When Passion Flares (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Not even yours? Ronnie and Terrence were always going on about how “open” they were to different kinds of relationships. As far as Kerri could tell, it was a huge part of Terrence’s campaign. Sure, they would be horrified at first, but Kerri could see them spinning it as them being more open minded than her parents. It’s always politics. Meanwhile, the Mitchells would see them as perverts, and Kerri as guilty of high treason.

  “If we decided to continue…” Kerri snorted into her wineglass. “I like your realism. I don’t have time for bullshit either.”

  “You mean this isn’t a bunch of bullshit?” Hunter smiled, if only so Kerri would know he was teasing. “I don’t know, I mean, I like you a lot, but we’re sort of at a point right now where we need to decide if the bullshit is worth it.”

  “You’re basically asking me to make a decision about how I feel about you right now.”

  A chilly breeze blew by, making Kerri’s arms feel like ice cubes in the middle of a sunny, warm meadow. Put more pressure on me, why don’t you? “Unlike most couples, Kerri, we don’t get much time to explore those annoying things called feelings.”

  Kerri turned her nose up. “Well then. Tell me how you feel about me. I’m not going to do any more thinking about my so-called feelings until you tell me how you feeeeeeel.” She rubbed his shoulder and leaned against the strength of his torso. If she was going to put herself through this, she might as well flirt. Just in case it went down in flames… at least she’d have something good to remember.

  “I don’t want to make any damning statements right now,” Hunter began, his hand tightening at the bottom of Kerri’s spine, “but I’m quite fond of you.”

  “Enough to put up with my parents’ bullshit?”

  “I like to believe we’re…”

  “Old enough to deal with it. Yeah, yeah.” Easy for him to say. He could run away and nobody would care. If Kerri ran away, the media would analyze what had “tainted” her. Was it society? This man? Were her heart and mind so fickle that she was easily swayed by whatever way the wind blew? There was no escaping it. Kerri Mitchell, the girl who couldn’t make adult decisions without her parents’ approval. She envied women from other families who could run away and not be the gossip fodder for the cable news channels. Hell, this affair could even make international news!

  “It’s true,” Hunter continued. “I wish we could take our time. Get to know each other like we normally could. But as it is, we’re forced to meet like this and make snap decisions.”

  At least he said it. Kerri leaned against his shoulder and inhaled the scent of his light aftershave. Did he think of me when he put this on today? “Who says we can’t get to know each other? I have all day to sit here and talk with you.”

  “Oh, talking.” Hunter rolled his eyes. “’I guess we could do that. I mean, if that’s what you really want.”

  It was a good thing Kerri was used to his sarcasm by now. It’s a defense mechanism when you live a life like this. Brenda hated it when her daughter was sarcastic. She always called it unladylike, which only made Kerri want to be more sarcastic. “You have no idea what I really want right now.” Kerri batted her eyelashes for emphasis. Keep it in your pants for now. Hunter was getting bad at hiding his arousal around her. Not that Kerri minded. Watching his cock get hard in his pants had a certain thrill to it. Besides, Kerri never said that she was ready to go whenever, wherever. Like out in the open? Another breeze blew by, this one warmer than the last. It made Kerri unbutton the top of her dress and relax against the blanket with wine still in hand.

  While they drank and ate their fill from the picnic basket, they talked of many things. They talked of many things whenever they could spare the chance. But instead of discussing the inanities of politics or their families, they spent the better part of an hour talking about the best parts of growing up with their parents. Hunter enjoyed the freedom he had, compared to some of his friends who had politicians for fathers and mothers. “I could go to any concert I wanted,” he said, his eyes glazing over in the memories. “And I went to a lot when I was a teen. I really loved alternative rock for the longest time. I mean, I still do, but I haven’t been to a concert in forever.”

  “Neither have I. I’ve only been to a few.” Kerri mentioned that she was not allowed to go to many growing up. Her mother had to vet them to make sure they were “proper.” This meant no new rock bands, no hip-hop, and most of the scantily clad pop princes and princesses were out. Certainly no songs about sex, which were the ones Kerri loved. Little did she know what I was doing with my boyfriends. Kerri wrapped her hand around Hunter’s and smiled. Some things she would like to do with this boyfriend.

