Page 46 of When We Dare

“But firefighters are great,” she added. “They save people and put out fires.”

The group gradually filtered apart as we all headed back to wherever we were going. I had a few meetings this morning and planned to buckle down and study for the bar exam this afternoon. My scheduled exam date was looming in the future, and I was beyond nervous. I knew I could pass, but I was worried my anxiety would get the best of me.

I kept meaning to study in the evenings, but I often lingered with Hudson. I never expected to enjoy spending time with someone the way I did with him. There was an ease to being with him I’d never experienced with anyone else.

That night, we had another relaxing evening, eating leftover pizza and lounging in front of the TV. Biscuit and Butter snuggled together when we went to bed.

Hudson, as was his habit, gave me another shockingly good orgasm later. But I slipped up. I let my heart do the talking instead of my head. I rolled over, my chin resting on the back of my hand on his chest.

“Wow,” he rasped. “You spoil me.”

Like a complete fool, I went and said, “I could say the same for you. I think I love you.”

The second the words were out of my mouth. I knew they were a mistake. A huge mistake.

Hudson’s eyes went wide. He played it cool, but I could literally feel him withdrawing in increments, even though he didn’t move.

He cleared his throat. “You’re amazing,” he replied.

Becausethat’sexactly what someone wants to hear when they just said theLword.

We fell asleep together, but when I woke up, he was already gone.

There was nothing unusual about that, except he didn’t wake me up to say goodbye. I told myself it was nothing.

Chapter Thirty-Five

HUDSON

Stella’s words played like a broken record in my thoughts. The repetition was making me restless and irritable.

I wished the crew would get a call out to a fire. I needed something, anything, to keep me occupied. While I was mentally trying to run from my feelings, my feelings were punching me in the heart. I knew how I felt about Stella and it terrified me.

At the station, I put myself through a punishing workout. After a round of weights, I hopped on the elliptical and settled into an interval workout for a solid hour.

Parker was leaving the workout area when I walked in. I caught his gaze as he swiped a towel across his face. “Later,” he said, his tone light. His smile was friendly and easygoing.

Meanwhile, my smile felt brittle, just like my heart. Parker had turned out to be prescient to worry about me hurting Stella. He would fucking kill me if he knew how panicked I was.

After I finished working out, I took a scalding hot shower and got ready to leave. It was early evening. With it being late winter, the days were getting longer. Leo was sitting in the kitchen area with Beck, Griffin, and Graham. Graham glanced over at me. “Come to Wildlands with us.”

“Okay,” I said immediately.

This was perfect. I didn’t need to go home, I didn’t need to worry about figuring out how to have any kind of interaction with Stella. Not yet.

“Are we leaving now?” I asked when I paused by the table.

“In a hurry or something?” Beck drawled, his perceptive gaze coasting over my face.

I shrugged. “I guess I’m in a hurry to eat because I’m starving.”

That seemed good for Beck, although his eyes narrowed for a beat before he nodded.

“Let’s roll then,” Graham replied.

A short while later, we were at Wildlands. The group had expanded beyond Graham, Leo, Beck, Griffin, and me to include Cade, Jonah, Wes, and Donovan with others filtering in. We occupied two large round tables, hastily dragged together. I ended up seated between Leo and Beck with Wes and Griffin across from us.

“How’s the new cat?” Wes asked after a waiter delivered the drinks to our table.

---