Releasing the Hunter

Chapter 27

For the next two glorious hours, they made love. Ronan didn’t know he had that much stamina, but he figured it was because of Ivy. She pushed him to his limits in so many ways.

As the sun set, they lay on their sides in the bed under the covers, and he snuggled up against her back, spooning. He’d never been a fan of the spoon until now. He liked that he cradled her into his body, one hand pressed to her belly holding her tight, and could look down at her face while he played with her hair. He liked that he could see the twitch of her lips every so often when she thought of something amusing.

She was doing that now.

He ran a finger down her cheek. “What’s funny?”

“How ironic life is.”

“Yeah, who would’ve thought we would’ve ended up here together?” He tucked a stray hair behind her ear, and then pressed a light kiss to her head. “I thought for sure you would’ve tried to kill me more times than you already did.”

She chuckled. “I only tried once.”

“True.”

“I may have thought about it a few times, though.”

He laughed, and then tugged on the strand of hair he’d been wrapping around his finger over and over.

Sighing, she wriggled closer to him, her rear end brushing up against his groin. It didn’t take long for Ronan to become aroused. She was like that to him. A drug. Just the softest touch of her could pump him full of adrenaline.

He nibbled on her ear. “You better stop that, or we’ll be going for round three. Or is it four?”

“Four,” she murmured, then yawned. “Save it for later. I’m too tired.”

He chuckled. “I never thought I’d see the day when Ivy Strom was too tired for anything.”

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. It’s been a long week.” She closed her eyes, then grabbing his hand from her belly, she brought it up to her chin, tucking it there. “Give me about ten hours of sleep and I’ll be good to go. Wherever you want to go. We should go on a holiday. We’ve both earned it.”

“Sounds good,” he whispered against her ear.

“I hear the Caribbean is cool.”

“I like that.”

“You’ll be here when I wake up, right? We’re going back home, together.” She yawned again. “Besides, I need a place to stay. My safe house was destroyed. Your apartment is pretty big.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty big.”

“Good, then that solves that problem.”

Ronan had so many things to say, but he couldn’t find the words to say them. He was a coward, plain and simple. For all his bravado, Ivy scared him in so many ways. She was stronger than him, inside. She had the fortitude of a steel giant. And the loyalty of a platoon of soldiers. He lacked all of that. His shame made his gut roil.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him, a soft, sleepy smile on her beautiful face. “You’re my hero, Ronan. You keep saving me.”

His throat constricted but he managed to say, “It’s because I like you so much.”

Her eyes fluttered closed, then she mumbled sleepily, “Yeah, well, I think I may love...” Her words trailed off as she fell asleep.

“I’m in love with you, too, Ivy Strom.” He pressed his lips to her temple, drinking her in, savoring each second he had with her. He knew too well how everything could change in a blink of an eye. How it was going to change.

He watched her sleep for an hour, smelling her, touching her skin, her hair, anything he could without waking her. Then, as carefully as he could, pulling his arm out from under her head, he rolled over onto his back and started planning.

The bright light streaming in through the dingy window stabbed Ivy in the eyes as she blinked them open. She closed them again. Shutting the light out and yawning, she rolled onto her back. She opened her eyes again and stretched, trying to work out all the kinks that had settled into her muscles. And there were a lot. From the past few days of fighting, and, well, from a hot session of awesome sex.

Thinking of sex, she turned her head to the side looking for Ronan. But he wasn’t there beside her. He must’ve gotten up to eat, most likely. The man did have a healthy appetite. Except when she put her hand against the mattress, the spot was cool, as were the sheets, as if he hadn’t been there for hours.

She sat up, swung her legs off the bed and stood. She searched the floor for her clothes. She found her pants and T-shirt and her ruined panties. Once she was dressed, she shoved the panties into her pocket to toss in the trash later. Opening the door, she padded out into the corridor toward the kitchen. She heard male voices.

But neither voice belonged to Ronan. Just Quinn and another guy, Pete, she thought, sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee, by the delectable smell.

Quinn smiled when he saw her. “Good morning. Well, afternoon.” He got up and went to the stove. “Need some coffee?” He poured it into a cup and handed it to her.

She took it absentmindedly. “Where’s Ronan?”

Quinn shrugged. “Thought he was still sleeping with you.”

“No, he must’ve gotten up early.”

Pete looked at her over the rim of his coffee. “I’ve been up for hours and I haven’t seen him.”

“Okay, thanks.” She took her coffee with her as she went back to the little room where they had stowed their stuff. With one hand trembling, she opened the door. Her stomach was churning and she licked her lips to keep from getting sick.

Her duffel bag was on the floor just where she’d put it, closed and looking untouched. But Ronan’s gear was gone. Instead, on the floor was a white envelope with her name scrawled across it.

She bent over and picked it up. She turned it over in her fingers, afraid to open it. Afraid of what was inside. No matter what words he put there, it wouldn’t fix the withering agony inside her. It was quickly filling her to the brim.

With the envelope pinched between her trembling fingers, she shuffled back into the kitchen.

Quinn frowned at her. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s gone.”

Her brother didn’t say anything for a minute, just looked at her. “Maybe he had something to take care of. Did you read the letter?”

She shook her head, then put a hand up to her chest where her heart pounded so hard it felt like it was going to burst out from between her ribs and fall to the floor, ripped up and torn into shreds.

Then Quinn’s frown deepened and he pushed to his feet. “Ivy? Where’s your necklace?”

She looked down and ran a hand over her shirt, the pain in both her gut and her heart doubling. The necklace she never took off. The one she’d been wearing to bed. It was gone. Ronan had taken the key.