A nearly hysterical laugh escaped me. “Oh, I thought you—” I shook my head, cutting myself off. “Never mind.”
He was quiet for a moment. Then when he spoke, his voice was low and rough, barely a whisper between us. “You thought I was askin’ what you’d do if we didn’t have these layers of clothes between us?”
I managed to get out some sort of garbled mix of vowel sounds.
He chuckled. “Good as it feels to have your tight little ass tucked all nice and snug against my cock, and as much as I’d love to do nothing more than strip off the rest of your clothes and reacquaint myself with the delicious taste of your pussy, I think discussin’ this is probably a safer bet.” He shifted behind me, the movement doing nothing to hide the steel pipe pressed against my backside. “Besides that, I want you to want it, Kenna. Really want it. Because you know I do.”
Oh, I wanted it, all right. Wanted it so desperately my body was aching for him, wet and ready. My nipples were hard points against the cotton of my shirt, and it had nothing to do with the chill in the air and everything to do with the mind-numbingcircles he was tracing against my lower belly, directly above my panties.
Three inches… He only had to lower his hand three inches, and he could make me see stars.
“What—what was the question?” I finally managed.
His cheek puffed up against me as he smiled. “If you had free rein to do whatever you wanted to in Havenbrook, what would you do?”
I sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly, ignoring the way the move pushed me up against him. “I’m not even sure.”
“Yeah, you are. I know you’ve got a dozen ideas floating in your head. I wanna hear what they are.”
I stilled for a moment, my breath held in my lungs, before I exhaled and poured out all the thoughts I had of what I’d do for my hometown—reinvesting real money in the Square to make it not only a destination but astaying pointto keep people my age and younger in Havenbrook. Maybe offer some sort of bonus to entice entrepreneurs to bring their businesses there. And, of course, finally fund and educate a true SAR team.
He hadn’t talked through any of my ramblings, just letting me spill my ideas into the quiet night air between us.
When I was done, he squeezed me tighter. “You should do it, then. All of it.”
“Hud…” I said, my voice incredulous. “I can’t just…like,dowhatever the hell I want.”
“Why not? Your daddy’s been doin’ it for years, and nobody’s had a damn thing to say about it. Why can’t you do the same thing?”
The question hung in the air between us, playing on a loop in my mind and lulling me to sleep as Hudson’s warmth seeped into my skin and his encouragement seeped into my bones.
Making me feel like maybe, just maybe, I could be the woman he’d somehow always seen me as.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
HUDSON
I woketo Kenna’s ass nestled right up against my groin and her breast filling my palm. Without thought, I squeezed the soft flesh, my thumb stroking over her pebbled nipple.
It was still dark out, though no longer pitch black. Predawn hours and definitely too early to get up, but something had woken me from a dream. A dream in which Kenna had been rocking into me, begging me to fuck her from behind.
It’d seemed so real, and now I knew why—because I’d been acting it out in real life. Had even managed to slip my hand under the shirt she still wore so we were skin on skin.
Goddamn.
As much as I wanted nothing more than to memorize the exact size and shape of her breasts by feel alone, I wasn’t a fucking creep, and I certainly wasn’t going to do this without her consent.
I eased my hips back, lifting to pull my hand away, when she reached up, interlocking our fingers and keeping my palm right where it was.
“Hud…” she breathed, her hips rocking back into me, seeking the friction I’d taken away.
It may have been a long time since we’d been together, but my body still remembered what she liked. I pinched her nipple between my thumb and forefinger, twisting lightly, as I pressed up against her, no longer trying to hide the painful erection nestled against her ass.
“Tell me you’re awake,” I whispered into her neck, my voice rough and desperate.
“Awake and wet as hell, thanks to you.”
“Jesus, Kenna. You gonna let me feel?” I brushed an openmouthed kiss against her shoulder, pushing aside the wide neck of her T-shirt with my jaw.
