Chapter 11
Eleven
“SOOOOO, YOU GOT IN awfully late last night.” Sam’s sing-song voice greeted Audrey as she came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel.
“So I did,” she confirmed, moving across to pull fresh underwear out of her bag.
“And?”
“And what?” Audrey asked, keeping her expression bland. “I was with Hudson.”
“Yeah, but were you with him?”
Courtesy of the extra backup condom in his wallet, they’d spent quite a while longer exhausting each other before finally stumbling back to their cabins a few hours before dawn. At the memory, a blush heated Audrey’s cheeks.
Sam squealed and knelt on her bed, clutching a pillow in her arms. “Oh my God, tell me everything!”
“That’s personal.”
“Oh, come on! Girl code! Those who are getting lucky must share the delicious details with those who are regrettably single.”
“No sparks between you and Charlie?”
“Please. He’s like my delightfully playful brother.
Actually, my brother’s a Navy SEAL, so he’s a helluva lot more playful.
If I wanted to short sheet somebody or make an underwear raid in the middle of the night, Charlie’s my man.
But he’s not a candidate for warming my bed.
For now, I must live vicariously through you.
Is what’s underneath the clothes as impressive as what I imagine? ”
Shimmying into a pair of light cargo pants, Audrey gave in. This was one of those female rituals she’d always envied from the outside. How often did she have anything worth sharing? “It’s better. His job does amazing things for that body. As to the rest…God was generous with the good genes.”
Sam muffled an envious scream in her pillow. “I’m not going to ask if he was good. You’re glowing.”
Audrey felt amazing. She hadn’t even cared that her PT took extra time or that she was feeling sore muscles in places she’d forgotten she had.
After they met for a late breakfast, she and Hudson would be putting their heads together to figure out exactly where they could find some privacy to work them out even more.
Her vote was for somewhere they could be clothing optional the rest of the week.
It seemed a shame to cover up any of that magnificent body of his.
She wondered how long a box of condoms would last.
“You two seem to have gotten pretty close since we’ve been here. Are y’all gonna keep in touch after camp?”
And just like that, her erotic fantasy collapsed. She tugged on a shirt and didn’t meet Sam’s gaze. “We’re adhering to a strict, no talking about the end of camp policy.”
“But—”
A brisk knock on the cabin door cut her off.
Not caring who was on the other side, Audrey called out, “Come in.”
The door opened and Hudson all but bounded through, the grin on his face almost as bright as the sun slanting through the windows. He crossed the room in two strides and scooped Audrey off her feet, spinning her in a circle and kissing her senseless in a matter of seconds.
When he collapsed back on her bed, cushioning their fall, she gasped out, “Well, good morning to you, too!”
“John moved his hand. Rachel was talking to him yesterday, asking him questions, and he squeezed hers back.” The eyes that had been stormy and gray seemed lighter as he smiled up at her.
“That’s wonderful!” Audrey didn’t know a whole lot about traumatic brain injuries or comas, but she hoped that this was only the first in a long line of victories for his friend. And she hoped it merited the explosion of hope it had inspired in Hudson.
“We’re going to celebrate,” he announced.
“Well okay then!”
“How do you feel about camping?” He laced his hands behind her back, keeping her sprawled out over the top of him.
As Audrey couldn’t find reason to complain about the position, she relaxed. “Like in a tent, packing in all our gear, away from civilization kind of camping?”
“Like shared sleeping bag and all the s’mores you can eat away from civilization kind of camping.”
Alone time. Hell yes. “I’m game.”
“How fast can you be ready?”
It turned out Audrey could get ready a lot faster than they could gather up the requisite gear from camp.
But after lunch they set out with loaded packs and a map of the surrounding area.
Camp Firefly Falls had a section set aside for primitive camping, but it wasn’t secluded enough for their purposes, so Hudson had arranged for a permit to camp in the national park on the other side of the lake.
The hike in took about three hours, as they stopped for frequent breaks.
Audrey knew that was for her benefit and appreciated that he didn’t seem to resent it.
Hudson himself seemed so hyped up, he could’ve run a marathon, pack and all.
By the time he’d decided on a campsite—a lovely copse of trees about fifteen yards from a stream—she was more than ready to get things set up and start dinner.
At his direction, she began assembling the tent poles.
“John, Steve, and I used to do this all the time growing up.”
