“Who’s Reese?” Hudson asked curiously.
Kade piped up with, “The one woman Rylan can’t fuck.”
Everyone laughed, including Pike, whose chuckle sounded so rusty Connor was surprised his vocal cords could support the sound.
“You mean there’s actually a girl out there who can resist your charms?” Hudson teased, smiling at Rylan.
He heaved an exaggerated sigh. “It’s true. Reese will get naked with everyone but li’l ol’ me.”
“What’d you do to her?”
Rylan gave a mock gasp of pain as he touched his heart. “Wow. It really hurts that you think I did something to deserve such appalling treatment, Blondie.”
“Uh-huh. Because you’re pure as the driven snow, right?”
“Damn right.”
“Bullshit,” Xander said. “You’re a cocky bastard, that’s what you are. Serves you right that Reese is immune to you.”
“She’s not immune.” Rylan wiggled his eyebrows. “She’s just overwhelmed by my potent masculinity. A few more visits to Foxworth and I’ll win her over.”
Hudson turned to Connor again. “Can we go there sometime?” She immediately answered her own question. “No. That’s probably not a good idea.”
“No shit, little girl,” Pike muttered. “You can’t go gallivanting around the colony when an Enforcer lieutenant is after your ass.”
A wave of tension washed over the table. Hudson bit her lip and fell silent, her gaze dropping to her plate. Pike kept eating as if he hadn’t even spoken.
A sigh lodged in Connor’s chest. Leave it to Pike to ruin a perfectly nice dinner.
12
Hudson had done all she could with the tablets. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t access the program she was looking for.
She was officially admitting defeat.
“Xander?” she called from across the lodge.
“Yeah, doll?”
The nickname made her smile. All the men had taken to calling her something cute, but there was nothing sexual about it when it came from Xan or Kade. With Rylan… well, Rylan was Rylan. He was forever flirting with her, though she noticed he never made any advances toward her unless Connor was there. And when Pike addressed her as “little girl,” it was neither cute nor sexual, because his tone rippled with disdain when he said it.
And Connor… every word he said was pure sex. It was impossible to even think his name without getting turned on, but maybe that was because the man was inside her more often than not. A week had passed since that first time in the lodge. Since then, he’d come to her cabin almost every night, rocked her world, and left her limp and sated.
It bothered her that he never spent the whole night with her. That he kept so much of himself hidden from her. He showed her only the parts he wanted to show – lust, dominance, and the occasional flash of humor. The rest was a frustrating puzzle she couldn’t solve.
“What do you need?” Xander appeared next to her chair.
“Oh.” She blinked, trying to clear her head. “I needed your help with this.” She booted up one of the tablets. “I’m having trouble accessing something. See this icon?”
She tapped the screen, and Xander leaned in to take a closer look. “Yeah. I’ve seen it before, but I think it’s an old program that the city yanked from its mainframes. Never takes you further than the home page.”
Hudson shook her head. “It’s not an old program. They still use it now.”
He eyed her skeptically. “All right. I’ll bite. What’s it for?”
“Communication. The Enforcers use it to send secure messages when they’re out in the field, or to set up meetings, make schedule changes, that sort of thing.” She hesitated, wondering how much more to reveal. “Dominik also posts the sweep schedule on there, and the weekly assignments for the men. How many in a unit, the weapons they’ll need, where they’re heading —”
Xander interrupted with a hiss. “How do you know all that?”
She bit the inside of her cheek. “I told you, I worked in medical, patching up Enforcers. The unit leader always had a tablet on him, and the men had smaller portable versions. They didn’t hide what they were doing from me or cover their screens so I couldn’t take a peek.” She shrugged awkwardly. “I took a lot of peeks.”
Xander studied her face before shifting to the tablet. “Tell me how it works.”
“Well, when they launched the program, a box popped up asking for their log-in information. Once they entered it, they’d be redirected to other pages.” She paused. “Do you think you could play around with it and see if you can get in?”
“Jesus. Of course.”
She wrinkled her forehead at his very swift, very enthusiastic answer. “Oh. Okay. Thanks.”
He stared at her. “Do you really not see how important this is? How valuable this information could be? We’ll be able to stay one step ahead of the Enforcers. We’ll know which areas they’re sweeping, how many of them to expect… Christ, this is a potential gold mine…” He was still mumbling to himself as he snatched the tablet and stumbled back to his workstation.
Hudson couldn’t stop the panicky sensation that churned in her stomach. Crap. Had she done the wrong thing by telling him about the program?
What if Connor and the others used the information to go after her brother?
You don’t have a brother anymore.
The bleak thought was like a knife to the heart. No, she supposed she didn’t. These past couple of years, Dominik had transformed right in front of her eyes. He’d become a man she no longer recognized. Cruel and barbaric. Heartless.
