When he slipped off his jeans, my mouth dropped open. He wasn’t wearing any underwear.
“Something wrong?” he asked me, his eyes dancing with amusement. It was a challenge, but he wouldn’t get the better of me. “Come on,” he sighed. “We need to sleep, you must be exhausted.”
I eyed his dick. It twitched under my stare, and I inhaled sharply. Now wasn’t the time. Warren was right outside. I kept my eyes on him as I took off the hoody I’d been wearing since my shower at the apartment. Hudson watched me, his eyes growing hungry. Until I took off the pants and he saw my too large, baggy underwear.
“What the fuck are those?”
I threw the pants at him, ripped off the giant panties and got into bed with an angry huff. He was still laughing when he got in behind me. I turned my back on him. “It was this, dirty underwear or nothing,” I snapped.
He stopped laughing. Then he moved up behind me and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me back into his warm body. I relented because for the longest time, I’d thought I would never get to feel like this again. To know how it felt to be wrapped up in his arms.
“Sorry,” he murmured against my neck. “I hate the thought of you being locked up there.”
“Well, I’m not anymore,” I said, the lingering annoyance still in my tone.
“Thank fuck,” he said, his hand moving to brush my hair back. He lightly kissed my neck. “Tell me the truth,” Hudson whispered, cupping my cheek so my head tilted up to look at him. “Are you sure you’re okay. Apart from what happened before you got out…No one hurt you?”
“No one hurt me,” I said, staring into his eyes, knowing he needed to hear those words, more than anything else. “I’m back,” I turned over and lightly touched his cheekbone with my fingertips.
This, being here with him, felt right. It felt like I couldn’t be anywhere other than here. My old life, the second life, that I ran to after the hurt five years ago, that was over too.
Hudson kissed my forehead and shut off the lights. “Get some sleep, this isn’t over by a long shot. You need to rest.”
I nodded and closed my eyes, pushing closer into him. This man. Over the last twenty-four hours, I’d barely had chance to catch my breath. But as I lay here beside him, I almost wanted to laugh. If I’d known a month ago, I would be lying in Hudson Kelley’s arms, I would have believed it was some sort of vicious joke.
As his breaths started to even out, I thought back on what he said on the phone. I wasn’t really thinking about it when I made that off the hand remark about him loving me. He’d answered,‘I do.’It wasn’t that I brushed over what he said, there was just a lot more going on at the time.
Did he mean it? He hadn’t actually said the words. And I didn’t know whether I would be able to say them either. The truth was, I’d always loved him. I’d loved him from when we were children, as we grew up, when we realized our feelings of love were more than just friendship. Even when I watched him with that girl after what happened with Andrew, I loved him.
That was what made it hurt so much. While I was with Declan, I was never really able to take the final step with him because I was never over Hudson. He was always going to be a part of me. Thinking of Declan made me feel horrible, I hadn’t even asked if he was okay, I needed to check on him.
“Wave,” Hudson said sleepily. “You can’t shut off?”
“Not really,” I whispered. He stroked his hand over my hair. “Hudson?”
“Yeah.”
“When I called you…before.” He moved back a little and I looked up at him. It wasn’t totally dark in here, but it still wasn’t easy to discern his features. “What you said on the phone.”
“About what?” I could hear the amusement in his tone, and I pushed his shoulder, he laughed quietly. “What are you asking me, Wave?” his voice became serious, he pressed his forehead against mine. “If that half assed declaration of mine was a turn of phrase, or if I meant it?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. In fact, I was struggling to catch my breath.
“When you were gone. The first time,” he clarified. “It took me years to stop waking up each day, hoping you were still here. Regretting every decision I’d made. But I hated you… no that isn’t right, I didn’t hate you. How can you hate someone you love? It took a long time, and I changed as a person because of what happened that night. I became a worse version of myself, a man I really didn’t like.
“When you came back…when I found out what really happened that night…it broke me Wave. Knowing I failed you, more than once, in the worst way,” his fingers kept moving through my hair as he spoke and my eyes welled with tears. “I got a second chance. When we brought you back here, the plan was to stay as far from you as possible,” he huffed out a laugh. “That worked out well,” he used his thumb to brush a tear away. “And then you were gone again. Only I didn’t know what the hell was happening to you. I was terrified I really wouldn’t see you again. Before, I knew where you were, but this time. I didn’t know if you were dead or alive.
“So if you’re asking me if I meant what I said, in that half assed stupid way that I did it… Then yeah. I meant it. You’re mine, Waverley. You always will be. I love you.”
I sniffled, not wanting to cry but his words were singing to my heart. I knew he meant them. He would never lie to me about it.
“I love you, Hudson,” I said softly into the darkness. Reaching up, I pressed my lips against his. “I’ve always loved you. Even when you were a stupid asshole.” I expected him to laugh but he didn’t. He kissed me,holding my face in his huge palm, his thumb stroking my cheekbone as he parted my lips and we kissed deeper, our breath mingling together. I wrapped my arm around his back, pulling him closer to me.
“Tell me you’re mine, Wave,” he mumbled between kisses.
“No.” His fingers stilled and he strained his neck backwards to look at me. I could see the mixture of hurt confusion and downright annoyance in his gaze.
I stared back at him, defiant. “You’re mine.”
