Pinkie Promise (Carter Ridge Book 1)

Hunter is sitting on the edge of the bed with his legs spread wide, elbows on his knees, chin on his fists, and he’s watching me intently as I work my hair into a half-up half-down ponytail, secured in place with my cheer ribbon.

When I start slowly combing my fingers through the fluffed up ends he scrapes a hand down his stubble and finally glances away from the mirror, his cheeks staining red and one of his hands moving to grip at the bulge in his jeans.

As soon as he realises that I’m now just messing with him because I love seeing him entranced when I do girly things, he grabs both of our bags and then borderline shoves me into a headlock, making me howl with giggles as he muscles his way out of the bedroom.

“How’d you learn to do all that stuff with your hair?” he grunts, and I peek up at him from under his bicep, shimmering with mischief as I see the grumpy aroused look on his face.

“You mean, how’d I learn to tie a ponytail?” I ask, unable to stop myself from grinning because only a guy as masculine as Hunter could be that clueless when it comes to girls.

“Yeah,” he says, genuinely serious.

I bury my face into the side of his chest, shaking with laughter as he lets out a frustrated huff, as if he thinks that I’m keeping inside information from him.

He’s so cute, I can barely cope.

“I thought you had a sister,” I remind him. “Surely you’ve seen her do her hair before.”

He pushes open the front door and lets me step out before he follows, turning around for a second so that he can lock up before we walk to the Uber.

“Wren’s fresh. She’s barely got hair.”

I can’t contain myself. I burst into a round of truly baffled laughter, so confused by Hunter’s country talk that I literally have no idea what he’s talking about. He shoots me a sullen scowl before opening the Uber door for me.

“Hunter, I swear, I’m not laughing at you,” I giggle, pawing at his abs as he heaves himself down onto the seat beside me. He jerks his chin at the driver, asking her to set off. “I just have no idea what any of that sentence means.”

He yanks my seatbelt over my belly before clicking in his own, and then he lays his arm heavily over my shoulders, dragging me into his side as he settles against the upholstery.

“I mean that she’s, like, fresh out the womb. She’s a baby. Her hair isn’t like this,” he says, glancing down at my head as he tangles his fingers up in my ponytail. “She just has those little baby curls right now – tiny ringlets, like the ones you’ve got around your forehead.”

He works his fingers through the lengths of my hair for another minute and then he settles his hand around the side of my neck, squeezing me gently.

“Do you wanna learn how to do it or something?” I ask him, feeling a little guilty about teasing him when he’s such a sweetie.

He stares out of the window for a moment, most likely trying to hide that red blush on his cheeks, but after a few beats he looks down at me and rasps, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

When we pull up at the Larch Peak U rink, where the bus is still parked up from yesterday’s journey, I see that a bunch of other larger Ubers are just driving off, presumably having brought the guys back from the motel, and Hunter’s teammates are all filtering towards the team transport bus.

I bite anxiously at the tip of my thumbnail, knowing that I should not be joining them on that coach.

I feel stupid knowing that I’m about to be an unwanted intruder.

“Hey.” Hunter squeezes me with his forearm and snaps me out of my internal tumult. He tips his chin at me and says quietly, “No stressing. I want you here, with me, and none of the guys are gonna have a problem with it.”

Hunter helps me out of the Uber and then he’s hauling me to the bus, our bags thrown over one of his large shoulders.

I’m snuggled securely under the other.

Tanner steps out of one of the Ubers and as soon as he sees Hunter a huge grin spreads across his face.

Hunter mumbles a resigned “ah Jesus” as Tanner swaggers his way over to us, his sharp eyes flicking keenly from Hunter’s face to mine.

“Nice face,” Tanner says, smirking at Hunter’s cut cheekbone and bruised eye.

I prevented myself from telling Hunter how hot he looks with his game injuries because I don’t want to encourage him to engage in more fights.

But truth be told, he looks crazy sexy right now.

Hunter smirks, brushing off the taunt.

“Busy night?” Tanner asks.

It takes me a moment to realise that he’s talking to me.

“Oh, um… you know…” I lift my eyes up to Hunter but he’s looking dead ahead, his tongue poking roughly in the side of his jaw. He flashes a look across to Tanner but Tanner just grins back at him.

“So what’d y’all do?” Tanner continues. “Polish the cap’s helmet?”

I try to work out what the hell that means while Hunter socks him in the gut.

When they finish their little brawl Hunter clutches me back under his bicep, exchanging a loaded glance with his roommate. I can tell that their fight is totally non-malicious but Hunter still jerks his chin at him and says quietly, “Watch your mouth.”

Tanner looks far too pleased with himself.

I narrow my eyes on him and make a mental note to Google locker-room language.

I step up onto the coach and Hunter braces his arms on either side of the frame. He gives me a subtle nudge with his chest as he says, “Go sit at the back, baby.”

I turn around to face him, my cheeks burning red when I realise that I’m the first person boarding.

“Hunter,” I hiss quietly, absolutely mortified by the fact that his whole team is stood behind him, watching me and waiting to get their seat on the coach.

“I need to have a word with the guys.”

“But–”

“Fallon.” He gives me a heated look, his deep hockey captain tone making something twist in my belly.

I nod my head, spellbound, and then I scamper to the back of the bus, hoping that his teammates really will be as cool with my being here as Hunter is saying that they are.

