by Thorn, Lacey
“Shower then nap,” he told her. “Which direction?”
She pointed her finger, and he moved down a hall.
“On the right,” she whispered and stretched her back, arching her breasts up toward his face. It was an innocent move on her part, but his mouth salivated for a taste of her red nipples, and his cock, the horny devil, twitched with renewed interest though it should be near-dead at this point.
Both her eyes popped open as he sat her on the bathroom counter. Her dainty feet dangled as he turned to start the water and pulled his shirt over his head.
“You’re not leaving this time?” she asked softly.
He paused in the act of toeing off his shoes then continued before standing in front of her. He cupped her chin, lifting it up and dropping a soft kiss on her lips. “Not this time. Shower, nap, food. Then we talk.”
Her smile was the brightest he’d ever seen, and damned, if he didn’t feel that jolt in his heart again. She hopped off the counter, her excitement easy to spot.
“I could cook for you, for us. I’m a good cook.” She looked so earnest and eager. She was killing him. How could he shore up his damn heart when she looked at him the way she was?
“Later,” he said, lifting her back onto the counter, grabbing her feet, then one at a time, stripping off her shoes and socks.
“I took a shower this morning,” she told him. “After I woke up.”
“You need another one,” he assured her.
She reached down between her thighs and trailed a finger through their combined release then brought it up to her nose. “I like the smell of us on my skin.” She dropped her hand to her chest and rubbed her fingers between her breasts.
“Jesus,” he muttered. “You’re going to kill me.”
“What!” She looked alarmed. “I’d never do that.”
“I didn’t mean…” He paused, shaking his head again. “I meant the sex.” He shoved his pants and boxer briefs down his legs, and his cock bounced up toward his belly. “This.”
Her gaze went to his cock and remained there. And she fucking licked her lips.
“That,” he said.
“What?” She reached for him, but he stepped just out of reach of those wickedly, amazing fingers.
“My cock should be limp as a wet rag from all the action we’ve given it. Instead, you look at me the way you do, and I’m ready to go again.”
Her lips tilted up. “I like that about you.”
He chuckled. “Well, don’t get used to it.”
That brought her gaze back up to his. “You don’t like me? I’m not a good lover?”
“What? No.”
“No!” she wailed.
“Christ, I mean yes. Yes, I like you, and honey, if you were any better, I’d be passed out on your living room floor.”
“Really?” She looked delighted, and damned, if he didn’t want to keep that look on her face.
“Really,” he said. “Now, let’s get in the shower then go to the bedroom. I swear the next time I’m inside you, we’ll be on a bed. Please tell me it’s not a twin size.”
“Oh, no.” She shook her head as she grabbed some type of band from the counter and used it to hold her hair in a bun on her head. “It’s a California king. My mother got it for me. I wondered why, but maybe, she knew I’d meet you and need it.”
“I seriously doubt that, honey,” he told her.
Alice shrugged. “Sometimes, she knows things. It’s her magic, I think. But she wouldn’t call it that.”
“There’s no such thing as magic,” Hudson said with a laugh. “Now, get in the shower.”
He thought he saw a flash of something in her eyes, but she turned her back on him before he could be sure. Then he stepped in with her and every thought left his mind. Despite his best intentions, he didn’t make it to the bedroom before sliding inside her once more.
Chapter Five
Hudson doesn’t believe in magic. That was the thought circulating through Alice’s head as she sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them close to her chest. How could her body be so needy for his touch when his words broke her very soul? No magic? Her whole life was magic. It was the very core of who she was.
Hudson was relaxed in sleep. All the muscles she reveled in still prominent but softer as if they slept with him. He lay on his stomach, one arm thrown out toward her and the other curled under the pillow. She wanted to trace him with her fingers, to touch and caress every inch of him, but settled for perusing with her eyes. His black hair was cut short, though it was still lush and thick. His shoulders were wide, tapering down to his waist. His buttocks were full and firm, and she wanted to nibble at them. His legs were long and thick with muscle. Such perfection. And she wanted him, feared she might already be halfway in love with him. It had been one day. One long, invigorating day, but only one.
Her mother had always said life could change in a single day. People died in a day, were born in a day, and could fall in love in a day. Alice had never truly understood the gist of that until now. Slipping softly from the bed, she padded into the other room and grabbed her phone.
“Alice,” her mother answered on the first ring.
“Mother.”
There was silence as Alice tried to figure out what to say. Her mother didn’t have the same issue.
“It’s the moments that make the day. The week, the month, the year, the life. Each one is a tapestry woven together. Some good and some so bad they make you feel as if you’ve been torn asunder. Yet, each plays a part in the life you’re building.” She paused, sighed, then continued, “Tell me.”
“I’ve met someone,” Alice confessed.
Another sigh.
“Mother?”
“Did I ever tell you about the day I met your father?”
“No,” Alice replied, leaning forward, eager for the next words as only a child who’d been denied stories of her deceased father could be.
