Hudson

by Shayne McClendon

  “It’s alright, Brie. Tell me what happened. Don’t cry. We’ll fix whatever it is.”

  Between gasping breaths and continued tears, Brie got the story out and was mortified that it made her sob even harder.

  “Fucking men. Brie, you are perfect, just as you are. Yes. Yes, Brie. You can’t let that asshole ruin what you want for yourself. I’ll get another doctor for you but first let me take you home and make you some tea.”

  She nodded and the man she recognized as Hudson’s driver made the turn toward her apartment. For the next few minutes, she worked to get her crying jag under control.

  Natalia said nothing more, simply held her and smoothed her hair.

  Fifteen minutes later, Brie opened the door to her apartment and Natalia smiled. “Definitely you.” Turning and closing the door, she took Brie’s shoulders in her hands. “Go change. Something soft and comfortable. I’ll make tea.”

  Then she leaned forward and kissed her forehead and both cheeks. The last kiss was placed lightly on her lips before she was turned toward her bedroom.

  Brie returned with her face washed and her clothing changed to find Natalia plating tea and cookies. The woman was stunning in very high gator heels, a slim-line cashmere skirt, and silk blouse. Her hair glistened smooth and blue-black in the morning sun from the kitchen window.

  She was long and lean…gorgeous.

  Natalia turned as she appeared and gave her a warm smile. “There you are. I’m waiting for a call-back from the cosmetic surgeon who handled some scars for me a few years ago.”

  “Thank you. Maybe I…I should just forget it.”

  Tray in one hand, the other sliding around Brie’s shoulders, she led her into the living room. When she was settled on the couch, Natalia perched on the edge of her coffee table with a gentle smile.

  “That would be a mistake, Brie. You know the pain will only get worse. Right now, you’re young enough to avoid long-term damage but what about another five years or ten? Can your back and shoulders take another five or ten years of this?”

  She handed Brie a cup of tea and her cell phone rang.

  “Hudson? Yes, I’m here with her. She’s better now. Positively adorable in cotton jammies, in fact.” Natalia winked at her and Brie blushed. “No need to rush. I made tea.” She listened for a moment with a little wrinkle between her eyes. “As a matter of fact, I do know how to make tea. As I recall, you incinerated a pot holding nothing but water so one must not cast stones.”

  Glancing at Brie, she rolled her eyes.

  “Settle, Hudson. Brie’s feelings were hurt but I’ve assured her she is absolutely perfect and that the doctor was a fuck-wad.” Natalia chuckled as she reached over to smooth a wayward curl behind Brie’s ear. “Nope, she isn’t crying anymore. Fresh and lovely, our Brie.”

  The words shouldn’t have made her feel warm inside, but they did. Our Brie. Did she want to be their Brie? What did that mean?

  Stop being naïve…you know exactly what it means.

  “Yes. I already called him.” A pause. “Darling, I would trust her with no one else. I’d have suggested him from the start had I known.” Natalia smiled and handed her a cookie, which made Brie give a small laugh.

  Putting her fingers over the phone, she murmured, “I think I could get good at this nurturing thing. You’ll have to teach me.”

  Her hand rested casually on Brie’s knee and after staring at the perfect manicure for a long time, Brie set down her mug of tea, reached out, and traced her fingertip over the smooth lacquer polish. It was deepest brown, the nails short and squared, and made her slender fingers appear longer and more delicate.

  Turning her palm over, they held hands as Natalia answered Hudson’s questions. When her thumb began to smooth back and forth over the soft webbing, Brie leaned her head back and listened to the easy banter between old friends.

  “Brie.”

  Her name, said in Hudson’s voice, pulled her from a quiet pool where she’d been swimming. Opening her eyes, she stared into his black ones and gave him a smile.

  He was crouched in front of her; Natalia once again perched on the coffee table behind him. Brie realized she still held the other woman’s hand but made no effort to pull away.

  “You alright?”

  She nodded. “Thank you, Hudson. Why did you come?”

