he said as he dried himself off with quick gestures. “No and no. We aren’t becoming friends. We aren’t sharing secrets. We had a fake date and now it’s over.” He tossed the towel onto the rack, knowing there was only one way to stop Chloe’s interrogation. “I’ll call a cab so you can go back to your mom’s.”
“Are you throwing me out?”
“Pretty much.”
“You really are terrified of intimacy,” she said with that infuriating assurance. He’d expected her to be angry or to argue with him. Instead, he felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. She glanced up and smiled at him. “You know that refusing to tell me is only going to make me more curious.”
“And you know that we’re done.”
“Are we? Who—or what—broke your heart, Hunter?”
Hunter flung out a hand, refusing to answer. “See? There you go, trying to make more out of this. I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t be happy with one night. I knew you’d want commitment and a relationship and a plan for the future. But no, just no. Understand?”
She was watching him, her eyes bright. “Okay, that’s fair. It is my nature to plan. But why are you so determined to live in the moment?”
“Because dreams are for other people,” he confessed without meaning to do so. He marched away from her perceptive gaze then and called her a cab.
“Kind of like Christmas,” Chloe said softly from behind him when he put down his phone. She was dressed again and pulling her jacket over her shoulder. “A time of hope and happiness, and a season that you refuse to celebrate. What did you lose, Hunter? It wasn’t just Duchess, although she was part of it. Was your heart broken at Christmas?”
“It’s none of your damn business,” he said, speaking more savagely than he’d intended.
“No,” Chloe said quietly. “I get that you don’t want to share that secret.” To his surprise, she came closer, determination in her steady gaze. “But here’s the thing, Hunter, if you don’t take a chance on the important things, then you’re just stuck in the same place forever. Telling me is pretty low risk. I’m leaving on the 26th. I’m not sure I’ll be back anytime soon, and I won’t share whatever you tell me.” She smiled. “I’ll keep your secret in exchange for you keeping mine.”
Her fantasy.
Hunter swallowed. He didn’t think he could do it. He wasn’t sure he wanted to do it. He instinctively understood that letting go of his secret would change everything. His carefully-constructed barriers would come crashing down and he’d be left with nothing at all.
“You could open your heart to Christmas without surrendering any of your secrets,” she said quietly.
“No, I can’t.”
“I’d get you a ticket to the Rockettes if you wanted to come along. We wouldn’t be seated together, probably, but I’d think you’d like the eye candy.”
“Have yourself a lonely little Christmas,” he sang softly but Chloe hadn’t waited for his reply. She’d already turned and left, closing the door behind herself, leaving Hunter aching for something he knew he shouldn’t dare to want.
He felt the nightmare mustering. He knew he’d fight it, watching movies until he couldn’t keep his eyes open, and he knew he’d lose.
It was just his new normal, and confiding in Chloe wouldn’t change it one bit.
Or would it?
By morning, after enduring his nightmare again, Hunter knew that the solution was to just shut Chloe down. He’d enjoyed the party and her company, and the sex had rocked. He didn’t like her questions, but he didn’t have to put up with them anymore. She’d had her fake date: her problem was solved. There was only one item left on her list of rules—number thirteen—and he wasn’t going there.
They were done.
Maybe she’d been trying to break that rule just to give them a perfect score. Hunter wouldn’t think about it.
He’d known she’d be in Central Park Saturday morning—he had her schedule and he knew she’d follow it—so he deliberately walked down Amsterdam to the subway to be further away. Work was exactly what he needed. The rock wall demanded concentration. He hadn’t slept much and he found the holiday carols even more annoying than usual. He was early for his shift when he got to F5F, so thought he might try to charm Jax into giving him a shift in the dance club on New Year’s Eve. He itched to be in the dance club, to lose himself in moving to the beat.
As he crossed the