But that wasn’t the path he’d chosen. What would his dad say if he quit now? If he gave up his career in the army, all because he was homesick?
As he looked down into Kenna’s eyes, hers searching and just as hungry as his were, he knew he wasn’t just homesick. He was Kennasick. Not a day had gone by since he’d left where he didn’t feel that ache in his chest, the desperate need to talk to her, touch her, hold her, nearly overwhelming sometimes. Made all the worse because the only place he could do any of it was in his dreams.
He didn’t have to dream about it now, though. Not when she was pressed right up against him, her fingers still tucked in his waistband and her breasts pushing against his chest with every inhale.
“You’re amazin’, you know that?” he said, his voice thick and rough.
She started shaking her head, but he didn’t let her voice her objection. Instead, he wrapped his hand around her neck, his thumb lifting her chin up and presenting her mouth to him, and he leaned down to press his lips to hers. Softly, at first. Slow enough that he would know the second she didn’t want this. But when no protests came…when, instead, she lifted on her toes to chase his lips as he pulled away, he didn’t wait another breath before sweeping his tongue into her mouth and groaning at the taste of her.
Christ, he’d missed this. Hadn’t had nearly enough of it in the days before he’d left for good. Their weekend together ten years ago had been only a blip on the calendar, a tiny portion of all the time they’d spent together their whole lives, but it’d been what he’d thought of the most while he’d been gone. It’d kept him company in his bunk when he’d been stationed all over the world. Had kept him sane while transporting VIPs safely from Point A to Point B.
And now that he had her like this again, he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to walk away.
Mac’s panties were at dangerous risk of catching on fire. In fact, she wouldn’t be surprised if she looked down and found her jeans had combusted right along with them. But of course, she couldn’t look down—not when Hudson was kissing her like she was oxygen and he was cresting water for the first time in an eternity.
There was no denying the heat that still crackled between them. They were hot and hungry, hands grasping and pulling. Tugging and cupping and squeezing, and she was barely sane enough to quiet the whisper in her mind that begged her to strip right there in the middle of the woods and take him deep inside her. Let him love her like that, even if he hadn’t loved her enough to stay.
“Kenna,” he breathed, his mouth trailing over her jaw and down her neck. He cupped her breasts in both palms, lifting and squeezing, his thumbs plucking her nipples and sending jolts of electricity straight to her clit.
Lord almighty, she was needy for him. Needy and wet and absolutely aching to feel him filling her up. Feel his hands inside her panties, his fingers separating her, his tongue licking straight up her center.
“Hud,” she panted in response, her fingers thrust through his short hair, his hat long gone on the forest floor.
Needing to get closer, desperate to relieve the incessant throb in her center, she hooked her leg around his hip, and he groaned into her neck. And then suddenly, she was in the air, her feet off the ground as both his hands gripped just below her ass.
“Need to feel you…” he rasped into her neck.
She certainly wasn’t going to disagree, desperate to feel him too. Wrapping her legs around him, she tugged him closer, groaning into his mouth when the hard, thick ridge of his cock pressed up against her.
And then, without thought, she began to rock. Her hips started up a rhythm all on their own, a rough slide that had him groaning her name and dropping his forehead to her shoulder as he grasped her thighs.
“Christ, do you know how many times I’ve thought about this?” His voice was thick and rough and so damn needy she could hardly breathe. “How many times I imagined you ridin’ my cock just like this? Rubbin’ that hot little pussy all over me?” He guided her harder against him, pinning her to the tree trunk as he swiveled his hips into the cradle of her thighs. “Except when I think about it, there aren’t any goddamn clothes between us. Nothing stoppin’ me from lickin’ up all your sweetness. Nothing gettin’ in the way of you soakin’ my dick.”
She choked out a sob, her eyes squeezing shut as the orgasm slammed into her without warning, his words, along with the incessant rocking of his cock against her, igniting the flame inside her and turning her body into an inferno.
Unable to do anything but pant through her release, she clung to Hudson as he kept up the rhythm, using his hands to move her just like he wanted. Prolonging her pleasure…as well as increasing his torture, if the rough groans coming from his chest were any indication.
When she finally felt like she could catch her breath and had safely settled back into her body after her orgasm blew her straight into the clouds, she held him tighter, clutching his head to her chest. She pressed her mouth against his ear, brushing her bottom lip along the shell and delighting in the groan that sounded as if it were ripped from his chest. Delighting in the way his fingers dug into the flesh of her ass even harder. In the way he rocked her faster and faster against him.
In that moment, their history didn’t matter. Her heart didn’t ache for the man who’d gone missing from her life, because he was there now. He was there with her, pressed as close as they could get without him being inside her, and she wanted to live in that moment with him forever. Wanted to leave everything else—all the baggage they had—behind and just revel in this.
“I thought about it too, you know,” she said, locking her ankles at the small of his back, pressing him tighter to the seam of her jeans. The friction against her sensitive clit was enough to make her gasp, her eyes fluttering when he didn’t let up, instead exploiting her newfound weakness.
“Tell me,” he demanded, his voice ragged with need.
“I—” She broke off on a moan when he pressed into her hard, swiveling his hips as he pinned her to the tree.
