Page 137 of Slap Shot
I unknot his tie and throw it on the floor with his jacket. I drag my fingers down the front of his shirt and unfasten the second button from the top. “Can I?—”
“Anything. Nothing. Whatever you want.” Hudson cups my chin with so much care, I almost melt because of it. “I’m at your mercy.”
I’m quick to untuck his shirt and undo the rest of the buttons. I push it off his shoulders, watch it fall to the floor. Keeping my eyes on him, I grab the hem of my own shirt and tug it over my head in a split-second decision fueled by an ache and a need I haven’t felt in years.
If ever.
Hudson keeps his eyes on mine when I’m naked from the waist up. He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t try to sneak a glance at my chest. I notice how red his cheeks are when I take a step back. How he’s standing perfectly still, afraid to move, and the way he swallows when I smile.
“Hudson,” I murmur. “I want you like I wanted you the other night. I wantmorethan the other night.”
At some point, we’re going to have to have a talk about what’s happening between us. We’re going to have to dive into a conversation about the future and where this is going. We’ll have to mention the important things, like my hesitation for another relationship and how Lucy will always be my number one priority. A man will never take her place.
That discussion won’t be tonight, though, and I’m glad.
It’s hard to focus on the rational things when I can see the outline of his cock through his pants. When he licks his lips and concentrates on me with a look so intense, I might combust from it alone.
“What kind of more?” Hudson moves toward me, and the backs of my thighs hit the bed. I sit on the mattress and watch with wonder as he stands between my legs. I remember what he said about making me see the stars, and I hope he takes me there again tonight. “I want to make sure I’m not reading this wrong because I’ve been dreaming about it, Maddie. For goddamn days.”
“I’m half naked and sitting on my bed while my child is at a sleepover, Hudson. Is there any other way to read this? Do you want to go play ping pong or take the dogs for a walk?”
His chuckle dies in his throat when he finally pulls his eyes away from my face and looks at my body. A groan, rough and low, works its way from his mouth when he moves from my throat to my chest. His hand flexes at his side when his attentionsettles on my breasts, and I pretend it’s his patience slipping away.
“Fuck,” Hudson whispers through a drawn-out exhale. Lifting a shaky hand, he draws a circle around my nipple with his thumb. He pinches it between two fingers and groans when I arch my back. “You’re going to be the death of me, Madeline. Please be gentle when you kill me.”
It’s impossible to find the words to tell him he’s going to be the death ofme, because he’s holding my cheeks like I’m something delicate and beautiful. He’s bending his neck and kissing me so fiercely, I’m afraid I might catch on fire.
I wrap my arms around his neck, moving willingly when he eases me farther onto the bed. I lie flat on my back, squirming when he holds his body over mine and dips his head again, taking my breast in his mouth.
His tongue is warm as he swirls it over my nipple. He makes me pant when he gently bites the soft skin he finds there, and I’m beginning to think Hudson Hayes is a tit man.
“Hudson.” I run my fingers through his hair. I tug on the blond strands so he knows to stay in place. “I like that.”
“Yeah?” He pops me out of his mouth and uses his fingers to mimic the same pattern. He spreads his saliva across my chest, but I don’t care. I want him to make a mess. I want to see a side of him no one else gets to see. “Do you like it?”
It’s stimulation no toy could ever give me. My entire body is an inferno, and it’s hard not to laugh and blurt out a resoundingyes.
“Very much so. Permission to keep doing it.” When I look up at him, I catch him staring at the spot below my collarbone. He touches the small tattoo that sits there. “What are you thinking about?”
“I’ve been wondering what your tattoo could be formonths.” He smiles at the ink on my skin. Draws over each number and the small heart at the end. “Is it Lucy’s birthday?”
“How did you know?”
“She’s the love of your life. Who else would it be for?”
That makes the string inside me pull unbelievably tight. I’ll fawn over the romance of it all and his attention to detail later. I might doodle his name in a journal and put ten hearts around it in the morning—how could I not?—but for now Ineedhim. In a way I’ve never needed anyone else.
I take his hand, guiding it down my body like I did the other night. I don’t stop until I reach the waistband of my pajama shorts, and the barrier between us might as well be a scarp of fabric. I stroke my thumb up his arm and look at him with a smile.
“Fuck me, Hudson,” I say with absolute conviction. When I position his hand over the seam of my shorts—low enough so he can feel how turned on I am—and add, “Please,” an honest to god whimper comes out of his mouth.
“Okay.Okay. Yeah, that’s—are you… birth control,” he manages to say, his face red, chest heaving. “Are you on it?”
“No. I haven’t had a reason to be.”
“Give me a second.”
Hudson kisses my forehead and disappears, but not before I see him shove a hand down the front of his pants to adjust himself.
