Page 64 of Paper Horses

“What about Parker?”

This time the streak of pain was stark. Hudson and his brother, Parker, had been close. Like Gabe and I were, but without the awkward distance that tainted our relationship. Our father had shaped us to be different as had our circumstance and while Hudson and Parker never failed to hug and laugh, their bond clear in their body language, Gabe and I didn’t touch, rarely laughed, knew that to do so would embarrass our father. Hugs were not a thing in our world, but they had been in Hudson’s. Even though his mother was a shrewd, calculating businesswoman, there had been affection.

His throat bobbed, and pain etched its way into my chest. “She insisted he cut me off, too. He took my place, the new golden child. He was always better in that environment, so it's good for him.”

“Is he happy?”

“Yup. And the company is better for it. He’s a mini version of my mother, and he was made for it. My heart wasn’t in it. I was never a company man, but Parker is.”

I’d always known he wasn’t. He was an outdoorsman. That’s where he thrived. Even if he hadn’t fully thrived since I left him. Of course, I was a city girl, and I hadn’t thrived either, even in my element.

“Do you still talk to him?”

He smiled, the tension lessening in his muscles. Parker was five years younger. I’d met him several times, and each time he’d grilled me on my father’s business, asking about technical aspects I had yet to learn, even though he was still a teenager. It made sense that he had done so well with their mother’s company.

“He comes to visit sometimes. Been about two years, but we talk once a week, sometimes more. Usually a bitch session about how stubborn Mom is. She’d flip if she discovered we still talk, but you know Parker, he has a bit of a wild streak in him.” He scratched his cheek before continuing, “Always sneaking out when we were young. Always pissing her off, like he was getting his last taste of freedom in before he turned it over to her. I’m sure she’d willingly take me back if I promised to behave and give this life up.”

Turning his body, he brought me against his chest. “Enough talk, I’m hungry again.”

I tossed my head back and laughed as his mouth grazed my neck. “Maybe we should have dinner. I think we missed lunch.”

Picking his head up, he gave me a cocky grin. “Oh, I had plenty for lunch.”

Heat blazed in my cheeks, and he kissed each one, making his way to my mouth and waking my body even when I didn’t think it could possibly be anything but exhausted. That didn’t stop him from leaving me as weak as a rag doll.

“It stopped raining.” Hudson’s excited words had my eyes blinking away the sleep that clung to them. “Do you ever get sleep at home?” he asked, yanking the sheets from me.

“No,” I grumbled, tugging them back and burying my head further into the pillow.

My attempts were no match for his strength, and within seconds, he had me over his shoulder as he carried my naked body to the bathroom.

“It’s nine already, and the sun is out,” he said as he walked. “I talked to Jessie, and the diner is open, so we’re going to get breakfast and help out where we’re needed.”

He plunked me into the shower, and I scowled. “Having breakfast with your ex is not my idea of a fun morning.”

The water hit me, sending goosebumps over my skin.

“Stop pouting and being jealous.”

I crossed my arms. “I’m not a morning person.”

“Knew that a long time ago.”

“And I don’t like to think about you…” The water was warming, but my mind was going to chilly places, “…getting as hungry as you get with other women.” I made quotations around the word hungry to emphasize my irritation.

His lips thinned, and after a distinct jaw tick, he stepped into the shower, forcing my back against the tile. Water streamed over his clothes as he grabbed my chin. “No one makes me as hungry as I am with you, Olivia. Now knock this shit off. It’s not you, and it’s certainly not that bitchy nose in the air, overconfident princess who walked onto this ranch three days ago.” He pinned my arms beside my head and looked down at me with shadowed eyes. My chest heaved as lust hazed those chestnut irises. “No one has ever made me as ravenous as you and this body do, and no one has ever made me so desperate to taste it. In fact, I think I need a taste now before we go into town.”

I licked my lips, thinking of how he’d woken me earlier that morning. His eyes lit as they followed my tongue’s movement. He leaned down and brushed his cheek over mine, his lips dragging over my ear as he growled, “On your knees, honey.”

The way those words held two promises, one where he would use my mouth in ways that would soak me and one where he would use his until I was drowning in rapture, had me twisting my legs. His lips tugged into a wicked grin as he yanked his wet shirt off and stepped back, watching as I followed his command and slamming his hand against the tile as I took him over the edge.

I didn’t know how long we stayed in the shower, but by the time we were sated and clean, the water had run cold. Hudson had always had a fantastic sex drive, and it was clear that it hadn’t faded. My moment of worry that it had been like that with every woman he’d been with was over. The look in his eyes when he told me no one made him as desperate as I did reassured me I was the one who drove that insatiable need. I needed to get out of my head and return to the confident woman I’d been before I’d come here. Now that he’d rammed through my defenses, that was a hard thing to do.

Who I was with Hudson was so different from who I was at home, and I didn’t know how to balance the two sides or if I ever could.

His warm hand surrounded mine, and I turned my head from peering out the truck window to look at him. The sun was shining, the weather strangely warmer than it had been. So warm, it felt like August and not October. The water had receded, leaving the ground mushy and with a massive divot that ran through the ranch. The road splashed in small waves as we traveled down it.

“You’re quiet all the sudden,” he said, glancing at me.