  “To assure myself that you weren’t going to let some fucking quack mess with your head.”

  She didn’t try to stop him when he lifted the edge of her t-shirt and scowled at the faded marks she’d been unable to wash away completely.

  The cosmetic surgeon had narrowed her waist by several inches, made lines for a tummy tuck, and shaved off large portions of her hips on either side. Hudson saw those when he pulled her stretchy sleep pants away. His palm was warm as he cupped her side.

  His voice was quiet. “None of this bullshit. Not ever. The reduction will help you with the pain I know you have. The rest of you does not need to be fucked with, Brie.”

  Leaning over, he kissed her tummy and nuzzled the warm skin with his cheek. “You are beautiful and soft and warm. Just as you’re meant to be. Exactly right.”

  The tear that slipped from the corner of her eye into her hair brought him over her. “No. Don’t cry. Ssh…” He gathered her up and hugged her hard.

  She never wanted to do without hugs again.

  Natalia received the loud hurt and angry tears – understanding what it was like to be a woman in a world that expected perfection. She’d given her comfort and empathy.

  Hudson received the quiet tears that had accumulated over a lifetime – first from boys and later from men – of never thinking she was good enough, pretty enough, or thin enough.

  Always comparing her to her sister. The hurtful suggestions of diets, exercise, and now plastic surgery to “fix” what was “wrong” with her.

  Brie was exhausted.

  Complete disorientation confronted her when she opened her eyes. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep, had no idea how she’d gotten to her bed, and was staring into the lovely eyes of a woman who affected her in ways no woman had before.

  “Natalia.”

  “I love that your eyes seem black but in reality they’re a dark blue. Summer midnight,” said the ethereal creature stretched out beside her.

  “How…?”

  “Hudson carried you.” Brie’s eyes widened in instant embarrassment and she stiffened. “One word, Gabriella, just one and I promise you he will spank your ass.” Natalia followed these words with a grin. “Not that I wouldn’t like to see that…but still.”

  “She speaks the truth,” came the throaty reply just behind her ear. “Not a word, Brie.”

  Strong arms tightened around her midsection as the fact that she was stretched out in her own bed with the two people on the planet she was most physically attracted to, sank in.

  It wasn’t so much the fact that Hudson licked along the shell of her ear. It was more that she was unable to hide her reaction to it. She stared into Natalia’s eyes as her entire body responded to the moist heat she wanted…everywhere.

  “My first boyfriend told me I looked more like a boy than his little brother,” Natalia told her as she entwined their hands. “My second boyfriend requested I keep my padded bra on during sex so he could at least pretend I had some tits.”

  Brie’s heart hurt and she knew the other woman had felt much worse hearing those words.

  “The first man I seriously dated, who I thought was different, offered to pay for a rack because I needed to take my hotness up a level. Hudson got there before I could go through with it.” Natalia went quiet as she watched Brie’s tears fall into her hair. “Are you crying for me, Brie?”

  “The first time I saw you, I thought, I will never be that beautiful and sophisticated. Every part of you is in perfect symmetry while I feel like I was stuck with the wrong puzzle pieces. You are stunning and those men were wrong, Natalia. So very wrong.”

  Brie reached out
, her knuckles stroked along the fine cheekbone and down her jaw.

  “You touch so easily, Brie.” Thinking it was unwelcome, Brie moved to lift her hand away but Natalia pressed it closer. “Please don’t stop. No one touches us. No one ever touches us.”

  “Why?” Her confusion was honest. “All I want to do is touch you. B-both of you.”

  Natalia got closer, placed her forehead against Brie’s, and sighed in pleasure when she was hugged warmly, naturally. “We’re cold, Brie. I don’t know why but we are. We don’t know how to connect, to touch, without payment of some kind. We’re selfish, both of us, but we refuse to take without compensation.”

  Stroking her narrow back, Brie smiled.

  “My compensation is in the giving, Natalia. Consider us even. I wish you and Hudson could see what I see when I look at you. That you are worthy of love and affection…and far from cold. These things take time, I guess. Maybe there will be enough.”

