“It didn’t make you jealous?” she said breathlessly.
“No,” he mumbled. “Just made me horny.” He nipped at her neck, then kissed his way to her collarbone. When his tongue skimmed down the valley of her breasts, she shuddered in his lap.
“I don’t understand this,” she whispered.
He lifted his head. “This, as in what we’re doing now? Or what happened earlier?”
“Earlier.” Her face grew flushed again. “The men I’ve been with haven’t liked to share.”
“I don’t blame them for wanting you all to themselves.” He slipped his fingers under her tank top, stroking her flat belly.
“You let Rylan touch me.” It wasn’t an accusation. She sounded genuinely perplexed. “Why?”
“Because it turned you on.” Conner drew the material up but didn’t bare her breasts.
“Did it turn you on?”
“Yes.” He rubbed his thumbs under the swell of her breasts, and her breath hitched.
“You like being in control,” she mused. “You liked ordering us around.”
“Mmm-hmmm.” He brought his lips to her shoulder and licked it. “You liked it too.”
“Yeah…”
She sounded confused again, and he looked up to see her teeth worrying her bottom lip.
“There’s no shame in wanting to give up control for a little while.” His hands slid under her shirt to cup her breasts. They were full and soft, spilling into his palms. Christ, she felt so good. “You don’t have to be afraid, Hudson.”
“Really? Because you’re pretty scary sometimes.”
He laughed. “I’m a bastard. I’m ruthless and demanding and I wouldn’t hesitate to slit someone’s throat if they posed a threat to me.” He pressed his lips to the center of her throat. “Yours included.”
She shivered.
“But sex… it’s a whole different game, baby. You have to trust that whatever I do, it’s with the sole purpose of making you feel good.”
“Trust? That’s a big word to throw around, considering we barely know each other.”
He flexed his hips, and his erection bumped her core. “You want me inside you, don’t you? That means you already trust me, to some extent.” He squeezed her breasts, his thumbs venturing close to her nipples before veering away, bringing an anguished cry to her lips.
“Please. Take me,” she begged.
Connor latched his mouth on her neck in an openmouthed kiss. Her skin was on fire, burning his lips, fogging his mind more than any amount of whiskey ever could. “I’m not taking anything from you,” he corrected. “You’re giving it to me.” He dragged his tongue along the delicate tendon in her throat. “And I’m giving you something in return.”
He peeled off her shirt and captured one nipple in his mouth, sucking hard enough to make her cry out.
“I’m giving you pleasure,” he whispered against the rigid bud. “I’m going to make you come so hard, you won’t remember your name.”
Her moan vibrated in his lips and shot right down to his cock. As whiskey and arousal burned in his blood, he feasted on her breasts, alternating between them to lick and kiss and explore. His tongue circled one distended nipple, flicked against it before he lightly sank his teeth in, making her jerk in his arms.
“Oh. Do that again.”
Chuckling, he gently bit her other nipple, and was rewarded by another throaty cry and another shudder of pleasure.
His erection throbbed impatiently, causing him to tighten his grip on her hips and nudge her to her feet. Her bare breasts made his mouth water. They were splotched pink from his stubble chafing against them, her nipples glistening from his tongue.
“Take those shorts off. Panties too.”
She stripped so fast, he choked out a laugh, and a moment later Hudson stood naked in front of him. He admired her smooth, pale skin. The sexy indentation of her hips and the way they rounded into her gorgeous ass.
His gaze dropped to the juncture of her thighs. Her pussy was completely bare, and when she parted her legs slightly, he growled at the sight of the moisture clinging to those delicate pink lips.
“Sit on my face, baby. Rylan’s not allowed to be the only one who gets to feel you come on his tongue.”
She made a desperate sound and staggered forward, and he caught her hips, yanking her toward him. He positioned her knees on his shoulders, then clutched her ass and brought her pussy to his face. Hudson braced her hands on the wall behind them, moaning when his tongue slicked over her clit.
Jesus. Now he knew why Rylan was groaning like crazy when he had his mouth on her. She tasted so sweet, and her body was so responsive. She was already wet for him. Every lazy brush of his tongue had her bucking harder against his mouth.
Connor lost himself in her. He closed his eyes and wrapped his lips around her clit, suckling the swollen bud as he clasped her firm buttocks to hold her in place. She shamelessly ground against him as he drank her up, as he worked her with his tongue until her spine arched and her body convulsed.
He’d made plenty of women come, but there was nothing hotter than the sounds Hudson was making right now. Helpless cries and breathy moans and whimpered pleas as she told him not to stop, begged him to take her higher. She hadn’t responded like this to Rylan, and that brought a strange rush of dizzying satisfaction. He wasn’t sure if it was him, or if Hudson was simply shedding another layer of inhibition, but either way he liked it. No, he loved it. He was harder than he’d ever been, every muscle in his body straining as Hudson slid down into his lap, boneless and sated as she dropped her head in the crook of his neck.
