Tragic

Chapter Seventeen: Landing In The Bunker

Hunter

Elliot's hand is creeping slowly down my stomach. My eyes remain closed, and I pretend not to notice. When she reaches the waistband of my boxers, she laughs. "I know you're awake, Hunter."

"I was waiting to see where you were going with that," I say with a smirk and then roll her brusquely to her back. She lets out a squeal in response, and my heart skips a beat. These are the kind of games I'd rather play with her.

Her lips find mine, and I start to get lost in her all over again. One thing I can be sure of is the harder we fight, the harder we make up. When her hands begin to travel south once more, I have to stop her.

"As much as I would like to hold you hostage here all day, I have plans with Oliver to play golf at the resort this morning."

She squeezes her hand around me in response. "Oh really? You'd rather shoot balls with my brother today?"

I let out a deep groan, and thankfully, she loosens her grasp. "You know that's not true."

Elliot gives me a knowing smile before planting a chaste kiss to my lips. "Let's hope so."

She gets up from the bed and starts to pull on her jeans. "Speaking of Ollie, we should probably think about finding a way to tell him."

"You're right." I let out a sigh and run my hand down my face. "I hate keeping things from him. He's bound to get suspicious with the amount of time we've been spending together."

Elliot laughs from inside the hoodie she's still pulling over her head. "I don't know if you noticed or not but Ollie's not the most observant person." She fluffs her hair and glances in the mirror behind my door. "I love him and all, but he's pretty self-involved. If it doesn't somehow directly affect him, it won't enter his radar."

"Elle, this most definitely directly affects him. You're his sister, and I'm supposed to be his best friend." I stand up and grab a T-shirt off the chair. "He's going to lose his shit."

Her eyes drift to the floor then back to me. "It may not be for the reason you think." The unease in her voice confuses me a little.

I finish pulling on a pair of jeans and go to her. "What do you mean by that?"

She shakes her head and gets a look of sadness on her face, borderline shameful even. "Ollie's not as much concerned about you destroying this than he is me doing it."

I smooth the line that forms across her forehead with my fingers and kiss her gently. "Why would you think that?"

Her eyes cast down again. "Because it's true."

"Hey, look at me." I wait until her eyes meet mine again before I continue. "Whatever happened before doesn't matter. You and me are something different."

"I feel like all of my relationships up until this point were shallow. I've never really wanted something to work out as much as I want it to with you. What if I mess this up, or I hurt you?"

Something in the tone of her voice makes me wonder if Oliver told her more about my past than I would like. It's not really a conversation I want to get into right now, so I decide to brush it off. "You won't, I promise."

***

Elliot sneaks back over to the house twenty minutes later, and I wait another five before walking over to meet Oliver. He's standing in the driveway dressed like the posterchild for sports endorsements. His dark, brown hair is gelled to perfection and there are crisp lines in his shirt and pants. He goes all in no matter what he does, I'll give him that.