“You’re on the couch,” I grumbled to Hunter and his face contorted. Perhaps the waves of anger I was sending out were too much.

“No problem,” he replied, his voice heavy with frustration. “And don’t look at me like I’m the one that orchestrated this. I’m just as surprised as you are.” He stepped toward the door. “I’m going out for a cigarette, while I’m gone, you two can talk about how this was all Eli’s idea.” He slammed the door and I flinched, turning my attention to Eli.

“This was your idea?”

He pushed off of the couch and stepped closer to me. “I’m sorry. We needed to come up with something to buy more time.”

“You’re going to let Mr. Aleksandrov give me away? Just like that?” Tears threatened my eyes. “This cause we’re working towards, it’s never going to work, Eli.”

He cautiously made his way over to me. “It’s going to work. It’s going to take a while, but it’ll work.”

“But in the meantime you want me to marry someone else? To kiss and sleep in a bed with someone who isn’t you?”

A sad smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “No, but I don’t have a choice, this is for the greater good. You and I, we’re all about the greater good, we always have been, and when it’s over, we can be together.”

I sagged into myself and he caught my chin in his hands, tilting it up to face him. “I will take you back, Ruby, I promise.”

I shook my head. “Don’t make me go through with this. It’s not fair on any of us—especially him.” Hunter loved me, like, loved me loved me, and this was going to affect him—especially when it’s all over and I go back to Eli.

“It’s not fair on anybody, but if we don’t do this, our love can’t survive. We’re going to suffocate and burn out. I need this to work.” He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me softly. “I’m extremely close to burning this entire society to the ground and rebuilding it on my own terms, starting with you. Save me from doing that. Save me from putting everyone we love in danger just to have you.”

I stepped closer to him and his warmth enveloped me. I felt my stance shifting, preparing itself to agree with whatever he wanted. “We’re going to hurt people.”

“I know.”

“There’s a good chance this is going to backfire on us,.” I whispered, my lips grazing his.

“I know.”

My gaze flicked to his and there was so much emotion in his eyes. They glistened and smoldered at the same time. “If not for love,” I swallowed, looking back to his lips. “Then what else?”

It was a saying I kept at the back of my mind since first falling for Eli. What else did I have to fight for? My life? They could take it without a fight if it meant living without him.

***

No plans were made for two whole weeks and I spent most of my time in my room while Hunter was out and about, doing God knows what. Eli and Mila visited from time to time, but I didn’t really have much to say to them. I felt miserable daily and night time wasn’t any better. My nightmares had gotten worse—and seeing Tay made it worse. No one had told the council about Tay’s reanimation for fear of their involvement in it. Mr. Aleksandrov told us to forget about it and said it was an issue he would address after the wedding. To me, seeing someone who was meant to be dead alive was a much bigger issue. I resorted to calling Hunter into the bed, too. He was there to help me through most of my nightmares, waking me up when they got too dark and even holding me while I cried. I wanted Eli there with me, but that wasn’t an option. All I had was Hunter… and as the days progressed, my nightmares dimmed. I could wake myself up before I got in too deep and even managed to avoid waking Hunter most nights. Eli knew we now slept in the same bed and the look on his face when I told him would haunt me forever, but I couldn’t do this alone. I needed someone. I needed support. When I explained this to him, he came around a little, but not without a very serious, very threatening conversation with Hunter, who seemed to be more amused than intimidated. At the end of the day, Hunter and I needed to be careful. I wouldn’t hurt Eli like that, not in a million years, but Hunter was one to go after what he wanted, regardless of the outcome, and he’d risk getting seriously hurt by Eli to achieve it.

Since sharing a bed with Hunter, his morale was boosted. He woke up happy every day and went to sleep with the same smile on his face. He had his tricks every now and again that would irk me, but I expected nothing less from him. One night, he’d turned the heater on in the room and attempted to ‘sweat’ me out of my clothing. I got down to a tank top and bed shorts before I finally caught on. When I shared my frustration with everyone else in the morning, they found it funny—even Eli chuckled, claiming it was clever. It most certainly was not. That night, I made him sleep on the couch and forbade him to touch anything with a switch. He still insisted it was worth it.

The next afternoon, I was strolling down the hallway back to my room from the courthouse. I picked out flowers, red and white roses. I liked roses, they were pretty and always smelled pleasant. I opened the door to my suite and naked flesh bombarded my senses. Hunter was half naked, wrapped around another female, who was also half naked. They froze and looked at me. I felt my skin burn with embarrassment. I’d never walked in on people in such compromising positions before. I slammed the door shut and backed away. Crap. Somehow, I was going to have to act like a betrayed fiancé. There was an angry feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn’t decipher and if I dug deep enough, I was sure I could feel jealousy, too.

The door was yanked open in front of me before I was able to get a grasp on my story. I smiled. Yep… I actually smiled at the pair of them as they stepped out into the hallway. She was pretty, at least, with her long blonde curls and big, green eyes.

“Hey.” I exhaled, fighting the urge to face palm. What the hell am I doing?

The fear in her face melted away and she quirked an eyebrow at me. “You’re not mad?”

“Mad?” I forced a laugh, making Hunter’s brows furrow. “I’m not mad. We have a special relationship, right, Honey?”

I ran my hand up Hunter’s warm chest and it felt wrong on so many levels.

“Okay…” She drew out the word, making me feel like a complete psycho. She backed away from us cautiously before whirling on her heel and fleeing the building.

“So that’s how we’re going to play this? We have an open relationship?”

I pushed past Hunter and into the room.

“That’s not love,” he shouted, slamming the door behind him and making me spin around. “I felt you were mad, but you didn’t show it. What is wrong with you?”

