Page 58 of Paper Horses

I scooted back just as he crawled over me, forcing my back to the bed as his lips met mine. Fire coursed through me, an inferno raging that only intensified when he nudged at my entrance. A growl rumbled through him as he sank further into me, giving me time to adjust to him.

“Fuck,” he said when he filled me, his voice so hoarse it came out in broken syllables.

“You really need a new word.”

“Not when it turns you on this much. You’re soaked.”

I dug my fingers into his back as he moved, too enraptured to reply and tell him it wasn’t just his words, it was him. He did this to me, leaving me weakened like putty in his hands. He always had.

With every thrust, my climax rebuilt, edged on with his heavy breaths, his touches, his mouth. Every touch was worshipping, every moan an affirmation that I belonged to him. An affirmation that I’d always been his and a reminder that I always would be. As his pace hastened, he murmured, “Come with me, Olivia. Show me who owns you.”

With a strangled cry, my release hit in a series of convulsions that rocked my body and took him over the edge with me. He grunted, holding my arms so tight I knew I’d have bruises. The wound from my tumble in the rain throbbed, but it only added to the intensity as ecstasy washed through me.

With uneven breaths, Hudson dropped his head to mine. Our eyes stayed locked, our bodies still one, and my chest thudded, reaching for his, for its other half. We remained like that, frozen as the aftershocks of my release reverberated through me. He lowered his mouth to mine, his kiss leaving me even more debilitated.

“I missed that,” he muttered, lifting his mouth from mine.

“Me, too.”

He searched my eyes, kissing my forehead before rolling over and pulling me into his hold. A deep breath moved his chest, and I laid my head on it, listening to the thumping of his heart, the realization hitting me that it belonged to me, that he was mine. Mine again.

“Now what?” I asked, doubt surfacing.

“Now, I'll go take care of the horses and check for damage while you clean up. After that, I’m going to spend the rest of the day ravaging this body until we’re too worn out to move.”

I giggled, a sound that hadn’t come from me in far too long.

He rose and pulled me up with him, securing me in his thick arms. Safe. It was a feeling that left me exposed, and a sudden need for self-preservation welled in me. We had two different lives, distance separating us. This couldn’t work. The barriers started rebuilding, the coldness seeping in to protect me from the hurt that waited in the shadows to pounce on me. Days. Mere days before I’d be on my way home. Back to the city, to a life of hiding my pain behind hard glares and snarky comments, drinking it away with expensive wine.

“Okay,” I said, hating how my voice had lost its lightness.

I turned from him, thoughts swirling in my mind and smothering the moments before when I’d been free and loved. That wasn’t my life, and it never would be.

Chapter 15

Hudson

The bliss that had hung over me snapped like a thread pulled too tightly, unraveling as I tried to keep it in one piece. Something had changed in Olivia, taking what we’d just done, the admissions we’d made, the happy ending that sat on the cusp for us, waiting for us to grab it, and turning them into something that caused her mask to go up. I could see it reforming as I pulled my pants back on.

Touching her again, having her in my arms, her body succumbing to ecstasy with mine had been like a dream. A dream I’d had for too many years to count. Even when I’d hated her the most, she remained locked in my heart, entering my dreams, my thoughts. Clouding everything I’d done and every attempt I’d made to free myself from her. And now…now she was mine again.

But the look in her eyes, the dimness there, the distance I’d watched her place between us was an obstacle I hadn’t expected. I rubbed my face as she closed the bathroom door, her scent still strong on my fingers. It tempted my body, waking it again. She was irresistible, she always had been, and keeping my hands off her had been something I’d never succeeded in doing for long.

I buttoned my pants before I sat on the bed, thinking of all she’d confessed. I had known there were secrets she kept from me, but never had I imagined they were that bad. The burden she’d carried for so long, the violence she’d witnessed and her brother had suffered. I wanted only to wrap her in my arms and hold her, to let her know she was safe now and that she could let those burdens go, pass them to me so I could carry them for her. But the idea that she had left me for a trust, for money, had stung until she admitted the real reason. Not only to avenge her mother’s death but to do right by her brother. To be the big sister he’d never allowed her to be. She had sacrificed her happiness for him because he had done exactly what I would have done for her. He had protected her. Both of them had sacrificed so much because of one man’s actions.

It made me sick, but there was nothing I could do to make it better for her except forgive her. In doing so, the strain of years of carrying her in my heart, of fighting that love, eased, and the barriers I’d built around it collapsed completely. Olivia owned my heart. I’d given it to her in college and never taken it back because it would always belong to her.

I rose, grabbing my shirt as the bathroom door opened. She came out with a towel wrapped around her and headed to the guest room. Something was wrong, and my stomach bottomed out. She was in her head. I’d seen it happening before she’d walked into the bathroom, and I wasn’t about to let her stay there.

I ran after her, grabbing her arm and pushing her against the door.

“What are you doing?” I asked, looking down at her.

“I could ask you the same thing.” She tried to pull from my hold, but I had her boxed in, my hands on both sides of her, holding her arms.

“You’re running, Olivia. Putting that mask on again, like what we just did meant nothing more than a night with one of your hook-ups.” The words came out with the venom that was broiling in my chest.

Her head went back.