It was the first time he’d mentioned his friends without a shadow of pain. “Yeah? You all grew up in Syracuse, right?”
“Within half a mile of each other. We started out with pup tents in the back yard. Graduated on up to a tree house when we were ten. Then Boy Scouts.”
He continued to talk as they put up the tent, telling stories about their adventures.
Every word built a picture of rock solid, life-long friendship that was as foreign to Audrey as the dark side of the moon.
She wanted that. Ached for it somewhere down deep.
It was far too late for her, but she wanted that for her children someday.
Children she could suddenly picture with clear gray eyes.
“—but really, all we needed was a sleeping bag, pocket knife, flashlight, water, and peanut butter sandwiches.”
Audrey swallowed against a throat gone dry and forced a smile. “I hope we have something with a bit more substance for dinner.”
“S’mores, of course. I haven’t looked to see what else they packed, but the kitchen staff assured me it was a rustic, romantic dinner for two.”
“Romantic, huh?”
He offered a faux casual shrug as he threaded the pole through the loops on the nylon tent. “I might’ve let slip I wanted to impress a girl.”
“You impress me daily.”
“I’m about to impress you more. I brought a surprise.”
“Oh yeah?” Interested, she watched as he wrestled something out of the bottom of his pack.
“I made a run into town. That’s part of why it took so long.”
Audrey angled her head to read the side of the box. “You bought us an air mattress?”
“I figured we had plans.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Besides, it’s not good for you to sleep on the hard ground. I want you to enjoy this trip and be as comfortable as possible. Even if I risk being accused of glamping.”
Audrey’s heart gave a painful squeeze. He’d gone out of his way—again—to make sure she was taken care of.
She knew he didn’t think of himself as a hero, and yet he kept proving that he was, day after day, with the big things and the small.
He made her feel valued and cherished in a way no one ever had.
How could she ever walk away from this man? The hero of her heart.
Because she didn’t want to make a big thing out of it, she injected a lightness to her tone as she slid her arms around his shoulder. “I appreciate your willingness to risk your man card on my behalf and will be happy to reward you appropriately later on.”
“I definitely like the sound of that. Especially since I haven’t even shown you the best feature of this thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
Hudson’s lips curved in a wicked grin. “It’s self-inflating.”
“Thoughtful and expedient. I do love a man who can plan.” And as he set about unrolling the air mattress and flipping on the blower, Audrey was forced to admit—to herself, at least—that she’d fallen in love with this one.
“If we don’t unzip the door, do you suppose we can pretend it isn’t morning?” As Audrey’s bare shoulder was only a couple of inches from his mouth, Hudson pressed a kiss there.
With a sleepy, satisfied purr, she stretched back against him, then winced.
He propped up on an elbow and looked down at her, worried he’d overdone it. “You okay?”
She grimaced. “I’m afraid I do a very good impersonation of an arthritic octogenarian first thing in the morning. It takes a lot of stretching and PT exercises to get me moving.”
“Let me help.”
Hudson took it as progress when she only smiled. “First time I’ve done them naked, with company.”
He knew they’d have to pack up and head back to camp soon, but he wasn’t in any hurry to leave their private little oasis. And Hudson, Jr. was ever hopeful of one last repeat performance. “I’m a firm believer in positive reinforcement for completing your mandatory PT.”
Her eyes sparkled. “I have been known to reward myself with chocolate for breakfast. But we finished that off last night with the s’mores.”
“I expect we can come up with a suitable replacement.”
A feline smile curved her lips as her gaze dropped to his crotch, where his cock was already stirring again. “Mmm, yes please.”
“So polite.” Hudson took the leg she offered and followed her instructions for where and how to stretch it.
Before releasing it, he dug his fingers into the muscles, massaging the stiffness.
Audrey made a sound very close to the moans of pleasure he’d coaxed out of her when they’d made love at dawn.
He’d miss this. He’d miss her. And that had his brain treading perilously close to that whole topic of life outside of camp that they were avoiding. But maybe…maybe they didn’t have to. “Why were you in Syracuse?”
Her lashes fluttered back open. “What?”
“Two years ago. Why were you in Syracuse?”
Those blue eyes went sharp on his. “I was driving cross country from Toronto to Yale for a seminar.”
“Yale?”
“Mmm. It’s where I went to graduate school.”