I wasn’t sure who moved first. One minute, our eyes were locked, both pissed off at each other, and in the next, our bodies were pressed together, lips fused and tongues entwined. Groaning into her mouth, I gripped her ass and hauled her up against me as she clutched my face to hers.
Christ, she infuriated me, but I loved that about her too. Loved every mind-boggling, frustrating, irritating part of her. I’d tried turning it off. Tried forgetting. Tried distractions. Nothing had helped.
Every day for the past ten years, it’d been Kenna on my mind. Kenna in my heart. And I’d be damned if I was going to let her run scared from this without putting up a fight for her.
“Stop fightin’ this.” I pressed her up against the nearest wall and nipped her neck, needing to get to as much of her as I could.
As if reading my 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 we were on each other again, hands roaming and grasping and kneading as we kissed until we were both breathless.
I set her down only long enough to strip her of her pants and underwear, and then I lifted her into my arms again, desperate to make her see. Help her realize that what we 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,” I said into her neck, my fingers digging into her bare ass as she rubbed her pussy all over the front of my jeans.
I didn’t care that they’d no doubt be wet with her arousal by the time we were done. Didn’t care if I walked around town like that either. I wanted everyone in Havenbrook—hell, everyone in the whole fucking world—to know I was hers. I’d wanted that title for fifteen years, and now that it was finally in my grasp, I sure as hell wasn’t going to just walk away.
“Hud,” she breathed, her head tossed back, bra-covered tits thrust into my face.
I took her unspoken invitation and sucked one deep into my mouth, scraping my teeth along the pebbled tip through the material. She jerked, gasping as the pain no doubt mixed with pleasure, but I didn’t care. I wanted it to hurt a little. A physical manifestation of what my heart felt like. Absolutely fucking wrecked. I felt like an animal backed into a corner. Wild and crazed and desperate. For her. For us.
With jerky movements, I pulled on the button and zipper of my jeans, yanking them only wide enough to free my cock. And then I was sinking into her without another thought, just knowing I had to get as close to her as possible.
Had to remind her that us 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 somehowfinding 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.” I pumped my hips faster, urged on by her moans and her nails digging into my neck. How her pussy rippled around me, teasing her release. “I won’t let you give up on us.”
“I can’t?—”
I couldn’t stand to hear her roadblocks. Not now. Not when I was inside her after baring my soul to her. So, I stopped her words with my lips and my tongue. With my driving thrusts and my fingers digging into her ass and my thumb pressed against her clit.
When I felt her tense up, my name a whispered plea on her lips as she pulsed around my cock, I let myself fall with her. Our eyes locked as I spilled into her, both of our gazes saying a thousand words in the silence.
I just feared we weren’t speaking the same language.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
MAC
We forgot to use a condom.From the moment Hudson had dropped the big ILY bomb to right this second as I was still wrapped around him, attempting to catch my breath, I hadn’t eventhoughtabout making him wrap up.
And from the whispered, “Fuck,” from him as he pulled out and set me on my feet, it hadn’t occurred to him either.
And that was the whole problem.
I couldn’t afford to be distracted now. And despite what he’d said, my familydidneed me. My town needed me, too. I’d skated by for too much of my life, failing the people who were closest to me, and I couldn’t do that again. I wouldn’t.
Without looking at him, I gathered up my scattered clothes, pulling my sweater over my head and stepping into my panties before escaping upstairs. I needed some space to breathe. To think. To come up with some kind of plan that wouldn’t end in both our devastation.
Except nothing came to me. I wasn’t even sure we 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 I did. He was always going to be leaving, and I was always going to have to stay.
Which left me with one option.
The backs of my eyes prickled with tears, my throat going tight. God, this was going to hurt even worse than the last time. But maybe, since I had plenty to occupy my 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 my bathroom door, and I finished cleaning up before pulling on my pants. I definitely wasn’t going to have this conversation half naked because we’d almost certainly end up in bed again. And as much as I loved what he did to me with that insane body of his, I couldn’t go down that path again. Not after I’d made my decision.
“Kenna, open up,” he said, his tone soft but firm. “We need to talk.”
