My Kind of Wonderful(39)

But every time her body tightened up, he moved away from her center and rubbed his shadowed jaw against her inner thighs until she swore at him, making him laugh again.

When he wanted her to, she came as shamefully easily as she had the first time. Not that she spent even a nanosecond feeling shameful…

He climbed up her body, staying close, close enough that they were touching from their kissing mouths to their entangled feet, though he carefully held most of his weight off of her. She rubbed against him, touching every inch she could reach.

And then some of those really great inches were covered with a condom and inside her, and her thoughts scattered like the wind, replaced by a feeling that nothing had ever felt as good as this, as him.

Nothing.

Her legs wrapped around his waist—just in case he had some notion about getting away. The world was a better place with him buried deep inside her.

Much better.

Hud nudged her face up, meeting her gaze with his hot one for a beat before he kissed her again, serious now, very serious, as he began to move within her. Slowly at first, letting her adjust, carefully fueling her hunger, her need. But her favorite part was when he let go of his own control and forgot himself, thrusting hard. She gasped and rocked up into him as her name was ripped from his lips in a tight, strained voice that flung her right over the edge into a free fall. And this time, she took him along with her.

When they finally staggered out of his room several hours later, loose, sated, starving, there was a cold pizza waiting on the porch for them.





Chapter 13


Midweek found Hud replaying the night wrapped up in Bailey’s hot bod while simultaneously running a training session an hour after the mountain had shut down. He was a most excellent multitasker. It was already dark out and snowing like a mother, and everyone just wanted to get through the damn training, which was made all the more difficult by the weather.

Which, as Hud knew as head of ski patrol, made perfect conditions to practice in. They had to be prepared for anything, always. The winds kicked up even more with the snow coming in sideways now, blowing right in their faces. Hud had the entire rescue team with him on Devil’s Face practicing extractions when he got a call from his mom.

Another FaceTime call. Damn, he should never have taught her how to use that app, but at least she’d figured out how to look into the camera. Her bright, cheery face filled his phone screen. She lifted a Star Wars lunch box. “Honey, you forgot your lunch.”

He managed to conclude the call, though for the rest of the night his team took turns FaceTiming him to ask if he’d cleaned his room and done his homework. He finally deleted the app.

Things were blessedly quiet for a few days and on Friday, his first night off, he brought his mom dinner.

“Missed you this week,” she said, kissing him hello and then looking around him for someone else. “Where’s Jacob? Don’t tell me he’s in detention again. That kid is going to be the death of me. Maybe I should call the principal and tell him that I need him here. Our fence is down again, so I’ll put him on that. It’ll use up some of his energy.”

Guess it’d been a bad week for both of them.

He opened the bag he’d brought with two cupcakes—one with a candle—and hoped that would do.

As for Jacob, he’d heard zip. Nada. Nothing. And although he should be used to this by now, he wasn’t. Through Max, he’d been following Jacob’s unit the best he could, which wasn’t all that well.

There’d been no word. Even worse, all his attempts at communication had been ignored.

Which wasn’t the only thing on his mind. Bailey. He had Bailey on his mind.

All the damn time.

Their night had been… amazing. And seeing as she’d been pretty clear about it also being their only night, it was also messing him up since it’d been the best one he’d had in a long time.

Or ever.

Which meant he was going to have to get over it.

“Hud?” his mom asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about Jacob, Mom. I’ll take care of him.”

She smiled and patted his hand. “You’re such a good boy. You take so much on your shoulders. I know it’s not fair how much I’ve leaned on you. How much we all have.”

He lifted his head and met her eyes. Clear. He stilled. “Mom?” he asked quietly. Is that you in there?

Her eyes shined brilliantly, with so much sadness. “It’s not your fault, honey.”

“What’s not?”

“That he left.”

He tried to swallow the sudden lump in his throat but couldn’t. She was lucid. Really lucid.

“You’re both so stubborn,” she said. “But sometimes it’s okay to just let go of the past, to wipe the slate clean and start over.” She gave a small smile. “That saying is so outdated now, isn’t it? No one uses a slate chalkboard anymore. I bet kids these days don’t even know what chalk is. They just…” She made a swiping gesture with her finger, like she was swiping a touch pad. “Goodness, how different our lives are today than they used to be.”

Hud slowly set down his sandwich and even more slowly reached for her hand, as if his movement might scare her brain into retreating again. “Mom—”

“And don’t even get me started on this whole texting thing,” she said. “Do you realize that we have now raised an entire generation of people who don’t know how to talk to each other face-to-face? Even you have never known the terror of calling a girl you like and having to ask her dad if she can come to the phone. You probably never even call the girls you like. You probably just text or Snapchat.” She narrowed her eyes. “You do go to their door to pick them up though, right? You don’t just honk for them? And tell me you open their doors and buy dinner when you take them out. None of this Dutch thing. I’m telling you, romance is dead, but that’s no excuse for bad manners—”