Page 9 of The Hunt

“Um, for what? Not screaming and running for the hills here? Not kicking you in your… boy part… for kissing without permission? I can think of a few things I could do to punish you… like tell my brothers you got frisky.”

He cupped her cheek lightly, just needing to touch her for a moment. He was pushing the envelope more with her than he ever would have imagined with any other woman. Maybe because of what had happened over the last day and a half. Or maybe because he had known her for her entire life. “Thank you, for being there for her when she needed you most.”

Not that it surprised him at all. Taking care of those she loved was just who Genesis Hillerwas.

She’d been the one to take care of Chad’s mother while they’d waited in terror. And his father. She and his sister-in-lawRory and his niece Charlotte. Just hovering and protecting. She hadn’t had to do it. But she had.

Because she cared. She was the most soft-hearted woman he had ever met. That was something he could never deny. Loving, caring… passionate. Genesis just felt things. He had envied her that, sometimes.

Now … he wondered what it was like to be the center of her world, to be the man she cared about that passionately. His body tightened with the desire to find out. Passion for anything but his work had been missing from his world lately.

“Go. Get something to eat. I’ll stay with my sister. Gene should be in the cafeteria somewhere. The guy needs to be at home, sleeping. Maybe you can talk sense into him.”

A look of concern crossed her face. Had her leaning against the wall and just looking up at him for a moment. Chad leaned closer, just to shelter her somehow, even though the hallway was almost deserted.

“He was acting… differently.”

Chad had noticed it too, but… “He just dealt with a massively traumatic experience. I’m not sure how he’s supposed to act.”

“I get that. I’m not an idiot. But… did you see the way he looked at Chan?”

Chad nodded. His hands dropped to wrap around her waist. His fingers almost touched on each side of her. She was definitely the smallest Hiller out there.

He was taking liberties with her physically—but she was letting him. He was a healthy male—why wouldn’t he want to put his hands on an attractive, available female when the opportunity arose? It was basic survival of the species, after all. “What about it?”

“It was just… too intense. That’s all. I don’t want to leave her alone with him tonight.”

“Why on earth not?”

“Because… I don’t know. I just don’t. Chantal isn’t very aware where guys like Gene are concerned. I don’t want him to hurt her again. Guys that intense… can be dangerous. In ways you, as a man, just won’t understand. It’s best for a smart woman to stay away. Chan isn’t the type to do casual. And I don’t know that Gene can do more than that. He never has before, especially since Carly.”

And there was hurt in her own eyes. He hadn’t missed that. Someone… had hurt her before, too. But… “I didn’t know Gene had hurt her in the first place.”

“They pretty much stopped speaking to each other six years ago because of that witch Mandy Kirby. And you didn’t notice? Seriously, Chad, don’t you know anything that goes on in your sister’s life at all? You know, we girls have our own lives, too. Outside of Charlie and Chad and the mayor of Value and those wild and woolly Hiller boys. We’re not just side characters and footnotes. You don’t really know Chan very well, I don’t think. Charlie knows far more about her than you do.”

Apparently. That had been made even clearer to him now. And Chad was going to change that.

She wiggled to be let go. Hell, the woman had to stopwigglingpressed against him like that. Or Chad was going to do something completely stupid. Right there in the hall.

Like carry her off to the nearest cave and have his way with her or something.

Chad took a step back, then another. “Why? Mandy, I mean.”

“MandyhatesChantal. Did you know that? Probably because Chantal is gorgeous and sweet and nice and talented, and Mandy is an old ugly hag. She used to make our lives living hell in school. Mine, Chantal’s, Gia’s. Until Gia slugged her once, anyway. After that, she focused her bullying on me and Chantal. And that woman has moved on—she mostly causes trouble for me here… me and Aubrey. She really hates Aubrey, by the way.I think she’s behind the rumors about Caine and Aubrey, you know… I just about kicked Gene’s ass when he got involved with her. But she was just using him. He realized that eventually. You guys… aren’t always very smart when it comes to the boy parts.”

Well, she’d gotten that part right. Chad’s boy parts were practically on alert. More alert than they had been in a long time. Since a woman he had trusted, and had deep feelings for, had thrown him over for a wealthy, powerful doctor at Finley Creek General.

He’d not been all that interested in women since then.

Not true now. His body felt very interested in the female of the species now. All because of little Genesis Hiller.

He’d almost understand it more if it had been Giavonna who had him hot and bothered now. Giavonna Hiller was one of those women who made the world stop and stare. So did the baby of the Hiller family, Greer, for that matter, now that she’d grown up.

But Greer was only twenty-three or so, far too young for a man Chad’s age. Genesis, the middle girl, didn’t stop traffic.

But… not because she couldn’t. But because she hid that. He had never really looked at her that closely before.

She was just as beautiful as her sisters. In that wholesome way some women had that was completely natural. That made a man ache to touch, to taste.