Chapter 4
Hudson
Her skin tastes like apricots and feels like satin. As I lay her out on the pool table in my parents’ basement, I feel like a fucking high school senior all over again.
Anticipation tightens my limbs, expectation races through my veins, and a desperate kind of hope rings in my eardrums.
Please let this be good for her. Please don’t let my parents come home. Please don’t cut this moment short.
You’d think I hadn’t spent the past decade living up to my playboy reputation. But one look at Piper’s flushed cheeks and trusting eyes and I feel like a virgin. My past erased, my slate clean, with her as my everything.
I touch her slowly, running my hands down the slopes of her breasts, tugging the cups of her bra down until the band is somewhere near her belly button.
She trembles beneath me. But her eyes don’t waver from mine as I lower my head and take one dusky rose nipple into my mouth. I swirl my tongue over the pebbled tip, my fingers testing the weight of her right breast before traveling to her left, and rolling my palm over it for a full handful.
Piper arches up into my touch as I lavish her breasts with attention. Her knees fall open and I position myself more firmly in between her thighs. With her laid out and me splayed over her, I have a full visual of her sexy body, and I want to touch, taste, and savor every inch of it.
Her hands slide across my cheeks, her fingers tangling in my hair as she gives a yank.
I let her nipple fall from my mouth with a pop and grin at her.
“Not yet, sweetheart.” She tugs at the material of my T-shirt, and I reach behind my neck, tugging it off in one swipe and dropping it on the floor.
Then, my hands drop to the button on her jeans.
I pop it, pull down the zipper so slowly, the sound cuts the air.
That, and our panted breathing, heavy with awareness.
“I feel like a teenager around you,” I admit. “You’re so damn beautiful—”
“Don’t,” she whispers as she lifts her hips and I tug the jeans off her legs.
I frown. “Don’t what?”
She shakes her head, her eyelids at half-mast. “I’ve seen the women you dated and—”
“They have nothing on you, Piper,” I cut her off, my tone serious.
“You’re the full package. The woman who knew me before I wore a jersey.
The girl who cared about me and supported me from the start.
Don’t tarnish what it means to be my day one because of some casual flings I’ve had before this moment.
Right now, this, you, are the only thing that matters. ”
Her breathing ticks up at my monologue. As the words fall from my mouth and color the air, I feel their truth layer my bones. This changes everything. If we cross this line, we’re entering a new chapter, a different phase. And hell, I want it. With Piper, I want it all.
As she continues to process my words, I pull her panties down to her knees, not bothering to see if they fall to the ground, and drop my head. As my tongue meets her core, she moans. It is the hottest fucking sound I’ve ever heard in my life, so I do it again.
“Hudson.”
“Right here, honey,” I reply, grabbing her upper thigh to hold her in place as I trace a tiny circle around her clit.
“Oh, God,” she whimpers.
Using my free hand and my mouth, I play with Piper’s pussy with the single-minded determination I used to run hockey drills. Everything falls away. All thoughts cease.
I’m no longer worried about my parents catching us. Or the fact that I’m in my fucking childhood home, about to bust a nut on the pool table, with the girl next door. Nothing matters except Piper and making this moment so exceptional for her, that the guys that came before me don’t register.
I suck on her clit, moaning as her taste coats the back of my throat. Her thigh trembles under my hand and I know she’s close. I slide two fingers into her channel while simultaneously suckling on her bud.
“Hudson, please. Don’t stop,” she pants, arching her back.
I glance up for the most perfect view of her tits and remove my fingers to fist myself through my jeans. I’m hard as a steel pipe and so fucking ready.
But Piper comes first. So I drag my tongue through her slick folds two more times before pressing the pad of my thumb against her clit. And my girl detonates.
“Hudson!” she cries as she unravels under my gaze.
It’s like a firework breaking across a dark sky. Majestic. Indescribable. Perfection.
I keep my fingers thrumming against her sweet pussy as she comes down from her orgasm. Slowly, her eyes open and find mine. They’re filled with lust, but there’s also a flicker of vulnerability in her gaze that causes every protective instinct in my body to wake up.
“What’s wrong?” I murmur.
She shakes her head. “That was… I’ve never felt like that before, Hudson.”
Her voice shakes and I frown, not understanding. As realization dawns, I swear. “Pipe, is that… Have you ever had an orgasm before?”
She nods but her cheeks blaze and I frown, waiting for her explanation.
“I have,” she insists. “By my own doing. Never because of…” She gestures toward me. “Never with a man.”
Her words cause something strange to tug in my chest. I look right into her eyes as I tell her the truth. “Then they were doing it all wrong, honey. Because your body is pure perfection, and you are incredibly responsive. It was never your fault, Piper. They got it fucking wrong.”
I press my lips to hers and kiss her hard as I pull my wallet from my pocket and kick off my jeans.
Breaking our kiss to fist my cock, I pluck a condom from my wallet. Piper watches as I roll it on. I glance at her and check one more time. “Are you sure, Pipe? Because this changes everything.”
“I know,” she whispers, her face thoughtful. Then, she meets my eyes and I see that challenge I love spark in hers. “I want you, Hudson. I’ve wanted you for a long, long time.”
I stroke my tip through her wet folds and watch as her eyes roll back in her head. “Good. Because I’m all in, Piper. We do this, you’re mine, honey. For keeps.”
She drags her eyes open. “You promise?”
