The Bad Boy And The Mermaid

Chapter 45

Blue

Hunter held out the box of Cereal towards me but I continued to stare at him. He looked much more built than before, his shoulders were broad and I could see the hard outline of his chest as it rose and fell. His golden-brown hair used to be shorter, the curls had grown out of control and he had a bit of stubble.

My stomach took a flight of butterflies and I felt like my legs were going to give up.

I missed him. So much.

“I won’t hurt you.” He assured me. “I just want to talk.”

And I couldn’t believe that he was telling me the truth. Contrary to what he’d said, Hunter seemed to have every intention of hurting me.

And I didn’t mean physically but mentally. I could feel it. He wanted to break me until I was crying, apologizing, groveling at his feet. I had never been scared of him, but right now I had every reason to be. He wanted to make me suffer in the worst possible way.

A shiver ran down my body thinking about his intentions.

He was the same Hunter, and yet he was different. Reviving him had its own downsides.

I didn’t even realize when I started shaking.

He touched my shoulder and suddenly he was breathing erratically, holding his head in his hands. This was my chance to run, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t leave when he was in such pain.

He was breathing hard and I didn’t know what to do. “Should I call an ambulance?”

And then just like that, it stopped. He appeared to have become normal, the pain had subsided. His breathing had become stable. I stopped there with him for a while, it seemed like he was trying to compose his thoughts. He looked everywhere but me, lost in a complete daze. He looked alright, and I knew that was my clue to leave so I started walking away.

“We’re not finished here.” He barked from behind me.

Before I could dash away, he charged forward towards me. Forcefully, he grasped my hand. His smoldering gray eyes looked directly at me, his jaw was set hard. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Well?” He seethed, “what’s wrong, Blue? If you thought you were going to fool around with a human for a few months, play marriage and fucking leave, well, I have bad news for you because that shit ain’t happening.”

My neck broke into a cold sweat.

He remembers!

I only understood “fool around” and “play marriage.” I didn’t understand the rest of his words.

“How do you remember?” I asked.

“I remember each and every damn thing, Sweetheart.” He said the word “sweetheart” like a taunt. “How I found you, how we fell in love, how I married you...” he brought his face close to mine, his eyes menacing slits, “how I made you come several times each day. I recall everything.”

My cheeks burned and he chuckled, mockingly. “Shocked? Well, I have some more. I remember dying and you...” he pointed an accusing finger at me, “You brought me back from the dead!”

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I tried to blink them away. “Hunter...”

“You expect me to express my gratitude for saving my life?” He demanded, walking into my space. “You don’t deserve it because you sure left me there all confused and without a trace of a memory. I don’t think that warrants a “thank you” card, right?”

“I didn’t have a choice.” I choked.

“Of course you did!” He spat with venom in his tone.

“You died because of me, I killed you,” I said holding a hand over my heart because the thought of Hunter dying again was insufferable. “I had to do something to bring you back. I’m so sorry.”

“Are you sure you know what you’re sorry for?” He asked, his blazing hot gaze pining me, “You should be sorry and that’s not for causing the accident. You should be sorry for bringing me back to life and then leaving me alone to deal with all of this.”

I sobbed silently.

He caught my chin between his fingers and willed me to look into his face. “Do you have any idea about how many nights I have spent without sleeping, looking, searching for someone who I didn’t even know?! Do you realize how hard this was on me?”

I gave him a nod.

“Bullshit!” He snarled and I flinched.

“Excuse me, ma’am, is there a problem here?” A store employee was standing beside me, throwing looks between Hunter and me. He didn’t like Hunter’s behavior.

“I’m talking to my wife. There’s no problem here.” Hunter told her without taking his eyes off me.

The intensity in his gray eyes gave me goosebumps.

If this person didn’t leave, I didn’t trust Hunter to remain calm. Right now the way he was, he could start a storm or a hurricane, maybe even punch through a mountain without a problem. His anger was blazing hot.

“Miss?” She asked me nervously.

“I’m fine,” I assured her with a smile.

Hunter looked at my trolley and then began dumping the contents into his trolley without asking. His mother and Hannah had warned me about his possessive streak countless times, but I had never encountered it until now.

When the employee left nervously, he turned to me, “I’m going to pay for our things and you’re going to stay beside me the entire time. When I’m done, we’re going to talk outside. You’re not going to move a muscle. Am I understood?” He demanded in a tone that challenged defiance.