But he hadn’t always been that way, damn it. Her brother had once been kind and honorable. Fiercely loyal and dedicated to keeping those around him safe.
What had happened to him?
She didn’t have an answer for that, and as painful as it was, she forced herself to banish Dom from her mind. She’d known that by escaping the compound, she was permanently severing ties with her brother. She needed to put the past behind her if she wanted to have a future in this new land.
A car engine rumbled outside the lodge, bringing a rush of relief. Connor and Rylan had been out checking the motion sensors in the woods, which had malfunctioned earlier. They’d been gone long enough to worry her, but Xander had assured her they would have contacted camp on the radio if they’d run into any trouble.
Still, she wanted to see for herself that they were unharmed. “Come find me if you need me,” she told Xander on her way to the door.
He didn’t answer, his concentration focused solely on the tablet. She’d noticed that Kade was the only person capable of reaching Xan when he was working. If Kade interrupted him, Xander dropped whatever he was doing. No hesitation.
Hudson didn’t quite understand their relationship. They weren’t outwardly affectionate toward each other. It definitely didn’t seem like they were sleeping together, because they didn’t act like a couple. And yet they were clearly more than friends.
When she stepped outside, she found Rylan unloading a bag from the Jeep. Streaks of mud marred his face and clothes, and some of it was even caked in his hair.
She laughed as she approached him. “What happened to you?”
He sighed. “The rain last night turned the mountain into a mud swamp. You should’ve come along – we were slipping and sliding all over the place. Fun times.”
“Where’s Connor?”
“Went to take a shower. Which is exactly what I’m about to do.” He smacked a kiss on her cheek before hurrying off.
Smiling to herself, she headed in the opposite direction, toward Connor’s cabin. The door was unlocked, so she walked inside, where the sound of rushing water greeted her. Her pulse sped up as she imagined Connor’s wet, naked body under the spray. Then she realized she didn’t have to imagine a damn thing – she could go and see it for herself.
She eased open the door without knocking and snuck a peek at the glass shower door. No ste
am filled the bathroom, which told her he was conserving hot water, the way he always did.
She’d barely had a second to admire his bare ass before his head turned and those hazel eyes met hers.
“Are you just gonna stand there, or are you joining me?” The shower spray muffled his deep voice, but there was no mistaking its seductive rasp.
Hudson fumbled for her clothing so fast it was almost comical. She slid the door open and stepped into the glass enclosure, squealing when the cold water touched her skin. As shivers broke out and goose bumps appeared, she tried making an escape, but Connor stopped her by wrapping his arms around her. It didn’t help, though, because his body was as cold as the water.
“Let me out of here,” she begged. “I changed my mind. It’s impossible to get turned on with this water temperature.”
“I beg to differ.” With a smirk, he glanced down at the erection jutting from his groin.
Nevertheless, he took pity on her and adjusted the faucet. Lukewarm now, but much better, and enough to thaw the ice in her bones. Then he kissed her, and water temperature was suddenly the last thing on her mind.
Hudson grabbed his wet shoulders as his tongue slipped into her mouth. Firm and insistent. Long, deep strokes that brought more goose bumps to her skin, but for an entirely different reason. She was addicted to his kisses, to the way he teased and demanded, drawing desperate moans from her throat with each stroke of his tongue.
His lips found her neck, trailing kisses along her wet skin, and she watched the water sliding down his chest, clinging to his compacted muscles, peeking through the wiry hairs on his chest. Her hands shook as she touched him, exploring the hard planes of his body and the various scars marring his flesh. Some old, some more recent. Evidence of the violence he’d known in his life, a reminder of who he was and what he fought for. Survival. Dominance.
One hand traveled over his tight abdomen, seeking out the thick erection straining between their bodies. When she started stroking it, Connor’s groan bounced off the walls. “Keep touching me like that and I’ll come all over your hand.”
“Maybe that’s want I want.” She pumped him even faster, loving how his features went taut with arousal. She felt so alive when she was with him. Bold and shameless. Free.
She’d thought she was happy with her old life. She’d enjoyed her work at the hospital. She’d had friends among the other nurses. Sure, the compound had been a testosterone fest, but Dominik had never treated her like she was less than any of the men. Her strength had been valued, not just by Dom, but by their father, who’d made her believe she could do anything she set her mind to.
But then her dad had died, and her world had transformed. Not in one fell swoop, but in a gradual evolution, like the way the planet was slowly being destroyed. Temperatures rising one degree at a time over the course of years, decades, until one day you looked at the glaciers that had once covered the north and discovered they were gone.
Dominik had changed. The atmosphere at the compound had changed. Even the mood in the city had changed. But Hudson realized that even before that, she’d been living only half a life, because she’d never felt half the joy and pleasure that she was feeling right now.