  “Why wouldn’t there be enough time, Brie?”

  Her smile held a touch of sadness. She wouldn’t burden them with the truth.

  It wasn’t time. Not yet.

  “You sparkle. The two of you together are elegant and beautiful; people notice you and move aside to watch you.” She shrugged one shoulder. “My family has money. I know how to behave in formal situations, how to act at a cocktail party, and which stocks to invest in, but those things don’t come naturally to me.”

  She nuzzled their cheeks together and gave Natalia a light kiss.

  “I’m more likely to be found chatting with the coat-check girl or the valet.” Brie ran her fingers through Natalia’s hair and smiled. “It’s like silk.” She traced her brows. “Your hair isn’t naturally black…” Natalia shook her head. “What color is it?”

  “Blonde.”

  “Will you tell me why you changed it?”

  “The jokes, the misconceptions. Then I started to like that it matched my insides.”

  “You think your insides are dark?”

  “I think…I know I’m not like most people and I don’t know why.”

  “What makes you different?”

  “I’m afraid of children. I have no interest in things women are supposed to care about. I go through my life on autopilot. The black, the club, the people I take to my bed enforces a distance. So no one ever knows.”

  Brie cupped her skull. “What don’t you want them to know?”

  “How alone I feel. Isolated. As if I could snuff out like a light and only three people on the planet would even notice.” She smiled sadly. “Maybe four now.”

  Behind her, she was aware of Hudson’s complete stillness. Without asking, she knew Natalia was saying things he had never heard.

  She knew he needed to hear them.

  “Do you want to know what I see?” She nodded. “I see a woman who may not love easily but who loves fiercely. A woman who would leave her home in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve to help a friend who needed her…in whatever capacity.”

  She kissed her forehead lightly. “I see a woman who has incredible passion but may be stuck in stasis, because it is the way it always has been, and isn’t certain how to change it.” She planted a kiss on her cheek.

  “Being different doesn’t make you dark or cold. It makes you meticulous about who you have in your life and how much of your heart will be invested. You’re picky; likely because of hurts and disappointments in your past.” Her fingers raked softly through the dark strands.

  “I see a woman who may mistake reserve with coldness yet knew just what to say to a woman she barely knows to make her hurt less.” Her smile was gentle. “Even made her tea.”

  “You’re easy to care for, Brie. Easier than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  She shook her head. “No. I think it’s probably timing. Whatever you needed five or twenty years ago is not the same as what you need now.” With a small shrug, she added, “There isn’t anything wrong with that. It’s alright to change, to grow.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  A small laugh bubbled up. “That’s because it is simple. If you don’t want to be the person you’ve been, you change.” Her smile was warm. “You can’t get much simpler than that.”

  They moved closer to her, their bodies wrapped to her sides and draped over her torso. The fact that their shoulders touched made the moment even more intimate.

  Each of them had a hand in her hair but Hudson’s was firm where Natalia’s was gentle. They lowered their mouths to kiss the corners of hers, then her cheeks, and along either side of her jaw to her ears. Hudson lightly nipped her lobe and Natalia sucked it between her lips.

  The effect was powerful and immediate. Brie’s hands rose to wrap around their backs. She loved to be touched and these two people were very good at it.

  Kisses followed to her neck, the bend of her shoulder, and her collarbone above her t-shirt until she was straining toward them, wanting more.

  Hudson dropped his forehead on the pillow beside hers and tightened his hands on her.

  “We have to wait. You can’t go in for your procedure with marks all over you, Brie.” He inhaled the scent of her hair with a small groan. “You already have my fingerprints on your ass. I don’t want you to be embarrassed.”

  While she struggled to settle her breathing, Natalia petted her stomach, hips, and thighs. Their arms encircled her. They were close and Brie slowly came down, running her fingers through their hair softly, gently.

  “Past those gruff exteriors you wear for the world, my god, you’re so very warm.”

