Accidental Abduction (Masked Men of Sage Springs #1)

Chapter Eighteen

Charley

I should have been a little squicked out by the fact that I currently had cum stuck to my thighs while I wore a pair of baggy flannel pajama pants four sizes too big. I should have...but I wasn’t.

Sitting on the plush rug across from Hudson at the coffee table next to the fireplace, a thrill ran through me every time I laughed and felt the evidence of our intense coupling leaking out of my now sore lady parts.

Playing mindless board games and talking was the most I’d ever seen him smile since I’d known him. And I craved each and every one of them.

When we were outside the stress of the bar, he was lighter, more talkative, and he looked at me in a way that made my entire body light up. For as much as he’d been horrified when I walked out of his bathroom this morning, he was making up for it with his inability to go more than a few minutes without touching me in some way.

Subtle finger grazes gave me goosebumps, his hand settling on my calf underneath the table made me desperate to climb across it, and it took everything in me not to swoon when he kissed my neck before he escaped to the kitchen to grab more snacks.

Vivienne was a fucking moron. Like really fucking stupid. Because she had this man who, despite his tendencies to be a workaholic, went out of his way to make her feel special. To show her genuine affection. I knew it wasn’t his idea to go to every stupid local festival he went to with her where he held her hand and carried her things the entire time .

I knew he wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t blind to the fact that he could withdraw into himself and never asked for help. His responses most afternoons before the bar opened often consisted of a litany of grumpy grunts and growls. He was oblivious to things sometimes—like the fact that women hit on him constantly when he was behind the bar. But he tried. He gave a shit. He listened to what people said and was kind in a way I knew was rare.

He was a solid guy. And so eager to please. But in a ‘make my nasty fantasies come to life’ kind of way, not in the ‘too sensitive or gentle way.’ But if that’s what I wanted, I knew he’d do that too.

Now that I’d seen this more primal side of him, it worried me that if he suddenly decided he wanted to stop whatever was happening between us, I’d be crushed. If I thought it was hard to want him before, it would be impossible if he walked away.

I’d have to quit the bar, find somewhere else to live and escape to Butterfly Ridge early to work for my aunt and uncle while I finished my degree. Commuting twenty minutes would be the least of my worries.

“You okay?” he asked, flexing his fingers, and shuffling the UNO cards he held.

Nodding, I tried to push down my nerves. Because he was here with me now. He insisted we stay dressed for the rest of the day and talk instead of getting distracted by each other’s bodies. That meant he cared what I had to say, not only what I looked like naked and writhing across whatever surface he’d spread me across.

I was currently drowning in fabric, zipped inside his black hoodie with his T-shirt underneath. He’d pulled his pajama pants on me after removing our snow boots, then proceeded down the hallway naked with both pairs in his hands to return to the mud room before he went to find more clothes.

He hadn’t been kidding about things not fitting him when I’d teased him about being shirtless earlier—not that I’d minded that much .

A Sage Springs football T-shirt was currently having its seams brutally tested as it hugged his defined chest, and his long legs were covered with another pair of soft flannel pants.

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“Do I dare ask about what?” he teased with a knowing smile. While he surely expected me to be thinking about something dirty as I often was, I was dwelling on the fact this man held my heart in his large, calloused hands.

“I’m trying to figure out how we can play strip UNO,” I teased, and he rolled his eyes.

“Why do you keep testing me like this? We’re behaving right now.”

“Because it’s fun.” He returned my cheesy grin, and I knew he wasn’t really annoyed with me. “And I think you need that right now.”

“What? Someone to drive me insane?” All the teasing was pushing his boundaries, but I think he was starting to crave the way I pushed him. I know I craved the effect he’d had on me.

“No, fun. I don’t think you’ve let yourself have fun in years. And maybe I’m tired of letting you hide behind a failed relationship with someone who never appreciated what she had.”

He swallowed hard, placing the cards down on the table as he stared at me. “She…”

“Was fun until she realized she couldn’t turn the sweet man she thought was a bad boy into her lapdog.”

Smack talking other women wasn’t something I wanted to do. But after every snide comment she’d made behind his back for the last four years, I was tired of being nice about it for the sake of my friend. She wasn’t nice to him, and if I had to remind him how terrible she was, then I’d do it until he finally stopped trying to romanticize the memory of her to make himself feel guilty for doing what he wanted for once.

“I’m not that sweet,” he murmured, his previous smile gone. A pang of remorse flowed through me, but she was always going to be the elephant in the room until we addressed it. I knew it’d only been days since they broke up, but I wasn’t going to be a rebound fuck if I had anything to say about it.

“Yeah. You are . But you’ve also shown me that there’s a darker side you’ve been burying because you knew little miss perfect would never be okay with it.“ And I craved it. Every mark. Every degrading word. Every time he let himself lose control.

