Dreadnought (Nemesis #1)(87)

I nodded and moved toward the bedroom. Stopping in front of it, I tried to juggle Adair onto my hip—he was getting far too big—as I tried to free a hand to open the door.

After a few moments of struggling, I heard a loud huff before Hunter stepped into my space. I turned in surprise, the door coming up against my back, and looked up, finding him staring back at me. His green eyes glowed in the dim lighting of the morning.

I opened my mouth then shut it again when every word I knew flew from my mind. Instead, my eyes took charge of the opportunity to get a good look at him.

His dark features were harsh, yet his lips were soft and tempting. His skin was tanned from working out in the sun for too long, with darker marks around his neck where his biking leathers hadn’t protected him while out on his ride.

I could see the faint markings of a tattoo peeking out through the thinness of the black shirt that clung to his skin. His dark jeans hung low on his waist, and when he moved his arms to close me in, I could see a dark trail of hair beneath his navel, dipping down into the waistband of his jeans.

I forced my eyes back up where Hunter met mine.

His eyebrow was raised and a smirk played on his lips, amusement on every aspect of his dark features.

I held back a gasp as an embarrassed pink blush burned across my cheeks.

Way to go, Mallory! You’ve been busted drooling over the guy with the bad attitude.

Anger followed my shame as I scowled at him.

“Excuse me, but you’re taking up my oxygen, and I kinda need it.” I shifted Adair on my hip.

Hunter’s smirk flattened into a thin line, his eyes narrowing. I thought he was going to get mad, but instead, he gave a jerk of his chin.

“Your door,” he said before stepping away.

I took in a deep breath and looked over my shoulder at the now open door.

He had only been opening the door for me.

My heart did that annoying little deflate thing, and I pumped it full of annoyance. Just opening my door, yeah, right. He could have told me that was what he had been doing, and not make it seem like he wanted to wet my panties. Not that my panties were wet. Nope. For Mr. Annoying, they would stay as dry as the western desert.

There had to be some hot guy god I could write a letter of complaint to. Tell him he had sent out a dodgy batch of men and that someone should fix that. Make him übernice and polite.

Hunter polite. That made me laugh.

As I slipped through the doorway, I saw my luggage at the bottom of a queen-sized bed and a smaller double bed against a wall. A funny feeling churned in my stomach.

Because of all the moving around and cost of living these days, we had always moved into homes with a single bedroom with a double bed. Adair had slept by my side ever since he had grown out of his crib. I knew he should have been sleeping in his own bed by now, but the thought made me lonely.

I could deal with that later. Right now, I was exhausted, having had no sleep for over twenty-four hours. My problems could wait until I had some semblance of rest.

I pulled back the covers on the right side of the queen bed and tucked him in. He was still in his clothes from yesterday, but I couldn’t bring myself to wake him up to change him.

I tucked the sheet in all around him, despite the room being a mild temperature, and Adair barely noticed the difference. The fact that he had practically slept like the dead all his life was one of my favorite things about him.

I opened my suitcase, dug through my clothes, and pulled out a pair of cotton pajamas before slipping into the bathroom. It was huge and stark white, with streaks of lime green. It had a self-clean toilet and jet-spray tub. In the corner wall, there was a shower with a long, floor-to-ceiling mirror that made me both stare in awe and gasp at my appearance.

As far as first impressions had gone, Hunter had seen me at my worst. Scraggly red hair all over the place, and brown eyes worn and slightly bloodshot. My jeans had seen better days with a few holes here and there, enough to pass them off as ripped jeans. As for my white shirt, it was covered in drool, stains, and a small yellowish mark on the hem that had me wondering if it was oatmeal or snot. Maybe both.

I sighed before stripping, showering, and thanking the world for great water pressure and shampoo before I stepped out and wrapped myself in one of the softest, fluffiest towels. Talk about luxury.

I used one of the two toothbrushes in the pot on the edge of the sink and cleaned my teeth, something I hadn’t had the chance to do before Hunter had come storming into my house. Considering one was a green dinosaur toothbrush, I figured Hunter must have had his friends collect some things for us after his spontaneous decision to move us in with him. I saw the second he had decided it, though I wasn’t sure how he had spent so long tracking me, only to figure out living arrangements then.

It was probably kidnapper number two, who I had seen dropping off the truck for Hunter. He had nice hair.

I yawned, figuring that debating the niceness of my kidnapper’s hair wasn’t the best solution to my exhaustion. So, I went for the cliché option of going to bed, not caring that it was ten a.m. I didn’t want to wake up for a long time. Though, I wouldn’t mind waking up in Denver and realizing this had all been a bad dream. I would rather wake up back on that fateful night next to Noble, kiss his head, and never tell him about Adair. Maybe then he would never have left the world hating me.

With that thought lingering in the back of my mind, I snuggled into the queen-sized bed next to Adair and wrapped him up in my arms, giving him a kiss then turning away before he could kick me in the stomach like always.