I snort-laughed. Yes, this was supposed to be a super serious moment, where we admitted our love for each other as teenagers and that we were the ones that got away. Sad and sappy and God, I was so done with it all.
There was something about this night that had me wanting to tell the world to go blow itself for all the anxiety it had piled on me the past few years. I was done.
Being with Hud tonight had been easy, for the most part. It had damn sure been more fun than I’d had in a long time. Even the insult and the fight had added a layer of excitement to my life that had been missing, had been wrapped up in working and delaying my own dreams and desires.
Maybe I was the sad sap that made my own life hard and Hudson was the easy fun I’d been missing.
Would it be so bad to have one night with him that wasn’t all about a relationship?
Hud frowned, and if I hadn’t seen it for myself, I’d have never thought I could hurt his feelings. But I had, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. What I wanted to do was him, a couple of times at least.
“I’m sorry, Hud. I wasn’t laughing at you, I was laughing at myself. I’m great at making my life hard. You’re fun and easy to be with, and I was seriously considering for a minute telling you we’d better call it a night.”
Hudson was certainly a ladies’ man, and there was no way we’d have a relationship come out of this, but just for one damn night I wasn’t going to care about what the future would bring. Tomorrow was tomorrow. Hudson was here, now.
“But you’re not saying that.” The lust he’d banked, hidden under the light façade of getting to know each other again lit up again in his eyes and his voice. Both were dark as eighty-five percent chocolate.
Delicious. I set my elbows on the counter and cupped my head in my hands, full well knowing I’d put my cleavage on display for him. “Nope. I’m not.”
He got up from his stool at the counter and came around behind me. He put his hands on either side my hips, trapping me between the counter and his body. “That’s good, because we’re just getting started.”
The bakery was only about the size of a Hershey Kiss, but suddenly it became a whole hell of a lot smaller.
“Yes, we are.” I took off my apron and set it on the counter. “Come home with me, stay the night.”
That was all the invitation he needed because I didn’t get a yes or a no, but instead his answer came in the form of a scorching, teeth gnashing, count your tonsils, steal my soul kiss.
My lips and tongue dueled with his, testing, tasting. His flavor was so familiar, like Christmas and Halloween and the Fourth of July all rolled up in one. God, how I’d missed that.
This kiss was nothing like the horny teenaged ones. This beat those like a flattened meringue.
This kiss took from me as much as it gave.
This demanding kiss said give yourself to me and you’ll be rewarded.
Hudson shoved one hand into my hair holding me tight, never letting me up for air. His other hand groped around on the back of my dress.
“Where’s the damn zipper on this thing?”
“It doesn’t have one.”
“Good.” He ran his hands down my sides, to my hips and then my bare thighs. His body followed suit until he was squatting in front of me. He slid his fingers under the hemline and lifted the dress up several inches. “I can’t fucking wait to taste you, to make you come in my mouth.”
Oh, yes. Oh no. “Whoa, wait. Not in here. I serve food in this place.”
“I’ll buy you a new damn counter. I’m not waiting another second. I’ve been hard for the last four hours and getting harder by the second. Give yourself to me, right now, babe. I promise to make you come so hard, so many times, you won’t know your name, much less care if the counter needs cleaning.”
“You’re a dirty man if you think I’m letting you strip my clothes off in the middle of the bakery and do lots of fun and naughty things to my body.”
He pressed a kiss to my thigh that sent waves of desire crashing through me. In one fell swoop he pulled my dress up and off. Thank God, I’d splurged on those matching bra and panties.
He eyed me up and down and then literally licked his lips. “You have no idea how dirty I am.”