by Baker, Tory
Tonight, we’re heading to his place to look at the progress and to see if we can salvage some of the tiles from the upstairs bathroom.
“I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done so far.” I’m squirming in the passenger seat of Hudson’s truck. Beau is in the back seat, snuggled into Hudson’s discarded jacket.
“I figure we’ll stay there tonight, get up early, and head back into town. That okay with you?”
“Yes, even if it means we have to wake up an extra hour early,” I grouse.
“I’ll make it worth your while. Plus, you love my bed. You’ve complained all week how mine is better than yours. This will give us a chance to have it for a night because, after this weekend, we’ll probably be blocked off as they mud, sand and texture the walls.”
“I mean, that’s exciting and all, but that means we’re out of your bed for a whole week. I’m so going to miss it,” I say on a sigh.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you loved my bed more than me.”
“No way, you are way better, but your bed is a close second.” My face flushes as I think about how he woke me up a few times this week. Hudson would wake me up with his head between my legs. One time, I could have sworn it was a dream. My body knew the rest of the time, though, and I even woke him up the same way once to return the favor. Of course, I had to set my alarm clock and pray he didn’t hear it, which he didn’t.
“That’s good to know you love me more,” Hudson says.
I’ve tried to get the nerve up enough to tell him my true feelings, but I keep chickening out, so now is my chance. I’m going to say exactly how I feel. “I do. I mean, I do love you, Hudson. You have to know that by now.” We’ve just reached his house as I’m spilling my feelings to him.
“Thank fuck. I was worried you were going to say you loved my bed and not me.” He throws the truck in park, pulling me over the center console. I straddle his lap, and his hands find my hair, holding it like he always does as he says, “I love you, Jules Marie Russell. Every day I get to wake up with you, I get to fall asleep with you. You’re my whole damn world.”
“Oh gosh, you’re making me cry.” I nosedive into the side of his neck, trying to get as close as I can to him. I want him surrounding my whole body.
“Well, can I at least kiss my woman before she gets weepy?” His hands tighten in my hair, tipping my head back.
The pure dominance he exudes makes me whimper, “Hudson.”
“Yeah, baby, I’m going to make you mine tonight in the bed you seem to love just as much as me.”
I imagine us in his bed, the curtains down, my hands raised above my head while he pins them down with one fist as he takes me deep and hard.
“I need that, Hudson, so much.” My hips press down, feeling the hardness of his cock.
“What are you thinking about, gorgeous?” he asks.
My eyelids flutter close, knowing that Hudson will make all of my fantasies come true. “I’m thinking about everything you will do to me, with me, and for me in that big bed of yours. It’s a heady feeling the way you’re so attuned to my needs and wants.” My voice has taken on a quality of desire and heat, making it sound huskier than before.
“You’ll have to tell me what’s running in your thoughts, and I can promise you one thing. Not only will I deliver, but we’ll make them become a reality so they’re that much better.” With that, he grabs my hip, stopping me from grinding down on him. Hudson’s hand is in my hair as he manipulates me, so my mouth is now level with his, and he takes it. God, does he take what he wants. Our lips meet, our tongues chasing one another’s. Hudson tilts my hips the right way, and I’m rubbing up against him like a kitten. My head tilts back on my shoulders, Hudson allowing it as he rains kisses up and down my neck.
“That’s it, Jules. Come just like this. Your body is on fire for mine. I bet I could open my jeans, move your panties to the side, and slide right in. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, having me lose my mind and take you for the first time in my truck?”
I come apart in his arms as he finishes his sentence. “Hudson.” My voice is weak sounding, and my body slumps over him.
“So pretty when you fall apart for me. Let’s get you inside so I can feel you come on my cock.” Hudson opens the truck door and slides out with me still wrapped around him. He doesn’t let me go, even when he opens the back door to let Beau out. We’re inside with a few slams of a door, and he’s striding toward the bedroom.
23
Hudson
I had one thought on my mind and only one thought. I wanted inside of Jules more than anything, and tonight, that’s exactly what the both of us are going to get.
We make it inside my bedroom, and I shut the door on my way in. I really do love Beau, but he can sleep in his dog bed for now.
Jules slides down my body as she whimpers. I love the sundresses she’s been wearing lately, but her in a skirt with a tank top and a pair of sandals has to be my favorite, especially right now.
“You going to show me that pretty body of yours, gorgeous?” I ask.
“Only if you’ll show me yours.” She’s already kicking off her shoes and lifting her top over her head.
I watch as her bare chest comes into view, and fuck me running. My woman wasn’t wearing a bra today. There was nothing hiding those dusky brown nipples from getting my hands on them, and I had no idea. She left her apartment before I was up today, something that was a rarity, but she had a shipment come in for stationary she sells and had to be there to sign for it. Next time, though, that shit won’t be happening.
“You mean to tell me that you walked around all day in that shirt, with no bra underneath?” I question.
“It has a built-in shelf bra.” She shrugs her shoulders, making her breasts bounce, and my eyes zero in on their movement.
