Page 84 of Tough Love

She pulls my mouth to hers and I am putty in her hands. I’m a man broken. Shattered into pieces that will never go back together the same way. Never.

She pulls me around, and I walk backward over the blankets to the center of the two-person tent. Pushing me down to sit, she straddles my lap. “Now, Huddy. Now you can touch. You can be mine for a little while.”

I drop my mouth to her peaks, palms cupping each perfect, soft mound. She arches into me with a small moan. I don’t even care if the men hear. Fuck, that just makes it better. Turns me on more. Her fingers push and pull through my hair. Heat melts in my core, spreading through my veins as she wriggles in my lap.

“God above, Adeline. You have me, I am yours.”

Her head drops to mine, her mouth finding mine, and I deepen the kiss. She opens for me, and I savor everything she lets me have, my tongue inside her mouth, over her pretty pink lips. Hungry for any scrap she will give me.

“Hudson, please.” She rises on her knees, and I line up my throbbing cock with her hot, wet center. Emotion claws at my heart and lungs, wringing out the last of my breath as she sinks onto me with a whimper. The sweetest fucking sound I willeverhear. I search her face. Her wrecked face. And I hang on every ragged breath that comes from her lips.

Wanting her to take her time to feel everything. To give her everything she wants. The bridge of my nose prickles and something burns behind my eyes. I tighten my grip, now on her hips. The ache in my chest turns hollow, and I gasp for air with a realization: I am so far gone, it’s inconceivable. Adeline Howard has dusted off my hidden heart and claimed it for her own.

And she can’t stay.

I can’t let her give up everything for me.

I . . . can’t.

Sweet Jesus, this one is gonna hurt.

She pulls up and my body shakes with every tiny move she makes. I nip her peaks, running my hands behind her neck and through her hair. Every stroke upward drags a moan from those elegant lips I can’t take my eyes off. She arches her back and tightens around me.

“Huddy,” she breathes, eyes closed, fingers digging into my shoulders as she comes. Her beautiful waves pull me from my trance and send me over that jagged edge right after her. Like I’m not already falling from the highest cliff known to man.

Fast.

Hard.

If I’m honest with myself, this started the day Charlie killed that snake and I kissed her in the tack room. It’s the same feeling. And I don’t have a chance in hell of getting out of this unscathed.

Wouldn’t want to, even if I could.

Chapter Twenty-Four

ADDY

The descent down the mountain has been vastly and utterly understated. It’s rugged, hard riding, and the cattle have to be continually pushed back to stop them from racing down the side of it. Foam drips from Rocket’s mouth around the bit as Hudson spins him back to steady the mob for what seems like the thousandth time since we broke camp this morning.

Sergeant is faring a little better with us bringing up the tail like the previous days. But I can feel his steps shake a little every so often. My heart would break if something happened to him. So, I hold him back, take it even slower, and thank the heavens I’m the tail today.

Rocket is strung out. Hudson more so. Ned is trying to be helpful, shouting advice over the ruckus of the bellows, hooves, and branches snapping. Everything echoes through the mountain timber forest around us, amplifying the hustle, ratcheting up the tension all around.

Hudson is incredible.

Whoever says cowboys have laid-back lives is grossly naive. I am stressed for him. The herd is huge. The mountain is too steep.

When we finally come to a flatter spot on the mountainside, Hudson calls us to a stop. Rocket is sucking in huge breaths. His sides flare with every forced gulp of air. He needs a break, badly. I dismount, ignoring the pain that lances through my hips.

I make my way to where Hudson is walking him in a small circle, trying to get the horse’s breathing under control as he wipes sweat from his forehead with his arm, hat in hand. It’s freezing, and this man is sweating up a storm.

“You need to swap him out, Huddy.”

His gaze snaps to mine.

“Let me take Rocket for the next few hours. You take Sergeant.”

“You sure that’s gonna be okay?”

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