“Tell me, Kenna.”
The commanding note in his voice didn’t do anything to alleviate the fire he was stoking in her panties—the one she was so certain had been extinguished only moments before. And when he reached up, pinching her hardened nipple between his thumb and forefinger, the words just tumbled right out of her mouth.
“I thought about you and me—at the cabin,” she said, her words shooting out between panting breaths. “Replayed everything we did that weekend. When you sucked on my nipples. When you licked my clit. When you were inside me.”
“Christ.”
And then she couldn’t talk anymore because his thrusts became animalistic, his fingers gripping her so tightly, she was certain she’d have bruises tomorrow, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care because she was coming. Again. In the arms of the only man she’d ever loved with her whole heart. And he was coming right along with her.
He held her close and groaned into her neck as he jerked against her, his breaths sweeping across her overheated skin.
They stood like that for long moments, Hudson’s forehead pressed to her clavicle as they both tried to catch their breath. She ran her short nails over his scalp, down his neck, and across his shoulders, needing to touch him. She’d have to unhook her ankles from around him at some point, but she didn’t want to. Not yet. And since Hudson didn’t seem any more inclined to let her down than she was to be put down, she stayed wrapped around him, just like that.
Finally, his warm breath puffed against her as he let out a low chuckle. “Pretty sure the last time I came in my pants, it was because of you, too.”
She smiled, her cheek lifting against the top of his head. “I’d say I’m sorry, but you just made me come twice, so…”
He lifted his head and pulled back to look at her, his brows lifted. “So, you’d be lyin’?”
“Definitely.”
His white teeth flashed in a smile, and then he pressed his lips to hers, the kiss soft an
d sweet and slow. Even when his tongue swept into her mouth, it wasn’t hurried. Nothing like the frantic dry-hump they’d just participated in. God, he hadn’t even had to get her naked to make her come harder than she had in recent—or distant—memory.
He ran his hands up and down the length of her thighs, his caresses igniting something in her all over again. That couldn’t be normal. Why couldn’t she seem to get enough of him?
Eventually, he slowed the kiss even more, backing off and pressing two small pecks to her lips before pulling away. “Much as I’d love to keep kissin’ you, things are gettin’ a little uncomfortable down south.”
She couldn’t stop the laugh from bursting forth. And though he scowled at her initially, eventually a smile swept over his mouth.
“I don’t guess you have an extra pair of boxer briefs in that backpack of yours, do you?” he asked, a hopeful note in his voice.
“No, but I’ve got some wet wipes.”
“You,” he said, pressing a kiss to her lips, “are an angel.” He reached back and unhooked her ankles from the small of his back, then guided her body down the front of him, grimacing as she slid over his fly.
She cringed right along with him, imagining the unpleasantness that awaited in his pants. Being a woman sucked in a lot of ways—periods and menopause and pregnancies, not to mention the host of other bullshit they were forced to endure—but she couldn’t deny they got the better end of the orgasm deal.
Bending down to where her backpack had fallen, she riffled through the contents and handed him the small travel pack when she found it.
“See? An angel,” he said, plucking the package from her and undoing the button on his jeans with a wince.
“I’m just gonna…” She hooked her thumb in the opposite direction, hefting the backpack over her shoulder as she gave him some privacy to take care of his…situation.
It took her only a minute of walking before she realized she was smiling. Just out there, trudging through the forest, completely sated and grinning like a fool. Even knowing what her day was going to entail. That she was going to have to, somehow, figure out how to do her daddy’s job well enough so he could rest and recuperate.
She was grinning because, without warning, hope surged in her chest, fierce and unrelenting. And even though she didn’t want to feel it—hadn’t dared to feel it for so long—she couldn’t deny that it felt right. Somehow, with Hud, it felt right.
Not wanting to get separated from him, she turned around after putting out another flag for Ella and strode back in the direction from which she’d come.
When she was close to where she’d left him, his voice rang out. “It’s fine, sir.”
She furrowed her brow. Who was he talking to? No one came out here except her and Ella, and Ella was at school. And also not a sir. It didn’t take her long to realize the one-sided conversation must’ve been a phone call, which she confirmed a moment later when he came into view, his head bowed as he held his cell to his ear.
He nodded at something the other person said, his lips pressed into a tight line. Whoever was on the other end of the call wasn’t someone Hudson was thrilled to talk to.
A branch snapped under her boots, and his eyes lifted, locking on hers immediately. “Will do, sir.” Without another word, he ended the call and pocketed his phone.
“Hey,” he said, his tone quiet. Reserved. So different from the man who growled about her riding him not even ten minutes before.
She forced a smile, though it felt like the corners of her mouth weighed two tons. “You get all cleaned up?”
“Yeah, thanks.” His legs ate up the space between them in two long strides, and he bent down to press a kiss to her lips. As good as they felt against hers, she couldn’t deny that they still felt…off somehow.
Her stomach ached, though she didn’t understand why. All that hope she’d felt only minutes ago had been replaced by dread and uncertainty. She didn’t want to know who that call was from, but on some level, she was desperate to and couldn’t stop herself from asking. “Who was that?”
