Accidental Abduction (Masked Men of Sage Springs #1)

Chapter Three

Hudson

“Sorry I kept you waiting for so long. Shipment was bigger this week with the party, and it took a little longer to get everything put away than I’d expected,” I apologized, leaning down to kiss her cheek. She scoffed and leaned away, my lips brushing the air as I walked past her. She slammed the front door harder than seemed necessary and followed me into the living room.

“Wouldn’t have had to wait if you’d come over here last night like I’d asked you to.”

Shit. Seemed like Viv was in a mood. Not that it absolved me of what she’d said. I had been prioritizing the bar over her for months. Typically, I’d push back and remind her I had tasks I couldn’t drop whenever she wanted me to.

“You wanted to talk about the party?” Changing the subject and avoiding a fight seemed like a better option.

She crossed the apartment, roughly pulling a garment bag from the coat closet. “I picked the costumes up yesterday.”

She flung it over the back of the couch, and I watched as she unzipped the bag, wincing when I saw the purple leather jacket inside.

“What?” she huffed, pulling the hangers out and draping them across the back of the couch. “Do you have a problem with what I picked out? You’re obsessed with that comic book girl. I thought you’d like this one. And we both know how good I look in tiny shorts and fishnets. ”

“I’m not going shirtless.” She clearly picked out the Jared Leto era ‘Joker’ costume, but I’d rather wear a purple suit over being shirtless in an ugly purple crocodile skin jacket.

Part of me was stoked she’d be dressed up like a scantily clad comic book villainess, but I wasn’t sold on the couples costumes.

“You’re so vanilla sometimes. What’s the point of having all the ink if you’re going to cover it up?”

“I own the bar, Viv. Coming in shirtless, covered in face paint, and wearing a tacky purple trench coat isn’t my idea of fun.”

“Nothing is your idea of fun lately. You used to be more exciting. We used to have fun together.”

“We still have fun.” When I had weekends off, she dragged me all over the place to things I had no interest in. Unless it came to my hours at the bar, I let her do whatever she wanted when we were together. I just enjoyed spending time with her. At least I used to. “I worked a shit ton of extra hours lately so we could go to the party instead of me working it. I don’t know what else you want from me.”

“I want you to be spontaneous again. You used to be edgy and adventurous. Now you just obsess over the bar and hang out with Reid playing video games when I’m busy. When was the last time you did something that gave you a rush?”

“We… I…” Stunned, I sat down on her couch, resting my elbows on my knees as I tried to absorb her words. Maybe I had gotten too used to my routine to deviate from it. “What kind of spontaneous things do you have in mind?”

“It’s not spontaneous if I have to tell you something. God, I wished you’d just figure it out by now. I’m so tired of my girlfriends bragging about their sex lives and me being like ‘ yeah, Hudson came over after his shift and fucked me missionary in my bed before he passed out.’ Do you want to know some of the stories I hear from them? I feel like I settled for a dud that looked like a bad boy.”

“Viv, what the fuck? That was a cheap shot. You know I can’t... ”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. All I hear is ‘ I can’t’. You could if you gave a shit.“ She crossed her arms over her chest, staring daggers at me across the space that divided us.

“What do you want?” Her girlfriends looked like little clones of each other, so I wasn’t sure what kind of dirty shenanigans they were getting up to. They seemed like the type to be afraid of breaking a nail rather than engaging in adventurous sex.

“Beth and Travis went camping last month, and he fucked her up against a tree. She had bark burn for a week. You don’t even want to leave the bedroom, Hudson. I feel like I’m never gonna get what they have. Marcy said Mason chased her through the woods behind their house with a mask, then carried her back to his car and they fucked in the driveway. When the fuck am I gonna get something like that?”

Having met those people, that was a bit of a surprise, but maybe she was right. We were still young, and we didn’t have any kids. Maybe we needed to spice things up a bit. Something needed to change because it seemed neither of us were happy. “Where did your friends even come up with that stuff?”

“If you were around more, you’d know we have a spicy book club. They’ve all convinced their guys to try out scenes from the books, but you won’t even let me fuck you in your office.”

“You were trying to get me to leave the bar unmanned on a Saturday during a rush. Do you have any idea what kind of chaos would happen if I left during that?” It was bad enough that she guilt tripped me because of my work hours, but when she tried to manipulate me into sex when I was on shift, I’d been pissed.

“Get someone else to watch the bar for once. God, Hudson, I want to feel like I’m more than some toy you just play with when you have time.”