“Keep going,” I grunt out as I unbutton my flannel shirt. Jules stutters in her strip show. I let her look as my flannel shirt hits the floor before I strip out of my undershirt I wore beneath it. I’m left in my boots and jeans. When I stop what I’m doing, Jules seems to understand that I’m waiting on her.
She pulls down her flowy skirt, leaving her standing there in nothing but a thong, and I do the one thing I need to do. I go after her, lifting her up and placing her in the middle of the bed.
Pillows are surrounding her, something she said it needed after she saw them in a shop downtown.
“I want you to play with your nipples while watching me, and Jules?”
“Yes?” Her hand slowly teases the side of her stomach, going near her lace thong she’s wearing.
“You quit playing, I’ll quit stripping. It’ll only make me draw this out longer.” I unbuckle my belt, whipping it out of my jeans. I see the desire in her eyes when I place it on the bed. Jules has one hand torturing her nipple, while the other one is dipped below her lacey garment, and I can see her playing with her clit.
“Hurry, Hudson,” she pleads. I take the rest of my clothes off before coming up between her spread legs. Jules’ hips are lifting up, trying to chase her own orgasm. I’m not going to let that happen.
“Stop,” I demand. She whines a complaint, but it’s incoherent, and her hands are still moving beneath her panties.
I take matters into my own hands. Grabbing her by her hips, I flip her over onto her hands and knees, tearing the thong she has on in two. I watch her fingers, glistening with her wetness for a few seconds before my hand comes down on her ass. “More,” she moans.
“God damn, you were made for me.” Instead of it making her stop, it only spurs her on. I smack her ass a few more times until it’s pink, not in the same place each time, though; I don’t want her bruised. I only want her to feel the pleasurable sting while I take her from behind. When I get to the inner curve of her ass, I tell her, “Move that hand away.” She does as I say, and when the palm of my hand smacks the side of her pussy, it has her clenching. The way her body is arched, her shoulders down on the mattr
ess, her body glistening with perspiration, I know she’s on the verge of coming. Too bad that won’t happen.
“You ready for me, Jules?”
“God, yes,” she pleads with me.
I line my hard cock up to the entrance of her pussy, knowing I’ll have her every way I can tonight. My hands grasp her by her hips, and I slowly slide inside her, inch by painful inch. Her pussy clenches down on the head of my cock. It has me throwing my head back and groaning.
“More, please more. I need to feel all of you.” Her hand not holding onto the comforter comes up, reaching for my hand on her hip. She spurs me into action, and I sink all the way inside her.
“This right here is the most beautiful gift you could ever give me, Jules,” I whisper in her ear as I go down on my hands, caging her body with my own.
Her hips move back, in tune with my every thrust. We’re both moving slowly, building each other up until Jules’ moans grow louder, her movements getting more erratic.
“Play with that pretty clit of yours, gorgeous,” I say.
I feel her hand move down. Every time she pets her clit, her fingers graze the shaft of my cock as it tunnels in and out of her tight pussy.
When she clenches down on me, I know we’re both about to explode. My lips find hers as we swallow each other’s moans as I come inside her, praying like hell she isn’t on birth control. I want my seed deep inside her, making a baby with Jules.
Our bodies are spent. I’m draped over her body, and she’s welcoming my weight, our sweat-slicked skin cooling off with the hum of the ceiling fan.
“This is heaven, Hudson. Pure heaven.” I can hear the happiness in her voice.
“It’s only the beginning, Jules.” I move off of her, going to my side, so we’re now facing one another.
“I can’t wait for your home to be done. You know I love you, and of course the bed,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “But I love that it’s a home, a real home. A place for Beau to run. I can see a playhouse out in the backyard at some point and coming home to you every night.”
“Then I guess we should talk about throwing out your birth control, finishing this house, and making that dream a reality.”
“Do you mean that? Because, if you do, you know I’m all for it.” Jules’ eyes light up.
I roll to my back, and she launches on top of my lap, straddling me, and fuck, I’m already hard for round two. “I mean that with all I have to give, Jules.” My hands go to her hips, sitting her up so she can slide down on top of me. This time, I let her lead, taking her sweet time as we make love again and again throughout the night.
24
Jules
One Month Later
The past month has been us shuffling back and forth between mine or Hudson’s place. We have less than a week before his house will be completely finished. It’s been a lot of fun, but it also showed me where he and I clash from time to time, too. Everything from the walls to where furniture will be placed, down to the hardware for the bathroom vanity, we bickered about all of it, it seems. Then I had to take a step back because his house isn’t my own, and that brought on a fresh bout of tears. He had no idea why I was crying but eventually pried it out of me. I was a blubbering mess when I said, “I’m not sure why we’re fighting. This is your home. You should be making these decisions, not me.”
“Jules, don’t you know? This is our home, and yeah, we might argue from time to time. This right here, though, having you in my arms, us compromising, is the best feeling in the world.”
“Oh, gosh, I love you so much, Hudson.” I faceplanted into his neck while he absorbed my worked-up energy that turned me into a sniveling mess.
Hudson laughed and said, “I love you, too, Jules. Even when you are a mess.” It made me laugh and work through my muddled emotions.