  It was good to lay and talk as if they really had all the time in the world. By the end of the wine and most of the food, Kerri was wrapped in Hunter’s arms while they admired the view of the meadow and spoke of their traveling aspirations. Hunter dreamed of backpacking in Central and South America with only the clothes on his back, the wallet in his pocket, and a good friend or some trusted guides to share in his experience.

  “My mother keeps trying to send me to Italy. It’s gotten worse since…” Kerri didn’t say it. She didn’t have to.

  “Italy is beautiful. I would love to go there again someday.”

  “Yes, but she wants to send me there to have a ‘whirlwind romance’ with some Italian stranger. I don’t think she knows what I’m already doing in that case.”

  “Parents are complicated, especially when they’re using you to boost their own image. I don’t think it matters what ‘side’ you’re on. We’re pawns to our parents.”

  Kerri dramatically flopped back onto the blanket with Hunter hovering over her. She put her hand to her forehead and fanned herself with the other. “If only I had listened!” she said with faux anguish in her voice. “If only I had gone to Italy to have a dangerous liaison with some hot stud on a moped! Instead I stayed right at home and was seduced out from under my mother’s nose! Oh!” Kerri clenched her chest and contorted her face, tongue hanging out like a dog’s. “I’m so sorry, Mother! I’ll never behave like that again!”

  Hunter laughed at her antics but did not pull away. “I would have your mother know that you are quite easily seduced. Going to Italy would be very dangerous for a girl like you.”

  Their hands clasped together between their bodies as Hunter rolled on top of his girlfriend. Kerri’s leg was instantly drawn up the back of his. So good to have you back between my thighs, love. “Tell me more about how easily I’m seduced. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in with me yet.”

  Hunter wasn’t one for words at that moment. He lowered his lips to Kerri’s and kissed her until she understood how easy it was to seduce her.

  The more they made love, the more Kerri became comfortable in his arms, in his eyes, and perhaps within his heart. She kissed the stubble on his chin before lowering her hands to his hips and squeezing whatever she could get her hands on. Look at us, acting like animals in the open like this. They were as isolated as they could be in the wild, but Kerri was still wary for any eyes that may have been watching them through the trees or from the bottom of the meadow. Especially when Hunter kissed her throat before pulling on the sleeves of her dress and exposing her breasts to the soft elements surrounding them. Kerri gasped as the breeze hardened her nipples before Hunter could put his lips on them. Never before had it felt so freeing to make love.

  He worshipped her form in the warm sunlight, letting his kisses trail down her bare midriff with her hands wrapped around the back of his head. Mother always told me that my body was a temple. She doubted that this was what Brenda meant. If Kerri’s body were a temple, then that made Hunter a pilgrim come to worship what he adored for so long. And he made good on what he promised his goddess. Whenever Kerri giggled or sucked in her breath, Hunter gently pinched her skin to get a rise out of her. Soon Kerri smacked his hands away and lifted him up to her face, where she could kiss his and fall b
eneath his weight.

  The day grew warmer the more they took off their clothing. Not all of it, of course, since that was impractical. And we can’t have that. Kerri was content to lose her top and feel her skirt hiked up her thighs, where Hunter’s hand touched her with the skill of an expert. In turn, he opened his shirt and dropped his zipper. Kerri didn’t care if he wasn’t as bare as she was. She could feel his sturdy chest beneath her hands, and she welcomed the first thrust between her legs.

  Although there was no rush like their last time in the closet, they were eager to make love. Passion flared between them as if nothing else mattered. It amazed Kerri how easy it was to fall to the whims of a single man whom she barely knew, or so it felt. In truth she knew him quite well by now… and not just carnally, either. That’s nice too. Kerri gasped in sweet surprise when Hunter touched her center, spurred on by the happy groans erupting from his girlfriend’s tender throat. Exposed to the wild world like this, Kerri felt her primal instincts well up inside – or maybe that was something else entirely.

