I couldn't help it. At that first burning stretch of him inside of me, I hissed, wincing, but in the next moment, the burning had turned into the most incredible heat .

He'd frozen in place, looking down at me. I wiggled, desperate, ready to ignore all of the pain they said this would cause. "Don't stop," I almost begged him .

He narrowed his eyes at the same time his lips parted in shock. "Tallula." He said my name so slow, rolling it around in his mouth like he was tasting it even as it sounded just like a warning. "Baby, are you a virgin ?"

He was half inside of me now, and I could feel him trembling with the effort of holding back. I wiggled again, frustrated, half out of my mind with the need for him to do it. Just do it. "Is that a problem?" I said, more archly than I needed to, but then again, he was driving me out of my mind .

He hissed, ducking his head to avoid my gaze. "Fuck," he sighed into the wind .

I reached up and slid my fingers through his hair. In all of these desperate clingings, I hadn't even touched it until now, and it was far softer than I was expecting. "Last time, right?" I whispered, my voice catching. "It's the last time, and surprise, it's my first time too ."

His laugh started low, like it was coming from some deep place he didn't access very often. His face, his gorgeous, mysterious face, cracked open into a smile that was so beautiful I might have fallen in love with him for a half a second. "Fuck, girl," he drawled, pulling back. He traced his thumb around my nipple, sending little shivering sparks through my body. "Dammit ."

"What?" The thing he was doing to my tit felt amazing but not as amazing as having him half inside of me. "Why did you stop ?"

He glanced at me and then shook his head. I felt that same maddening anger, like he was hiding something from me. Like there was more going on than he wanted to let me share, and that only made me more certain that I needed to fuck him, if only to get inside his head the way he was inside mine. "Tallula," he sighed again, letting his fingers slide down to brush against the inside of my thigh. "If I'm going to be your first, I don't want it down in the dirt, hiding from your family like this. Shit, I'm not some kind of asshole going and taking some girl's virginity ...."

I sat up and crossed my arm around my chest with one hand while with the other I swatted his hands away from my leg. What he was doing felt too good and it made it impossible to yell at him properly. "Excuse me," I huffed. "Asshole. You're not taking it. I'm not some delicate little English lass whose hand you have to win. Fuck, Hudson, I want to fuck you and I'm only a virgin because I've never actually wanted to fuck anyone before, so.." I faltered, as his slow grin grew wolfish .

He leaned in closer. "So...fuck you ?"

I nodded. There was no point in holding on to my dignity because I'd never had any in the first place. Not when it came to him. "Yeah. Fuck me and make me come again. Nobody has ever done that either ."

He laughed and looked quite pleased with himself. "Well shit girl, if I'm gonna be your first time." He pressed his hand between my legs and bend his blond head until his warm mouth covered my aching pussy. He took a deep breath, blowing out as he sighed against my slick skin. "Then I'm gonna make it worth it for you ."

And he did .

Holy Christ. He did .

His tongue was like some kind of magic, but it wasn't just what he was doing. It was they way he was doing it. With relish. Appreciation. He hummed and sang, and laughed, and encouraged me to get there, told me how hot I was, how insane I made him. How he'd been thinking about my hot little pussy and how sweet I tasted. It was the kind of thing that if someone had told me it happened to them, I would have rolled my eyes, but the onslaught of tongue, fingers and dirty, dirty words had me panting and half out of my mind until suddenly he was sliding inside of me again and I didn't even have time to feel the pain before it exploded into a mind-numbing pleasure. He'd worked me over until I was nothing more than a series of nerve endings, an ache just waiting to be sated .

And when he moved inside of me, and when he looked down at me, lips parted, that vague look finally gone from his face, I felt like I'd thrown rocks in the pond, and disturbed the surface enough so that I could finally see what was happening underneath. And I knew I'd need more but this was the last time, and suddenly I was crying as I was coming. He gathered me into his arms, shuddering, and groaned into my ear before we both fell still .

"Was it good?" he wanted to know as we lay back on the grass .

There was something so sweet about rockstar Hudson Grant checking in, so sweet I was suddenly crying all over again. "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm happy. It was so good, it was insane. You're so fucking good at it, Jesus Christ ."

He grinned that amazing grin of his and I wondered how I'd ever thought he was too much because now I wasn't sure I'd ever get enough. "Girl, I need to bottle you and carry you around for my ego," he rumbled, tracing a line up my thigh .

I touched his chest. "I wish I could bottle you, too ,"

We paused, letting that hang there for a moment. Then he reached over and grabbed my shirt. "You have grass in your hair ."

All at once it came rushing back to me. I scrambled to my knees. "Shit," I hissed. "You have dirt on the knees of your jeans ."

He looked me in the eye. "We fell," he said emphatically .

I shook my head. It wasn't good enough. Niall would see right through the lie. "I'm ready to throw myself in the pond," I gasped .

Hudson pressed his fingers to his lips. "That's not such a bad idea," he mused, glancing at the water .

"You'd do that?" I gasped. "It would explain why we look like this, right ?"

"It would." He stood up, yanking his shirt back down. And then, with a one last grin over his shoulder, he ran full tilt down the small hill. I watched in amazement as he didn't even hesitate a little. He just arced a shallow dive straight into the pond, with a mighty splash that sent a pair of ducks winging into the sky in abject terror .

"Oh my god, Hudson!" I laughed and shrieked as he splashed in the muddy water. But even as I laughed, I was crying all the harder because it was over. It was over and he had to go and I didn't know for sure until right then, as he splashed his way across the reedy banks, that I really, really didn't want him to .