I gave him a nod.

He started walking away, pushing the trolley. He looked back, “I told you to stay beside me.”

“But you also told me not to move a muscle.”

He sighed as if he’d run out of patience. “Blue, come.”

I had expected a far better reunion, the type where you see in movies. In the movie, two doors swung open and the couple ran out from each door, laughing, cheering and then hugged each other, the man hugged her so fiercely that he picked her up off her feet and swayed her, going round and round.

Guess that wasn’t going to happen with me, not with Hunter acting so furious. Never had I been so scared of my husband’s wrath before.

After Hunter paid for the items, he picked up the bags easily. Husbands were pretty useful that way; they could carry heavy things and objects without batting an eye. He put all the things in the trunk of his car.

“I’m not going with you,” I said softly.

He gave me a death glare. “Why the fuck not?”

Another thing I did notice. Hunter never used to swear when I was around, now he seemed to have stopped caring.

“I just can’t.”

“You are coming with me and that’s final.” He declared.

“You won’t force me,” I said weakly.

“Why did you leave me, Blue?” He asked. It was obvious that I had hurt him a lot. “If you didn’t want to be with me, you had your chance. Why did you have to...”

Unable to utter a word, I stared at him silently.

“Is it me? Did I do something wrong?” He pressed. “Please tell me.”

“You’re not safe around me,” I said. “I can kill you again.”

He grasped my shoulders, “that accident wasn’t your fault. Stop blaming yourself and come home with me.”

Home. The place I longed to go to. I wanted nothing more than to be with Hunter. I wanted to go home, watch Hunter paint for hours in the morning, make love to him, play with Leslie. I wanted all those

things. I yearned for it.

I shook my head, sobbing. “I can’t do that.”

He lifted my chin up to meet his eyes and I could clearly see that I’d split his heart open. “Please.” He begged. Tears were forming in his eyes. “I love you. No one could ever love you as much as I do, Blue.”

I knew that.

He caressed my hair softly. “I’ll do whatever you want me to. If you want to return to the ocean, baby, I’ll allow it. When you gave me another life and left me, I couldn’t find any real happiness. You sentenced me to a life of misery. Do you understand that? I don’t think I can live without you.”

“I don’t want you.” I wiggled my arm out of his hold.

“Maybe you lost interest in me while I was gone, I understand if you did. I’m only a human after all. The ocean must be so much better than living here. No matter how much I’ve said we’re equals, it’s the fact that we’re not. You’re a mythical being, I’m so far beneath you, I know it, but you’re also my wife and I love you more than anything. If there’s just one percent of the possibility that you can love me back, sweetheart, Please…”

Hunter’s eyes strayed to my stomach just then and all the color drained from his face. He looked at my stomach and then at me. He hadn’t noticed it before because he’d been too angry to see anything straight. “Are you...are you pregnant?” This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

I placed a hand on my stomach. “Yes.”

His face broke into a huge smile, the one I’d been waiting to see for such a long time. He reached out to touch it until he stopped and straightened, he scowled at someone behind me.

Hunter’s entire body shook with what I knew was pure, unadulterated rage. Adrian came up beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder which added fuel to fire. Hunter’s vein was sure to pop but he controlled his temper.

To my utter horror, he raised his hand out towards Adrian. “Congratulations.”

Adrian shook hands with him, he didn’t know what he was being congratulated for and I was overcome with shame.

How could Hunter be so stupid? He clearly thought I was pregnant with Adrian’s child.

Hunter spared me a glance and said, “Now I understand why you were so reluctant to go home with me. If you wanted to go to Adrian, Blue, all you had to do was tell me.” He said. His eyes were red- rimmed. “And I was better off dead.”

“What are you saying?” Adrian asked. “You got your memories back?”

I squeezed Adrian’s hand to shut him up from saying more further. Hunter noticed our hands joined, and probably got the wrong idea. He looked up at me and said, “Take care, Blue.”

I watched as he took out my things from his trunk and sat into his car. His expressions were completely resigned. He wouldn’t have given up so easily if it hadn’t been for him assuming that I’d wanted to be in a relationship with Adrian. I was married to Hunter, how could he think so ill of me?

I waited until I’d seen the car leave.

Adrian nudged me. “Why did you lie to him? That’s his child growing inside you.”

I burst into a loud nerve-wracking sob and Adrian hugged me closer, slowly drawing circles over my back and shushing me. “I love him so much, I want to protect him.”