I frowned at him, confused. “You’re upset because I didn’t show that I was mad? You brought another girl in here. I can’t exactly flip out and call the wedding off. An open relationship was the only way that I could save the situation. As long as you don’t do it again, we’ll be able to keep it under wraps.”

He narrowed his stare and I felt my pretense crack.

“You want me to be mad? Fine! What the hell were you thinking? We’re meant to be getting married! You can’t go around burying your tongue in random girls’ mouths whenever you feel like it.”

He smirked as he crossed the room and poured himself a glass of wine from the bar.

“You know what? I am mad. I’m mad because if words gets around that you’re banging all of the women around here, Cesare will see right through our plan. You and I are meant to be madly in love, remember?”

“Well, aren’t you so high and mighty?”

I folded my arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What, you think I didn’t know about his visits?”

He spat the word ‘his’ like it was poison on his tongue and I gritted my teeth against the urge to comfort him. Why was I feeling guilty? I wasn’t actually with Hunter and he knew I loved Eli.

“His visits aren’t what you think. I need to talk to him, and besides, you know how it is between him and I.”

Hunter scoffed, placing his glass on the bar. “Of course, the epic romance you two have got going on.” He rolled his eyes. “Tell me, do you happen to spend most of the conversations on your back?”

I flinched. “What’s wrong with you?”

He shrugged.

“We haven’t been intimate in a while.” My attitude kicked in. “Unlike you, I have self-control.”

His blue eyes darkened and suddenly I regretted my words. “I sleep in a bed with the girl of my dreams and haven’t pushed for anything. You know nothing about my self-control.”

A gasp of air fell from my lips as he stormed past me and out the door. I started forward a few steps and dropped onto the couch. How’d this get so complicated? Hunter was confusing our fake relationship for a real one. It had been progressing by the day and I’d done nothing to stop it. I encouraged it… but in my defense, I didn’t have a choice. Or maybe I was making up excuses to dismiss my behaviour. Asking Hunter into my bed because I was scared? What was that? I needed to nip this in the bud. I needed to redefine the lines surrounding our relationship and I needed to do it as soon as possible.

***

I was awake when the door opened and Hunter stumbled in, hitting everything in his path. I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled the blanket tighter over me when he collapsed onto the bed. A second later a warm arm wrapped around me, pulling me closer, and I could smell Bourbon, I think. It exuded from him. I wanted to talk to him and demand some kind of explanation for what he said to me, but the rational part of my brain was telling me to let it go.

“Hunter?” I asked, forgoing my attempt at feigning sleep.

“Mmm?”

“Have you been drinking?” Not that I needed an answer—I could smell it all over him.

“Just a little.” The slur in his tone gave me a good estimate of exactly how much he’d drank.

I threw my blankets off. “C’mon. I’ll help you into the shower.”

I could only imagine the smile on his face right now. With a loud sigh, he rolled away from me and climbed to his feet. He swayed momentarily and I quickly made my way over to him, wrapping an arm around his waist to keep him steady. We stumbled over to the bathroom and I turned the shower on. Hunter raised his hands above his head, making my brows knit together.

“What?” I asked.

He arched an eyebrow. “Now you undress me.”

“No.” I placed my hands on my hips. “You can do that yourself.”

He lowered his hands and turned around. “Fine, then I’m going back to bed.”

The thought of inhaling cigarettes and spirits all night disturbed me. “Okay, I’ll do it, but don’t get any funny ideas.”

He mocked offense. “Me? I’d never.”

Hunter lifted his arms and I pulled his shirt over his head, exposing a slim build with muscles carved out perfectly.

“Take a picture, it lasts longer.”

I shoved him, embarrassed that I’d been caught staring. “Don’t be a sleaze.”

He smiled, sleepily. “Hey, you’re the one staring.”

Hunter dropped his arms and glanced down at the buttons to his jeans, suggestively.

I backed up a few steps. “Oh no, no way. You’re on your own there, pal.”

He turned around with the intention of heading back to the bedroom. “Okay, fine!” I sighed, throwing my hands up.

He faced me again, smiling victoriously and his blue eyes studied my face as I hooked my fingers around the button to his jeans.

“Can you not look at me while I’m doing this?”

He laughed once. “And miss this? Not a chance.”

I squeezed my eyes shut as his pants fell around his ankles.

“Are we done here?”

“Open your eyes and see.”

I extended my arms and pushed past him, my eyes shut so tightly they started to ache. I didn’t dare open them until my toe connected with the corner of the bed. When it did, my eyes shot open and I dived onto the bed, swearing and clenching what felt like a broken toe.

“Hey, Rubes!” Hunter called from the shower.

I swallowed hard, hoping it’d take down the angry tone with it. “What?”

“Can you get me a towel?”

I paused, not wanting to go back in there.

“Don’t worry, the hot water has fogged up the glass. You won’t see anything.”

Reluctantly, I rolled off the bed and was relieved when it didn't hurt to put additional pressure on my toe. I grabbed a fresh fluffy towel from the cupboard and took it into him.

What. A. Liar. My eyesight was bombarded with naked flesh… naked backside flesh to be specific.

“Hunter—Jesus Christ!” I shouted, holding the towel high to block his ass from view. He looked over his shoulder at me and his lips curved into a smirk.

“Oops, did I forget to shut the door?”

I held the towel high enough to block his butt cheeks from view. I wanted to throw his towel into the water and run but that wouldn’t achieve anything. He clearly had enough confidence to walk around the room naked if he really wanted to. He shut the shower off and turned toward me. I was thankful I had the towel positioned so it blocked everything that sat in the frontal region.

“To bed?” he slurred again, swaying slightly.

“First, put some clothes on, and second, you’re sleeping on the couch.”

His cocky facial expression straightened out and he seemed offended for the briefest moment before his smile fell back into place. “You sleep on the couch. I’m the one that’s mad at you.”