  “Hunter…” She clung to him, legs wrapping around his hips as if he would run away from her. On the contrary, Hunter only cared about one thing at that moment: pleasuring her, which he did with his fingers inside her and his tongue against her nipple. Writhing against the blanket, Kerri opened her eyes to drink in the blue sky above and the shadows falling from the trees. Nothing had ever felt so natural. Well, nothing besides giving herself to this man who had gone out of his way to rescue her from the confines of her parents’ watch.

  Why did it feel so good? Why was it so effortless with him, this man who came from the other side of everything Kerri was supposed to hold herself to? If there is a God, He must have designed this. Or the stars were aligned right that first night. Star-crossed lovers. That’s what they were. Just like Romeo and Juliet. Kerri tried to think of anything but the tragedy of that play’s ending. It was easy to take her mind off such things when Hunter’s fingers slid into her and made her moan. “You are beautiful all over,” he whispered into her ear, his voice full of the tension escalating in that meadow. “I can’t imagine spending this day with anyone else.”

  Hunter gave into his desires after that. Good thing, for Kerri was about to start begging, and she could only spare so much energy to do so. When Hunter thrust into her, Kerri sighed as if it were a God given right to do so. This was passion. This was heaven, and it smiled upon them in the form of a cloudless sky.

  “Don’t stop,” Kerri muttered, her arms fast around her boyfriend’s torso as he pushed inside of her with his hips. She didn’t tell him the rest of what she was thinking. I don’t want this to end. The moment it did, she would have to go back to the life her parents tried to forge for her.

  But of course Hunter had to stop sometime. He was only human, after all. Yet he managed to hold himself back until Kerri lost herself to euphoria, that old, familiar friend whom she didn’t get to meet up with often enough. Her orgasm ignited another spark inside of her. Every time she did this with Hunter, she realized she was falling for him more. What a dangerous situation. No, what a lovely one.

  Kerri reveled in the sounds Hunter made when he climaxed. Out there in the open, he sounded like a fierce animal, the alpha male claiming what was his for that brief period of time. I can get used to that. To all of this. The warmth Kerri felt didn’t just come from the sunlight now.

  For another blessed hour they pretended that they had no other commitments and could spend the rest of eternity together. They cuddled, they spoke of everything they wanted in life, and they promised not to make decisions too rashly. But by the time they piled back into Hunter’s car and drove away, silence overcame them. We’re not going home together. There would be no movie night or dinner on the porch. Kerri looked out the window and watched the countryside slowly turn into residential dwellings.

  Hunter let her out at the end of her road and did not dawdle, lest he be seen. As he drove away down the road, Kerri clasped her hand over her chest and pretended that her heart was not being ripped from it like a piece of rancid meat.

  I don’t want to feel this way. She meandered up the road. I want to be happy. Kerri stopped and watched the sun disappear behind a forest of trees. Hunter should have been there with her, holding her hand as they strolled home to a manor made for them.

  The more Kerri fantasized about her future, the more she realized Hunter was a part of every vision. No man made her feel like that before. They were so compatible that… it didn’t seem so strange that they may one day build such a home together. Kerri smiled at the possibility before she remembered her parents. She may not need their permission to do what she wanted with her life, but she did want their blessing.

  Chapter 3

  The more the summer wore on, the more Hunter was recruited to help his father’s campaign.

  This always happened, and Hunter always found himself sitting at the phone calling voters to make sure they knew who to vote for that November. It’s not me. But he was expected to cold call people and ask “Hello, this is Hunter Hall, son of candidate Terrence Hall. Do you know about…?” Worst of all, he was supposed to sound like he actually cared that his father won. Things were only made worse when confused elderly people asked him multiple times if he was really who he said he was. The younger people simply hung up on him.

  “You’re doing great,” Paul said for the umpteenth time that day. He was wandering around the dining room in the Hall manor, asking this volunteer and that intern if they had made their limit for calls that day. Only four-hundred more to go. Or so it felt. Sometimes, Hunter worried that he would no longer know how to call his girlfriend. “Hello, this is Hunter Hall, son of candidate Terrence Hall. Have you decided who you’re going to sleep with today?”