“I swept him off his feet. Quite literally.” She laughed heartily. Alice easily imagined Lucy Savoy wiping the tears from her eyes. “I was sweeping the front stoop, completely lost in some nonsensical story in my head, when he was just there. I flung the broom—out of fright, really—and knocked him right off his feet.” She paused again as more laughter filtered through the phone. “Then he looked up at me with such big green eyes, the same as yours, Alice. And I fell for him.”
Lucy paused again, and Alice pictured her, fingers spread at her throat, shoulders forward, chest pulled in, sadness in her gaze. It was the way she always reacted when Alice brought up her father. But unlike previously, her mother was sharing now.
“I met him at that house, loved him there, and lost him. Can’t you see, Alice? I couldn’t bear to stay there once he was gone. Every inch of it echoed with our laughter and our love. One day. One day can change your whole life. I’m ashamed to say I ran from mine. I ran and left behind my mother. And look what it’s wrought me. My daughter has fled and left me behind.”
“I didn’t flee,” Alice struggled to assure her mother, though at the time, it had felt the same to her. “I needed…” She paused struggling for a word to define what she’d been seeking. “To breathe. I needed to go and do and see…all the things.”
“I was never enough. I tried to be.”
“Don’t say such things. Of course, you were. You are. But I can’t stay a little girl forever. There’s a whole world to experience. And…”
“Tell me,” Lucy cajoled, repeating her earlier plea.
“I found the graveyard. The Savoy graveyard.” She spent the next half hour talking about all she’d seen and done since leaving her childhood home and finding the cottage where generations of Savoys before her had grown up in—the one Alice now called home. They laughed, and her mother cried a little. But it was good, uplifting. “You should come visit. Meet my neighbors.”
“As much as I’d like to meet the young man you told me about,
I’m not ready to go back there. Not…yet.”
“We could make new memories. The two of us,” Alice pleaded.
“I’ll think on it,” Lucy promised before they ended the call. Alice sat there for a long moment wondering if her mother would ever feel healed enough to come back to her childhood home for a visit. Lucy had loved Alice’s father completely and never recovered after losing him. She’d loved once and only once. Would it be the same for Alice? Was Hudson her one and only one? He’d swept her off her feet—literally when he lifted her and carried her in the house to make love.
Movement in the doorway jerked her gaze to the right. Hudson stood there, hands shoved into his jeans, chest deliciously on display. She bounced to her feet and watched the way his stare slid over her naked body from head to toe and back up again. He held up his hand as she started toward him.
“Christ, woman. How is it even possible I want you again?”
“I want you, too.” She went to take another step, but he waved her to stop again.
“Are you on birth control?”
“What?” The question caught her off-guard. She hadn’t thought about the consequences of all the sex they’d had. She’d been too wrapped up in the pleasure.
He sighed and shook his head. “That answers that.”
“No, I’m not on anything, but I can be if I need to be. If it’s important. But we’re okay. I’m not at the fertile part of my cycle right now.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “But going forward, we’ll use condoms. I picked up a box earlier today.”
“But I like the feel of you inside me,” she said, biting her lip with disappointment.
He groaned. “Fuck, don’t look at me like that. I’m already hard, which is damn near impossible as far as I’m concerned. I swear you’ve put a spell on me.”
Alice laughed. “That’s not my magic. I manipulate things, not people.”
“You… Ha-ha, very funny. Why don’t you get dressed, and we can head over to my sister’s party?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t do well with crowds. But you should definitely go.”
“I’d like you to go with me. It would mean a lot to my sister and me. Plus, I thought I’d grab my bag and the box of condoms before we head back over here. Unless… Do you want me to come back here tonight?”
Alice nodded vigorously. “You could get your bag and the condoms by yourself. I’ve already given Caitlyn my gift.”
“Here’s the deal,” Hudson conceded with a sigh. “If I go over there without you, my sister will con me into staying longer than I want. She’ll use whatever means necessary to get her way because that’s who she is.”
“That doesn’t sound like the Caitlyn I know,” Alice declared.
“Yeah, well, you’ve never seen her around her big brother. She’ll manipulate me in a hot minute, with absolutely no remorse.”
He grinned as he said it, so Alice took it that he didn’t mind. He pulled her close, fondling her breast before pulling and tugging on her nipple. She caught her breath as desire bloomed inside her.
“Besides,” Hudson crooned while kissing along her neck. “If you go with me, Caitlyn won’t stand a chance. We’ll get something to eat, wish my sister a happy birthday, and grab my stuff from upstairs. I’d say an hour and a half at most. Then we’ll come back over here. Fuck, talk, fuck some more. Sleep, fuck, eat, fuck, and maybe nap. Then repeat.”
“That’s a lot of sex,” Alice whispered.
“Mmm,” he agreed. “All the sex we can handle, baby.” He nuzzled closer, and she thought she heard him mutter something about until he could get her out of his system. But that made no sense to her.
Then she forgot what she was thinking as he thrust a finger inside her and moved his mouth to her breast, suckling deeply on it. She keened and moaned, riding the pleasure until she orgasmed.
“Go with me,” he pleaded.
“Yes,” she agreed then shook her head. “Did you just manipulate me?”