“She was the one who wanted me to…” he trailed off, looking down at the table and avoiding eye contact.

“Put on a mask and chase her through the woods?”

“Yeah…”

Taking a breath, I let him know exactly what I thought about how this situation started, and how it would have ended if he had tried it with her. “And she would’ve been into it once, critiqued your performance—which was really fucking hot, by the way—and then strung you along until the next time you weren’t giving her enough attention.”

He nodded, clenching his jaw as he tapped the edge of the card deck against the table.

“I’m not going to tell you she was terrible a hundred percent of the time. And I know that you...” I hesitated, choking out the next word. “…loved her. But she was honest with you last week and showed you who she was and how much she valued you. Don’t let her take up space in your heart when it’s clear she doesn’t want you in hers.”

His eyes flashed toward mine briefly before he looked down again. “She wanted to date other people and make me wait around for her to decide if what we had was worth coming back to.”

Growling, it almost morphed into a laugh at the way the corner of his mouth turned up in amusement at my defensive nature.

“Down girl,” he teased, exhaling and shuffling the cards one more time.

“Know your worth, Hudson. You deserve more than someone who wants to string you along until she’s bored with her next victim. ”

“And you deserve more than the string of one-night stands you take back to your apartment to torture me.”

“Maybe that was my plan all along,” I giggled, rubbing my toes against his thigh underneath the table.

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” he laughed, tossing a stack of brightly colored cards at me from across the table. “Maybe once you beat me, I’ll let you UNO reverse cowgirl me.”

I giggled, picking up my cards and fanning them out to plan my method of attack. I’d reverse cowgirl that bucking bronco any day of the week.

The fireplace crackled behind me, casting an ominous glow across the dimly lit great room. I should have been asleep, but after I’d awoken in the dark, my heart beating frantically as I tried not to dwell on the panic of my dream, I knew it’d be futile to try to go back to sleep.

Hudson had been out cold. In his defense, once we’d finally succumbed to the tension that’d been building all day, we’d frantically had sex three times—in varying acrobatic positions and unconventional locations—until we’d fallen asleep long after midnight.

Then my subconscious had decided to be a bitch, and I had a nightmare about a manic vampire dressed Harley Quinn chasing me through the woods intent to stab me to death and drain all my blood. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the vampire was more of the emotional kind, and I was worried that maybe I’d kicked the hornet’s nest when I’d brought up Viv yesterday.

Hudson hadn’t seemed upset with me, per se, afterward, but he had been uncharacteristically quiet while we cooked dinner together last night. I was trying not to read into it too much. He’d had a rough week, but I was determined to make it clear that I was here for him, and not just as a warm body .

But this morning, he was going to be my warm body to command.

Stretching my legs out in front of me on the coffee table, I tried to pull the hem of his hoodie down a bit further so my bare legs—and other parts—didn’t stick to the heavily lacquered wooden surface.

“God this thing is terrible,” I grumbled, scratching at the edge of my jaw, where the hard plastic of the mask he’d been wearing rubbed against my skin. It’d looked sexy and intimidating in the dim lighting of the dance floor during the party, and the dark of the woods behind the bar, but I was worried Hudson would stumble out here half awake and decide I was ridiculous for doing this.

He’d taken control during every interaction so far, but it was my turn.

And there was a huge difference between me taking the lead in the bedroom because we’d both like it, and me demanding control because I wasn’t willing to satisfy anyone’s needs but my own. This was for his enjoyment just as much as mine.

But Hudson had better fucking wake up soon, because now I was starting to second guess my sleep deprived plan to flip the script on him. Except for the chasing part. Cause the temperature had dropped outside overnight and it was too fucking cold to chase him through the woods when there weren’t any warm clothes in the house that actually fit me.

“Charley?” Hudson’s sleepy voice carried down the hallway, and I nervously shifted, trying to look like I had control of the situation. I could fake it until I made it with the best of them.

Deciding to stay in the role, I silently remained where I was, stretched across the table in only his sweatshirt, his mask and my knee-high leather boots.

“What are you doing up so early?” he asked as he appeared at the end of the hallway. His long arms stretched above his head as he yawned with his eyes closed. One more step into the great room and he’d see me .

And judging by the tenting in the front of his worn blue pajama pants, he seemed to be up for a little fun this morning. I fucking loved morning wood.

His footsteps halted the moment I came into view, the flames from the fireplace reflected in his wide eyes. “Holy fuck.”

“Such a mouth on you,” I teased, beckoning him to come closer with my finger.

“Never fucking said I didn’t,” he laughed. “Clearly, someone is feeling naughty this morning.”

“Hmm. Have you been a naughty boy, Hudson?”

He took another step toward me, and I held up my hand, indicating for him to stop.

“Are you wearing anything underneath that sweatshirt?” he asked in a low voice, his eyes shifting down to where I had my legs crossed.