  Hunter decided to call it quits well before he was supposed to. He told Paul that there were more pressing things to attend to, such as rehearsing his speech he was to give at some stately dinner in a few nights. All of those speeches ran together like those phone calls did. Hunter couldn’t wait for this election to be over. He wanted his free time back, and he wanted to be with Kerri without the weight of this nonsense on their shoulders.

  Of course, he assumed that anything would change. I’m not that naïve.

  Hunter did not go to work on his speech. Instead he went into the living room, where the usual campaigners watched the local news and debated among themselves about if there was any hope for the future. The rabble was so loud that nobody but Hunter heard the front doorbell ring.

  He didn’t think much of it. After all, people came and went so quickly in that house that it could be anyone.

  But that day it was a young girl, perhaps twelve, standing in front of the big manor door with the most frightened look on her face. This doesn’t look like a Girl Scout. For one, she had no wagon full of cookies, nor did she wear any sort of uniform. Instead she wore a pair of washed out jeans and a heavy red sweatshirt that looked too hot to wear in the middle of summer.

  “Can I help you?” Hunter asked. Since they were in the city, it was perfectly reasonable that this girl was lost. The way she scuffed her feet against the stoop and stuffed her hands in the front pocket of her sweatshirt did not help. “I’m afraid we’re a bit busy to be buying anything right now…”

  “I’m not selling anything.” There was a bite to her young voice that sounded oddly familiar. “I… I want to talk to Mr. Hall.”

  “Which one? There are a few of us here.” Sometimes Hunter’s uncles dropped by and they quipped that it was a “Hall Ball” in progress.

  “The Mr. Hall.” Now the girl furrowed her brows and nearly stamped her foot. I’ve seen that before. Somewhere, but Hunter couldn’t recall at the moment.

  “And who should I say is calling?” At least Hunter would entertain the girl for a while longer. “That’s very important.”

  Instead of inviting the girl to be more forward, however, Hunter caused her to step back and look s
heepishly at him. Suddenly those red cheeks weren’t in anger, but from embarrassment. Struck a nerve, did I? Wouldn’t be the first time. “Holly,” she muttered. “Please tell him Holly came to see him.”

  “Does he know someone named Holly?” Didn’t ring a bell to Hunter. Well, maybe he knew a Holly or two in the campaigning circles, but he doubted they had anything to do with this girl in particular.

  “If he says he doesn’t, then he’s lying!”

  More than one person on the street a ways away looked toward the Hall Manor, either in curiosity or for some other nefarious reason. “Fine, come in.” Hunter stepped out of the way – an action the girl was clearly not expecting as she gaped in awe at the front of the manor.

  Obviously Hunter could not feed her to the campaigning wolves. So he escorted the girl into his father’s office, the one place on the first floor off limits to the campaigning crews. Holly gingerly sat on a couch in front of Terrence’s desk and stared at the tapestries and other wall hangings. Her eyes lingered a long while on a family portrait from a year ago. When she looked at Hunter, it was with the knowledge of who he must be. “Are you Mr. Hall’s son?” she asked.

  “I am. You don’t recognize me from the commercials?”

  Holly shook her head of brown curls. She reminded Hunter of his cousin on his father’s side, who had a mess of brunette spirals that had won her a few beauty contests. “My mama doesn’t let me watch much TV. She says it’s bad for me.”

  “If it’s an election year, then she’s right.”

  “You don’t look like his son.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Holly pointed at Hunter’s nose. “You don’t have the same nose as him.”

  Hunter tapped his finger against his nose. “I get it from my mother. That happens.”

  “Oh.” Holly swung her legs back and forth. “Can you get him for me please?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Hunter shut Holly in the room and tried to recall where his father would be that day. After all that work, Terrence might as well give the girl a photo op. He likes that sort of publicity anyway. Hunter could see it in the papers and on the local news now. “Gubernatorial candidate Terrence Hall takes time out of his busy campaign to talk to a sixth grader who came by his house today. News at eleven!”