Page 39 of A Virgin for the Ton’s Wolf (Ton’s Wolves #4)
EPILOGUE
T he feel of his lips descending upon hers was a sensation that she was never going to tire of. Not in this lifetime, and not in a million years.
Scarlett clung to him as she allowed the panic and confusion from earlier to melt into molten desire. Her nipples hardened to stiff points in the water before his hand unerringly found her breast. She arched into his touch without shame, his name wrung from her lips like a fervent prayer.
“Come out of the water, little cat,” he urged, nipping her lower lip. “It is getting cold.”
She did not even feel anything getting cold, for she had turned into liquid fire at his touch. All she knew was warmth. All she knew was heat.
He helped her out of the water, barely parting from her before his lips were on hers once more.
Hudson did not just kiss her hungrily. He was like a man who had been starved for years and she was the only meal he had ever cared for.
Scarlett sighed as he dried her damp skin, his hands gentle and insistent, his lips thorough. He had always been a contradiction, and she loved him all the more for it. She was never going to tire of it, of him.
He slid his arms around the back of her shoulders and her knees, lifting her effortlessly into his arms as she openly admired the muscles bunching and flexing in his shoulders and arms.
By all that was holy, he was the most spectacular specimen of masculinity she had ever laid her eyes on. Even Greek statues had nothing on him.
“Keep looking at me like that and you will find yourself unable to sleep a wink tonight,” he growled as he laid her on his bed. His hand came up to brush a stray lock of hair from the side of her face. “These eyes of yours… they have had me in a spell from the moment I saw them.”
Scarlett smiled. “That evening I arrived with Mama.”
“No, little cat.” He shook his head with a smile. “Before that.”
She looked at him in confusion.
“During the treasure hunt,” he admitted, his voice low. “When Colin’s meddling grandmother paired us up.”
Scarlett laughed. “Are you trying to flatter me?”
“For you, I would endeavor to learn all the words in all the languages so I could tell you over and over how beautiful you are,” he said huskily. “But from the moment I saw you, I had felt a desire that I never felt before. It was unsettling.”
“It must have been embarrassing for a rogue of your caliber.” She chuckled.
“I have not been as much of a rogue since that night,” he admitted with a hoarse laugh. “You have ensnared me, little cat, body and soul—whatever is left of it.”
Scarlett looked at the proud man before her. He had spent so long chained to the ghosts of his past, but he was no less magnificent to her.
Perhaps this is what true love was—it stripped a person to his barest, most unfiltered state, and even then he would still be the most beautiful thing she had ever encountered. He could bear the scars of his past on his skin, on his soul, and he would be as unblemished as the day he was born.
“You are mine,” she murmured, playing with the buttons of his shirt. Her eyes rose to his. “And I will have all of you or nothing at all.”
“It is yours, sweet wife.”
She smiled up at him. “Then help me with your clothes. It is unfair that I am so bare and you are still fully clothed. I will have your skin on mine tonight, husband.”
Her words seemed to seize him, for he groaned and all but tore off his shirt. He made short work of his breeches, tossing them aside as he crawled over her.
“What else would you have of me?” he asked, his voice rough.
She reached up to caress the side of his face. “We shall have each other,” she choked out, tears stinging her eyes, emotion clogging her throat. “No more secrets, no more lies. A marriage in truth. In love.”
“I will give you all of me, my love,” he swore. “No more secrets between us—it is time we laid them all to rest.”
She smiled as she pressed her lips to his. She had meant it to be a sweet kiss, one that she hoped would convey the depth of all that she felt for him.
She should have known that there was never anything so simple with Hudson. His mouth claimed hers and gave her all of him in return.
His hand settled on the curls at her mound, and the ache between her legs became an insistent throbbing that clamored for his touch.
“Open for me, wife,” he urged. “Let me show you how wonderful it can be between us.”
Scarlett smiled mischievously. “Oh, I know all too well how wonderful it can be.”
The smirk that crossed his handsome features, illuminated by the fire from the hearth, made her heart stutter in her chest. She had never thought men beautiful, but Hudson was a work of art that left her breathless over and over and over.
She reached out to touch him, watching in wonder as his muscles flexed at her touch. She flattened her hand against his chest, her finger ghosting over a nipple. He hissed, and she looked up in concern.
“Did I hurt you?” she asked.
He shook his head with a pained smile. “On the contrary, wife, you please me too damn much.”
He pressed her into the mattress, his lips covering hers as his hand slipped between her legs. Scarlett gasped into the kiss, arching into his hand as pleasure, liquid and white-hot, burned through her.
“Damn, you are already so wet and ready for me,” he groaned against the side of her jaw.
Her eyes fluttered shut as he trailed kisses from her lips down her body. His lips closed around a nipple, and she arched into him, her fingers sinking into his hair as she held him close to her breast.
