Page 52 of Too Broken to Love

The divot in his chin deepened as his lips curved into another smirk. “I knew you would.”

“That’s what Sam said when I finally agreed to let him hire the private investigator. You’re just as bossy as he was.”

“Thank you.” His lips dropped into a hard line. “Your driver is a trained security professional recommended by one of the General’s associates. He’ll take you to work and bring you back here. While you’re at the hospital, you aren’t to leave the building without his protection, not even for a coffee break.”

“Don’t you think that’s extreme?” She often met Lia at the park across the street from the emergency room. They didn’t need an audience, especially today since she’d be detailing every second of this conversation to her bestie.

“I mean it, Tessa. We’re supposed to take care of each other.” He pressed his finger to her lips. “Not another word about this?”

“Really?” His eyes darkened as she spoke against the pad of his finger. “Want to know why I’m mad?”

He traced her lower lip with his fingertip. “Tell me.”

“Cause I haven’t seen you in three days to be able to take care of you.”

Gripping her waist, he spun them both and pinned her against the sink with his hips. “Want to know why you haven’t seen me?”

His iron cock zapped the juncture of her thighs like lightning on the water. Sizzling need flashed through her core and rumbled with the ferocity of a coastal storm.

He pressed his forehead to hers and withdrew his hips enough to snake his hand between them. “I’m mad because when I’m supposed to be concentrating on portfolios and assets, and trusts and other financial and legal shit, I’m thinking about what will make you come harder—my fingers or my tongue inside your wet pussy.”

He fisted her skirt and hiked it up.

She arched into his hand. “Hudson.”

“That’s it, little thief. The way you say my name, like you’re begging for my cock, is the reason I avoided you.” He dipped his head to her mouth and gently bit her lower lip. “All my attention should be focused on the mess blowing up around me, but I keep hearing those little sounds you make when I touch you. And I keep wondering what you’ll sound like, what you’ll taste like, when I graze my teeth up your thigh and devour your wet pussy.”

She half-moaned, half-yelped as he cupped her with his palm and pressed his thumb against her clit.

“There, that’s one of the sounds I’m talking about. But do you want to know what’s kept me up the past three nights, after I’ve jerked off thinking about you?”

All she could manage was a nod and one of those sounds he loved but had never heard herself make until he’d touched her.

He tugged her skirt back down. Bracing one hand on the sink, he stroked her cheekbone with the other. “I want to know how you got hurt. To know everything about the way you grew up. About the shitty way you were treated, because when I meet Frank, I want him to know the reason why my fist meets his face. But you know what I want to know most?”

If the unfiltered admission that penetrated the starved places in her heart was only a dream, she never wanted to wake up. Gripping his biceps, she held on to him like he’d disappear as quickly as he’d burst into her life.

He slid his hand into her hair as he dipped his head to her mouth. “I want to know more about the pretty little thief who I went from not trusting to respecting in less than a week.”

Before she could take a breath, he pressed his lips to hers in a firm kiss that left the taste of chili and everything strong and exciting about Hudson on her lips and tongue.

She whimpered as he pulled back. The quiet satisfaction in the way he stared at her mouth broke her restraint. She bit back a groan.

Smiling, he didn’t bother to hide that he’d heard her. “Have a nice day at work and don’t give your security detail a hard time. I’ll see you tonight at dinner.”

“You’ll be the one I’ll be giving a hard time to if you’re late. I’m not emotionally stable enough for more worry today. You’ll call if you get held up, right?”

He kissed her hard on the lips again. “Yes.”

Lia fanned her hand over the top of her coffee cup. “Holy shit, Tessa. That story is hot. Who doesn’t love a protective alpha who orders his woman to be safe and then kisses her like he’ll go full caveman if anyone harms one curl on her head?”

“That’s not what I said happened.”

“That’s what it sounded like to me. You should have said screw work and let him bang your fears clear out of you.”

Tessa glanced at her security detail who sat two picnic tables away with a gaze as alert and menacing as the General’s. “Lower your voice, please. Everyone in the park, including my bodyguard, doesn’t need to hear you.”

“Sorry.” Lia leaned across the table. “I’m on my third coffee today. I’m a little hyper. Going back to work after being caught in an explosion and then recovering at the Langley resort is exhausting.”