Page 110 of The Sweetest Cruelty: Hudson
The first thing I noticed was the joggers he wore. They had dipped low on his hips, and I could see part of his backside. Fuck that was firm. I didn’t digest the fact that he clearly had no underwear on. His top had also ridden up, showing what looked like bruising on his ribs.
And then I saw his face. He’d been fighting, and my heart squeezed as I closed the window and leaned down to help him to his feet.
“Sorry,” he huffed. I could smell spirits on his breath. It was zesty and sweet. Not unpleasant like I would have expected for second-hand alcohol.
Hudson’s hard body was warm, and I did little to help as he started to stand. The hoodie he wore made him look twice as large as usual.
He eventually righted himself, rearranged his sweats before yanking his top down. As he swayed on his feet, I grasped his arm. The muscles of his biceps flexed against my fingers. If he fell over, there would be nothing I could do to stop him. He was huge and stole all the air in my room.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, glancing towards my closed bedroom door. I wasn’t surprised my father hadn’t heard anything. The man slept like the dead, and it was after midnight, but who knew right? Maybe Dad had a radar for people breaking into his house.
OMG! I had a boy in my bedroom.
I noticed Hudson’s arms were scratched up, no doubt from the rosebushes down the side of the house. I wondered what other injuries he was hiding. There was a cut above one eyebrow, and his face was bright red.
Hudson was bulky, but I managed to direct him to my bed, moving his arm over my shoulder and then pushing him down onto the mattress. Roger meowed his disapproval. I shoved some of my teddy bears to the side.
I gave Roger a pointed look. “Some good you are as a guard dog.”
As Hudson’s backside hit my mattress, this brought him level with my chest. I could see his eyes were glued to my breasts, so I grabbed his chin to divert his attention.
“When you’ve done checking out my chest, you can tell me what you’re doing here?”
Once I had his attention, I dropped my hand. “I needed to see you,” he husked, struggling to breathe after his climb. I watched him glance around my room, taking in his surroundings. I imagined this wasn’t his first time in a girl’s bedroom.
“So, you decide to ascend the side of our house?”
“Is that a posh word for climb?” he said with a lazy grin, resting back on his arms.
“Yes, I suppose so,” I replied with a sigh of exasperation, folding my arms across my chest.
“Then yeah. That’s what I've done. Or should I say, did?”
“You’re drunk?” I said sharply.
He gave me a toothy look. “Little bit.”
I dropped my arms with a huff. “Stay there and for goodness' sake, don’t make any noise,” I said firmly before going to my bathroom to get him a drink.
As I returned with a glass in my hand, Hudson was lying fully on my bed, pushed up against the pillows, with his hands under his head. He looked very much at home. I noticed he’d removed his shoes.
I felt a flare of lust at the sight of such a fine male specimen in my bed. The floral purple covers didn’t do him justice. He belonged in a bed with black satin sheets.
“Here,” I said, holding the glass out. He didn’t take it as he was too busy undressing me with his eyes, so I placed it next to him on the bedside table.
“You look nice,” he mumbled.
Rolling my eyes, I asked. “Who were you fighting with?” I half expected him to say Xander’s name, but he didn’t.
“Micah. He’s an asshole.”
A heavy sigh escaped my lips. “Your brother, Micah?” Goodness. I wondered what shape he was in. “Is he OK? Still breathing?”
Hudson huffed moodily. “Yeah. He’ll live. Although I should have pounded his ass into the ground after what he’s done.”
“What did he do?”
He then explained with a slur here and there that Micah had been buying drugs and had gotten in debt to the sum of around three thousand dollars.
