She dried off haphazardly and then wrapped the towel around her body. She opened the door to the bedroom, her heart sinking when she saw the empty bed. Before she could really feel sorry for herself, she heard the toilet flush in the guest bathroom. A few minutes later, a naked Hudson walked into her bedroom.
He stared at her, and she tugged self-consciously at the top of the towel. “Hey.”
When he didn’t reply, she crossed her arms over her torso. “What’s wrong?”
* * *
Hudson stared mutely at Rosalie. She was saying something, but he couldn’t concentrate on that. Not when she was standing in front of him wearing nothing but a towel. Her hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun and he could see small drops of water sliding down the smooth slope of her shoulders.
As he watched, one slid from the hollow of her throat and down between her breasts to disappear beneath the towel. He wanted to follow its path. He wanted to rip that stupid towel right off of her, put her on her hands and knees, and fuck her hard and rough.
His pulse was hammering, his blood was roaring, and his dick was stiffening. He walked toward her, and her eyes widened when he made a low growl.
“Hudson?” She whispered.
“I want to fuck you, pretty little human,” he growled out.
Her gaze dropped to his cock – it was fully erect now and standing proudly out from his body – and heat rose up her neck. He could smell her immediate arousal, and he grinned at her.
“I can smell your wet pussy.”
Shame mixed in with the scent of her lust. He reached out and traced the edge of the towel along her chest. “Why are you embarrassed?”
She stared at the floor. “It’s just kind of humiliating that you can smell how much I want you.”
He stepped even closer, pinning her body back against the wall. He leaned down and buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. “It isn’t,” he murmured into her ear. “I like smelling it.”
She stared up at him, and he nodded. “It’s true. It makes me so fucking hard to smell your lust, sweet Rosie.”
He took her hand and wrapped her long fingers around his dick, groaning when she stroked him a bit tentatively. “Do you see what you do to me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I like the way your body reacts when I’m near you,” he said. “I like knowing that your nipples get hard and your pussy goes wet when you see me.”
“That, um, that doesn’t happen.” She gave him a flustered look, but her soft hand was still sliding up and down his aching dick.
“No?” He grinned at her, letting her see the way his fangs had dropped.
Her gaze fell to his mouth and fresh arousal filled the air, but she shook her head defiantly. “No.”
His polar bear growled and surged forward enough to make him bend his head and give his mate a sharp nip on her shoulder for lying to him. She gasped and arched a little, her hand tightening on his dick until it made him groan with need. He licked the bite, cleaning away the small trickle of her blood as she pumped him rapidly.
“Lying to me will only get you in trouble, little human,” he said.
She gave him another defiant look and Christ, did that get his motor running. He tugged on the towel. “Show me your hard nipples and wet pussy.”
The blush moved from her face down her neck and into her chest. She released his dick and held onto the towel when he tugged on it again. “Hudson, I…”
“Show me, little Rosie.”
She stared up at him and slowly untucked the towel before dropping it. It pooled on the floor, and he stared at her pale body in the soft glow of sunlight coming in through the window. She was so fucking beautiful. That someone as beautiful as her would want someone like him was a damn miracle.
He took a deep breath and cupped her breast, running his thumb over her nipple. “See? Hard for me.”
She pressed her lips together and looked away, but her soft hands clenched onto his biceps when he trailed one hand down the curve of her belly to her mound. “Spread your legs, Rosie.”
She shook her head, and he gave her another hard nip to her shoulder. She cried out, the smell of her lust deepening, and it took everything in him not to just lift her up and bury his cock deep inside of her.
“Do what I tell you, little human,” he said before licking away the fresh drop of blood. “Spread your legs.”
She spread them apart and he reached between them to cup her pussy. She was dripping wet and he growled in satisfaction before showing her his fingers. “Wet for me.”
“Please fuck me,” she suddenly whispered. “Please, Hudson. I need you to fuck me.”