“What?” He pulled away, looking incredulous.
“You gave me pleasure then asked me again about something I’d told you no to. Isn’t that manipulation?”
“Fuck,” Hudson muttered. “Forget about it. I’ll go by myself.”
“I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m not upset at you, honey. I’m upset with myself. It may not have been a conscious thought, but you’re right. That was manipulation. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll go with you.” She hated the look in his eyes even if it wasn’t directed at her.
He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. In fact, I like the idea of you naked over here, waiting for me to join you.”
“You want me to stay naked?” she queried.
His eyes lit up as he scanned her again from head to toe. “If I could keep you this way always, I would.”
“Does that mean I could keep you naked, too?”
“If you like,” he agreed, and she smiled.
“I really like your body, Hudson. I’d like to take my time and explore it.” She licked her lips. “I want to touch you and taste you. Learn all the things that turn you on.”
He groaned and smashed her against his chest. “Christ. Just hearing you say that makes me want you.”
“But may I do that?” she asked. “May I touch and taste you the way I want?”
He growled, pressing his fingers against her chin to lift her face toward his. He took her mouth, tongue delving between her lips and claiming her mouth as if it belonged to him and only him. Maybe, it did. Belonging to him sounded heavenly. Belonging. It was more than she’d hoped for when she’d set off to find her grandmother’s home. Her home now.
“May I?” she whispered again as soon as he let her up for air.
“Baby, I think I’d let you do just about anything you wanted to me,” he admitted, but he didn’t sound happy about the idea. He set her away from him again. “I’m heading next door. I’ll see my sister, grab my bag and some food for the two of us then head back over.” He rubbed his thumb over her lip, and she sucked it in, nipping the tip lightly with her teeth. He shuddered. His eyelids dropped closed for a brief second. “When I get back, I want to…” He paused as she licked over his digit.
“Fuck?” she asked, using the word he’d said earlier.
“Talk,” he countered. “We should get to know each other in a non-psychical way, Alice.”
“Okay,” she agreed. Caitlyn had spoken of her brother a few times in passing. Stories of the two of them growing up. That he was in the Army and didn’t get home often. Alice had seen how sad that made her friend. She figured the brother and sister were close, though Alice said there were six years between them. That would make Hudson six years older than Alice, as well.
“Let’s get dressed,” he said, taking her arm and tugging her with him toward her bedroom.
“I thought you wanted me naked?” she argued as she bent to pick up a pair of pants peeking from under the bed.
Hudson caught her from behind, and the next thing she knew, she was bent over the side of the bed, bracing her palms on the mattress as he entered her. He came over her, covering her back and linking his fingers over the top of hers on the bed. It was hard and fast and utterly delicious.
“Jesus. All that time in the military, and it will be sex with you that does me in,” he muttered.
This time, she understood the sentiment and giggled.
Chapter Six
Hudson glanced at his watch and scowled. He’d known this would happen. His intention of a quick in-and-out before hightailing it back to Alice had ended two hours ago. First, Caitlyn had squealed and jumped on him as if it was the first time they’d seen each other since he’d come home. Then she’d made sure everyone at her party knew he was back. He’d been surprised by how many of her guests were people they’d hung around with when he and Caitlyn had spent summers at the cottage. A few women had hit on him, which he’d been
quick to squelch.
He’d paid careful attention to his sister’s boyfriend, remembering Alice had called Jacob a weasel. He’d have to find out why she felt that way. As far as Hudson could tell, Jacob said and did all the right things around Caitlyn. Still, Hudson didn’t like something about him. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he’d learned not to discount gut instinct. His gut screamed Jacob wasn’t who he seemed. Hudson would have to dig a little deeper.
Though Caitlyn lived minimally in the cottage, anyone with enough computer skills could dig up information and discover the Baines were old money. Though he’d inherited most of their grandparents’ estate, Caitlyn would inherit the bulk of their parents’. His baby sister already had an estimated worth in the millions, though you’d never know it to look at her.
Their family name was well-known, but most people didn’t realize he and Caitlyn were part of “those Baines”. His parents had believed in teaching their children the value of money. While they’d attended the best schools, they’d spent their summers at the cottage with their mom’s parents. Though wealthy in their own right, the Carmichaels had lived frugally. Hudson and Caitlyn had run around in bargain-buy clothes, spending more time outdoors than in. They’d had the best time of their lives and made friendships they still nurtured.
Hudson had joined the military right out of high school, with his family’s full blessing. Their Grandma and Grandpa Carmichael had been killed in a car wreck during Caitlyn’s junior year of school. Hudson hadn’t been able to make it home for the funerals. When he did get home, he’d learned the bulk of what they’d had was now his. He’d grieved with his family then headed back to military life. Then Caitlyn had graduated and asked him if she could stay in the cottage, which was legally one-third hers. He’d readily agreed. Caitlyn had taken several courses at the local college but done the bulk of them online. She’d earned a Bachelor of Science in Cultural Studies, and Hudson had no idea what she’d done with it. As far as he knew, she hadn’t left the cottage since she’d moved in.