonymously for years now. I just called her administrative assistant and asked for an invite."

  "And he just took your word for it that you were the anonymous donor?" I had heard my mother speak about large contributions that were coming in without any names attached. That can't really be him, can it?

  "I gave him the numbers." He shrugs his shoulders.

  "So why now?" I give him the benefit of the doubt. I can check with Chris, my mother's assistant tomorrow to confirm Hunter's story. "Why suddenly come out of the woodwork now?"

  "I don't know." He exhales. "I guess part of me just wanted to see you in the flesh. I wanted to talk to you."

  "So why not tell me who you were?" I press. "Why not just tell me about Coral?"

  "I was scared," he says curtly before gazing down. "I was scared about how you'd react."

  I'm suddenly aware of how close he is to me. His left hand has been grazing the side of my thigh while he's talked. I haven't pulled away. I haven't tried to break free of the prison he's built around me with his body.

  "If I would have just told you I knew your donor, I was worried you'd want nothing to do with me." He's looking at me now.

  "So you just didn't mention it?" I bite my lip to push back the tears I know are approaching. "Her heart is inside of me." I pull my hand to my chest. "I'm alive because of her."

  "I couldn't tell you." He reaches to cup my cheek with his right hand. "You're so beautiful. I just wanted you so much."

  I pull back and his hand lingers in the air before falling to the bed. I can't read anything in his expression. I can't tell if he's being genuine or trying to seduce me with his charm again.

  "What about San Francisco?" I ask through clenched teeth. Maybe if I try a different approach, his unyielding resolve will crack.

  He scowls. "I can explain that. You jumped to the wrong conclusion."

  I ball my hands together into fists. He's pushing the
onus for this back onto me. How dare he? He said clearly he was going to San Francisco and then he was standing in the middle of a store in Manhattan. There is no mistaking the deceit in that. "Explain then."

  "I flew to San Francisco the morning after we were together." He traces his finger over the blanket. "Something urgent came up in New York and I went there to put out a fire. I was booked on a flight back to San Francisco the evening I saw you there."

  "What came up?" I ask coldly. I don't believe him for a second.

  "Just work stuff." He doesn't offer anything more.

  "Work stuff," I repeat. "That clarifies everything, doesn't it?" The facetious tone in my voice is more than noticeable. He recoils slightly at the words.

  "I wasn't doing anything sinister." I swear he's smirking at me.

  I pull my gaze from him to the clock sitting on my bedside table. "Your five minutes is up. You need to go."

  "I'm not leaving." He shifts both his hands slightly so they're barely touching my outer thighs.

  I try to pull myself up from the bed but I have no room. He's completely blocking me. "Move. I want you to go."

  "Do you remember when I made love to you, Sadie?" The question slides off his lips and buries itself within me instantly. My body reacts. It's betraying me.

  "I don't want to talk about that." I push against him again and his chest is so unyielding. It's too strong. It's too much.

  "I've never wanted a woman more than you." He's leaning closer now. I can feel his breath whispering across my cheek. "I think about you every second of every day."

  "Don't." I hang my head down. I can't look at him. I can't think about that night. In spite of everything, I've imagined feeling his hands on me again. I've imagined the depth of the pleasure when I came under his tongue and when I felt him filling me.

  "You can't deny you wanted me." His lips are grazing my neck. Why aren't I moving? Why haven't I pushed my way past him?

  I don't respond. If he knew how wet I was becoming from his very presence, he'd know that my body still longed for his. He'd know that I wanted to push down all my doubts and just let him take me right here.

  "You still want me." He traces his lips down my neck and I shudder under the touch. "You want me to fuck you now."

  I do. Please. I want that. I want him to push me down. I want him to pull my dress from me. I want him to bury his face between my legs.

  "I want you to leave." I find the will to pull back from his lips. "I don't want you," I lie.

  "You don't want me to go anywhere." His hand is pulling on my ponytail. My hair tumbles over my shoulders. "You want me to make you come until you scream my name."

  "You lied to me," I mumble. "It was all a lie."

  "No." He brushes his lips over mine. "This was never a lie."

  I feel the weight of his kiss and I pull my hands instantly to his hair. I weave my fingers into it, pulling him harder into my mouth. His hands are on my back. The faint pull of the zipper at the back of my dress gives way to a burst of cool air as my skin is exposed. He's going to fuck me. Right here, now. He's going to make me come. I crave him. I'm so addicted to him.

  "Sunshine. I need to taste you," he breathes into my mouth as the dress slips from my shoulders. A chill courses through me and I shudder.

  He glides his tongue down my neck. I glance down and watch him trace a line with his kisses down my scar. My scar. The scar. Coral's heart.

  "No." I jump back. "No. Stop." I push on him so hard he falls backwards onto the floor.

  "Sadie. Please." He jumps to his feet. "Don't push me away. I need you."

  "I can't do this." I feel the bite of tears at the corner of my eyes. "I can't want you. Everything is a lie. Go."

  He moves to sit next to me and I bolt to my feet pulling my open dress to cover my chest. I point to the door of my bedroom as I cover my mouth quieting a sob.

  Chapter 5

  "Wait." Alexa grabs both my shoulders in her hands. "You're telling me that his girlfriend's heart is inside your body?"

