32. Faith
Camped out on my couch with Salem curled on my lap, napping, I set down the study notes I was reading to check my phone for the fourth time in the past five minutes.
Nothing.
I told myself I was waiting for news from the university. But that wasn’t true. They wouldn’t come up with any kind of decision about my plagiarism rebuttal after business hours.
I was looking for messages from Hudson, and there was no denying it.
It was just so weird not to hear from him. He’d practically been around every corner since Friday. But I hadn’t heard from or seen him since this morning when I had my fake make-out session with?—
Oh.
Oh no.
He hadn’t talked to me since Parker had kissed me.
Honestly, I hadn’t even known the kiss was going to happen until Parker had leaned in and laid it on me. And I don’t even remember what it’d been like. My brain had already been buzzing with worry, hoping the show looked real enough for Genesis. I’d been too focused on my performance to even think about him.
But if Parker had told Hudson we’d kissed, and now he wasn’t talking to me…
No. Surely, he wasn’t upset. Surely, he knew the kiss meant nothing.
His silence now was just a strange coincidence. Right? I mean, why would it even bother him, anyway? It wasn’t like he and I were…
Wait. Were we?
Holy shit, what if he was mad at me for kissing his friend? I’d only done it to help him. It’d been his freaking idea for me to act as if Parker and I were an item. No way would he be upset about it now.
Unless he was.
My stomach suddenly started to burn, and I picked up my phone to?—
Dammit. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do. I was chewing on my thumbnail and staring at my phone, deliberating my next move, when someone knocked on my door that led down to the alley.
With a gasp, I nearly jumped out of my skin, and Salem startled before popping off my lap and scurrying away. A second later, my phone buzzed, and I looked down to see a message from Hudson.
Knock-knock. You home?
Holy shit, he was here. I made myself dizzy in my haste to stand, and then I scrambled in my socks, nearly sliding my way to the door until I reached the handle and finally glanced down at my clothes. I was wearing pajama pants and a comfy, worn shirt.
“Shit,” I mumbled, tempted to run and change before I rolled my eyes and asked myself what I was doing. He wouldn’t care what I looked like. He wasn’t here for anything sexual. I needed to get my head on straight.
I pulled the door open.
And nearly swallowed my tongue.
Hudson was leaning against the doorframe, wearing a white button-up shirt that was untucked, under an open black blazer as he idly stroked his hand down the tie hanging from his throat.
My mouth fell open, and he smiled his lazy, knowing smile.
We took a moment to just watch each other. Then he said, “I have a ghost inside me.”
My brow furrowed, wondering why he was telling me something I already knew.
Then he went on. “There’s a possibility it could take over completely. There’s another possibility I could kill certain types of people, like my best friend’s girlfriend, by just being around her. And I don’t know yet how to fix any of it.”
“I…know,” I said slowly, still not sure why he felt the need to say all this.
Hudson nodded and straightened away from the doorframe, dropping his hand from the tie as he crossed the threshold. “Consider yourself warned, then.”
“Wha…?” I opened my mouth to ask what he was warning me about, but instead of letting me ask, he curled a hand around the back of my neck and hauled me in.
From that point on, words lost their meaning.
In the next moment, his lips collided with mine, and I was lost. I whimpered and clutched his tie for dear life while he kicked the door shut behind him.
As he picked me up off my feet, I forgot about the tie and wound my arms around his neck, holding on tightly as he gripped my butt and carried me through the front area toward my bedroom. His tongue stroked against mine, and oh my God, did he know how to use a tongue.
“Hudson,” I gasped, arching my head back as he broke away from my lips to nibble his way down my throat.
At my bed, he placed a hand on my back and guided me down onto the mattress in one smooth, fluid move, somehow managing to climb on top of me as he went. Then he paused, hovering a foot above me as he looked down into my eyes with hungry need.
I could see in his gaze that he wanted to devour me whole, all at once, and the restless expression tensing his features told me it was taking all the patience he had not to do just that. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stay away.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be.”
Muscles contracted in the pit of my stomach, and my breasts tightened in arousal.
His attention wandered to my chest, focusing on the hard buds of my nipples through the shirt, and I had this feeling he was going to just start tearing the cloth off me with his teeth. But at the last second, he tore off his own blazer instead. When he reached for the tie next, I intervened, grabbing it from his fingers.
“No. Everything but this,” I begged.
He nodded and rushed to unbutton the dress shirt.
Once he had that off, I whimpered in need and reached out, smoothing my hands over his warm, hard chest and delighting in the feel of his flesh against my fingertips. “So does this mean—” I started to ask as I wrapped my fingers back around the tie.
