Play Me

She growled at me.

I faced Roy. “Here’s hoping Ms. Pratt has two rooms on two different floors.”

“You best sleep with one eye open. She looks like she’s ready to bury you in a field.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I grinned. She indeed looked to be plotting my death.

“We’ll see you tomorrow,” I said with a wave.

With my duffel bag in hand, we headed down the street to find Ms. Pratt’s. Once we found it, Kendall paused outside and stared at it. The hotel was an old white rustic house that had seen better days. It actually reminded me of something out of a horror movie.

“This is the nicest hotel in town? I feel like I’m looking at something from a Stephen King movie.”

I was glad I wasn’t the only one who’d thought that. I shrugged. “It’s charming.”

“Charming? Really, Hunter?”

“Come on. I’m hungry and tired. Let’s check in and then go find something to eat.”

We stepped into the foyer turned front desk area. Kendall rang the bell, and a black cat jumped up and greeted us. I reached out to pet it while Kendall jumped back and gave a little yelp, clearly at the end of her rope.

“Welcome! How can I help y’all?” an older woman with white hair asked as she picked up the cat and set it on the floor.

Kendall cleared her throat and said, “We need two rooms, please. Preferably very far from one another.”

I grinned when the old woman looked at me and then back to Kendall. “Well, I only have one room available. It’s the honeymoon room.”

Turning to face me, Kendall said, “We’re going to have to find another place to stay.”

“Oh, you won’t be finding any rooms tonight. It’s our annual Kentucky Bourbon festival. There aren’t no rooms left in town. The only reason I’ve got the honeymoon room is because Bobby Joe and his ex-fiancée, Petra, decided to call off the wedding on account of Bobby Joe cheated on Petra with her best friend Clarice.

Kendall stared at the woman and then laughed. “You’re kidding. Right? I feel like I’m being pranked. Or this is a bad dream. The entire day is just a nightmare. Maybe I’ll wake up any minute in my bed, safe and sound.”

“No, everyone in town was talkin’ ’bout it.”

With a sigh, Kendall replied, “No, I mean about the rooms. Please tell me there is something else available. Anything.”

“I’m the only one in town with a room. There was a young couple who called earlier—said they couldn’t find a room in Nashville and were looking for something.”

“We’ll take it!” I said a little too quickly. The older woman jumped. Then she smiled. “You kids been together long?”

“Feels like forever,” I replied, pushing Kendall back. “How is cash?”

“The best kind of payment!” she replied as she pushed the guest register toward me and handed Kendall the key.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had to fill one of these out.” I said with a chuckle.

“Sheriff wants us to keep one.”

“The… the sheriff? Why?” Kendall asked.

The older woman winked. “Something about the ghosts here.”

“I’ll sleep on a bench in the park,” Kendall stated, turning to walk out the door.

I reached for her hand and pulled her back to me. “How do we get to our room?”

“Oh, it’s on the top floor. It was the attic, but my late husband converted it to the honeymoon room. Course, he died in the middle of the renovation.”

Kendall whimpered.

“Right, well thank you, miss...?”

“Pratt! I’m Ms. Pratt! By the way, I hope you kids ate. Everything closed down early tonight to prepare for the festival tomorrow.”

With that, I was pretty sure Kendall started to cry.

With another smile, I waved our thanks and dragged Kendall up the three flights of stairs. Once we were in the room and the door shut, Kendall shoved me.

“What the fuck was that for?”

“Everything! Withholding information on Mac White. Breaking my car. Making me stay in a haunted hotel, starving me to death, and driving me up the wall with that damn cologne of yours! I am completely out of sorts. Nothing has gone right, and it’s all your fault. All of it. I just… I cannot believe the things I’ve done or said today.”

Clenching my fists, I counted to ten.

“You are lucky I don’t push you against the goddamned wall and kiss you until you lose your breath. Then maybe I’d get some peace and quiet.”

