“I trust you won’t,” I say before kissing him again.
Our bodies line up and I tumble backward taking Hudson with me. The weight of his body threatens to be too much, but he holds himself up with an arm braced on the back of the couch. There’s an excitement that mingles between us as our kisses grow in ferocity. At this moment I want more. More of Hudson, more of this, more of what is sure to come.
I stopped things between us New Year’s Eve before they went too far, but it’s not something I plan to do today.
Hudson nibbles on my neck and the space behind my ear and I arch my body closer. So much closer. Anything to make sure every piece of us is touching.
Neither of us speaks until I grab at his shirt, doing my best to twist and pull it above his head.
“Are you sure?” he asks between short sweet kisses against my collarbone.
“Absolutely,” I answer as easily as he did earlier in our conversation. There’s nothing in the world I want more. Him. Me. Us.
He takes off his shirt, allowing it to fall to the floor beside the couch, and I suck in a breath. I’ve seen his naked chest before, but in the dark of the room on New Year’s Eve, I missed the long scar that runs perpendicular to his left shoulder. I trace a finger against the raised skin, but quickly forget what I’ve been attempting to do when he undoes the top button of my jeans.
“You have a condom?” I ask because I don’t. There haven’t been many men in my apartment and even less naked ones.
He sucks in a breath, finishing with my zipper. “I’ll get one, but not yet,” he says as his hand works its way into the space between my jeans and skin. His fingers contact my pubic bone and my entire body jolts in pleasure.
15
“Shit,” I say looking at the alarm clock setting on my nightstand. “We’ll have to order dinner soon.”
I’m not looking for an excuse to get out of bed with Hudson nor do I want to, but neither of us have eaten since breakfast. Well not food anyway.
I hate to miss food even if it’s because of hot, delicious sex with quite possibly the man of my dreams.
Hudson pulls the sheets up around my shoulder, tightening them underneath me. “Not yet. I can’t move.”
I try to laugh but it comes out this nervous giggle. I smother it by rolling closer to Hudson and putting my face in the pillow. He turns toward me as well, and in the quiet of my bedroom, my fingers are drawn to the small bit of raised skin beneath his shoulder. I skim across the bumpy ridges going back and forth the length of the long scar.
Hudson watches my movements, his eyes hooded. “Sometimes I forget.”
“Did you get it while you were in the service?” I ask. He hasn’t told me much on his time being a Navy SEAL and I wonder what action he went through to get a scar in such an odd place. Not by the calf he said had been hit by shrapnel.
He chuckles, the sound shaking the bed and pulling on the covers. “No, that’s from a drug deal gone wrong. They stabbed me.”
My eyes widen and I tip my head back in shock. “What?” Hudson on drugs? I don’t believe it.
He leans back, taking my hand off the scar and holding it in his on top of his chest. “I used to have an older sister. In high school she fell in with the wrong crowd and by senior year she discovered drugs and guys.”
“Oh wow. Was she able to turn her life around as an adult?” I ask when he stops talking.
He squeezes my fingers. “No. She died four days before her nineteenth birthday.”
Holy crap. Hudson has lost an entire family and within just a few years’ time. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“It’s not that,” he says sticking one of his arms under my neck and bringing me closer. “It’s that I haven’t told anyone in so long.”
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose a sibling, especially one so young.”
“She met a guy right before high school graduation. He was a real piece of work. Before meeting him, she dabbled in a few recreational drugs, nothing serious, but Tommy introduced her to cocaine and from there heroin.”
My fingers reach across his chest and squeeze him in a half hug, not wanting to interrupt the story but wanting to let him know I’m here and show support.
“It happened so fast most of the family didn’t see it coming. One night my parents left her in charge of me to watch while they went to a movie. She and Tommy took me on what they called a quick drive through town, but in reality, they were looking to buy drugs.”
His story gets worse and worse, and my heart beats faster as he keeps sharing details. I’m now filled with pain and sorrow.