“Yes,” he answered, cutting off the rest of my question by capturing my mouth. “Yes,” he groaned as he began to kiss his way down my jaw. “And yes.”
My toes curled.
Flat on my back, I arched my body and gripped his hair, so very eager to be consumed by him. “And this is really happening?”
Catching the hem of my shirt, he began to draw it up. “Unless you stop me,” he panted.
I shook my head, in no way willing to stop him, and he grinned, tugging the shirt away.
“Oh Christ,” he groaned the moment he had the top half of me stripped bare. “You are so fucking perfect. These are…”
He cupped the sides of my breasts reverently before leaning in to press his mouth into my cleavage with gentle worship.
A second later, he pulled his face back in order to look at all of me. “I may be here a while,” he warned before dipping in and sucking the end of one of my breasts into his mouth. His tongue scraped down the length of my nipple before his teeth nipped, and from that point, I was gone.
He didn’t lie about lingering either. He sucked me raw, but…oh my God, it hurt so good.
I was vaguely aware of him peeling off my sleep pants and then my panties, his mouth never leaving my breasts as he went.
“Damn,” he gasped as he came up once for air. “I was going to go down on you first thing, but this… I just need a little…longer…here.” And he clamped back onto my breast again.
But as he lavished me there, his hands glided over my bottom and between my thighs. He slayed me by smearing some of my own slick wetness over my clit. I mewled and strained against him, clutching his hair and aching for more just when he pushed a finger inside.
“Oh…oh…” My body bowed, not prepared for such a blast of pleasure.
I moved my hips with him as he added another digit and began to pump in and out. It had been so long since I’d had a decent orgasm, and I was so hungry for him that I went taut surprisingly early in the game. My body took over, climaxing against his hand with soul-sucking contractions that left me weak and depleted.
Lifting his face from my breasts, Hudson rested his brow against the side of my face and panted along with me as if he’d just experienced the same explosion I had. “That…was awesome,” he announced as he slowly pulled out of me, making me shudder at the sudden loss of all that filling warmth.
Then, he rocked my world by slipping his fingers into his mouth.
“Mm,” he moaned, his eyes rolling slightly as he pulled the digits free and licked his lips. “Woman, you are delicious. Now, I’m definitely still going to have to go down on you.”
And before I knew what he intended, he sprang into action, gripping my knees and spreading me open as he dipped his face and clamped his mouth around my clit.
I shouted his name, not quite ready for so much more. But he wasn’t interested in slowing down. He feasted without mercy and dug his tongue down right into the core of my pleasure.
I clutched his shoulders, he gripped my ass, and together we filled the room with our desire.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more rapture, he reached up and gripped my breast, his fingers finding one of my nipples and playing with it. And my euphoria stretched, blooming into another orgasm.
I rode this one in waves, drawing it out and undulating my hips to the flow.
When I finished, collapsing onto the bed, I was completely spent.
But Hudson lifted up to look down at me, wiping his hand across his mouth as he met my gaze, and I could tell from the feverish intensity in his eyes that he was just getting started.
He ripped off his pants, and I shook my head, overwhelmed and honestly not sure if I could take much more.
Until the moment he stripped himself naked.
My gaze landed on his swollen cock, and suddenly, I needed to know what it felt like inside me.
“Mother of God,” I breathed, finding the energy to rise upright onto my hands and knees to crawl toward him.
He lifted his eyebrows curiously, watching in amusement as I pushed him onto his butt and then nudged him back against the headboard.
Latching my hands onto his shoulder, I climbed into his lap and straddled him with my thighs.
“Get it, girl,” he encouraged as he took my hips and guided me down toward his straining cock. Once we met, I undulated my hips and rubbed my pussy against him, making him shudder and tighten his grip on my waist.
Under me, his length twitched, eager to see some action, and I wanted it just as badly, so I reached down and took a handful, lifting him up to align us.
But as soon as I had the head of his dick at my entrance, he gasped, “Fuck, wait… Condom. Condom,” he chanted, glancing around frantically for his pants. “Where’s my fucking condom?”
“I, uh,” I paused hesitantly, not sure if I should offer the suggestion that had immediately come to mind.
But Hudson heard me and zipped his face up in question. “You have a condom?” he asked hopefully.
I bit my lip and shook my head. “No. But I have an IUD, except that would only help with preventing a pregnancy.”
He stared at me a frozen moment before admitting, “I haven’t had sex in over two months. I’m pretty sure I’m clean.”
I bobbed my head quickly. “Okay. It’s been way longer than that for me, so that works.” I started to lower myself, only to pause and look up again. “Wait. What do you mean two months? What about…?”
