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Her hips gyrated and rocked against mine in a heated rhythm until she let out a tortured groan. With one last deep thrust, Tabitha’s body tensed as her breath stilled, and her head fell back. Her orgasm exploded as she clamped down around me.

“Fuck.” I tried to hold back, not wanting the pleasure to end, as I continued to pump into her. She jolted her hips forward, and that’s all it took to send me over the edge. My body jerked as I rode the wave of ecstasy and came deep inside her.

She was mine.

All mine.

I held on to her hips, holding her in place as I caught my breath. Still trembling, Tabitha collapsed on top of me, her heart beating wildly next to my own; neither of us moved as the aftershocks from our pleasure rolled over us. I ran my fingers through her hair as I told her, “My woman is one amazing lady.”

“Does that whole mine thing go both ways?”

“Hmmm?”

“If I’m yours, then you’re mine, right?” Her breath caught before she admitted, “I really hope you are because I love you, Hudson. I know it’s too soon, and I probably just…”

“Say it again.”

“I love you.” She gave me a slight shrug. “I love you more than I thought possible.”

“Fuck, I love you, too, babe.”

“Are you sure? Because I know I don’t make it easy.”

“I learned a long time ago that easy isn’t all it’s chopped up to be.” I leaned in and kissed her softly. “The love you have to work for, the one that’s a little harder to reach, is something else altogether. It’s one that’ll have you coming back for more. It’s worth fighting for, and I’d fight for you every chance I get.”

20

TABITHA

Hudson’s chest rose and fell beneath my cheek. It was low and steady, and it grounded me in ways I couldn’t begin to explain. I curled in closer, breathing him in, and letting his warmth wrap around me like a blanket I didn’t know I needed.

Simply put, I felt safe.

Truly, deeply safe.

It wasn’t a feeling I was used to. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt it. I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt it, especially when Dimitri was alive. Back then, I’d always had to watch what I said, how I moved, what Iknew. But now, lying in Hudson’s arms and feeling his strong, possessive hand on my hip, I felt like I could finally breathe.

More than that, I felt like I could live, truly live, and I could love and be loved. I could truly be happy. And I owed it all to Hudson. He’d been so patient and understanding with me, even when my past came rearing back, ready to rip us apart. He was willing to fight for me.

His was the kind of love that brought hope to the hopeless.

And I didn’t want to lose it.

I wanted to hold onto it with everything I had. In order to do that, I had to find a way to face my past. I had to face it head-on. With Vasili. With the Volkov name. With all the things we’d never been brave enough to speak out loud.

“I never really knew what they were involved in,” I said quietly. “I was taught early on that you didn’t ask questions, especially about money or things they tried to keep secret.”

Hudson didn’t say anything.

He just let his hand move slowly along my back, letting me say all the things I needed to say. Things I should’ve said from the beginning.

“I knew it was bad. I could tell by the way they whispered in corners. They tried to keep everything so quiet, but I saw things. Heard things. Dimitri never came home with blood on his clothes. He was usually hands-off. Took a lot of calls and gave a lot of orders.”

I glanced over at Hudson, and again, he didn’t respond.

He just laid there and listened as I said, “But there were nights when he didn’t come home or came in really late, and the days that followed, he would be even colder and angrier than usual. Those were the nights that me and the boys would steer clear. I always wondered what he was doing… What was awful enough to affect a man like him? It had to be pretty terrible.”

“It was… It is,” Hudson replied. “They’re into the worst of the worst. The kind of thing me and my boys don’t touch. Not ever.”