“Watch my c**k pushing in and out of you.”

“It’s so hot.” Unbelievably hot.

He sped up and the sound of our slapping thighs increased the level of eroticism by ten. Already I was tightening again, nearing the edge.

“Alayna, are you with me?”

His question called my attention back to his face. His expression, still lusty and primal, was now highlighted with affection.

“Always,” I said. “I’m always with you.”

He reclaimed my mouth, plunging his tongue with a ferocity that echoed his movements below. I was breathless and panting when he released me.

“Our pasts will always threaten to come between us. But nothing can come between us unless we let it. Feel this?” He drove his c**k deeper into me. “Feel me inside you?”

“It’s so good, Hudson. You make me feel so good.”

“I know, precious, I know.” He tightened his grip, pulling me closer to him so that his breath tickled my ear as he spoke to me.

My vision glazed, I was close.

“Look at me.” Again, his command pulled my eyes to him. “This is how connected we are, Alayna. Even when I’m not inside you, we are always this connected.”

His stark declaration was the final straw. “Fuck, Hudson, I’m going to come.” My legs were quivering from the effort of supporting myself on top of him. Now they tightened with my oncoming orgasm.

“Yes, let go,” Hudson coaxed. “I want to watch you give it all to me.”

I did let go, squeezing him with my cunt as my orgasm ripped through me with seismic force. My body jelly, Hudson eased us to the floor then pounded to his finish, burying himself to his balls while his cl**ax erupted hot and long.

When he collapsed, he stayed inside me, stroking my hair and whispering. “You’re so beautiful, Alayna. Absolutely beautiful. I missed you. So much.”

I brushed my fingers along his cheek, scruffy with a five o’clock shadow. “Did you really?”

“Yes, really.”

“I missed you too. So much.” I kissed along his throat before sucking lightly on his Adam’s apple. Still in a euphoric, post-orgasmic stage, it was surprising that I suddenly remembered where I was supposed to be. “Shit! I need to call Mira and tell her to cancel my trip.”

Hudson smiled. “Already taken care of.”

“She told you? It was supposed to be a surprise!”

“Mirabelle didn’t tell me. Jordan. All he said was that he’d rearrange your evening plans. It would have been a surprise.” He circled my nose with his. “If I hadn’t surprised you first.”

“And what a happy surprise it was.”

“I’m lucky you didn’t kick me to the curb. You know, I’ve fantasized about taking you in this club since the first time I saw you here.”

For whatever reason, this made me blush. “I can’t say I haven’t had the same fantasy.”

He grinned and kissed me chastely, probably knowing as well as I did that anything deeper would likely lead to another round of sex. This suspicion was confirmed with his next words. “As nice as it is having the fantasy fulfilled, I’d much rather take you back to The Bowery and have you in our bed.”

“That sounds awesome. Because as beautiful as this all is, I’m sticky and I have rose petals stuck to my ass and thighs.”

Hudson laughed, his dick twitching inside me with the motion. “The side effects of romantic gestures.”

“You better get out before you get hard again.”

“Already halfway there.” He pulled out of me, and, sure enough, he was already sporting another semi.

He stood then helped me up after him, brushing petals off my backside. After we’d finished dressing, Hudson turned on the club lights so I could blow out the candles.

“Ready to go home?”

I shivered at the sweet sound of the word home. Our home. It had become such a lonesome cave in the days he’d been gone. Now it could be restored to its former glory. “As long as you’re there, then there’s no place else I’d rather be.”

Brushing a lingering rose petal from my arm, I looked around the room. “What about the mess?” Then before he answered, I said, “Let me guess—you have people.”

He shrugged. “We have people.”

I actually didn’t freak about his overt suggestion that we were tied even more deeply than we were. I’d told the truth to Mira when I said I couldn’t think about those things, but maybe I could be okay when other people thought about it.

Hudson retrieved his jacket from the dance floor railing. He pulled out his phone from one of the pockets and typed something in—a text for our ride, I guessed.

“Oh,” he said, digging in another of his jacket pockets. “I almost forgot. This is for you.” He handed me a phone, nearly identical to the one I’d broken.

“So sure I haven’t already replaced it, are you?” I asked with a laugh.

He winked. “You weren’t answering any of my calls or texts. I’d hoped it was because you were still phoneless.”

“I was phoneless so that I wouldn’t break down and call you.”

“Should I ask for an explanation?”

“No. It’s just me. Thank you for the phone. It was very thoughtful.” I wrapped my arm around his and together we walked toward the club entrance. “Hey, did you get Plexis back?”

“I did. But it wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t gotten you back.”

Damn, the stuff he said was sweet. Only two weeks before, he’d been completely cut off from me, sharing very few of his true feelings. To think I could have missed out on all the beauty he had to offer if I’d let him slip away. Thank god, I’d stuck around for the good stuff.

I gazed up at his profile. “You never lost me, remember?”

“That’s right. I didn’t.” We’d reached the door and he turned to look at me. Those startling grey eyes—I could stay in them forever. Not lost, exactly, but more like found.

“I love you, Hudson Pierce.”

He breathed it in, physically breathed in my words—I could see exactly how they affected him. He needed them like I needed his touch. They changed him in some way that wasn’t quite tangible but real all the same. It made up for the fact that he still hadn’t been able to return the declaration.

He shook himself. “Go on out. Jordan should be waiting. I’ll set the alarm and lock up.”