I’m halfway down the stone steps when I spot him, just as bundled up as I am, his hands tucked into his coat pockets to keep as warm as possible.
He watches every step I take, waiting for me to come to him, allowing me to make the first move when I’m ready and comfortable.
“I thought we were meeting at mine.”
“I didn’t want you walking in the dark, alone,” Hudson says, making my heart constrict in my chest.
This man…
How can I ever have thought him heartless?
I can’t stand myself for being so presumptuous; for applying labels to something I had no right to.
Pulling my left hand out of my own coat pocket, I turn my palm upright to the sky.
It only takes a second for Hudson to intertwine his much larger, and warmer, hand with mine, folding down his fingers, rubbing the pad of his thumb over the ridges of my bony knuckles.
“I’m guessing that was your brother, Blake, in the coffee shop this morning?” I ask as we walk, hips brushing.
“Yeah.” Hudson squeezes my hand, once, twice. “He wasn’t supposed to draw attention to himself, but that’s big brothers for you, always finding a way to embarrass me.”
That draws a giggle out of me, my knot of nerves in the pit of my stomach beginning to loosen.
“I’m glad he did. For a second there, I was worried you were out with another woman.”
Hudson halts in the street, unbothered by the tutting of the elderly woman walking behind as she has to step around us, heavy looking shopping bags in tow.
“I haven’t been with anyone else, Gee, I need you to know that.”
“Hudson—”
“I don’t want anyone else,” he continues. “I just want you.”
My heart does a little tap dance in my chest at his words.
I look up at him, the golden streetlamp casting a halo like glow over the crown of his head. His eyes are fixed on mine, thumb stroking the band of my ring.
“I want you, too, Hudson,” I admit with a soft smile. “Nobody else.”
He parts his lips, as if to say something, but thinks better of it and closes his mouth again.
I say silent too, keeping my hand in his as we make the short walk to my apartment block.
It’s only when I’m fumbling for my key, cursing the cold outside for making my fingers so numb and the stupid inventor who made women’s pockets so small and compact, that Hudson breaks the silence between us.
Cradling my hip with his hand, he presses his chest up against my back, reaching around to gently pluck the key from my frozen hand. “Here, let me.”
His raspy voice rumbles through my lean frame, sending electric shockwaves through my system, waking up parts of my body from their long slumber.
Nipples tightening beneath my sports bra, I turn around in Hudson’s arms, tilting my chin upwards to meet his gaze.
This tall height of his is both a blessing and a curse.
Sensing my eyes on him, Hudson’s lids lower to look at me, his other hand coming up to hold my waist, until I’m surrounded by him on all sides.
With a slight push, he has me up against the wall of my building, bending slightly at the neck to run the cold tip of his nose along the length of my neck.
“H-Hudson,” I stutter.