  I nod. It's taken every ounce of strength I have to confess everything to Alexa. "Coral. It's Coral's heart."

  "So he tracked you down and then what?" The confused look on her face speaks volumes. "Decided to fuck you in memory of her? I don't get it."

  I wince at her words. It's brutally direct but it resonates through me. It's exactly the same thing I've thought about for days. "I have no idea why he did it."

  "You don't want to know?" She eases herself back onto the couch. "You didn't ask him why?"

  "He never gives me a straight answer." I pull on a thread that is hanging from the bottom of my sundress. "He just said he wanted to meet me and he was worried I'd react badly to him knowing my donor."

  "That kind of makes sense." She purses her lips together tightly. "It is a little freaky that he used to date a girl who had the same heart inside of her."

  I smile slightly at the irony of her words. It's true. It's more than a little freaky. "It's too bizarre. I just need to forget about him."

  I reach for the remote to turn on the television. I invited Alexa over for a movie and my sudden need to admit everything to her has sidelined that.

  "We're not forgetting anything." She jerks the remote from my hand. "You need to get more answers. We need them."

  "We?" I laugh. "We don't need any answers from him." I wave my hand in the space between us. "It's my heart now. I get to make the decisions about what we need to know."

  "You can't just drop this." Her tone is insistent and wearing on me.

  "I can and I am." I push back. I don't need Alexa to tell me what to do. I decided last night after I ushered Hunter out of my bed and my life that I wanted nothing to do with him anymore. Any lingering curiosity I've had about my heart donor had been satiated when I saw Coral's picture and learned how she died. I just wanted to refocus on what was important to me. School and work was all I really needed.

  "I know that look," she says it offhandedly. "You're turning back into boring Sadie."

  "Boring Sadie?" I arch a brow. "What does that mean?"

  "That means that you're going to pull back inside your shell again."

  "It's not like that," I scoff. "I'm just being realistic. I have responsibilities. I need to focus on those."

  "You have questions." She reaches to squeeze my hand. "Now is your chance to get answers. Go talk to him. Don't let him lie to you anymore."

  I stare at her face. I see the persistence in her eyes. She's right. I do have questions. I have loads of questions and Hunter Reynolds is going to answer them.

  ***

  "I would have picked you up," he says as he opens the door of his apartment.

  "I was fine." I step past him and hear the door close behind me. "I just took a taxi."

  He motions towards the couch. "I was glad you called." He smiles thinly.

  I don't reciprocate. I don't want to leave here without some solid answers. I'm tired of him pushing the truth aside. I want to know his true intentions. "I just need some clarification," I whisper dryly. "It's all been a lot for me to absorb."

  He nods. I expect him to sit down next to me but he doesn't. My eyes follow him as he moves towards a desk and pulls a large book from it. As he nears the couch I realize it's a leather bound photo album.

  "Hunter," I say his name not knowing what to say next. He must sense my trepidation. He has to know this is hard for me.

  "Let me talk." His tone is reassuring and gentle. "I've been an asshole. I've handled all of this in the worst possible way."

  I smile slightly at his words. He's right. He has been an asshole. He has been lying to me since we met.

  He sits down next to me. I don't move when I feel his thigh resting against mine. I vowed that I wouldn't get too close to him but I don't want to recoil and risk losing his vulnerability. I feel as though he's ready to finally confess to me what's really going on.

  He opens the photo album slowly and I'm greeted with the vibrant face of
a young redheaded girl. It's Coral. She can't be more than six or seven-years-old in the photograph.

  "Coral's mother gave me this after she died." His hands are trembling as he speaks. "I don't look at it anymore. I keep it close to remember her though."

  I watch in silence as he turns the page and my breath catches. There beneath the hazy page protector is the letter. The letter I'd written to my donor family so many years ago. I hesitantly reach for the album. "May I see?"

  He hands it to me and I rest it in my lap. I pull my head down to study the paper. The handwriting is so clean and perfect. I remember sitting at the desk in my room for hours working with tireless care to get it to look flawless. I must have rewritten it more than fifty times. I start to read the words and my emotions flood to the surface. I watch as a single tear falls onto the page. Before I can wipe it away, Hunter's large hand scoops it up.

  "Her mom gave me the letter." He pulls the album back so it's resting on his knees. "I cherish that letter."

  My gaze moves to his face. His eyes are moist too. It's the most exposed I've ever seen him. "I wrote it so long ago," I whisper.

  "I didn't know I'd feel what I feel for you." He snaps the book shut sharply. "It's not about Coral."

  I glare at the book. I want to see more. I want to know more about her. I need to know who she was. What her life was like.

  "It is about her." I sigh heavily. "You wouldn't have come to look for me if I didn't have her heart."

  "That part is true." He acknowledges with a quick nod. "Everything else is about you. What I feel now has nothing to do with Coral."

  "What do you feel?" I snap. "I need to know."

  "Like you're my destiny."

  Chapter 6

  They're the words that fairy tales are made of. I'm his destiny. He said it. I heard it leave his lips. I see it in his eyes.

  "I can't explain it." He reaches to cover my hand with his. "I've never felt like this before."

  "You did with Coral," I shoot back. I know that he must have loved her. If he didn't, he wouldn’t be cradling that book of memories so carefully in his lap.

  "Coral was great." His face brightens as he says her name. "We were kids though. It was a crush."