“Kenna. Please. Talk to me.”
“I don’t think we should do this,” she whispered, the words barely audible over the boom of thunder that shook the cabin.
“Do what?”
She pressed her hand against his chest and pushed away, far enough so their eyes could meet. Gesturing between them, she said, “This. Be together.”
A knife to the heart would’ve been less painful.
He jerked his head back, shock reverberating through him. A million questions ran through his mind, but the only one he could utter was, “Why?”
“I want it, Hud. I wantyou.”
“Then what’s the fucking problem?”
“Circumstances.”
“Circumstances?” He coughed out an incredulous bark of laughter. “What the fuck do circumstances have to do with anything?”
“I know you.” She covered his mouth with her fingers when he opened it to reply. “Shut up and let me say this.”
He clenched his teeth, his jaw tightening as he forced himself to be quiet and listen to what she had to say, when all he wanted to do was kiss her to shut her up, to stop the words from coming out of her mouth.
“I know you,” she said again, “and I know how you’ll be. You’re gonna try to make sure everything is okay for us back here—for your momma and your sister.”
“Of course I will,” he said through her fingers.
“And there’s nothing I can do about that. It’s already gonna divide your attention from where it should be—on your safety.”
He gripped her wrist and pulled her hand away from his mouth. “I don’t get what any of that has to do with this. Withus.”
“I can’t stop you from bein’ you.” She reached up and cupped his cheeks, running her thumbs over them. “I wouldn’t want to. But I can stop you from spreading yourself even thinner. From splitting your focus even more.”
“My focus will be fine.”
She cocked her head to the side. “If you have your momma and sister to worry about, while also trying to maintain a relationship with me when you’re in the middle of God knows where, how much attention will you have left to focus on you? On your safety?”
“Enough,” he said sharply, his tone harsh in the otherwise quiet room.
“It won’t be, and you know it.”
“You think I wouldn’t be tryin’ to maintain our friendship while I’m there? A relationship is no different.”
“It is, and you know it. Our friendship doesn’t need to be maintained. It justis.And it always will be. I need you to go over there, firm in that certainty. This is different. It’s new and unknown, and I don’t wanna pile that on your plate.”
“We’re great together, Kenna.” He shifted her so she was straddling him. “You know we are.”
“I’m not sayin’ we aren’t great together.” She gasped when he found her bare ass under his shirt, biting her lip as he tugged her forward until his cock pressed against her. “I’m sayin’ I don’t want to be the reason something happens to you. Because you were distracted.”
“You’re gonna be a distraction one way or another.”
She shook her head, even as her lips parted. He’d worked his shirt up and off her, pulling her close enough so her hard nipples rasped against his chest. “Not like that. I can’t. I ca—” She cut off on a moan when he sucked a nipple into his mouth, causing her to arch against him. “Hudson. This doesn’t—”
But he slanted his mouth over hers, cutting off whatever she was going to say. He hadn’t dreamed up how good it’d been between them. How hot, how explosive. They were more than great together. They were fuckingperfect. And he was going to spend however long he needed to reminding her of that, showing her exactly what he needed her to see.
Because he’d be damned if he lost her before he’d ever really had her.
Hudson didn’t let Mac speak…hadn’tlet her speak. No matter how many times she’d opened her mouth to tell him this didn’t change anything, he’d steal her breath away. With his fingers, his mouth, his cock.