He wasn’t wrong, either. We sat down and wrote down a list of what we both liked, and if it was different from one another’s, we worked through it until it was.
Today, I’m working at the shop. My eighties playlist is playing in the background that Hudson loves to tease me about. He’s lucky I don’t pull out leg warmers, headbands, and my vintage band t-shirts to wear every day. Hudson stayed at home with Beau, of course. That dog, I swear he loves Hudson more than he does me now. He’s waiting for the tilers to come in and finish up the bathroom. It’s the one thing we’re waiting on before he can get the painters inside.
I had a new shipment come in today, anyways, and there’s no time like the present to get to work. Hudson would kick my ass if he saw me unloading all the boxes that I did, not to mention the heavy statues that were shipped in from Ohio for the garden area. They are gorgeous in their natural stone color.
I finish placing everything where it needs to go before I start hanging the pictures that came in. I’m working on the last picture to hang. It was only supposed to take an hour, if that, to hang all of these, but for some reason, today, anything that could go wrong does go wrong.
“Are you kidding me?” I say out loud to no one. Today has been a slow day for the shop. I try to adjust the heavy picture I’m trying to hang at the right angle. Why do they have to have two screws put in the wall? This is so frustrating. I hate crooked pictures. Obviously, there’s stuff here and there, mismatched in variety in my shop, but I can’t seem to get this straight. I feel the wobble of the rickety step stool I should not be using, but I didn’t want to get the big ladder that Hudson brought for five seconds.
I should know better. Heck, even my cell phone isn’t in my pocket like it usually is, and I know I’m tee-totally screwed when I hear the crunch of wood splintering in half. I try to catch myself, but it’s too late. I’m falling backward, my hands flailing in the wind, and I let out a screech as the wind is knocked out of me.
My eyes are closed as the feeling of fuzziness overtakes my body. I attempt to sit up, but that doesn’t help any. In fact, it makes me feel worse.
I lie back down, resting my eyes until I can find the strength to get back up.
25
Hudson
“Come on, Beau. It’s about time we go see your mom and take her some lunch,” I tell him. Jules’ dog is fast becoming both of ours. I hear her mutter “little traitor” all the time. It makes me laugh; she’s not wrong.
I pack a lunch for the both of us—a couple of sandwiches, some fruit, chips, and even the chocolate chip cookies she baked yesterday, along with the lime-flavored mineral water she’s been devouring night and day lately.
Beau’s ears perk up. The tilers are upstairs making noises, but what he hears is different. There’s a car coming up the drive.
“I wonder who that could be.” We barely get any visitors unless it’s the construction crew, but everyone’s here that I know of. I make my way outside and see Sheriff Shepard’s truck come to a stop.
I walk down the front steps, trying to figure out what could be happening to make him come this far out that he couldn’t call me first.
Elliot Shepard steps out, takes his hat off while running his fingers through his hair. “Hudson, I hate like hell I had to come out to tell you this, but Jules is in the hospital,” he blurts out.
“Give me five seconds. I’ll put Beau back in the house and follow you into town.” I turn around without letting him speak another word.
“Come on, Beau. Time for a treat, and I’ll go figure out what’s wrong with your momma.” I clap my leg, and he follows me in. He goes right to his dog bed. I throw the food in the fridge, give Beau a treat, pat his head, grab my keys, and go back out front.
“You sure you want to follow me in, or would you rather I just take you there? May be faster if you ride with me,” he offers.
“I don’t care either way, as long as you get me there,” I croak out.
“Come on then, let’s not waste any more time.”
I slide into the passenger seat, he turns his lights on, and we head to Jules.
“Did you hear what happened?” I ask him as he makes a sha
rp turn to get onto the main road leading us to the hospital.
“Parker walked into her shop and saw her lying on the floor. Jules was breathing but unconscious. From what I was told at dispatch, Parker called nine-one-one and had an ambulance come. That’s all I know so far. No one could get ahold of you on the phone. I volunteered to come up and get you.”
“Thank you, Elliott.” We spend the rest of what would usually be thirty minutes, but we make it in fifteen minutes, in silence. Unable to sit still, my fingers are running through my hair, pulling it into a bun, taking it out, then putting it back in. Anything to keep my hands busy. My legs bouncing back and forth doesn’t help calm my nerves down, either, but Elliot will just have to deal with it. As we make it to the hospital, I say another prayer, hoping with all my worth that Jules is okay. Even if God forbid, she isn’t, I swear on all that I am that I’ll take care of her for all of our years to come.
26
Jules
I wake up in a state of confusion. The sheets I’m lying on are scratchy and have a crunchy feel, and the smell of antiseptic assaults my nose. Add in a beeping noise that won’t quit, and I want to bury my head in a pile of pillows.
If this is any way to wake someone up, they should re-evaluate their way of thinking.
“Miss. Russell, can you hear me?” A finger is basically poking at my eye, trying to pry it open, then there’s a light shining at my pupil. I swat my hand at the light. That’s when I feel him. “Hudson?” My voice is hoarse, and I’m dying of thirst.
“I’m here, gorgeous. Open your eyes for Dr. Smith and me. Let me see all that beauty,” the man I love most in the world demands.