He lifted her up and carried her the few steps to the bed. He placed her on her back and she spread her legs wide, her hands cupping her breasts as she gave him a desperate look of need.
Ignoring her pleading look, he stretched out on his stomach between her thighs and lifted her legs until her feet were braced on the bed. He curled his big hands around the back of her thighs, easily keeping her legs spread open when she tried to close them.
“Hudson, what are you – holy fuck!”
Her voice became a high-pitch squeal. He grinned up at her and licked her pussy again, letting his tongue brush over the protruding bud of her swollen clit. She tasted delicious, and he licked her a third time before glancing at her. She was cupping both of her breasts and she arched her back, silently pleading for more.
When he didn’t move, her eyes popped open and she glared at him. “Don’t stop!”
He nibbled on the inside of her thigh, letting the tips of his fangs press against her soft flesh before he rubbed the rough hair of his beard over her skin. He licked the crease of her thigh and placed a kiss on her soft curls.
She made a sound of frustration, and one hand came down to push on his head. “Hudson! Don’t tease!”
He kissed her wet pussy lips and then licked her clean with long slow strokes, deliberately avoiding her clit. She moaned and panted and tried to grind her pussy into his face, her hand tugging on his head in an effort to move his mouth where she wanted it.
After nearly five minutes, her entire body was shuddering, and she was almost whining with need.
“Hudson!” Her usual low voice was shrill with frustration. “Please!”
He licked her clit. Once, twice, three times, before stopping. Her moans of happiness turned to groans of dismay.
“Oh please, honey,” she whispered.
His cock twitched, and he wanted nothing more than to make his mate come all over his face. Instead, he blew lightly on her wet lips before raising his head. “Rosalie, look at me.”
“Please,” she moaned. “I need to come, Hudson.”
“I know, baby. Look at me.”
She opened her eyes and gave him a dazed look of hunger. He rubbed his beard across her soft curls before kissing them. “Will you lie to your mate again?”
“No,” she said immediately. “No, I won’t lie to you ever again. I promise. You make me wet all the time. All the time, I swear! Just make me come. Okay? Please?”
“Good mate,” he said and buried his face in her pussy.
She screamed and arched her hips up against his mouth. He licked her clit and then sucked hard on it. She screamed his name again, her fingers digging into his scalp as she came against his mouth. Wetness covered his lips and he licked her clean again, reveling in the sweet fresh scent and taste of his mate as she climaxed.
When her curvy body finally collapsed against the bed, he straightened to his knees. He lifted her left leg and braced the back of her thigh against his chest before sliding one hand under her ass and lifting her lower body. He lined up his cock against her pussy and slid into her slick heat with one hard push.
She moaned and let her other leg drop open as her hands clenched into the sheets. He kissed her calf and held tight to her leg as he thrust in and out of her. Her pussy clung to every inch of his dick, her musc
les still contracting and releasing around him with glorious pressure. He moved harder and faster, worried he was hurting her but unable to stop.
He wasn’t going to last long, hell, he was lucky he hadn’t come all over the sheets while he was eating her out. He moaned her name. She opened her eyes, staring hazily at him as he stared at her delectable tits. When she gave him a slow smile and cupped her breasts, he muttered a curse, his hand tightened on her ass and he came in a rush of pleasure that made his entire body shudder wildly.
He drove in deep, filling up her sweet pussy with his come as they stared at each other. When he was finally empty, he kissed her calf again before pulling out and collapsing on his back next to her on the bed. He was panting for breath, and she gave him a cute smile before patting him weakly on the chest.
“That was a good one, huh?”
“Fuck, yes,” he said.
She giggled and didn’t object when he pulled the covers up around them. “For me too.”
“Good.” He pressed a kiss against her forehead when she curled up against him and slung one soft thigh over his legs. “Are you hungry?”
“Nap now, eat later,” he said.
She laughed and kissed his chest. “Yeah, okay. Thank you, Hudson.”