“What do you want me to do? What’s something you want to try from one of your books?” If it wasn’t too off the wall, I’d try it out. Maybe we needed to find the spark again. I hadn’t realized she was so unhappy with how things were between us.

“You know those white ghost masks from those movies that came out in the late 90s?” I knew what she was talking about. We’d watched the first movie together once, but she hadn’t really seemed into it. “I wouldn’t be opposed to you chasing me or pretending to kidnap me wearing one of those.”

The words Reid had uttered about girls being into masked men came to mind, and I started planning in my head. “When?”

“That’s exactly what the problem is.” She crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot as she glared at me. “I’m not going to tell you when you need to be spontaneous. That defeats the entire purpose. You should just do it.”

“How am I supposed to know when a good time is to plan something like this? Am I just going to show up one day and tell you to run? What else do I wear? Do I tie you up and take you into the woods or something?” Gripping my hair, I roughly ran my fingers through the damp strands, trying not to let this overwhelm me. What she was asking for theoretically sounded reasonable, but what happened if it didn’t go as planned? She’d just use this as another thing to be upset about.

Viv looked defeated as she sat next to me on the couch, pulling her leg beneath her and placing her hand on my shoulder. “I’ve loved you for a long time, Hudson. But maybe it’s time we acknowledged we want different things. Things I don’t think you can give me.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Maybe we should go to the party separately, try hanging out with other people. See if someone else might be a better fit.”

What the fuck? “It sounds like you’re breaking up with me and you want to come pick guys up at my bar during a party that I planned because you wanted one.”

“Is that such a bad idea? We both aren’t happy.”

“Since when am I not happy? Don’t throw this shit on me. I bend over backward to make time for you when my schedule allows it.” But sometimes I had to change plans because I was needed at the bar. And she was pissed when it happened and regularly gave me the silent treatment. But I always tried to make it up to her. Clearly that wasn’t enough.

“I’ll return your costume to the shop. If you aren’t excited at the idea of doing something that would make me happy, we clearly need to hit the pause button. I want to stay friends. I still care about you, but I just need to see if something different fulfills what I want in a partner. We’re getting older and I don’t want to waste time on something that will fall apart if you don’t put in more effort.”

“So, this is it? You’re breaking up with me because I don’t initiate spontaneous sex with you?” While it’d been the initial draw in our relationship, it seemed insane for her to break up with me because she thought our sex life had gotten stale. We’d both invested four years into being a couple. She wasn’t just some fuck toy to me.

“There are other things, too. Can you honestly tell me we’re looking for the same future together?” she asked, sounding exasperated.

She was acting like I didn’t do anything for our relationship. Like every nice thing I planned for her on my days off, or going on outings with her vapid friends and their equally douchey boyfriends wasn’t doing what she wanted. But of course, I was the one being unreasonable.

“This isn’t working out for me in more than just one area. Maybe we need to take some time. I don’t want to force you to want me. If things don’t work out, we can check in with each other in a few months and see if this is worth rekindling.”

It seemed like she was talking in circles. She wanted me to be more spontaneous, but only because I wanted to, and then she wanted to keep me on the hook if things didn’t go how she wanted with dating other guys.

“Maybe you’re right. I’m gonna head out. Guess I’ll…see you later.”

Her eyes flashed with something that looked an awful lot like panic, but if she didn’t want me here, I’d leave. Before she roped me back in because whenever we fought like this, the problem was always me. I’d clearly let her down according to her, over something that in the scheme of things seemed pretty damn superficial.

She took a breath and masked her expression. “Don’t be mad, baby. I’m doing this for us.”

Viv inched forward, kissing just below the corner of my mouth. Where I’d once felt a spark when she touched me, felt flat. In the past, I would have turned and kissed her back, but I needed to get out of here and clear my head. She tried to hug me as I left, but my arms hung limply at my sides.

“This isn’t goodbye. This is just us evaluating what we really want in life and deciding if what we have is worth coming back to. You know this is what’s best for us, don’t you, baby?” she asked, stroking the skin on my cheek and lifting an eyebrow. I’d seen this look many times when she was trying to get someone to do something they didn’t want to. “I’ll come find you at the party if you’ll save a dance for me.”

Looked like I had a shitload of soul searching to do before this party. I could either try to prove her wrong, and plan something to win her back, or I could get really drunk and pass out in my office after spending all night as Reid’s wingman.

Either way, I was fucked.