Page 81 of Paper Horses

Hudson: Get your fucking ass out here. Is that better?

This man was going to be the death of me in more ways than one.

Liv: Watch the language.

Hudson: Wouldn’t want to turn you on and have to bend you over this fence before we leave… Wait, maybe I would.

Liv: You’re relentless.

Hudson: Only for you, honey.

That nickname made my hands go clammy, and I knew if I didn’t get out there, he’d mess me all up. I put my phone in my back pocket, wondering when I started caring if an outfit like this got messed up—a week ago, I would have gladly dropped it in a mud puddle to avoid wearing it—and when I’d started carrying my phone in my pocket like I was just another person. Not an Icinda who carried her phone in a two-thousand-dollar handbag.

My eyes flicked to my suitcase, where the clothes I’d brought still sat neatly laid out. An instinct to change, to put on my old skin and rebuild my walls, hammered at me. The phone pinged, and I took it out of my pocket.

Hudson: Do I need to start counting? If I have to come in there, I’m throwing you over the hood of my truck and having a treat before we leave.

I stared at his words, and the need to cling to them, to him, to the freedom he brought me pummeled the instinct to flee, and a laugh bubbled up my throat.

Liv: Don’t threaten me with something I might enjoy.

He sent me a devil emoji, and my laugh grew. I giggled the entire way down the stairs, tugged on my boots, and was still giggling when I ran out of the house. He was resting on the fence behind the barn, and I ran to him, feeling so free and weightless that I jumped into his arms.

“Whoa, didn’t know being laid out on the hood of my truck would turn you on that much,” he teased.

“You turn me on, Hudson. Everything you do and say and…”

He kissed me, holding on tight to me as my legs clung to his waist. That kiss was so much more than just a kiss. Laced with emotion that drilled its way into the deepest parts of me, it was a proclamation of his love for me. Of what we had and who we were together.

A tear slipped down my cheek, followed by another. I swore the damned things were out to torment me. I had gone for so long without them in my life, and now they wouldn’t stop.

Hudson pushed my face back and sat me on the fence, concern shadowing his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, wiping my tears away.

“I don’t know.” I rubbed my cheek, looking away from him. “I think my eyes are broken. They won’t stop leaking. I’m going to be a sappy mess for the rest of my life. How will I run business meetings if I’m crying in the middle of them?”

He tossed his head back and laughed before leaning it on mine. “I think that’s the least of your worries.”

Sniffing, I closed my eyes, letting his voice soothe me.

“What’s really wrong, Olivia?”

I fisted his shirt to bring him closer, fear building inside of me. “I don’t want this to end.”

He stepped between my legs and tipped my head up. “Then don’t let it. It doesn’t have to end, Olivia. I never said anything about this ending.” His brows scrunched. “You’re the one who keeps going back to it.” His thumb draped down my cheek, and I leaned into it.

Nodding, I smoothed his shirt out, enjoying the taut muscles below.

“Olivia.” I looked back up, meeting chestnut orbs that threatened to drown me with the expanse of emotion they held. “I won’t let you go this time.”

But he would because he had to. The truth was there in what he hadn’t said. That he would if I told him to.

Hands going to my waist, he lifted me from the fence and placed me on my feet.

“You look sexy as fuck.”

“Language,” I said with another sniff.