Knowing that the windows are tinted I peer out so that I can watch Hunter give some sort of pep-talk to his team. They all look pretty laidback about whatever he’s saying, nodding and occasionally glancing my way, as if they can sense me back here.

I pull away from the window and quickly settle in the corner at the far left, folding my knees up under my chin as I wait for Hunter to come join me.

Part of me wonders if I should be embarrassed by my feelings towards Hunter. I told him from the get-go that I didn’t like depending on people – that I needed to be strong, stable, and stand on my own two feet. But right now I love the sense of wholeness that being around Hunter gives me, a sensation that I’ve never felt before and now wouldn’t want to live without.

I wonder if it’s the same for him.

Hunter’s teammates begin filing onto the coach and in less than a minute Hunter is right beside me.

He drops down next to me and then he hauls me up onto his lap, kissing fervently at my cheeks as he wraps one of his arms around my upper body.

“You smell so good,” he murmurs quietly, his other palm squeezing my thighs.

I can’t help but notice that all of his teammates have left the rest of our row empty.

Hunter notices me looking at the three free seats to his left and he smirks indulgently.

“Captain’s orders,” he says simply, his voice gruff and satisfied.

“You’re gonna make all of your friends hate me,” I tell him, peeking over the headrest in front of us to make sure that no-one is literally sat in the aisle.

He snickers and says, “Fallon, are you kidding? The only thing that my teammates wanna do to you is have you for themselves.”

“Hence the hiding you just gave them out there?” I ask, hitching up an eyebrow and crossing my arms over my chest.

“They’re my friends, baby, I didn’t give them a hiding. I just, you know… gave them a warning.”

Can I be a feminist and find a guy’s possessiveness attractive at the same time?

I add that to my mental list of things to Google and then snuggle down into Hunter’s chest, deciding to stop pestering him about his protective streak when I’m secretly enamoured by it. Honestly, I wouldn’t want him to behave in any other way.

“Thank you for letting me stay in your future home last night,” I whisper up to him, smiling when he looks down at me, a sexy crease dimpling in the middle of his cheek.

“It’s never felt more like home than when I got you through the front door,” he replies, the hand on my thigh giving me another firm squeeze. “Besides, it’s gonna be our home as soon as you finish up at Carter U.”

I roll my eyes playfully although my heart feels like it’s about to burst.

“Do you know when you’re gonna hear back about your grant?” he asks, burying his face in my hair and groaning quietly after he takes a deep inhale.

“Just before summer break,” I admit, wincing inwardly. “I know it’s crazy far away and it means that I’ll have no time to give myself a Plan B if I don’t get the outcome that I want, hence why I took the job at that cute diner. You know, so that I won’t have to take out any loans that are too crazy, if needs be.”

Hunter chokes briefly and then rasps, “Uh, yeah. The diner.”

“Yeah,” I continue. “I mean, it’s just really good to be able to do something for myself, you know? Not owing anyone anything, standing on my own two feet. That kind of thing is really important to me.”

Hunter takes a long pull on his water bottle, his cheeks bright red. His eyes are looking at anywhere but mine.

“Uh…” I laugh nervously as he tosses the water bottle next to him and tugs a hand roughly through his hair. “Are you okay?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

He grunts and nods. “Just dehydrated, sorry.” He glances down at me and pulls me tighter against his chest. “You liked your pancakes?” he asks.

I nod up at him and he smiles, his chest swelling contentedly.

“Good,” he says. “Now tell me that you can stay over at the hockey house tonight.”

“Hunter,” I say, unable to stop myself from smiling.

Who knew that being so wanted would feel so good?

“Say it,” he whispers, tickling at my ribs to make me squeal and squirm. He grins against my neck and suddenly sinks his teeth into my skin.

Before I gasp and capture the attention of every man in this vehicle Hunter presses one of his palms over my mouth and then he bites down even harder.

My eyes practically roll into the back of my head. I shift on his lap and his arousal digs into the softest part of my thigh.

“Fallon,” he rasps, keeping his hand over my mouth. “I want to have you in my bed tonight, tomorrow, and every day after. Then I want you over the kitchen table and up against the shower wall. So I’m gonna need you to stay over, okay?”

My pupils have blacked out, showing Hunter exactly how much I want that too, but I shake my head anyway, determined to keep at least a small semblance of self-control.

“Cheer,” I mumble against his hand. “My thesis. And m-my shift at the diner.”

He drops his head forward and groans, removing his hand from my mouth but nodding anyway as he closes his eyes.

I lean up to kiss at his jaw and his cut cheekbone twitches slightly with pleasure.

“And you have that secret manuscript that you’re writing,” he reminds me, opening one eye to gauge my reaction.

I try not to look too shocked that he remembered about my secret little dream, but whatever he sees in my face makes him laugh out loud.

“You really don’t know what you’d do if you didn’t get that grant?” he asks me quietly, his palms roaming down so that he can hold me by my waist.

I frown and shake my head, unsure at what he’s getting at.

“Interesting,” he says dryly. Then he compresses me against his pecs with a hard squish from his pumped forearms.

Just before I close my eyes he asks in a low rasp, “Do you wanna come by the rink next week so we can skate together again? I, uh… I kinda loved it, having you on the ice with me.”

Hunter Wilde, you are so darn cute.

“Yeah,” I tell him. “I’ll let you take me for another spin.”

He lets out a low laugh and then tucks my head under his chin.

I close my eyes and nestle further into his chest.

For the first time in my life I don’t feel car sick.