It was perfect, absolutely perfect.

I let out a shaky breath. “Okay.”

His body relaxed, his shoulders lowering. “Good. I needed you to understand.”

“No, not okay, I understand. Well,” I conceded, “that too. But I meant okay, I’ll move in with you.”

Hudson’s brow arched in astonishment. “You will?”

Warmth spread through my body. “Why are you so surprised? I’d think you’d be used to getting your way. I bet you get everything you want.”

“Most everything. But I often have to fight first. And I was prepared to fight for this. For you. It was much easier than I’d planned.”

“Probably because I’d already decided to say yes. But even if I hadn’t, you would have won me over with that.” I placed my hands on the sides of his face. “Hudson, I want to be with you always, too. And who the hell cares if people say it’s insane or too soon because I’m already crazy and I’m already madly in love with you.”

“Alayna.” His voice was gruff and heavy, as if the utterance of my name carried much more weight than it should have. Like it held so many meanings that Hudson wasn’t able to express. With that one word, I was elevated to a state of emotion that I hadn’t felt before, one that was deep and rooted and at the same time high and euphoric. It was falling in love all over again with someone I already loved to the bone.

He moved quickly, pulling my shirt off me in one swift motion, then lifting us up from the chair enough to work free his cock. I wrapped my hands around his hard length, stroking him with a mad sort of desperation while he kissed me senseless. His face still focused on me, he attacked my shorts with his hands, clawing at them as if he could tear them away. After a few frenzied minutes, he reached in the top drawer of the desk behind me and fumbled around blindly until he found what he was searching for—a pair of scissors.

Then he cut off my shorts.

I’d never imagined it would be so outrageously sexy to have my clothes cut off of me, or that anyone would actually do it. It was one thing when he’d ripped off flimsy thongs, but taking scissors, cutting so near my skin—I was wetter and hotter than I’d ever been, driven by his rabid need to have me na**d and bared for him.

Once he’d tossed aside the torn material, he shifted his hands under my ass and lifted me on top of him. I was so wet; I slid down on him easily, sheathing him entirely.

“Oh, god, Hudson!” I could feel him so completely at that angle, his throbbing c**k hitting against the wall of my vagina, making me writhe on top of him. I sat forward on my knees so that I could push off of him again, lifting and lowering at a frenetic speed that was more reminiscent of the way Hudson rode me, not the way I rode him.

My orgasm came without warning, ripping through me out of nowhere, slowing my pace. I fought to keep the momentum as the waves overtook me, shaking me and shattering me until I gave up with a long cry of pleasure.

I was barely aware of the chair rolling until the desk pressed into my back and Hudson took over the driving. He thrust into me with skill and precision, my legs wrapping around his waist as he shifted our position, the seat behind him serving as a place for him to fall rather than actual support.

When my vision cleared, I noticed the windows behind me. Though we were on the penthouse level of the building and it was highly unlikely that anyone was looking in, it was still possible and the realization added a profound level of eroticism. The delicious tension had just begun building again, intensifying exponentially when Hudson spilled inside me with a deep primal groan.

He gave himself no time to recover before he laid me across the desk. Pushing aside the chair, he knelt between my thighs, propping my ankles on the edge of the desk. I was na**d and spread wide in front of the windows, in front of my lover—I was near my second cl**ax before Hudson’s tongue ever touched me.

He didn’t tease or go slow like he often did when he ate me out, but sucked and licked at my cl*t with urgent strokes of his tongue. I came instantly and still he continued. It was too much—too intense for my heightened senses and my h*ps bucked away.

“Once more,” Hudson said before renewing his attack.

“No!” I writhed but his hands held firm to my ankles. “I can’t take it.”

“Once more.” He was insistent, not to be swayed, but he did redirect his approach, moving away from the singing ball of nerves and plunging his tongue into my hole instead.

My hands flew to his head, clutching fistfuls of hair as he worked me toward yet another high, his tongue licking up my slit back to my cl*t then down to plunge in again at my core.

Somewhere in the part of my brain that could still formulate thought, I knew what he was doing—he was thanking me, showing me how happy I’d made him by deciding to live with him. His own cl**ax had come quickly, but he could get hard again. I knew this from experience. He probably already was hard again as it turned him on to no end to go down on me. Yet, instead of burying himself inside me, he was giving me all the pleasure. It was a message, and I got it loud and clear.

His endeavor slowed, but his ardor remained. The next orgasm came more reluctantly and he pulled it out of me with sweet, drawn-out dedication until I went over the edge, shivering as the warmth spread outward to my limbs, curling my toes.

Hudson stayed between my legs until I’d calmed, licking me and lavishing me with soft praise while my heart rate returned to normal.

Then he stood and carried me to the couch, laying me down.

He gazed at me, his eyes still half-closed with desire as he stripped naked. I was right—he was hard again, hard and throbbing. He lay beside me, wrapping his arms around me. Smoothing my hair with sensuous strokes, he spoke low at my ear. “I know it’s scary and our situation hasn’t been ideal, but you are everything good for me. Nothing in this world is important to me beyond you. I can be the same for you. I know it. And I’m so grateful you’ve given me the chance to prove it.”

I shifted to face him. “You have nothing to prove. You’re already everything good for me, too.”

“Shh.” He kissed my forehead. “Not yet. I haven’t been able to give you everything you need yet.”

My mind scrambled to figure out what he possibly thought I needed that he hadn’t given me. The three words. That was the only thing I could settle on. But I knew them even if he didn’t say them. I knew them with every fiber of my being.

“It’s okay, Hudson. It’s—”