Devastated (Anger Management, #1)(36)

“My cookie,” she mumbled sadly, as she watched him finish off her precious cookie with a wink that had her eyes narrowing and had her deciding to go see if there was any of that expired beer left in the fridge.

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September

It took Hunter a minute to figure out what was going on and when he did…

He ended up grunting when the woman that he was quickly learning was bossy pushed him over. Once she’d finished pushing him out of the way, and God, she really was fucking bossy, he turned over to glare at the small woman taking over his bed.

“We lost electricity,” Kylie said, answering his unspoken question as she settled in next to him only to pause, reach over and-

“That’s my pillow,” he bit out with a glare that she had no chance in hell of seeing.

“Mine now,” Kylie said with a satisfied sigh as she curled up next to him and left him there, glaring down at her until he grumbled something that even he didn’t understand and found himself curling up behind her. When she shifted back with a pointed wiggle, he sighed heavily, making sure to sound put out as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

“Better?”

“Much better. Thank you,” she murmured, making him smile until she added, “But I’m still mad at you,” making him narrow his eyes as he stole his pillow back.

He should probably look into getting a generator, he thought as Kylie stole the pillow back and snuggled back against him. Once he had his arms back around her, he pressed a kiss against the back of her neck to let her know that she was safe. He closed his eyes and savored the feeling of having her in his arms only to feel his lips twitch when she wiggled, demanding that he hold her tighter.

Something that he was more than happy to do.





Chapter 20

October

“What…what did you say to him?” Kylie asked hollowly as she stood there, staring down at the phone in her hands.

“Nothing,” Hunter bit out angrily, as he slammed the desk drawer shut.

“I could hear him crying all the way upstairs,” Kylie said, shaking her head in disbelief as she glanced down at the phone that he’d thrown at the couch when she walked in and noted that it didn’t have a button for speakerphone, which kind of terrified her.

“He shouldn’t have fucking called this late,” Hunter snapped, opening another desk drawer only to slam it shut seconds later.

“Who was it?” Kylie asked, frowning as she placed the phone back on the charger.

“Wrong number.”

“I see,” she murmured absently, as she watched him slam another drawer shut. “Is there a reason why you’re in a bad mood?”

“I don’t need a reason,” Hunter said, leveling a glare on her.

“No, no, of course, you don’t,” she murmured absently, as she debated something only to sigh and turn right back around when he shoved the desk chair out of his way, slamming it into the wall, and making her realize that she’d put this off for long enough.

With that in mind, Kylie headed back upstairs to her bedroom. Once she reached her bedroom, she grabbed the comforter off her bed and checked the alarm clock by her bed to make sure that she still had time. After a slight hesitation, she walked over to the desk that Hunter got for her after he got sick of waking up to find office supplies stabbing him and grabbed her iPad.

She normally slept in his room whenever they lost power, she was having a rough night, or that time he’d convinced her to watch the first Saw movie. Sometimes when she was working late at night, he would join her and end up falling asleep next to her. A few times, she’d woken up in the middle of the night to find him sleeping next to her. She was guessing those were the nights when he struggled the most, making her wonder if tonight was one of those nights.

He’d been stuck in this house for eight months, counting down the days until this convention so that he could escape, and now that it was here…

“I can do this,” Kylie said with a firm nod, as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled. She could definitely do this, she told herself even as her nod quickly turned to a frantic shake of her head and her shoulders slumped in defeat, because she really didn’t think that she could do this. At least, not without panicking, which was something that she fully planned on embracing at the moment.

Maybe she was looking at this all wrong, she told herself as her grip tightened around the bundle in her arms, only to feel her shoulders slump in defeat. She should tell him that she couldn’t go, but Kylie really didn’t think that was an option. Well, it probably was, but…

She didn’t want Hunter to know.

Besides, it would be all be over in a week. Until then, she would just focus on doing her job by ensuring that everything ran smoothly as she did her best to ignore the fact that she was two days away from being stuck in a large room filled with thousands of people and-

“Fuck this!”

Sighing, she headed downstairs, wondering why he made her job so difficult. For the past two weeks, he’d been…cranky. Well, not with her, but with everyone else because he never took his temper out on her. No, with her, he simply glared, pouted, and muttered until she had enough and took pity on him. Kind of like tonight, she thought as she made her way downstairs and headed towards the kitchen, not really surprised when he followed her since he didn’t like to be alone when he was like this.