Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
He flinched, and I immediately regretted reminding him. “Seeing you in that water?” He shook his head, crossing the distance between us. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“It scared the shit out of me too,” I admitted as he reached for me. “Juniper—”
“Not just Juniper.” He cupped the back of my neck and leaned into my space. “You, Allie. You scared the shit out of me. Do you have any idea what you mean to me? You’re my air. And I know you don’t even want to think about going there when it comes to us, that you need things all neat and tidy, but I’m already there. Messy. Tangled. So wrapped up in you that I couldn’t breathe in that ER because I needed to be here with you.”
My heart swelled, beating so loud it almost drown the insidious doubts that shook the bars of their cage, demanding I keep that very heart right where it was, safe within my own chest. I couldn’t surrender it to Hudson, not when ruin was our only possible outcome. But damn it . . . I wanted to.
“Hudson,” I whispered, my hands rising to his chest, but I couldn’t bring myself to push him away.
“I’m the one who needs you.” He lowered his head toward mine. “I need you, Allie. I always have.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Allie
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The words broke me, snapped the tethers of self-preservation, and left me anchorless. I fisted my hands in his shirt and surged upward, pressing my lips to his.
He groaned low in his throat and took my mouth with an urgency that flooded my veins and set my nerves on fire. The kiss was blatantly carnal, all twisting tongues and clashing teeth as we strained to get closer.
I tore at the buttons on his shirt, and reluctantly surrendered the kiss for the whole three seconds it took Hudson to strip off my tank top, leaving me bare from the waist up. Then his mouth was fused with mine again, and I sucked on his tongue as I worked his shirt off his shoulders. I was rewarded with another groan as fabric hit the floor.
His hand cupped my breast, and the skim of his thumb over my nipple hardened the peak instantly. A shiver rolled up my spine and I arched into his hand as he kissed me deeper, longer, centering my world with him as my only compass point.
I knew the carved lines of his torso by heart and traced them with my fingertips as my hands slid down his body, quickly finding his zipper and tugging. There were too many clothes, too many layers between us. I needed him as naked as I felt, and only all of him would do. A quick flick of my fingers on the hook closure of his dress pants, and they were unfastened. I slipped my hand between the rigid muscles of his abs and the elastic of his boxer briefs and found him hot and hard.
“Fuck, Allie.” His moan echoed off the mirrored walls as I wrapped my hand around his cock and stroked from the tip all the way to his base.
My thighs clenched, heat centering between them as I swirled my thumb over his tip, and then stroked my tongue into his mouth, flicking the sensitive line behind his teeth in time with the motion of my hands. I lived for his swift intakes of breath, the clench of his hand in my hair.
I abandoned his mouth to kiss down his chest and worship at the altar of his perfect abs. My tongue dipped into the line that ran from the edge of his stomach down past his waistband, and I hooked my hands at his hips and dragged the clothing from his body in one long pull, hitting my knees in front of him.
“Love . . .” There was awe in that tone, but also a touch of warning that let me know I was playing with absolute fire.
“Off,” I demanded, and he stepped free of his pants and boxer briefs. Once I stripped his socks off, I sat back on my heels and looked up and up, marveling at the perfection of his body. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more perfect form.”
“Al—” he started, but ended on a rumbling groan as I rose onto my knees and sucked him into my mouth.
His cock slid over my tongue, and a heady sense of power flushed my skin as his hips rocked once. Twice.
“Holy shit.” His hands fisted in my hair. “Allie. Love. You have to.”
“Hmmm?” I took him deeper and reveled at the flare of his eyes, the flex of his jaw, the knowledge that I had the complete and total ability to unravel him.
“Stop,” he managed to say.
I flicked his tip with my tongue and released him. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”