Scarlett had become a writhing mess on the bed. She canted her hips to meet his questing fingers.
“Hudson,” she moaned. “Oh, Hudson…”
“Easy, little cat,” he murmured, his lips trailing to her other breast. “Just open your legs for me.”
She nodded with a delighted gasp as he rewarded her by inserting a finger into her tight channel. She had become liquid fire in his hands, nothing more than a mindless creature, his to mold as he saw fit.
“Good girl,” he murmured, and she shuddered in pleasure at his praise.
He settled between her thighs, his lips trailing ever downward until he came to the thatch of dewy curls.
The first rasp of his tongue on her innermost flesh wrenched a delighted shriek from her. When he sucked on the bundle of nerves that ached and throbbed, she saw light explode behind her closed eyelids.
“Hudson!” she moaned, writhing beneath him. “Hudson, please! ”
But her husband was single-minded in the pursuit of her pleasure. Gently, he slid another finger into her, stretching her, filling her, as he tasted and licked at her womanhood. His wicked tongue was a thing of wonder, and he was an expert at putting it to such good use.
Her fingers speared into his hair, her moans becoming ragged pants as pleasure surged inside her, building up like a wave gathering speed…
And then she crashed on the shore with a triumphant scream, her body arching off the bed as he continued to thrust his fingers into her, his mouth fastened on her as she exploded into a million shards of light.
Still, he did not relent, and soon her body was wracked with another climax. Only when she had become a quivering mess on the sheets did he release her, his gaze somber as he stroked his length from root to tip.
Scarlett gazed at him in awe. In the firelight, he was like a burnished god—if gods tolerated scars on their unblemished skin. For her, however, they were marks of his valor. Of what it took for him to crawl out of hell and find his way to her.
If Hudson had not found the strength within him to do that… it broke her heart to think that she might have truly lost him before she ever got to know him.
She sat up and trailed her lips over the scar on his shoulder. His hands stilled when she covered them with her own.
“Where did you get this?” she murmured.
“From the war,” he said softly. “The shrapnel from the cannon tore through my shoulder. It was a miracle that I got to keep my arm.”
She kissed his scar as her hand stroked his length. “Show me how to pleasure you, husband.”
He groaned. “You are doing a very good job of it, wife.” He smiled at her. “Any more, and I fear I will expire from it.”
She smiled at him wickedly. “Come now, I thought we had already agreed that I very much prefer you alive.”
He pushed her down onto the bed, his voice hoarse. “I will come but only inside you, my sweet.”
He thrust into her hand with a growl, and she guided him to her entrance. The memory of the dazzling ecstasy that followed their first time gave her the courage.
“I… I want you inside me,” she told him shyly.
“Then you shall have me,” he groaned.
She felt the blunt tip of him prodding her entrance and sucked in a deep breath. There was no pain this time, only the keen sensation of being stretched.
Scarlett watched as her husband loomed over her, his eyes squeezed shut in concentration as he fought to control himself.
“Hudson.”
His eyes opened, hazed with desire. Bright with something that made her heart flutter in her chest.
Love .
He loved her.
Just as much as she loved him.
His smile was tremulous as he said, “If you keep looking at me like that…”
Her hands came up to his shoulders, and she tilted her hips to meet his, taking more of him inside her, letting out a sigh and wrenching a groan from him.
“You need not be so polite on my account,” she assured him. “I am not as fragile as you think. And,” she added with a smile, “I love it so much when you are being wicked.”
Her words seemed to unleash a side of him that he had been holding back. With a growl, he surged into her, sinking himself to the hilt.
Scarlett cried out, but she had no time to gather her wits as he had begun to thrust into her with a steady rhythm. Short, shallow strokes that left her breathless. Deep ones that had her clinging to him, begging for release.
“Hudson… husband… I want…”
She did not quite know what she wanted, only that it was so close. Just a little bit beyond her reach.
“It is yours, my love,” he grunted, his thrusts becoming erratic. “Seize it, little cat.”
His eyes fluttered shut, pain and pleasure flickering across his face. He snapped his hips against hers. Once. Twice.
On the third, they both cried out, their simultaneous release becoming more than just shared pleasure—it became a melding of their souls.
“I love you so much,” he growled into her ear as his hot seed filled her. “I love you so damn much, Scarlett.”
Scarlett pressed a soft kiss to his lips, her arms wrapping around his shuddering frame even as she quivered.
“And I love you, too, Hudson. From now till forever.”
Just a few hours ago, she had all but accepted that he was never going to love her, that she was not enough for him.
Now, she lay basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking, a deep joy and a sense of peace filling her.
She had found it. Found him .
And together, they found forever.
The End?