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Staring at Riggs, I smile despite myself at the loving way he talks about his mom. That and the fact that he's even used this method to get the men in this house to open up has my mouth moving before I've even thought about the words.
"It was about the first time I showed Declan my mom's necklace.” Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I reach my hand out and place it over his. “We were sitting on a dock not far from our foster home. It was one of the few places we used to get away from it all. It was all going how it did in real life, I told him about how the necklace was bought for my mom the day my dad found out she was pregnant. After that he was supposed to sing a sweet song to me, but instead he told me I—”
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I squeeze onto Riggs’ hand and try desperately to keep the tears at bay. Riggs sits beside me quietly, allowing me to take my time and process my nightmare as I talk about it.
“He told me that he was sorry I couldn’t save him and that I wasn’t good enough to save anyone,” I whisper, the words echoing around inside of me as I speak them out loud. “Then instead of singing the song he did at the time, he sang Save Her and his face slowly morphed from young Dec to the man I saw in that casket.”
“Those things he said to you are just a manifestation of how you feel about the situation. They aren’t reality,” Riggs assures me, his hand moving to intertwine his fingers with mine. “You’ve been through so much lately, it’s no wonder why you’re having these nightmares. That’s all they are though, a figment of your sleeping subconscious.”
“You’re right. I know you’re right. It’s just so hard to see that right now.” I breathe in and out, using my calming methods to ease the anxiety in my chest. “Will you tell me about your mom?”
Riggs chuckles, releasing my hand to lay on the ground with me. His head rests right beside mine so I take the time to study his portrait in the soft moonlight coming through the open curtains. His dirty blond hair is messier than usual, making me want to run my hands through it to see if it’s as silky as it looks. His jaw is accentuated by his trimmed beard, the dark blonde hair looking soft to the touch. Riggs’ ears are empty, not a single stretcher in sight, making the lobe look a little droopy and funny. The black and white tattoos scrawled all over his impressive arms and all the way to his throat make my hands itch to trace every beautiful image.
“Anything for you,” he teases, looking directly into my eyes with a softness that makes my heart race for an entirely different reason. “My mom is a wonderful woman. She owns her own little cafe downtown where she sells the best baked goods you will ever taste in your life. She loves all of us fiercely and never does anything halfway. If there was a picture in the dictionary beside nurturing, it would be her. She’s the best mom there is. My dad has been out of the picture pretty much my whole life so Mom raised us all on her own.”
“Us? You have siblings?” I ask lightly, the conversation taking all the darkness from my nightmare away.
“I have one younger sister and I had an older sister, but she passed away.” His mouth tightens at the end, the sadness in his eyes making me wish I never asked. “Compared to the guys, I had a pretty amazing childhood. No abuse or any shit like that. Hannah though, she’s a bit of a sore spot for me. Her death broke me a little bit.”
“Shit, Riggs. I’m so sorry. Here I am trying to talk about light things and I drag up bad memories for you too.” Looking away, I try to hide the shame I’m sure is written across my face. I always find a way to fuck everything up and this is no exception.
“Hey,” Riggs commands, making me look at him with a gentle hand on my chin. He’s propped up on one arm, leaning over me slightly. “None of that. There was absolutely no way you could have known so don’t put that on yourself. Hannah is a bit of a sore spot, yes, but that doesn’t mean I never want to talk about her. If I did that, I would be disgracing the relationship we had.”
“You guys were close?” Shifting the smallest bit closer, I internally moan at the warmth and comfort coming off of him.
“The three of us were super close. Hannah, Haley, and I were like three peas in a pod.” Riggs smiles softly down at me. “We used to joke that we were the better Triple H, like the wrestler, because we all had H names.”
“Wait,” I hold up a hand, touching his chest accidentally yet not moving it away. “What’s your name? You told me it was Riggs!”
Shaking his head, he leans into my touch, the space between us growing smaller and smaller. “My full name is Hudson Riggs. Everyone has always just called me Riggs and I didn’t hate it, especially after the accident.”
My curiosity definitely gets the better of me in that moment as I blurt out, “What happened?”
“Hannah was always the craziest of us. She was the life of the party pretty much everywhere we went. She was a year older than me and two older than Haley. When she was in her senior year, we were at a party when she found her boyfriend at the time cheating on her with one of her friends. She was super drunk and pretty inconsolable so she took the keys to drive home.”
My breath catches in my throat as I start to put the pieces together for where this is going. Moving my hand down his chest to his side, I snuggle into him as he continues his story.
“I couldn’t get the keys from her in that state and she wasn’t listening to anyone. Instead of letting her drive off on her own, I jumped into the passenger seat just before she took off.” He stops to inhale sharply, his hand shaking as it slides around me to hold me closer. “The accident happened so fast I don’t even fully remember what went down. I remember the scent of apple vodka heavy in the air, a bright light coming on her side, and then just metal hitting metal and pain. I woke up in the hospital with a bad concussion, a few cuts and bruises, and Hannah was gone. She died on impact.”
“Oh, Hudson.” I nuzzle into his chest, giving him as much love and comfort as I can with just my touch. My heart goes out to his poor Mom for losing a child and the two H’s left behind. “I know it doesn’t mean much, but I am so sorry for your loss.”
“Oh, Lay,” he murmurs into my ear, his voice full of past grief, but also longing. “It means everything to me.”
Pulling back, I look up at him from my place tucked into his body. The moment changes in an instant, the air becoming less sad and more charged. My eyes dip down to his lips then back up to his hooded deep blue eyes. His face inches closer to mine, his eyes asking for permission to kiss me. He takes his time, allowing me to pull back or stop him if I want. There’s nothing I want more though, than this kiss. Closing my eyes, I feel his breath lightly brushing my lips seconds before they meet my own.
The kiss is gentle and timid, both of us testing the waters with a light caress. Tipping my head back, I open my mouth to deepen the kiss. Riggs needs no further invitation, his hand slides into my messy waves of black hair and pulls me into him until I don’t know where he ends and I begin. His tongue slips into my mouth, dancing with my own in a skilled, passionate kiss that has me moaning and arching my back into him.
Riggs moves his left leg to press between my legs, his body hovering over me as he balances on one arm. A moan escapes as I gently grind my sensitive clit into his solid thigh.
If I could live in this moment for the rest of my life, I would. The feel of his body surrounding me and the passionate, all-consuming way he’s kissing me is what I imagine heaven must feel like. He moves again, deepening the kiss even more and moving his hand down to caress my breast through my thin tank top.
My phone takes that moment to shrill from the nightstand. Fuck! As much as I would love to ignore it and see where this is taking us, if anyone is calling this late it’s probably Rachel about the bar.
“I have to get that.” I sigh in defeat, my arms falling to my sides with a thunk.
Riggs chuckles, moving off of me and giving me a good view of the large bulge in his pyjama pants. Grumbling about life being unfair, I grab my phone and answer it without even glancing at the name on my screen.
“Hey, Rachel. What’s going on?”