His shoulders collapsed. “No,” he answered before I could even ask. “I never had sex with her.” With a wince, he confessed, “She made me go down on her a lot, but she never wanted anything to do with my dick.”
My brow furrowed, not sure if I could even believe that because…really? How could she have no interest in his goods? I knew Genesis was no virgin. She liked sex. Why wouldn’t she want it with Hudson? I mean…with Hudson.
“Is she crazy?” I blurted.
He chuckled. “Yes. I believe she is.”
With a snort, I had to agree. “Good point.” Then I lowered my attention again and said, “Forget the condoms. I got this covered.”
“Oh, thank God,” he breathed, lifting up slightly as I started to push down on him.
He began to enter me, and I had to wiggle my hips a little to adjust and make room, sinking down slowly enough that he gnashed his teeth and groaned before bumping his head against the headboard and grabbing a chunk of his own hair.
“Ah fuck,” he rasped as he sent me a dazed look. “Maybe forgoing the condoms was a bad idea. Because—holy shit—this is too much. I need another layer down there to numb some of this. I mean, holy…fuck. Just what the hell is your vagina made of?”
Grinning proudly, I leaned in and whispered into his ear, “Sugar and spice and everything nice.”
He groaned and grabbed my hips, yanking me down harder on him.
I cried out, my mouth gasping for air as hot pressure pulsed inside me.
Hudson shook his head some more as if trying to clear it. “Yeah, this isn’t going to last long. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Just don’t stop,” I demanded, beginning to bounce in a harried fashion in order to capture all the friction.
But he caught my hips, stilling me. “Dammit, woman,” he chastised. “If you keep moving like that, this is going to be the shortest fuck in the history of all fucks.”
Gripping hold of his ears, I forced him to look me in the eyes, and I said, “I could give a shit how short the ride is, buddy. Just make sure it’s worth my while.”
Amusement tipped up the corner of one side of his mouth, and he shook his head briefly before answering, “Yes, ma’am. Heard.”
Then he rolled us across the bed until I was once again on my back and he was above me. He thrust, sure and hard, spiking deep and fast, and all I could do was hold on, absorbing it until my body tightened and then splintered into pieces.
I climaxed so hard it almost hurt, and above me, Hudson shouted out a surprised sound as he started to come as well.
Burying his face in my neck, he clutched me hard, and we shuddered through the best of it together.
* * *
“Can I just say,that totally hit the spot,” I announced with a tired slur as I lulled my head to the right and glanced across the mattress to the other side of the bed.
Hudson had been lying on his back next to me, staring up at the ceiling in an astonished stupor. But he rolled his face my way to meet my gaze. “Oh, yeah,” he agreed. “That…that… I can’t even begin to express what that was.”
“It was fucking awesome,” I said.
He shook a loose finger my way. “That. Right. Awesome.”
Turning onto my side to face him fully, I tucked my hands under my cheek and merely marveled at the sight he made, wearing nothing but a tie and looking all satisfied and content on my bed. Once upon a time, I would’ve been happy just to learn his name.
But now—now, he was all mine.
Unless…
“You did end things with Genesis, right?”
He grinned and shifted onto his side, mimicking my pose so we were facing each other. “She ended them with me,” he explained. “She took your bait and called Park, trying to hook up with him. But he told her he didn’t take on girls who already had boyfriends, so she texted me, like, immediately, and yay.” He waved a pretend banner. “That was that. Relationship over.”
“Wow,” I breathed, shaking my head in awe.
Reaching out to trace a soft finger around my hairline, he murmured, “Thanks for celebrating my newfound freedom with me.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, only to heave in a deep breath. “So that makes one problem down, and only one more to solve.”
“It’s hard to even think about other problems right now.”
I smiled, glad to hear it. And unable to keep my hands to myself, I reached out and smoothed a hand over his bicep.
Hudson sighed in delight and closed his eyes. “That feels good. If you could just do that all night long.”
With a delighted laugh, I scooted closer for better access and said, “I’ll see what I can manage.”
So that’s what happened until the late hours.
I mapped his body with my hands, learning every inch of him, while he talked, answering every question I asked about his life, family, and friends. I learned how he’d met his “seven” in grief counseling and why each member was so important to him. I learned about his parents’ divorce, and how he’d gotten his first experience with alcohol and marijuana after stealing from his mom. I learned about how he’d met Brett and become his friend. He didn’t hold back on any issue, but shared his life freely. And by the time I passed out, tucked up against him with a smile on my face, this had become by far the best night of my life.