Ten
Hudson pulled away from her with a start and swore. He fumbled in his pocket for his phone. Gregory, the Evergreen Pack alpha.
He sent an apologetic look to Viviana, whose cheeks were flushed. Her lips were dark from their kiss. All he wanted was to dive back into her arms and taste her again.
But it was Gregory, and he shouldn’t ignore the alpha’s call. “Sorry, I have to get this,” he said to Viviana, then he swiped his phone screen. “Yeah?”
As Gregory asked for an update on Hudson’s mother, Viviana was already turning around to walk back to the estate.
Hudson followed her a few paces behind, answered Gregory’s questions, and then ended the call.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Viviana said, her voice uncertain.
Hudson wanted nothing more than to look at her face while they had this conversation, but she was still ahead of him. “Yeah, it was…”
“It was really nice,” she said.
Nice. Nice? It had been fucking spectacular.
Spectacular, and forbidden. He wouldn’t be doing it again, not if he wanted to keep his job. And he needed to keep this job.
*
Several days passed. Hudson visited his mom at Heritage Pines, but she still wouldn’t speak to him or any of the staff. He tried to rest as much as possible during the day so that he could be awake and guarding Viviana at night. His shifts as her bodyguard were spent walking through the hallway outside her room and making frequent trips to the back yard. The Guardians took care of monitoring the yard, but Hudson didn’t want to take any chances.
No matter what he did—whether he saw Viviana going over paperwork and discussing other prides and packs with her mother, or whether he watched her give him one of her lonely, heartbreaking smiles from the dining room table—he couldn’t forget the kiss they’d shared in the woods.
It was especially hard to forget it whenever he and Viviana passed each other in the hallway. It had become a game, to walk as close to each other and touch while walking in opposite directions. Touch once, a brief press of arms or hands, a fluttering of fingers against skin—and nothing else.
It was driving him fucking crazy.
One morning, a few days after their kiss in the woods, Viviana and Hudson were left at the breakfast table. Marlana and Jeff were in the music room, Jeff playing piano. Jeff wasn’t too bad, Hudson thought, although Hudson wasn’t much of a judge. His idea of great music usually involved electric guitars and lyrics screamed from a throat sounding so hoarse the singer probably needed a cough drop or ten.
Although Viviana sat across from him, they weren’t speaking. She looked lost in thought. Hudson stood to clear his dishes and started to take Viviana’s as well.
“I got it,” she said, standing.
He frowned. He wanted to do something for her. Something besides standing outside her room and watching for danger. Something that showed her that he cared, even though technically he shouldn’t care, shouldn’t be having these feelings.
They walked into the kitchen together. Faint strains of some melancholy piece of music reached his ears. He loaded his plate and silverware into the dishwasher, then reached around Viviana to grab a hand towel to wipe down the counter. She turned, suddenly, and was directly in his space.
Her blue eyes were startled. “Sorry, I—” she started to say, but she stopped when Hudson didn’t get out of her way.
He couldn’t move. He was transfixed by her eyes, by her partly-spread lips, by the sweet scent of her.
The piece of music ended, and it was if a spell had been broken. Hudson cleared his throat, ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry.”
Another piece started, this one faster and complicated, the melody alternating between the higher and lower notes.
Viviana leaned forward and kissed him.
He wanted more of her, all of her. To hell with what he should or shouldn’t be doing. He grabbed Viviana by the hips, pressed her against the counter, and deepened the kiss. He tangled his tongue with hers, tasting, taking.
She pulled away. “We shouldn’t be doing this here.”
They shouldn’t be doing this at all. But Hudson was going to explode. Staring at her, he didn’t know what to say.
“Go for a walk with me?” she asked.
He nodded.
They walked through the great living room and out into the back yard.
“Do you mind if I go as a lion?” Viviana asked.
Hudson shook his head and decided to try talking. His voice came out in a low croak. “No, it’s fine.”
She stripped completely, and Hudson didn’t know if he’d ever be able to talk again. Her body was like some kind of painting. Pink nipples, the flare of her waist to her hips. Her navel, the edge of her shoulder, hell, the back of her knee enticed him.
She folded her clothes and set them on a bench next to the house, then closed her eyes. The air around her shimmered, and after a few seconds, a mountain lion stood in her place. She nudged her shoulder playfully against Hudson’s side, and they started to walk.
He’d been telling himself for days that he shouldn’t want her, but damn if he’d be able to stop himself from taking anything she offered—whether it was a kiss, an embrace, or even a high five.