“I—” She swallowed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not. It’s just… It’s too hard right now.”
“This is fucking unbelievable.” With his hands propped on his hips, he walked in a tight circle, his mind racing as his anger built. “I can’t do this again, Kenna. I can’t be halfway around the world and not know you’re mine.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t be here with you halfway around the world, not knowin’ if you’re safe or even alive, and still do the job the people in my family and this town are countin’ on me to do!” Her voice rose with each word until she lobbed them at him like grenades.
Matching her volume, he said, “This isbullshit! It’s ten years ago all over again. We’re not gonna be together because it’s gonna behard, even though it’s obvious we love each other?”
Kenna squeaked, her eyes widening as she brought up her hand to cover her mouth.
“Yeah, I said it!” He threw his arms out to the sides. “I love you. I’minlove with you and have been as long as I can remember. Feels like it’s been my whole goddamn life, and it’s not goin’ away, Kenna. It’snot. Distance didn’t change it. Time sure as hell didn’t change it. It’s here—” he tapped his chest, right over his heart “—and it’s permanent, and there’s nothing either of us can do about it.”
He wasn’t sure who moved first. One minute, their eyes were locked, both pissed off at each other, and in the next, their bodies were pressed together, lips fused and tongues entwined. Groaning into her mouth, he gripped her ass and hauled her up against him as she clutched his head to her.
Christ, she infuriated him, but he loved that about her too. Loved every mind-boggling, frustrating, irritating part of her. He’d tried turning it off. Tried forgetting. Tried distractions. Nothing had helped.
Every day for the past ten years, it’d been Kenna on his mind. Kenna in his heart. And he’d be damned if he was going to let her run scared from this without putting up a fight for her.
“Stop fightin’ this.” He pressed her up against the nearest wall and nipped her neck, needing to get to as much of her as he could.
As if reading his mind, she struggled to pull off her coat and tossed it somewhere to the side before she yanked her sweater over her head and threw it in the same direction. And then they were on each other again, hands roaming and grasping and kneading as they kissed until they were both breathless.
He set her down only long enough to strip her of her pants and underwear, and then he lifted her into his arms again, desperate to make her see. Help her realize that what they had wasn’t normal. It wasn’t run-of-the-mill and didn’t come along around every corner. It was special, something to be cherished and protected. Just like her.
“Ineedyou,” he said into her neck, his fingers digging into her bare ass as she rubbed her pussy all over the front of his jeans.
He didn’t care that they’d no doubt be wet with her arousal by the time they were done. Didn’t care if he walked around town like that either. He wanted everyone in Havenbrook—hell, everyone in the whole fucking world—to know he was hers. He’d wanted that title for fifteen years, and now that it was finally in his grasp, he sure as hell wasn’t going to just walk away.
“Hud,” she breathed, her head tossed back, bra-covered tits thrust into his face.
He took her unspoken invitation and sucked one deep into his mouth, scraping his teeth along the pebbled tip through the material. She jerked, gasping as the pain no doubt mixed with pleasure, but he didn’t care. He wanted it to hurt a little. A physical manifestation of what his heart felt like. Absolutely fucking wrecked. He felt like an animal backed into a corner. Wild and crazed and desperate. For her. For them.
With jerky movements, he pulled on the button and zipper of his jeans, yanking them only wide enough to free his cock. And then he was sinking into her without another thought, just knowing he had to get as close to her as possible. Had to remind her that them being together was magic. It was climbing to the top of the Ridge, or watching the fireworks on Havenbrook Lake while lying in a boat and staring up at the sky. It was lazy Sundays in the hammock, and Christmas morning at home. It was finding the single person your soul clicked with at only eight years old. And somehow finding them in your tiny little pocket of the world, despite the billions of others searching for their soul mates.
“Webelongtogether, Kenna. You can’t deny that. You can’t tell me you don’t feel exactly how much we do. Every inch of you was made for me. Every fucking inch, even this sweet pussy.” He pumped his hips faster, urged on by her moans and her nails digging into his neck. How her pussy rippled around him, teasing her release. “I won’t let you give up on us.”
“I can’t—”
He couldn’t stand to hear her roadblocks. Not now. Not when he was inside her after baring his soul to her. So, he stopped her words with his lips and his tongue. With his driving thrusts and his fingers digging into her ass and his thumb pressed against her clit.
When he felt her tense up, his name a whispered plea on her lips as she pulsed around his cock, he let himself fall with her. Their eyes locked as he spilled into her, both of their gazes saying a thousand words in the silence.
He just feared they weren’t speaking the same language.
They forgot to use a condom.From the moment Hudson had dropped the big ILY bomb to right this second as Mac was still wrapped around him, attempting to catch her breath, she hadn’t eventhoughtabout making him wrap up. And from the whispered, “Fuck,” from him as he pulled out and set her on her feet, it hadn’t occurred to him either.
And that was the whole problem.
She couldn’t afford to be distracted now. And despite what Hudson had said, her familydidneed her. Her town needed her, too. She’d skated by for too much of her life, failing the people who were closest to her, and she couldn’t do that again. She wouldn’t.
Without looking at him, she gathered up her scattered clothes, pulling her sweater over her head and stepping into her panties before escaping upstairs. She needed some space to breathe. To think. To come up with some kind of plan that wouldn’t end in both their devastation.
Except nothing came to her. She wasn’t even sure they could make this work if he lived in Havenbrook, but it didn’t matter because that wasn’t his reality. He had obligations, just like she did. He was always going to be leaving, and she’s always going to have to stay.
Which left her with one option.
The backs of her eyes prickled with tears, her throat going tight. God, this was going to hurt even worse than the last time. But maybe, since she had plenty to occupy her mind and the distraction of trying to keep Havenbrook running, it wouldn’t be so bad. And even though Hudson still had a few more days in town, there was no sense in prolonging the inevitable, right?
A soft knock sounded on her bathroom door, and she finished cleaning up before pulling on her pants. She definitely wasn’t going to have this conversation half naked because they’d almost certainly end up in bed again. And as much as she loved what he did to her with that insane body of his, she couldn’t go down that path again. Not after she’d made her decision.
