Devastated (Anger Management, #1)(70)

“Uh-huh,” Hunter said, unable to help but smile as he watched her.

“Then there’s the other daughter. It seems that people were shocked to find out that she had a criminal record and that she had done some seriously fucked up things that her parents helped her get away with. Turns out, that while this was all going on that someone let it slip that she’d also been cheating on her husband. It seems that her husband wasn’t aware of her past. He also wasn’t aware that the Smiths had been spreading rumors about him, telling everyone that he was a mentally disturbed individual who was abusing his wife and cutting her off from her family. Looks like he’s suing her for a divorce and filed a restraining order against the Smiths.”

“I guess karma found a way to take care of the Smiths,” Hunter said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen.

“I guess it did,” Ryan said, sounding pleased as he joined him.

“Everything all set for tomorrow?” Hunter asked, as he opened the kitchen patio doors.

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“If you’re sure this is what you want to do,” Ryan said, as Hunter found himself watching Kylie, thinking about what his life was like without her and…

“I’m sure.”

---

She sucked at being a girl, Kylie finally had to admit to herself as she stood there trying to figure out what the difference was between a bath bomb and bath salts. Maybe she should stick with bubble bath, she thought as she shifted her attention to the glass bottle of bubble bath that was almost empty.

Perhaps mix them? she thought, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she debated between lemongrass and lavender. Definitely lemongrass, she decided as she selected the green bath bomb and tossed it in the bathtub and-

“Okay, that’s…that’s actually pretty cool,” she said, feeling her eyebrows arch in surprise as she watched the bath bomb roll around the water as hundreds of bubbles erupted around it.

Curious, she grabbed another bath bomb and tossed it in the water. That was followed with a handful of bath salts and a sigh of disappointment when the salts didn’t do anything. Deciding that was enough, for now, she turned the water off and quickly got undressed, put her hair up in a messy bun, tossed her clothes in the hamper before she climbed into the tub, and—

Groaned as the scented hot water seeped into every pore, relaxing her sore muscles, and had her quickly deciding that bath salts and bath bombs were definitely a necessity, one that she fully planned on buying from this point on. Definitely a necessity, she thought as she closed her eyes and couldn’t help but smile when she felt Hunter brush his lips against hers in a teasing kiss.

“I thought you were working?” Kylie asked, opening her eyes to find Hunter leaning over her.

“Did you miss me?” he asked, giving her one last kiss before he sat down on the edge of the tub.

“A little bit,” she said, watching as Hunter unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them halfway up his tanned forearms.

“Just a little bit?” he said, sounding distracted as he selected one of the bars of goat’s milk soap that she liked so much from the small basket that she kept by the tub.

“Maybe more than a little bit,” she admitted, watching as Hunter absently nodded as he dipped the bar of soap in the water and began working it between his hands.

“Sit up,” he said softly, gesturing for her to move forward as he placed the bar of soap down.

Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she pulled her knees against her chest and dropped her trembling hands beneath the water and clenched them into fists as she reluctantly moved forward. Releasing a shaky breath, she wrapped her arms around her legs and placed her chin on her knees.

Even after three months of working with Grey, there were still a few things that she couldn’t handle and the scars on her back were one of them. She hated the scars on her back, hated knowing that they were there, hated the reminder of what they did to her, and she hated that they’d made sure that she would never forget, but she hated the way she reacted when he saw her back even more. She didn’t want him to know that it bothered her so much or that-

“I’m in love with you, Kylie,” Hunter said, as he shifted so that he could run his soapy hands over her shoulders and down her back.

“W-what?” she asked, as her hands began to tremble for a completely different reason.

Nodding absently, he took his time running his hands down her back as he said, “I love you, Kylie.”

Closing her eyes, she released a shaky breath as she struggled to make sense out of what he was saying. He told her that he loved her only…

They were just words.

Three little words that always did more harm than good. Three little words that her parents told her when they went too far as they explained how it was her fault. The screams always followed when she couldn’t say those three little words back, reassuring her parents that she wouldn’t say anything until finally, they did what they always did to make sure that she didn’t say anything. They were the same three little words that David told her to make her believe that someone cared about her before they became the words that he threw back in her face whenever he wanted to hurt her.

They were just three little words…

They didn’t mean anything.

Until now.