Page 69 of Tough Love

“You did all this for me?”

“Absolutely, sweet girl.”

“Hudson Rawlins . . .”

I sweep the hair from her neck and nip her throat before sliding my arms around her waist. She chokes through a sob.

Fuck.

I slide around her until I’m facing her. “What is it?”

She huffs a tangled laugh. “No one has ever done anything like this for me.”

“That’s fucking criminal, Addy.”

Or maybe it’s because the only one who was supposed to do this was me.But I can’t say that out loud. I know our reality. If tonight is all I ever have with Addy, it will be a memory this man will never forget. And, if I am completely honest, this is it for me. I have no delusions that there would be anyone else. Not after Addy.

“What are you thinking?” Her hand is pressed over my heart.

“How much you mean to me, Howard.”

“You know, your ma is right, you should probably stop calling me that.” A cheeky smile pulls up on the side of her face.

“Adeline, the last person I want to think of right now is my mother.”

She laughs, bubbling with hysterics. I can’t help but laugh with her. When she settles and catches her breath, I open my mouth to say something smart, but her finger lands over my lips.

“No more talking, Huddy. Stand still while I repay you from earlier.”

“Jesus. I’m supposed to be loving you.”

“Ut! Shhhh.”

Her finger drags over my lips, and she works on the buttons of my shirt. When the last one pops, she slides it off my shoulders and down my arms, letting it hit the floor.

“Boots, cowboy.”

I pull them off and toss them behind me. “Socks, too?”

“Nope.”

Her fingers trace the curves of my shoulders, along the veins that have long since popped, down my biceps, and over my forearms. “I love these,” she whispers.

When one elegant finger slowly edges toward the V at the bottom of my stomach, my breath hitches. Not like we haven’t been naked in front of each other before, but tonight is different. More intense. More like a defining life moment that neither of us will come back from.

She undoes the buckle on my belt, letting it loose before sliding it through the loops.

“Addy—”

“Ut!”

Chest cycling through each ragged breath, I try to rein in the burning need to claim her mouth with mine, her face with my hands, her body with every part of mine. She opens the button and pulls on the zipper of my jeans and pushes them down. Her gaze finds mine. Her face shifts, caught between desperation and desire. Her bottom lip sucks in between her teeth, and I scramble to suck in a breath. I step out of the jeans pooled at my feet, and she closes the space between us, pulling my lips down to hers.

Thank fuck.

I claim her face with my hands, my tongue sweeping into her mouth. The fire in my core rushes my veins, head light from the burning need for her.

When her finger slips behind the waistband of my boxers, I groan. She whimpers against my mouth.

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