“You’re welcome, my m -”
He cut himself off abruptly, his slowing heartbeat racing again as he stared at the ceiling. Fuck, he had almost called Rosalie his mate.
So what? You called her mate when you were eating her out.
His heart stopped in his chest before clanking back to life. Holy shit, he’d called Rosalie his mate. What the fuck was wrong with him?
You bit her too.
His polar bear made a smug growl of satisfaction, but he sat up abruptly, making Rosalie jerk all over before siting up next to him. “Hudson? What’s wrong?”
“I bit you again.” He stared at her shoulder where he could see not one, but two goddamn bites on her shoulder. “Fuck, I bit you twice.”
He could tell they were small bites and not very deep, but it didn’t stop the dismay from settling in his chest like a heavy weight. “I’m sorry.”
She just shrugged and pushed on his chest until he was lying down again. “I told you I don’t mind if you bite me, Hudson.”
“I made you bleed.” He curled his arm around her and rubbed her hip anxiously.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m not bothered by it and you shouldn’t be either. Now, are we napping or not?”
She kissed his chest and snuggled up against him. He stroked her smooth hip, wondering what kind of excuse he could come up with for calling her his mate. She didn’t know much about shifters, maybe he could sell the whole ‘mate’ thing as something that all shifters said to the women they were sleeping with. It was just a pet name like ‘sweetheart’ or ‘honey’.
Idiot. She’s not going to believe that, but it doesn’t matter. She was so turned on, it didn’t even register with her that you called her mate. Just relax, for fuck’s sake.
He slumped against the bed, his heartbeat finally slowing down. She hadn’t said anything about the mate thing and she wasn’t acting freaked out or anything, so his inner voice was probably right. She probably hadn’t even heard him.
Still, in the future, he needed to be very careful when he was fucking her. If she even suspected that he was in love with her, she’d walk away and not look back. She might be attracted to him, but she wasn’t in love with him. She loved the lion shifter and that wasn’t going to change.
Once he’d taught Rosalie how to be kinky, she’d end it with him and he’d never be with her again. His arm tightened around her and she made a sleepy murmur of protest. He relaxed his grip on her and stroked her smooth hip again.
So, you take a few weeks to teach her to be kinky. You can totally drag this out. It’s already been two days and it’s only been vanilla sex so far. She hasn’t asked for a lesson in kink and you don’t need to give her one until she does. Who knows, if you distract her enough with the vanilla sex, it might take months to teach her how to be kinky. And by then, she might be over the lion shifter and…
He snorted inwardly. And what? Be into him? That wasn’t going to happen. Rosalie was in love with the lion and had been for a long time. She wouldn’t fall out of love with him just because she was sleeping with Hudson. That wasn’t how love worked. Besides, he couldn’t forget that being with her would put her in terrible danger if Corden ever found him again. It was better that she was only using him. Better that he would move on, the moment she finished with him.
Thinking of Corden made him think of Samuel and sorrow flooded through him. As if she sensed it, Rosalie snuggled a little closer and kissed his chest again. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m good.”
He closed his eyes and tried not to think of Samuel as he listened to Rosalie’s soft and even breathing.
* * *
He was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming, and he wanted desperately to wake up. Instead, he followed the path of Samuel’s scent through the woods. His breath steamed out in front of him and the fresh snow that had fallen this morning gave way beneath his boots with a satisfying crunch. Winter in Northern Alberta was no joke. After the snowfall, the skies had cleared, and the temperature had plummeted to a ball-shrinking minus twenty-seven degrees Celsius.
Not that the cold bothered him. Even in his human form, he only needed a light jacket to stay warm. He continued moving deeper into the woods. The logging company that both he and Samuel worked for had yet to invade this section of the forest. All around him, trees towered high into the air, frost covering their dense trunks.
He raised his head and sniffed the air again. His bear growled at the new, thick and unpleasant scent of blood in the air.