“Welcome back,” he murmured.
Her eyelids fluttered open. “Holy shit. That was… So. Fucking. Good.” Her hands started clawing at his shirt. “Why are you still wearing clothes?”
Her urgency made him laugh again. Look at that – two laughs in less than ten minutes. Maybe he was drunker than he’d thought.
He took pity on her and helped her out by removing his shirt, and then her hands were all over his chest. Stroking, petting, scraping his nipples with her fingernails. Jesus. She was like a woman possessed, impatient to touch every inch of him.
“Can I suck you?”
The pleading note in her voice made him want to snicker in disbelief. Right. Like she needed to ask – he was aching for her mouth. No, he was aching for a lot more than her mouth, but her condom request had thrown him for a loop. He didn’t have protection on him, and no way was he taking any chances.
He’d just have to settle for the next best thing.
Connor reached for his belt, slipping the leather free of the buckle. “You want my cock? It’s all yours, baby.”
She unzipped his jeans, her breath hitching when his erection rose to meet her waiting hand. Her touch was almost reverent as her fingers danced along his shaft in a teasing caress that made him groan.
“Don’t tease me,” he rasped. “I need it too badly tonight.”
She posed a wickedly sexy sight as she slid to her knees in front of him – golden hair streaming down her back, breasts flushed pink, nipples puckered tight. It’d been a long time since he’d felt such a visceral attraction to a woman, and it was more than a sexual one. More than the instinctual need to find release in her body. He wanted to claim her. Mark her any damn way he could.
The overpowering urge unsettled him, but not enough to stop him from lifting his hips in search of her mouth.
Hudson’s lips closed around his cock.
Sweet Jesus.
An electric shock zipped down his spine and seized his balls. So criminally good. And so goddamn sexy, seeing her mouth gobble him up one inch at a time. She stopped just short of taking him all the way, her lips trembling. He waited, his ass cheeks clenching to stifle the urge to thrust deep.
She curled her fingers around his base, giving it a slow pump as she hummed around the tip of his cock and sucked hard enough to make him groan.
Almost instantly, she went
still again, peering up at him as if to gauge his expression, as if to ask for permission.
Connor tangled his fingers in her hair and nodded in encouragement, and the hot suction on his dick returned, the grip of her hand becoming tighter. Every lick was exploratory, every soft moan tinged with desire and wonder. Her tongue traveled along his shaft as if she were mapping his cock and figuring out what got him off, and the thorough attention threatened his control.
He leaned his head back on the couch cushion and closed his eyes, the long swipes of her tongue and quick pumps of her hand deepening the ache in his balls. Normally he could hold out for a while, but not tonight. Tonight he just wanted an outlet for the tension and lust he’d been plagued with since Hudson had walked into his life. He just wanted to come, damn it.
“I’m close,” he warned. “Where do you want it?”
She released him with a pop, looking confused by the question.
“Your mouth?” he prompted. “Those sexy tits? Where do you want me to come, baby?”
A tiny whimper escaped her swollen, wet lips. “Wherever you want.” Then she lowered her head and sucked him deep, and he almost gave in and spilled into her hot, eager mouth.
But that infuriating need to mark her refused to go away. With a growl, he wrenched out of her mouth, fisting his cock as he leaned forward. One stroke was all it took before release slammed into him. His breath grew shallow, his vision blurring as pleasure spiraled through his body. He spurted on her breasts, his entire world narrowing to the sight of her wide gray eyes, hazy with desire and riveted to his face as if she loved watching him get off.
He sucked in oxygen, trying to regulate his breathing, his erratic heartbeat, then tugged her into his lap and covered her mouth with his. Hudson laughed even as she kissed him back, her breasts sticky against his chest.
“Is sex always this messy?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yup.” He chuckled. “That’s what makes it so great.”
She pressed her lips to his in an eager kiss, her arms looping around his neck as she rocked against his lower body. His cock was already hardening again. Son of a bitch. How did this woman have the power to do this to him? To get him worked up again seconds after sucking him dry?
Their mouths broke apart when a loud pounding sounded on the door. Hudson’s head shot toward the other end of the barn, but she relaxed when they heard Xander’s muffled voice.
“Con, I don’t mean to interrupt.”
“Then get lost,” he growled.
There was a bark of laughter. “I’d love to, but I kinda need you to talk some sense into Rylan.”
He smothered a groan. “What the hell did he do now?”
“The she-devil came a-visiting again. She trashed his cabin and now he’s pissed.”
Connor blinked. Then snorted. “For fuck’s sake. You’ve gotta be kidding me.” He climbed to his feet, pulling Hudson up with him. “Where is he now?” he called at the door.