His pause lasted only a moment. “My commanding officer.”
The small ache that had bubbled up in her gut suddenly filled every inch of her body. “Oh?” she managed to get out through the boulder currently lodged in her throat. “Bad news?”
He squeezed her hand, dipping his head to try to catch her eyes, imploring her for…something. “No, not bad news. Just discussin’.” He cleared his throat. “My next deployment.”
She was in free fall, the bottom dropping out from under her as her heart jumped into her throat. Without thought, she nodded, over and over again, until she felt like a bobblehead. A bobbleheaded idiot.
Apparently, she hadn’t learned her lesson last time. Apparently, ten years of near-constant heartache weren’t enough to get through her thick skull that maybe, just maybe, she shouldn’t allow Hudson into her life again like she had before. She knew from experience he was the single soul in the entire universe with the power to break her, and yet she’d willingly walked right into his arms. Again.
Even when it was her own damn rules, she couldn’t stick to them. Just one more thing she failed at.
Well, that was enough of that. She needed to put her guard back up, erect those walls around her heart that had served her well for so long, because she couldn’t afford to lose her head around him. Not when it was her heart on the line.
Thank God they’d only taken things as far as they had. Thank God she hadn’t slept with him again. Because heaven knew if she opened herself up to him like that, allowed him into her body, her heart was a goner. And that was a price she couldn’t afford to pay.
It was a risk she wasn’t willing to take.
Now she only had to remind herself of that every day for the next fifteen days until he left. Had to remind herself not to fall into those whiskey-colored eyes. Not to be swept away by his sweet words and sweeter demeanor. Or worse, by his dirty words and dirtier demeanor.
Because it was way too easy to fall right back into old patterns with Hudson, and she needed her feet firmly planted on the ground if she had any hope of surviving this once he was gone.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch?” Lilah asked from her perch on a ladder.
Caleb snorted from where he squatted on the floor, holding the other end of the blue tape they were placing diagonally along the back wall of The Sweet Spot.
Christ, Hudson should’ve stayed home instead of coming by to help Lilah paint before the new hardwood floors were laid later in the week. Cleaning out gutters would’ve been better than this.
“Bite me.” Okay, so it wasn’t his most mature response, but his little sister always managed to bring out the asshole teenager in him.
But he could admit—at least to himself—that she wasn’t far off. He’d been stomping around the bakery all morning as they’d worked on the diamond design Lilah was obsessed with for the walls, his mind constantly replaying the interaction with Kenna the other day.
The days were slipping away from him, the time he had to spend with her vanishing before his eyes, and he felt like he was grasping at air. While she hadn’t flat out ignored him, it seemed a hell of a lot like she’d been avoiding him. Ever since their encounter in the woods. And if he had to bet on it, he’d say it had nothing to do with their hot and heavy tree trunk activities and everything to do with the call he’d gotten after. He’d watched the life drain from her eyes the moment he’d told her who’d called and had kicked himself every second since.
Why the hell had he told her? Better yet, why the hell had he taken the call in the first place? He was on leave, which meant he didn’t need to answer to his commanding officer—the call could’ve easily been returned later that day when he was by himself. But habit had him answering without a second thought, and look where that got him.
“Your attitude have anything to do with the situation with the Havens?” Lilah asked.
Hudson snapped his head in h
er direction, his brow furrowed. “What situation?”
She glanced back at him over her shoulder, arms stretched to reach the top corner of the wall. “You know, the whole thing with Mac’s daddy.”
“Obviously, I don’t, or I wouldn’t be askin’ about it,” he said, unable to keep the frustration from seeping into his tone.
“See?” she said, pointing a finger at him. “Panties in a damn twist.”
“And here I always thought it’d be nice to have a sibling,” Caleb said.
Hudson closed his eyes, prayed for patience, and blew out a long breath. “What situation, Lilah?”
She gripped the sides of the ladder as she climbed down, then scooted it a few inches to the left. “You know, all the medical stuff. You seriously haven’t heard about it? It’s been the talk of the town.”
Considering he’d spent most of his time this week at the cabin, trying to get that in shape before he left, he wasn’t exactly pining for gossip. He gave a sharp shake of his head.
“Well, I guess Richard had a heart scare or something,” she said, her voice soft.
“He what? When?”
“Last weekend.”
Before Hudson’s trip into the woods with Kenna. Had that been her shitshow of a day she’d mentioned? But why hadn’t she told him? She and her dad had never been close, but this still had to have hit her hard, especially considering that was how her grandpa had passed away. Had she been hurting and scared that day, and he’d rutted into her like a fucking animal?
“What happened?” he managed to ask through his tight throat.
“Dunno the specifics, but that’s why Mac’s been runnin’ around town like a chicken with her head cut off. Tryin’ to keep up with everything her daddy had goin’, while also tryin’ to keep him from doin’ everything he’s not supposed to.” She rolled her eyes, then gestured between him and Caleb. “In case either of y’all are helpin’ in here while you’re home, he’s not allowed anything. At least not yet. I’m workin’ on a new gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free recipe.”
Captain Heartbreaker (Havenbrook Book 4) Page 10
