Chapter 5 #2
The words had slipped, and so had her hand. She went tumbling down and landed on her ass. Her dress flew up with the movement, giving me an eyeful of legs and black panties.
Good going, Hudson.
I hadn’t meant to say it. To call her a good girl, but habits I’d denied myself after she left me were sneaking from the prison where I’d kept them locked.
She scowled at me, snatching her dress and covering herself. With a huff, she stood and dusted her dress off. I lowered my hand to her again.
“Don’t call me that. I don’t need a nickname you call your girlfriends.”
With my teeth grinding, I snagged her wrist and yanked her up, waiting for her to sit properly. After several minutes of movement and swearing, she stopped fidgeting.
“What are you waiting for?” she said when I didn’t move.
“You.”
The word held more meaning than it should have, and I shook my head, hating how, even an hour in, she was breaking down barriers I’d had up since she left. It was like I couldn’t help myself. Being near her brought the memories back, and with them, the emotions.
“I’m on the horse,” she said.
“Put your arms around me before you fall.”
After some hesitation, her arms slipped around me.
My stomach contracted. She was too close, and I questioned what I was doing.
Why I hadn’t taken the ATV like I would have with anyone else.
A sick need to see her ride, the wind blowing through her hair, her laugh as free as her smile, like when we were young.
Stupid and dangerous. That’s what it was.
Her arms were stiff when I clicked to signal Honey to move.
“I don’t, by the way,” I said. Why not just put another nail in my coffin?
“What?”
“Call anyone else a good girl.”
Her body went rigid, and my mind screamed that I needed to stop. But I couldn’t. She was too near, and the smell of her perfume—jasmine and spring—was invading my senses.
A memory stirred, and I fought it as her arms relaxed.
“Relax,” I told Olivia.
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“Trying to break my ribs.”
She laughed, the sound playing in my ears like a favorite song.
“Try to lean into the horse’s movements and relax.”
Her hands dug into my chest. It surprised me when she told me she had never ridden.
She came from wealth, and I’d assumed that, like me, her parents had sent her to riding lessons.
But then, even though my family spent a lot of time in the city, my family home was upstate, and we had more access to horses than hers did.
I picked the horse’s pace up until we were in a gallop, and she yelped, clinging tighter to me. Her laugh trailed us, and I glanced back to see the joy on her face. Her smile was so wide I wanted to kiss her.
We’d been dating for a month, and I’d been pacing myself, living on kisses and touches that I limited. She was like a fragile flower I wanted to savor, one I didn’t want to spoil for fear of losing her.
Yeah, we were in college, and any other girl I would have already had in my bed, but Olivia was special.
Not some fling. I’d fallen for her the first day she’d looked up at me with those gorgeous hazel eyes.
So I was taking it slow out of respect, not just because she’d admitted she was a virgin, but also because I didn’t want to mess this up and lose her.
Slowing the horse, I guided him to a tree and hopped down, extending my hand to Olivia.
She took it and slipped into my arms where I kept her, spinning her around and loving the giggles that poured from her.
Lowering her feet to the ground, I kissed her, thinking of how happy she made me but too quickly, she squirmed from my hold and ran up the slope where the tree stood looking over the valley.
I secured the horse, rubbing his muzzle before I moved to the tree and sat, leaning against it and gazing at Olivia’s form.
She twirled, her laughter smoothing over my ears before she ran over and dropped next to me.
“It’s so beautiful out here, Hudson. So…freeing, like all my cares leave me.” She looked at me, the sun sparkling in her eyes. “Like they do whenever I’m with you.”
“And what cares do you have?” I asked.
Her eyes grew distant, the light leaving them as it sometimes did. She carried something heavy, but she wouldn’t tell me. Whatever it was, I wouldn’t push because she was happy when it was gone, and with me, it was gone. Most times.
“None,” she finally said, her smile returning. “Not when I’m with you.”
A breeze blew strands of her long auburn hair over her face, and I pushed them back, losing myself in her eyes.
“Fuck, Olivia—”
“Language,” she scolded, and I leaned forward and nipped her bottom lip.
“Ouch,” she said with a loud laugh.
“Leave my language alone. I like cussing, and you’re not changing that.”
“I wouldn’t think of changing you. Even your bad words.”
I shook my head and brushed my thumb over her lips. “I love you, Olivia. So fucking much.”
The words fell as naturally as my swearing did, and she didn’t flinch. Instead, she leaned closer and brushed her lips over mine.
“I love you, too, Hudson. Maybe not your language, but you, I love.”
My fingers tangled through her hair, and I kissed her.
She parted her lips, and I deepened the kiss, my tongue dancing with hers.
Heated and tempting. It wasn’t long before I had her on the grass, my hand flush against her skin and aching to go further, but I stopped our kiss, hovering over her before I dragged my lips down her neck.
“Be a good girl and tell me you love me again.”
A shiver ran the length of her body. I didn’t know where that ‘good girl’ had come from, but if she shivered that deliciously when I said it, it would become my new favorite set of words.