His pulse picked up and his body swelled. He pushed his bear down with grim determination and barely-concealed panic. Samuel had gone missing for a few days before and been fine. When your best friend had a heroin addiction, you had to be prepared that they’d disappear from time to time.
But his disappearance felt different this time. Felt…wrong. Maybe it was because Samuel’s heroin addiction had gotten worse in the last six months, or maybe it was because Samuel was spending too much time with John.
The scent of blood in the air grew thicker, filling his mouth with its cloying, metallic scent. There was no mistaking that it belonged to Samuel. The panic rose up again, his heart hammered in his chest and his breathing labored. He broke into a run, his feet pounding through the snow and his nose twitching as he followed the trail.
It led him to an abandoned cabin. The wood was grey and rotting and the door hung on by a single rusty hinge. He ran up the decaying steps of the small porch, the wood splintering beneath his heavy weight, and pulled open the front door, freeing it from its tenuous grip on the frame. He tossed the heavy door aside like it weighed no more than a brittle, dried leaf and ran into the cabin.
He staggered to a stop, his breath released on a harsh moan as he stared wide-eyed at his best friend.
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
“Samuel.” He didn’t recognize the sound of his own voice. It was too faint, too…small, to be him.
He stumbled forward on the wooden blocks that had become his legs and fell to his knees in front of the chair. Samuel’s big body had been lashed to it with ropes and bungee cords and duct tape. His big head drooped forward to his chest, and, his hand trembling, Hudson reached for him.
Don’t. Don’t look. Wake up, wake up, wake up!
He lifted Samuel’s head, a low whine escaping when he saw the damage. The shifter’s nose was broken and canted to the left, his right eye was a swollen bulge of flesh and blood, and blood poured from his mouth. A flash of white caught his eye and he looked down at Samuel’s lap, staring numbly at the objects littered across Samuel’s pants.
Teeth. They were Samuel’s teeth.
Another whimper, this one louder and filled with sorrow and despair. H
e jerked when Samuel made a small groan at the sound and his left eyelid fluttered up.
“Samuel! Samuel, stay still.”
“Hudson?” The bear shifter moaned before coughing. He spit out blood and more teeth and Hudson gave him a horrified look as Samuel tried to smile.
“Fucked up, Hudson.”
“You’ll be okay, buddy. I’m gonna untie you and get you to the hospital.”
“Too late,” Samuel wheezed. “Too busted up.”
“Your healing will kick in and -”
“No healing. Too much even for me.” Samuel coughed again before crying out. “Dying.”
“You’re not dying,” Hudson said. He raised his hand, the nails turning to sharp claws and cut through the rope and the tape and the bungee cord. Samuel fell forward into his arms and Hudson sat on the floor with a harsh thump, cradling Samuel. “You’re going to be just fine. Stay awake, Samuel. Do you hear me? Stay awake.”
“Hudson.” Samuel’s voice was weak and thin. “Too late.”
“It isn’t,” he growled fiercely. “Don’t be a dickhead, Samuel.”
Samuel grinned, and Hudson winced at the jagged broken teeth sticking out from his gums. “Always was a dickhead.”
“Yeah, you were.” Hudson gripped Samuel’s head. “But you’re not gonna die. Do you hear me?”
“Sorry, man. Was supposed to deliver it for him, but I kept it. Shouldn’t have, but I needed it. Sorry for fucking up so bad,” Samuel whispered.
“It’s okay. We’ll fix it together. You and me.” Hudson rested his forehead against Samuel’s. “Just keep breathing, Samuel.”
“Too late,” Samuel whispered again. “Love you, dickhead.”
Tears streaming down his face, Hudson squeezed the back of Samuel’s skull. “I love you too.”
Wake up. Oh God. Please. Wake up.
Samuel’s breath hitched once, twice, and…silence. Hudson made another low whine, staring into his friend’s empty gaze before kissing Samuel’s forehead. He closed his eyes, tears still slipping out from his closed eyelids to splash against Samuel’s face.
Rosalie Undone (The Shifters Series Book 6) Page 20