The revelation had her capturing Connor’s mouth in a greedy kiss. He stiffened for a moment, as if surprised by her passion, but then he kissed her back, his naked body crushing hers as he backed her against the cracked tiles of the shower stall. His shaft, trapped between them, slicked over her clit in a shockingly erotic grind that made her gasp.
Her response made him chuckle. With a devilish look, he did it again, and another gasp flew out.
“You’re so goddamn beautiful like this.”
“Like what?” It was difficult to concentrate on his words when his actions were so damn distracting. When he was fucking her clit with his cock, each wet glide sending her dangerously close to the edge.
“Wet,” he muttered. “Glistening. Your skin all pink and your pussy hot against my cock.”
He pushed two fingers into her core, and pleasure rocketed through her, curling her toes on the shower floor. She instinctively widened her stance, granting him better access, rocking into his touch.
“You’d let me do anything I wanted to you, wouldn’t you, Hudson?”
A helpless “Yes” slipped out before she could stop it.
His eyes turned molten. “You know it’ll feel good, whatever I do.”
He fingered her in earnest, stroking her inner walls until she felt both full and empty, craving more, needing more. His cock was heavy against her hip, branding her skin like a taunt, because she knew it could fill her so much better than his fingers.
She almost begged him to screw her right there against the wall. Just drive inside her and take her to that mind-shattering place where she didn’t have to think, where she could drown in the pleasure and embrace the freedom she hadn’t realized had been missing from her life.
But she didn’t get the chance to beg, to talk, to blink. Connor hauled her out of the stall, scooped her up, and kicked open the bathroom door.
“Goddamn it, I need to be in you.” His growl sent a thrill shooting up her spine. No man had ever been this desperate for her, looked at her as if he might actually die if he couldn’t have her.
They were dripping water all over the floor, but he didn’t seem to notice. He grabbed something from the table – a condom, she realized – and her heartbeat exploded, thudding so loudly it was all she could hear. A crashing sound penetrated the frantic drumming in her ears. Connor had swept every item off the table, even the lamp, which clattered to the floor with a crash. The next thing she knew, he’d spun her around and bent her over the tabletop.
Heat sizzled in her core. He’d taunted her about this table the night they’d met, about fucking her on it. Obviously he didn’t make idle threats. Or maybe it had been a promise. She didn’t know or care, because his fingers were inside her again. Moving in and out in slow, shallow strokes. Her back arched and her ass thrust out, struggling to get closer.
“You’re always so wet for me,” he groaned. “So ready to be fucked.”
She was. She was so ready that the tension was unbearable. “Give me your cock,” she begged. “Please. Your fingers aren’t enough. I need —”
The plea died as he plunged deep. So deep she fell forward, her elbows colliding with the table as her head nearly knocked into the wall. He filled her completely, stretching her open with each demanding thrust.
“Is this what you want?” His hoarse voice made her shiver. “You want me to fuck you like this? Hard enough to break this table? Hard enough to make you scream?”
He slammed into her again, and she actually did scream, needy and desperate. The pressure between her legs was beyond unbearable now – it was agonizing. Each time he thrust to the hilt, he hit a spot inside her that she hadn’t even known existed, an ache that ran deeper than the throbbing of her clit. She squeezed her eyelids shut and rode out the intense sensations, pleasure and pain and excruciating tension that finally snapped apart like an elastic band and swept her to a whole other dimension.
Connor came while she was convulsing, his fingers digging into her hips, his breath hot against her shoulder.
She couldn’t hear anything but the ringing of her ears, and her pussy was still spasming even as he pulled out and yanked her upright. His arms came around to clutch her possessively to his chest, their bodies slick from the shower, from perspiration.
“How the hell do you do this to me?” He sounded tortured as he held her even tighter.
“Do what?” she said breathlessly.
His hips flexed, and his cock ground against her ass. He was still rock-hard, still breathing erratically, as if he’d just run ten miles. “Turn me into a goddamn animal,” he mumbled. “I can’t think straight when I’m inside you.”
She choked out a laugh. “If it helps, I can’t think when you’re inside me, either.”
His answering laugh was
strangled, laced with desperation. He twisted her body around and kissed her, moving backward as his tongue dove through her parted lips. Then he lowered himself on the bed and tugged her on top of him, his fingers sliding through her wet hair as he took long pulls on her tongue, kissing her with an urgency that floored her.
He felt it too, she realized. The overpowering need, that terrifying feeling of not enough. Because it was never enough, damn it. She always wanted more with him. She wanted to crawl deeper and deeper inside him, until there was nowhere left to go.
Eventually his kisses softened, becoming sweeter than she was used to. The lazy swipes of his tongue matched the strokes of his hands down her bare back.
“I like this,” she whispered, breaking their mouths apart just slightly.