The Boy on the Bridge

My stomach hollows out, hearing him reference what happened that night. It’s not something I’m hung up on or anything I hold against him, but I don’t like him bringing it up.

He goes on. “I hadn’t accounted for him. I thought I had everything under control, I thought if all of my attempts to get close to you again failed, I’d just come clean. I’d use the escape hatch I left for myself and I’d bail us out. But then I did start making progress with you. I did feel like I might be able to get you back, to get us back on track, so I didn’t use it. And I understand that now… that escape hatch has become more of a trap door. We got on stable ground, but we’ve built some of it around a lie. And not only that, I’ve… I’ve let you suffer when you didn’t have to just to satisfy my own fucking curiosity. I almost told you the truth a few times, but at a certain point I felt like I’d gone too far to turn back. I was afraid if I came clean, I might actually lose you over it. I’m still afraid of that.”

He looks down, shaking his head. I can tell he feels bad for what he did. All of what he did.

“You manipulated the fuck out of me,” I say.

He raises his turbulent gaze to mine. His brown eyes glint with remorse I know is real and he nods. “I know.”

I stare at him for a long moment. He doesn’t look back up.

I reach over and push my fingers through his hair.

That gets his attention.

He looks up, almost startled by my tenderness.

I smile softly, then I let go of his hair and climb onto his lap.

“Whoa,” he says, looking up at me, still a little lost.

My smile widens into a grin. I lock my arms around his neck and gaze into his eyes. “You wonderful, wonderful man.”

“What?”

I don’t answer him. I crush my lips to his, moving on top of him and pushing him back on the bridge. I pull up my dress, reaching under it to shove my panties down.

I am going to fuck him right here, right now, and if he gets a splinter, I’m not even sorry.

With all the shifting around I have to do to get my panties off and my body properly situated on top of his, I knock something out of his pocket.

Hunter looks down, his eyebrows rising slightly, but he doesn’t grab for it urgently, so I don’t think much of it until my gaze hits it.

My stomach drops.

It’s a fancy-looking jewelry box, midnight blue with HW engraved on the lid.

“Is that…?”

Smiling faintly, he says, “Good job. You wrecked my proposal.”

I gasp, my gaze jumping back to his. “You’re proposing to me?”

“I mean, I was going to.”

“Yes!” I grin, lying on top of him and throwing my arms around his neck.

Hunter grins up at me, settling an arm around my waist. “You didn’t even see the ring yet.”

“I don’t need to see the ring. I’ve seen the groom. You could propose with yarn and I’d say yes.”

Hunter shakes his head, looking at me with a mix of awe and pleasure on his gorgeous face. “I’ve gotta say, this is going a lot better than I expected it to.”

“You didn’t sleep with Valerie Johnson,” I state. “Do you know how happy that makes me? A million rings couldn’t make me as happy as that.”

To say he looks relieved would be a massive understatement.

And I get it. He did manipulate me.

But I’ve always known Hunter was a touch manipulative. It’s not news to me. Honestly, hearing him explain it the way he did, I’m not even entirely shocked that he took advantage of a unique opportunity to squelch one of his own fears about the durability of our relationship.

I understand wanting to know we could get through anything. I didn’t need that myself; I had enough faith in us without needing cold, hard proof, but… well, Hunter and I are different people. Complementary people. Two halves of a perfect whole.

Threading my fingers through his hair, I look down at him lovingly as he lies on the bridge and looks up at me. “Just so we’re clear, you can never do this to me again.”

“No,” he agrees. “No reason to. I got the answers I needed.”

“Is it weird that knowing you did this… kinda turns me on?”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Does it?”

I nod, letting go of his hair so I can unbutton the top button of his shirt. “It’s kinda brilliant, in a diabolic sort of way.” I move to the next button. “Kinda hot.” I’m straddling him, so I have to shift my hips to get to the button underneath me. “I could only be more impressed if you had a back-up plan to keep me captured even if I would’ve been pissed off instead of relieved that you lied to me.”