Ryan Hunter

coat rack while Jezebel Hunter introduced herself.
    “Please, call me Jessie, dear,” my mother offered when Liza shook her hand and told Mrs. Hunter what a nice house she had. Mom never liked being called by her last name, no matter who it was. As far as I knew, she was on first name terms even with her tax accountant. A day at my school—with my friends—would actually kill her.
    I stepped to Liza’s side and took her hand, totally to the delight of my big sister. “Liza—you already met my mom and sister. Mom—this is Liza Matthews.” I took a deep breath. “My girlfriend.”
    My mom cast a radiant smile, all but grabbing Liza’s hand again and pulling her into a welcoming hug. Rachel kept a straight face, but I saw how her hand fisted at her side for a possible victory punch in the air. We grinned at each other, then the Hunter women ushered me and Liza into the dining room, where Dad had just finished decking the table.
    Liza waved hi at Phil by the window, then she shook hands with my dad. We sat through a cool dinner with my folks, and even though Liza seemed a little stiffer than usual, she obviously enjoyed the time with my family. She and Dad soon found out that they had actually met before. A very long time ago.
    “I must have been four years old, if that,” Liza said to me, “when your dad told me that I couldn’t take my fish with me into the tub. Yeah, somebody should have told me before I played Free Willy and gave them a new home.”
    We laughed at that, and under the table, I ran my palm up and down her thigh to give her a feeling of comfort. She placed her hand on mine and squeezed.
    After dinner, I managed to tear Liza away from my family, who had adopted her the first moment she’d walked through our door, and kidnapped her into the garden. Down by the gazebo, there was still Rachel’s and my old swing. I sat down on it, grabbing the hem of my leather jacket, which was now hers, and pulled her between my straddled legs.
    “Did you know that you’re driving me completely out of my mind whenever you’re wearing any of my clothes?” I said, looking up at her face.
    Liza gave me one of her tight-lipped smiles that, how I’d found out by now, were always a sign that she was touched by what I’d said. “You mentioned something like that the other day, when I had your shirt on.”
    “Remind me to send you off with a few of my T-shirts tonight, so you can always wear them when I come to your place.”
    “Only tees?” She pulled my Indians cap off my head and put it on, threading her ponytail through the back. “How about that?
    Bloody hell, if she wanted me on my knees, she totally had me there. “Girl, you’re driving me to my limits of self-control,” I growled and pulled her down on my lap, starting to nibble the skin at her throat.
    She threw her head back and laughed out loud. “Ryan Hunter, you’re insatiable.”
    “When it comes down to you, Matthews, I totally am.”
    Liza wrapped her arms around my neck and looked at me with shiny eyes from out of the cap’s shade. Many things played out in her gaze at that moment. Fascination. Happiness. Even a little devotion.
    “I absolutely know what you’re thinking right now,” I teased her with a half-smile.
    “Is that so? Then what do I think?”
    I licked my lips, trying to look serious when I said, “You’re thinking that you can’t wait to get up into my room with me and have me stripping you naked on my bed.”
    Her cheeks flushed an adorable pink. “Close, but not quite the truth,” she told me with a sweetly sarcastic voice and a dry grin.
    I knew how close my taunt had hit home, but she was right. The one thing that was really written in her eyes had nothing to do with carnal needs. This time I didn’t have to struggle for a serious face. “You’re thinking that you never believed how easily you could forget Anthony Mitchell if only you gave yourself a chance with someone else.”
    Liza’s smile vanished, and her eyes grew a bit wider.
    “With someone like me,” I continued, brushing the back of my knuckles along her jaw. “You’re thinking that you’ve totally misjudged me and that I’m not at all the impossible guy—” I rolled my eyes to mimic her. “—you always thought me to be.”
    Her lips parted slightly. One of her hands slipped from my neck and rested softly against my chest. Yeah, I’d stunned her with what I read in her eyes, but I wasn’t done yet. “And you’re thinking