“No,” I chuckled, keeping my voice low.

“Show me,” he ordered, trying to take a step forward, but I shook my head, pointing my finger at him.

“You’re not the one giving orders this morning, Mr. Rivera.”

“And you are?” he asked, taking a defiant step forward.

“If you want to have a warm body to put your cock inside instead of your lonely, cold hand, then yes. I am fucking in charge.”

He growled at my cursing, his cock flexing behind the material of his flannel pants. I pushed down the intrusive thoughts that wanted to say fuck it and pull him forward, rip down those pants and swallow him whole.

“But I think you want something a little bit more accommodating. Something tight,” I whispered, uncrossing my legs and bringing my knees together. “Warm... Wet ...”

“Fuck,” he grunted, pressing his hand against his now fully hard cock.

“Take off the pants,” I ordered, letting my knees fall open, revealing my bare pussy to his hungry eyes .

“You really are a little devil,” he murmured, pulling the elastic waistband away from his waist and carefully freeing himself before he pushed them to the floor.

“Right now, I’m your devil. And you’ll keep doing what I tell you to.”

“Oh,” he growled, wrapping his palm around his cock and squeezing while I watched him roughly stroke himself. “I’d like to see you be the one who takes control.”

“Then you’re in luck. Get on your knees, Hudson.”

His eyes locked on mine, holding me captive as he slowly lowered himself to the carpet on his knees. He arched an eyebrow, daring me to continue to boss him around. But there wasn’t any turning back now.

“Lean forward.” I waited until he braced himself on his palms, his biceps flexing and making the ink on his arms undulate. “Now crawl.”

He licked his lips, looking down to stare at where my legs were still propped open with a hungry look on his face. Good. Then we had the same objective this morning.

Him making good on his dirty promise in the woods to bury his face in my bare pussy.

When he was only a few feet away, I held my hand up for him to stop, and scooted off the end of the table.

“Back to your knees.”

He shifted to sit back on his heels, his hands braced on his thighs, flexing against the skin, clearly trying to fight the urge to take back control.

It was so fucking hot that he was doing this for me. And when I told him so, a growl rumbled in his chest.

“Such a good boy,” I murmured, stepping forward and placing a finger underneath his chin to force him to look up at me. He stared into my eyes for a moment, and then slowly exhaled, clearly finding something in mine that helped him relax. “So eager to please. ”

“You know I only want to bring you pleasure,” he murmured, wrapping a palm around the back of my thigh.

“Hands off,” I barked, moving back slightly. Bracing my hand on his shoulder, I lifted my boot to press the heel into the tattoo covering his pec, adrenaline racing through my veins as he groaned, and his cock flexed between his legs. Maybe Hudson liked a little bit of pain too. “I don’t need your hands right now.”

“My hands aren’t the part that wants to fuck you,” he growled, reaching for me again.

I dragged the boot up his chest, pivoting the toe over his shoulder and digging the heel into his collarbone. He groaned as I leaned down, panting when I grasped the hair on the side of his head.

“The only part of you that is going to fuck me right now is that wicked tongue. Maybe if you can’t talk, you’ll listen to my directions.”

His eyes widened, but I could tell my harsh words were welcomed by the fire inside them.

“Lay down, hands at your sides.” He obeyed, shifting to sit on his ass, holding my boot to his shoulder and pressing it into himself before releasing me, laying back against the carpet.

The hungry part of me wanted to say fuck it—literally—and sit down on the hard protrusion bobbing in the air between his thighs, but that would be giving him what he wanted. Right now, I was taking what I wanted.

Throwing a leg over his waist to stand over his body, my boot grazing his hard cock, I loomed over him. His hands balled into tight fists, and I watched as he resisted the urge to pull me down. His eyes briefly darted to where I knew he could see up his hoodie, but he just clenched his jaw, not saying a word.

Knowing I had his full attention, I unzipped the hoodie, peeling it off my body and throwing it in the direction of the coffee table. Deciding to tease him a little, I grasped my breasts, squeezing them before I pinched my nipples, moaning .

A rumbling hum built in his chest, but he didn’t say a word as I lowered myself to my knees, sitting on his chest with his biceps trapped between my thighs.

“You’re going to make me come— without the use of your hands. And when you do, I’ll fuck you until you make me come again. If you don’t listen to my directions, I’ll leave you like this, desperate for me. If you’re a good boy, I’ll let you come inside me. And when I stand up, you’re going to lick it off my thighs.”

He flexed his jaw, a growl forming in the chest that heaved underneath me, brushing against my thighs with each heavy inhalation, but he didn’t say no.

“Are you ready to show me what you can do with this?” I asked, leaning forward to cup his jaw, rubbing my thumb along his bottom lip before I pressed it inside his mouth. When he bit down, sending a flash of pain through me that had me squirming, I had my confirmation that he was fully on board with what would happen next.