Kendall folded her arms over her chest and flashed me that smirk of hers. “Is that meant to be a threat? Because it had the opposite effect.”

“What?”

She dropped her hands to her sides. “Nothing. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

I exhaled a heavy breath and sat on the edge of the bed. Glancing around, I saw we had our own bathroom. Thank fuck for that. Reaching behind my head, I grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled it over my head.

“Whoa! Hold on there. I think you’re getting the wrong idea.”

I glanced back over my shoulder. “I’m taking a hot shower and changing into something to wear for bed.”

“What am I supposed to wear?”

I shrugged. “You’re the one who didn’t pack an emergency bag.”

As I walked to the bathroom, a pillow hit me in the back of the head.

“Jerk!”

I spent a good fifteen minutes in the shower. My goal was to use up all the hot water, forcing Kendall to take a cold shower, but it appeared Ms. Pratt had a large water heater. A loud knock on the door interrupted my quiet time.

“Hunter! I think I hear something scratching on the wall!”

“It’s me… trying to get out of here and away from you.”

“Ha-ha. My death will be on your conscience, and I will haunt you forever if a ghost gets me.”

I shut off the water and wrapped a towel around my waist before making my way back into the room. I stopped at the sight before me. My heart dropped to my stomach and my knees felt weak.

God help me. Please, please, please. Give me strength.

Kendall was sitting on the bed in one of my T-shirts, her hair up in a ponytail and a half-eaten protein bar sticking out of her mouth. She was the most adorable creature I had ever laid eyes on. She glanced up at me and caught me staring at her.

“You’re lucky I didn’t eat them both. I saved you one.” Kendall stood, and I had to grab onto the doorframe as she rounded the bed and bent over, pulling the other protein bar from the bag and giving me a shot of her black lace thong panties, which were so tiny they could be classified as dental floss.

“If you were a gentleman, you’d let me have both.”

I couldn’t move. I was frozen in place as I let my eyes sweep over her body.

Our eyes met. It was Kendall’s turn to look me over. “Why… why are you only wearing a towel?”

Swallowing hard, I shook my head. Why in hell can I not form words? Oh, that was because the woman I had been dreaming about for the last three weeks was standing before me dressed in nothing but my T-shirt.

Kendall took a step back. Can she feel the energy between us?

“Maybe… we should probably… are there more towels? I need to… shower.”

I had never moved so fast in my entire life. My mouth crashed against Kendall’s as I backed her up against the wall. She moaned and wrapped her arms around my neck while I grabbed her ass and picked her up, forcing her to wrap her legs around me.

“Hunter,” she whispered as she drew her head back.

“For once, Kendall, shut the fuck up.”

I pushed her against the wall, and instantly, my mouth was back on hers. I explored her body with one hand, pushing it under my T-shirt, and I nearly lost my load on the spot when I felt her bare breasts. She didn’t have a bra on.

“Jesus, Kendall. You’re not wearing a bra.”

Her breath was quick and fast.

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I lifted the shirt, took her nipple, and sucked on it.

“Don’t stop!” she whimpered.

“Tell me what you want, Kendall.”

“Want?” she gasped.

“Yes.”

“I… I can’t think straight. My mind. Your smell is making my brain fuzzy. What do you want?”

With a grin, I pulled back to look into her blue eyes. I wanted to take things slow, but I knew I couldn’t. This woman had been driving me mad for weeks. I wanted her like I had never wanted another woman. I needed her. Needed to feel her coming on my cock, over and over again. “I want to bury my face between your legs and finally taste you.”

“Finally?” she gasped.

“It’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last three weeks. Then I want to fuck you until you can’t move. I want you to feel me every time you move for the next week and know I was the one between your legs, making you scream out my name with each orgasm I gave you.”

Her eyes widened.

“How many are we talking?”

With a wink, I replied, “A lot.”

Her fingers laced in my hair, pulling my mouth back to hers. “Now. I want you now, Hunter.”