Page 19 of Don't Make Me Fall
“To be clear, Iwantto fuck you. I’ve wanted to fuck you since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Thendoit.” She shimmies her hips until she’s lined up with cock. She’s still wearing her leggings, but she presses me against the damp fabric and starts to grind against me. “Fuck me, Hudson.”
Just when I’ve decidedfuck it, my phone lets out a shrill tone.
“Should’ve thrown your phone off the top of the mountain, too,” she murmurs into the bicep she’s kissing, refusing to let go of my cock as I reach for the offending phone.
It’s almost enough to make me forget where we are, and what that tone means. But a second sounding of it tugs me back into the sliver of reality I need.
“They’ve cleared the road,” I tell her.
“And?”
“There are hikers on their way up to this summit right now.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Wish I was.” I cup her cheek and kiss her firmly on the mouth. “We better go. We need to warn them about the mountain lion in the area.”
Disappointment flashes in her eyes, but I don’t dare sayto be continued. We both know we’ve already crossed a line, and it would be reckless to cross it any further than we already have. If she were staying, things might be different. It might be worth having a conversation with Reid. But in two days, she’ll be boarding a plane.
This can’t happen again, and in the shared silence, we seem to mutually agree.
Chapter Nine
Alanna
For the third time, I knock on Erin’s lodge room door, but there’s still no answer. At least she talked to methroughthe door yesterday morning. This silence now is killing me. I debate between giving her the space she asked for and breaking down the door to make sure she’s okay.
“Erin? Are you in there? I lost my phone?—”
“She’s not there,” Devin says, startling me.
“Oh, hey. Where is she?”
Devin shrugs. “Winnie wouldn’t say, but she was smiling. So, it has to be a good thing, right?”
Bless that sweet elderly woman’s enormous heart for getting Erin out of her room. The relief I feel about my bestie is instant, but there’s a shred of disappointment, too.
Erin’s the only one who knows about my infatuation with Tyler. The only person I trust talking to about what happened with Hudson up on that mountain top. I’ve never felt one shred for Tyler what I feel for Hudson. It’s completely foreign. I don’tknow if I should trust it or run the other way. Part of me is actually considering quitting my job and moving to Montana.
I can’t decide if that would be taking a worthy risk or just repeating an old pattern.
Would I once again be uprootingmylife for a man?
I did enough of that with Tyler Duncan these past two years. Passed on applying for positions I really wanted because I didn’t want to leave him. Becauseheconvinced me I was more valuable where I was. That heneededme.
The bastard.
I realize now that he only needed me to do his work for him so he could fuck Cindy’s brains out while I settled for ingenuine smiles and meaningless compliments. Never again will I settle for less than I deserve.
“You okay?” Devin asks, eyebrows drawn in concern, no doubt at my hard frown.
“I’m good. Are you?” I nod at her ankle, noticing she’s limping slightly. It appears to be wrapped with black athletic tape.
“Just a victim of my own clumsiness, I’m afraid.” She brushes it off with a wave of her hand. “Anything you want to talk about? I’ve been told I’m a good listener.”
I consider Devin’s offer. I don’t know her all that well. She and Erin met in a book club a couple of years ago. But from getting to know her throughout wedding planning, I do like her. I trust her, even. But it’s not the same as talking this life altering crisis through with my bestie. So, I brush off her offer. “Thanks. I’m just working through some things with work.”