“He grabbed a rifle and tore into the woods.”
Goddamn it.
“I’ll be right there,” he rumbled, before turning to Hudson. “I have to go.”
She raised one eyebrow. “The she-devil?”
He couldn’t help but snicker. There weren’t too many things to laugh about in this screwed-up world, but Rylan’s rivalry with the lone wolf that roamed the mountainside was undeniably hilarious.
“It’s a wolf,” he explained. “She shows up every few weeks scavenging for food, ever since Rylan made the mistake of throwing her some scraps one night. When she realized she wasn’t getting any more freebies, she started terrorizing him.”
Hudson’s lips twitched. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope. The damn beast has a vendetta. Shit gets stolen or chewed up? It’s always Rylan’s.” He snorted again, muttering to himself as he zipped up his pants and looked for his shirt. “Trashed his cabin… Jesus…”
“You’re going after him?”
He yanked the T-shirt on. “Of course. I can’t have him traipsing around in the dark, shooting off rounds. It might attract unwanted attention.”
She frowned. “He wouldn’t randomly shoot off his gun, would he?”
“When it comes to this wolf, Ry loses his fucking head.” Connor headed for the door, then halted as he realized that when a woman just gave you a blow job, it was probably rude to run off without saying… something. But what came out of his mouth was, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Or…” She bit her lip. “I can wait here until you get back.”
It was a tempting offer, but he knew better than to go too far, too fast. Hudson hadn’t even been out of the city a month. She needed time to adjust, to ease into the outlaw way of life without losing herself in the addictive taste of freedom.
“I think you’ve had enough excitement for one day,” he said gruffly.
A little grin played on her mouth. “I’m greedy, remember? I don’t know the meaning of enough.”
No, she didn’t. She wanted more, each and every time. She tested his control, distracted him with her pussy and her eagerness, until he dropped his guard without even realizing it.
“And I call the shots, remember?” With a smirk, he strode to the door, pausing only to repeat his earlier words. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
10
“Jesus fucking Christ!”
Hudson turned in amusement as Xander’s expletive floated toward her. The two of them were on opposite ends of the lodge, fiddling with their respective electronics. Obviously Xander wasn’t having any more luck than she was.
“Everything okay?” she called out.
“No,” he grumbled. “Goddamn satellites are ruining my life.”
Intrigued, she wandered over to Xander. His gaze was focused on a laptop screen, but Hudson couldn’t figure out what she was seeing. Lines and lines of code, a nonsensical jumble of letters and numbers that made her eyes cross. She assumed it had something to do with the two mobile phones next to the computer, which were a lot bulkier than the razor-thin cell phones people used in the city. She couldn’t fathom what use they’d have in the free land. It wasn’t like cell towers were readily available to the outlaw population.
“What are you doing?” she asked curiously.
“Nothing much.” He sounded distracted. “Just trying to hack into the city’s defense system and peek at their satellites.”
“Uh-huh, nothing much. So those are satellite phones?”
He nodded. “Could be useful on runs, or if we ever need to separate. Our radios don’t have too far of a range.” He typed something on the keyboard. A green error box popped up immediately, causing him to slam his hand on the desk. “Jesus Christ!”
She wrinkled her forehead. “Why do you say that?”
“Say what?” He frowned. “You mean, Jesus Christ?”
“That’s the name of that god, right? The one people used to worship?”
“Not exactly. He’s actually —” Xander stopped, a wry smile crossing his lips. “Nope, no point in getting into a theological discussion with a citizen.”
She froze for a second, until she realized that of course Connor had told his men where she’d come from. She didn’t imagine there were many secrets among the men, which only deepened the guilt already gnawing at her gut. They were providing her with shelter, food, protection, and she was lying to them. It didn’t feel right. But she’d given Connor all she could. If she wanted to survive, the rest needed to stay hidden.
Still, the back of her neck tingled as she thought about the half-truths she’d told him. Her tattoo was concealed under layers of makeup, the waterproof kind that ensured the summer heat didn’t smear it. As insurance, she always made sure to wear her hair down or in a braid, but she was still terrified Connor would discover the proof of her deceit.
But the thought of Knox tracking her down and forcing her into marriage terrified her more.
Swallowing, she forced her panicky brain to focus
on Xander. “I don’t get why you use a god’s name as a curse.”
“Because that’s pretty much what it’s become. It’s a phrase now, more than anything. A way to voice frustration, or anger” – his dark eyes twinkled – “or something to say when you’re coming. Trust me, you’ll hear it a lot during sex.”
A blush rose in her cheeks. Rylan had said it, in some form or another, when his cock had been in her mouth. So had Connor, when he’d come all over her breasts and then kissed her as if he were a starving man and she was his only source of sustenance.