Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
3 Days til Christmas
“I think we have sun!”
I cracked my eye open to find Hudson at the window beside the big bed that had become ours. His hair was wet and a fresh pair of red boxers with dancing Christmas trees cupped his exceptional ass.
I sat up with a yawn. “Yay, sun.”
Then the meaning of it dented my fuzzy brain. I scrambled out of bed and stood beside Hudson.
He grinned down at me. I’d ended up in one of his undershirts again and they were way too big on me. He dragged his knuckle along the side of my breast that showed from the tank. “Sorry to wake you.”
“It’s okay. It’s good news for once.” My teeth chattered. As nice as this place was, it was chilly near the window.
He pulled me close, wrapping his arms around me. I rested my cheek on his chest and stared out at the lake. Ice coated the trees, sparkling in the blinding sun.
The water was full of chunks of ice and snow from the storm thanks to the plows that had been out late last night. They didn’t have anywhere else to really put the snow at this point.
“Do you think there’s an actual plow out on the road this morning?”
“I heard one go by when I went down to make coffee.”
“You made coffee?” I went on my toes and nipped his lower lip. “You magnificent man.”
He laughed. “What do I get for putting it in a carafe and bringing it upstairs?”
I spun around and saw the black carafe on the dresser then I turned back to him and jumped into his arms.
He staggered, but he held me tight. “I think that suffices as a thank you.”
I crossed my arms behind his head and wrapped myself around him, then I kissed his cheeks, chin, and finally, his mouth with loud, smacking sounds.
“I’m going to have to special order that coffee when I leave.”
The sudden burst of happiness faded as the words sunk in. It was getting harder to remind myself that this was just a temporary thing.
I eased myself to the floor and slipped away from Hudson. I didn’t know what the future held for me.
Q had ended his tour and there would be a bit of time before he could finish an album then set up dates for the next run.
But it wasn’t like I could just follow Hudson to Chicago. That was utterly ridiculous. And even if Quentin was done with touring for a while, I still had things I needed to handle for him.
My job didn’t stop just because we didn’t have a grueling schedule right now. He still had endorsement deals and a handful of private events to attend to in February.
I busied myself making coffee, listening to the familiar sounds of Hudson dressing. Intimate things that I’d miss.
The roar of a plow dented the quiet between us.
“I’m going to go down and check it out. See how bad it is.”
I nodded. “I’ll be down in a few after I take a quick shower.”
My skin was salty and I had a few new abrasions and sore muscles, thanks to the late night of post-game makeup session.
The mutual voyeurism had been only the tip of the evening. Hudson had woken me so many times in the night. Both of us hungry for each other.
The days ticking up to Christmas seemed to be speeding on, but I figured we still had more time.
But with the snow taking a break now, maybe we were out of time.
Would he call one of his family members to come get him?
I hurried through my shower and dressed in layers. I didn’t want to deal with drying my hair, so I wrestled it into a French braid.
When I got downstairs, Hudson was already outside. Snow flew around wildly as he shoveled away the drifts of snow that coated the porch.
I geared up with my mile-long scarf, boots, and parka before I slipped out the door.
He smiled up at me from the bottom step, squinting against the sun bouncing all over the new snow. “Think we got that six feet of snow they warned us we could expect,” he called up to me.
“I can’t even see the end of the lane.”
He pushed back his hat as he followed my gaze to the end of the property. “No way we’re getting out of here without a snowblower or a plow attached to an ATV.”
“I’m not sure how that works for a rental. Do I call Sage and her husband?”
He stabbed his shovel into the snowbank. “I can keep at it if you want to check in with her.”
I didn’t want to do that.
I wanted to go back inside and forget that the storm was over. I wanted to keep our little snow globe life for as long as we could.
My eyes prickled, but I nodded. “Yeah. I can definitely do that.”
Frowning, he stomped off the snow before climbing the stairs to me. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing.”
He stopped a few stairs down from me so we were eye to eye. “C’mon, Angel, don’t lie to me.”