“Fucking swear it,” I admit, thrusting into her.
As I bottom out, she groans. I hold still for a beat, gathering her to my chest. She clings to me like a lifeline, and fuck if I don’t want to be that for her. Be her everything.
It shouldn’t feel this instant—the connection, the trust, the big emotions. But I’ve known Piper for forever and a part of my heart reacts on muscle memory. I trust her, I care about her, and I’m already halfway in love with her. Maybe a part of me always has been.
As I begin to pull out and slide back in, setting the pace, Piper rocks against me, meeting me thrust for thrust. Our mouths fuse, our hands track each other’s bodies, and the pool table shudders beneath us.
I make love to the girl next door in my parents’ basement like we’re still a couple of seniors the night before graduation.
But we both know it’s so much more than that. This action, tonight, is the start of our next chapter. The beginning of something great.
And the best fucking Christmas gift I could have wished for.
It doesn’t take long until I’m coming, hard and fast, calling out Piper’s name.
“God, you’re incredible,” I tell her, lifting her easily and walking us, naked, to the bathroom in the basement.
“There’s a shower in here?” Piper gasps.
I laugh. “That’s the one new addition since high school. Mom and Dad remodeled the bathroom down here and added a shower my sophomore year of college.” I turn on the water, wait until it runs hot, and step inside after Piper.
She steps under the stream and smiles at me. “This is wild.”
I grin back. “It seems that way but if you think about it… Didn’t a part of you always think we’d end up together?” I certainly did. It may have been years since I truly believed it, but I never stopped wondering…
Piper washes herself quickly and moves out of the way to let me have some hot water.
“Maybe,” she says softly. “I never wanted to get my hopes up too much.”
I glance at her over my shoulder. “Why not? You’re the better half in this duo,” I remind her, gesturing between us. “I was too immature to appreciate it in high school, but even then, I knew. It’s always been you, Piper. I just needed to catch up to your level. Had to get the timing right.”
“And you think that’s now?” she asks.
I reach for her and pull her into my frame, letting the water rain down on us both. Then, I kiss her. “I know it.”
After we towel off, I give her some old sweats and a T-shirt to wear.
“You think your parents are wondering where you are?” I ask, settling into the fort with her.
“Nah,” she says, shaking her head. “I’m sure they think we’re catching up. I mean, they may be surprised to learn it’s more than that.”
“They won’t,” I disagree. “Everyone who knows us has always assumed we’d eventually be a thing.”
“A thing?”
“Yeah. That I’d come to my senses and make you mine. That you’d give me a hard time at first but eventually give me a shot. That I’d take it and woo you over with my winning personality and beaming smile.”
“It’s your jawline,” she deadpans.
“Huh?”
“What finally won me over. That and your skilled fingers.” She flutters her fingers like jazz hands.
I bark out a laugh. Taking her hand in mine, I press a kiss to the center of her palm. “Merry Christmas, Piper.”
“Merry Christmas, Hudson.”
“You’re already my favorite present.”
“I’ll remember that for next year.”
I laugh again, relieved that she still has her sense of humor. That she’s showing it to me again. Rolling toward her so our faces are lined up, I ask the one thing that’s been tugging at my mind. “Would you try long-distance again? I can’t exactly relocate but—”
“I can,” she murmurs.
I shake my head. “I’d never ask you to do that.”
“You’re not. You told me earlier that trying something new isn’t quitting.”
“It’s not.”
“I’m ready to try a lot of new things,” she says, her voice confident, her eyes glittering. “Deep down, I’ve known it for a long time. It was just hard to let go.”
“But now?”
“I’m holding on to something better,” she whispers.
I smile. Piper’s eyes grow heavy. Together, with our fingers laced and our noses touching, we drift off to sleep in the best fort on the best Christmas Eve of my life.
“You think they did it?” Stacy’s voice cuts through my dream.
“Uh, is that a serious question?” Joe replies.
“I hope they didn’t ruin the pool table,” my dad huffs.
“Ooh, they’re so sweet together,” Mom coos.
“Mom, don’t take a photo!” Stacy admonishes.
“I’m sending it to Misty,” Mom replies.
Fuck. I force my eyes open.
Mom, Dad, Stacy, and Joe peer in through the open flaps of the fort.
“Are you coming up? Uncle Hud! Santa came!” Frankie bellows from the top of the stairs.
“Yeah, he did,” Stacy jokes.
I groan and close my eyes.
Beside me, Piper stirs, and I snap my eyes open in time to see her wake up and freeze as my family comes into her line of vision.
“Merry Christmas, Pipe!” Mom says cheerfully.
Panic washes over Piper’s expression as she turns toward me.
Joe laughs.
I reach over to take her hand and give a reassuring squeeze. Her panic eases and she relaxes slightly. “Piper and I are together now,” I announce to my family, holding up our joined hands.
“It’s about time,” Dad replies.
“Finally!” Stacy cheers.
“Good for you,” Mom says.
“You owe my fifty,” Stacy hisses to Dad.
Joe snorts. “Welcome to the family,” he says to Piper.
She clears her throat. “Um, Merry Christmas?”
We all laugh.
“Santa came! I repeat, there are presents under the tree!” Kimmy calls down.
My family dutifully turns toward the stairs.
I glance at my girl. “Coffee?”
“Please.” She grins. “Merry Christmas, Hudson.”
I kiss her softly. “Merry Christmas, Pipe.”