  She turned her face and kissed Natalia’s lips then did the same to Hudson. They pressed even closer and she smiled. Fifteen minutes of silent snuggles before she heard a sound from Hudson that had her chuckling.

  He cleared his throat carefully and asked, “Do you have leftovers?”

  “I do, Hudson.” Giving him another kiss, she shimmied out from between them and pulled her slippers on. They were super-soft and shaped like floppy bunnies. “Don’t judge the slippers.”

  At the door to the bedroom, she glanced over her shoulder. Hudson and Natalia were sitting up, staring at her, and they were breathtaking. Moments before, she’d been nestled between them.

  “Wow. Just…wow.”

  She headed for the kitchen without another word, putting her hair up in a messy bun on the way. Two minutes later, Brie was pulling dishes from the refrigerator when she heard the click of Natalia’s heels approaching from behind and turned.

  Glancing up, she was again reminded of how short she was. Normally, five-nine, the other woman cleared six feet in her shoes.

  Natalia said nothing as she gathered Brie against her, one hand along her back and the other at the base of her skull.

  The kiss she delivered was one that Brie thought came with an unspoken message. “I want you just as much.”

  She couldn’t stop herself from responding. It seemed a lot of time had passed when she broke the kiss and laid her forehead against Brie’s.

  “I really like the slippers.”

  Breathless, she replied, “A gag gift from my sister. She’s mortified that I wear them.” Hudson leaned in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, watching them with a look of incredible hunger on his face. “I…have a question.”

  “Anything, Brie.”

  “Will…this isn’t…I don’t want to cause problems between you. I would hate that.”

  The blush crept up her chest and neck, warming her face and making her eyes bright. She wanted them physically but ultimately, their relationship was far more important.

  Even if they didn’t see that yet.

  Hudson moved into the kitchen and Brie felt like her heart was going to pound out of her chest. He stepped behind Natalia and they were the same height.

  “Nothing will come between us, Brie. Before anything, beyond anything, we’re friends.” He put his hands on her shoulders and Natalia kept her eyes on Brie.

  “It is obvious that
we both want you. There are qualities you possess that draw us, inflame us, and make us want to crawl all over you until you can’t remember your own name.” Brie watched as his hands stroked down the other woman’s arms to her hands.

  “We are willing, anxious even, to share you between us.” He crossed them behind her and Natalia left them in the position he placed them, lightly gripping her elbows.

  “There are things I provide to Natalia – and that she provides to me – that we’ve been unable to find completely in other lovers, Brie. Neither of us knows yet how you’ll react to those darker sides of our sexuality. Time will tell.”

  Hudson’s palms moved to Natalia’s stomach then up to cup her breasts. Brie unconsciously licked her lips.

  “What we’re worried about, what we’ve talked about endlessly, is whether you will be open to sharing Natalia with me…and open to sharing me with Natalia.” Keeping his eyes on Brie, he placed his lips at Natalia’s ear and said firmly, “Spread your legs.”

  She did so instantly and Brie watched as Hudson began to work the soft skirt up her thighs. The length of Natalia’s legs was even more pronounced in the heels and silk thigh-high stockings she wore. The silk that covered her mound was damp.

  His palm traced over the bare skin between the stockings and the panties and Natalia’s breathing became more rapid. When his fingertips brushed over the damp fabric, Brie pressed her thighs together. As he slipped his hand inside Natalia’s panties, she bit her lower lip to keep from moaning.

  “You are not to come…until Brie gives you permission.” His fingers began a lazy circle and Brie knew he was working over her clit.

  Natalia’s breathing sped up and the muscles in her thighs tightened and released several times. Unable to stop herself, she reached up to smooth Natalia’s hair from her cheek.

  “Does it bother you for me to be here, watching you?”

  “No, Brie. It makes it…harder…to hold back. The affect you have on me is so different.” She inhaled carefully. “Does it bother you that Hudson is touching me like this?” Brie shook her head slowly as Natalia clenched her jaw to hold back her orgasm. “Tell me…god, tell me what you’re thinking.”