“What do you want me to say? I don’t want to face reality yet, okay?”
His lips quirked up at one corner, his beard currently dotted with snow crystals. “Yes, that’s what I want you to say.”
I rushed down the stairs, and he backed up to meet me. “I wish it was still snowing. I want my family here, but I don’t want you to go.” I poked him in the chest.
He grabbed my hand, pressing it to his jacket. “I don’t want to go.” He tugged off his glove with his teeth, then he shoved it into his pocket before he cupped my face. “I don’t have to go. My folks aren’t expecting me until tonight, anyway.”
The sun seemed even shinier as my eyes filled. “It’s not fair to take you from your family, either.”
He lowered his mouth to mine, his lips cold. Even his icy beard hair made my breath stall.
I went up on my toes to get closer, and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
The kiss wasn’t sweet. It was as desperate as I felt, and the sob caught me off guard.
He slowed the kiss and touched his forehead to mine. “I don’t need to go yet.”
“It’s not fair.”
He unzipped his coat and pulled me in tight. The spicy cedar scent of him wrapped me up as completely as his arms. “I know, Angel. I know.”
I wasn’t sure how long we stood like that. Long enough that my feet were cold inside my boots and my back was getting stiff.
But he didn’t let go.
Didn’t do anything other than hold me tight.
Finally, he urged me back up the stairs and we went inside. He unzipped me and unwound the scarf before kneeling in front of me to take off my boots.
My stupid eyes wouldn’t stop filling. I was being an absolute brat and didn’t deserve any of this tending.
Pissed off at myself and the situation, I reached for him. I dragged his thermal over his head and attacked his chest, my nails digging into his skin.
“Make me forget,” I said desperately.
He crouched a little to scoop me up, wrapping my legs around him as he strode into the living room.
I shuddered—some from Hudson and some from staying outside in the cold for so long. He grabbed the quilt off the couch on his way by and set me in the chair by the fireplace.
He spread it out in front of the fire and pulled me down to him. Our lips and hands were frenzied as we pulled at clothes, both of us locked in on the urgency of time running out.
Firelight and sun vying for dominance on his golden skin as he stretched out over me. We rolled to one edge of the quilt and back to the other as sighs stuttered into groans.
His clever fingers pushed me quick and ruthlessly over the edge. His name was a scream as he raced down my body to replace his fingers with his mouth.
“Again,” he said on a growl. “Come for me again, Angel.”
I arched up, reaching an impossible pinnacle so fast that my body could barely catch up.
I was on fire.
The heat from the flames behind us and his sweat-slick body on mine left me shattered and breathless.
Before I could think again, he rolled me onto my front and caged me with his body.
He used his knees to shove my legs together then he gripped my hair, and I arched my back as I braced myself on the floor with my forearms.
“Inside me. Inside me,” I chanted.
He drove inside me and the position made him feel so big. He cried out my name as he slammed into me again and again.
The angle was so much more than any other time we’d been together. There was no easy fun and laughter.
This was a battering of wills and bodies. I took it all, accepted the rage that had spiked.
Finding exactly what I’d always wanted in a man who couldn’t be mine.
I pushed back on him, then I rose to my knees, and he took me again and again, his fingers bruising my hips as he drove into me.
I lowered my shoulders to the quilt and cried out as the orgasm took me under again. The heat of the room and the gasps of our breathing left black dots in my periphery.
Suddenly, he was gone from me, and I felt the splash of his cum on my back. His breath was ragged.
“I’m sorry, Angel. I didn’t even think. I didn’t think.” He rested his forehead on my back. “I didn’t use anything.”
I collapsed on my knees, hugging myself as the reality of what we did crashed in on me. He’d pulled out, but that didn’t mean anything.
Not with how we’d gone at one another.
I pressed my forehead into the quilt and a tiny part of me was glad.
He got up and I heard him go to the bathroom and the water ran. Then he was back, carefully cleaning me up.
I rose onto my knees and turned to him. My hand cupping his face was my way of telling him it was okay.
But the words died on my tongue as someone pounded on the door.