out of that hellhole in Lania. I trusted you, even when I was out of my head, and I probably shouldn’t have put my faith in anyone back then.”
He stroked a gentle hand over my hair. “No offense, baby, but I was pretty much all you had.”
I shook my head. “It wasn’t that,” I assured him. “It wasn’t just because you rescued me.”
“Hell, maybe I get that,” he rumbled. “I think I knew you were trouble from the time I saw your damn picture. I barely slept before Jax and I got to Lania. All I could think about was whether or not you could just hold on a little bit longer. It probably wasn’t logical to think we’d even find you alive, and I have no fucking idea how you managed to hang onto life, but I wasn’t giving up hope, either.”
I stroked a hand down his chest and his stomach. “Maybe I was waiting for you to rescue me, handsome.”
“Fuck! I definitely took my sweet time getting there. If Jax and I had known as soon as it happened, we would have had a team there within twenty-four hours. We wouldn’t have counted on Harlow’s release, either. Maybe nothing we could have done would have saved Mark, but could have made it a hell of lot less traumatic for you, and for Harlow.”
“Hey,” I said as I threaded my hand into his hair, and turned his head toward me so I could look into his eyes. “It’s over, Hudson. You came for me, and I was alive. I’m here, and I’m healthy again. Do you know what a miracle that is to me?”
He searched my face. “I’m always going to come for you, Taylor. Count on that. If you’re ever in trouble, or you need me, there isn’t a damn thing I won’t do to get to you.”
I put a gentle kiss on his lips before I replied, “I know that. I hope that someday you’ll realize that I’ll always find a way to get to you, too.”
“I think I already know that,” he said huskily. “And it scares the shit out of me. You’re way too ballsy, woman. Don’t you dare ever put that beautiful ass of yours on the line to save mine.”
I smiled as I straddled him. “Oh, so it’s okay for you to do that, but it’s not okay for me to do the same thing.”
“Exactly,” he said in a clipped voice. “If something were to happen to you now, Taylor, I’d never survive it. I’ve seen you as close to death as a person can get. I can’t handle seeing you like that again.”
There wasn’t an ounce of playfulness in his voice. He was dead serious.
I stopped giving him a hard time the second I saw the tension on his face. I could tell he was still haunted about the way my kidnapping could have ended.
“Nothing is going to happen to me, Hudson. I’m here. I love you. And we’re going to have an amazing life together,” I murmured as I stretched out on top of him.
He suddenly rolled, and trapped me under him. “And you’re finally mine, Taylor,” he growled as he loomed over me. “Fuck knows you’ve had me by the balls almost from the beginning. I’ve been yours pretty much from day one.”
I wrapped my arms around him. “Then I’m claiming what’s mine right now,” I purred, my entire body tight with anticipation.
“We’re going slow this time,” he grunted. “We have all damn night.”
With Hudson, there was no slow and easy, and I knew it.
We were frenzied about claiming each other’s bodies in less than a minute.
The same thing happened the next time he tried the whole ‘taking his time’ thing.
And the next.
But I certainly had no complaints if he wanted to keep attempting the impossible, because hard, hot and fast just got better and better every single time.
Taylor
“Sweetheart, did you really think you could put that dress on and not make us really late for our dinner reservations tonight?”
I glanced at Hudson, noting the predatory look on his face as he stood in the kitchen watching my every move.
“Not this time,” I told him sternly.
Granted, Hudson looked good enough to devour whole right now in a pair of khaki dress pants, and a deep burgundy polo shirt, but this time, I refused to be diverted.
He’d been the most relaxed I’d ever seen him over the last ten days of his coerced vacation.