Small Town Girl (7 page)

“Aah,” I sighed as he inserted himself.

“You okay?” he asked.

I bit my lip and nodded, a kinky smile
emerging from my mouth.

He thrusted himself in and out of me,
slowly at first, and then began to pick up speed. His hot mouth covered my left
breast as his tongue swirled, teased, and licked my pink nipple.

Hudson’s strong arms reached down and
grabbed my legs, hoisting them over his broad shoulders until he was deeper
inside me. I gripped onto the sheets underneath me as the intensity was almost
too much to handle. It hurt and felt amazing all at the same time.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he heaved
as he continued thrusting.

I wanted to tell him how gorgeous he was
too, but I figured he already knew. That or he probably heard it every single
day in some capacity from someone.

He lowered my legs down from his
shoulders and they fell to the sides of his hips as he pulled himself out of
me. He rolled me to my side, crawled behind me and lifted one of my legs up a
little before inserting himself in me. He wrapped his arm around my chest and
pulled me close as he fucked me from behind. We were skin to skin, so close,
and his heady breaths in my ear tickled every inch of me.

He kissed my neck as he massaged my
breasts and traced the outline of my jaw. His hands were busy, and he showed no
signs of stopping anytime soon.

He leaned forward a bit and rolled me
back over to my back, never taking himself out of me for even a second. It was
like we were sealed, he and I, and he was fucking me like it was the last time.
I was pretty sure it was the last time.

He pressed his body over mine and we were
skin to skin again. His eyes were wide open, piercing into mine, and he leaned
down to kiss my half-open mouths, muffling the sighs that escaped from them
with every thrust.

He reached up and brushed my hair from my
face in the tenderest of moves, and I could tell he was fighting the urge to
release himself into me. He didn’t want it to end either.

“It’s okay,” I said. “We have all night.
I’m not going anywhere.”

As if I said the magic words, he released
a huge sigh and three hard plunges later, it was all over. His body convulsed
as he emptied himself and the sweet release took a hold of him. He collapsed on
top of me, sweaty and panting, and buried his face in my neck.

I ran my fingers up and down his back,
grazing his skin with my nails, as I waited for him to recover.

“That was fucking amazing,” he said.

“Yes, it was,” I agreed. For someone who
didn’t do half the work, I was sure out of breath.

As soon as the warmth of his body left
mine, I began to shiver in the cool, hotel air conditioning. Without
hesitating, Hudson swiftly pulled the comforter up and covered me, slipping his
arm behind my neck and holding me close.

“Thanks,” I said. I loved how intuitive
he was with me.

“I want to take care of you later,” he
said. “I know that was all about me, but I just had to have you. I couldn’t
wait.”

“It’s okay,” I said.

“No, it’s not,” he said. “I promise. I
want you to feel the way you make me feel.”

His words tickled my spine as the thought
of him touching me down there or licking me got me all hot and bothered again.

I rested my head on his shoulder,
breathing him in, and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to look at the clock. I
didn’t want to watch the minutes ticking by. I didn’t want any of this to end.

“I wish I wasn’t leaving so soon,” he
said, out of nowhere. “Who’d have thought I’d want to stay in Iowa any longer
than I had to.”

“Hey,” I said, playfully slapping his
chest.

“Come on,” he said. “It’s Iowa. It’s not
exactly the excitement capitol of the world.”

“I know,” I said. “But it’s home. At
least for me. Where’s home for you?”

“Everywhere,” he said. “Technically I
have a house in L.A., but home is everywhere. You won’t believe how freeing it
is when you lose that attachment to a certain place.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around the
concept. I was attached to Rock River, probably too attached, and until meeting
Hudson, I never even thought about leaving that town.

I felt his hand begin to trace around my
belly button and then felt it again as it moved downwards to the split between
my thighs. My heart began to race as he spread my legs apart and slipped his
finger up and down my slit, massaging my clit all the while.

“Close your eyes,” he said. “Just relax.
Let me do the rest.”

I obeyed his command, shut my eyes, and
leaned back into my pillow. I felt the warmth of his body leave my space as he
crawled under the covers and got into position between my thighs. Within
seconds, his hot tongue was lapping up my wetness below, and I knew it wouldn’t
be long before I was twisting in sheer ecstasy with Hudson at the helm.

“Piper Ann,” I called out as I walked
into the coffee shop Wednesday morning. I was floating on cloud nine, and I
knew she was going to see it written all over my face.

“Oh, hey,” she said as she looked up from
her magazine. It was clearly another slow morning for her. “What’s up with
you?”

Just as I expected, she noticed there was
something different about me.

“So I went and talked to Luke yesterday,”
I said as I sat my sunglasses down on the counter and took a seat.

“And?”

“He didn’t take it very well. Just as I expected,”
I said. “He’s really disappointed in me I think. Said I changed everything.”

I let out a laugh, and Piper looked at me
as if I were some crazy person.

“Why is that funny?” she asked. “I
thought you wanted Luke to get over it so things could go back to normal?”

I smiled a Cheshire grin as I bit my lip.

“You hooked up with Hudson again, didn’t
you?” she asked as her eyes lit up. “I knew it!”

“Piper,” I said with an exasperated sigh.
“You have no idea how amazing he is.”

“I can imagine,” she said. “I’m sure he’s
had lots of experience.”

“No,” I said. “He’s not like that.”

“Whatever,” she laughed.

“He’s opened my eyes to a whole new
world,” I said. “He’s made me think about things in a whole different light.”

“So Hudson officially trumps Luke now?”
she asked.

“I think so?” I said, though it was more
of a question.

“Luke stopped by again for tea this
morning,” she said. “Before he went out to the field.”

“Weird,” I said.

“What’s so weird about that?”

“Nothing,” I said. It wasn’t like him to
stop in town to get something to drink. His mama raised four strapping, hungry
farm boys. They had two refrigerators in their kitchen and one in their
mud room
. There was never a shortage of food or beverages in
the
Summers
’ farmhouse.

“So what are you going to do?” Piper
asked, resting her head on her hands.

“Luke’s made it pretty clear that he’s
not going to get over this Hudson Smith thing. At least not anytime soon,” I
said. “It leaves me with no other option but to move on, don’t you think?”

“It’s just so weird,” Piper said as she
gazed off. “I always thought you two would end up together. Best friends.
Homecoming Queen and King. Quarterback and head cheerleader. It was only a
matter of time. You were supposed to get married, have a bunch of kids, and
take over the family farm.”

“Maybe that’s not what I want anymore,” I
said. “Maybe that’s not the way it’s supposed to be for me.”

Piper looked at me like I’d just said the
unspeakable.

“I feel like I don’t even know you right
now,” she said. “Who is this girl standing in front of me?”

I laughed, hoping she was joking but
half-knowing that she probably wasn’t.

“A week ago, my life was all mapped out,”
I said. “I know exactly what it was going to be like and who I wanted to spend
it with.”

“And then you met this movie star and now
you think you’re going to run off to Hollywood and live this magical, fairytale
life with your new Prince Charming,” Piper sighed as she rolled her eyes.
“Sounds very realistic.”

“No,” I said, annoyed at her. “He’s
leaving town tomorrow. I’ll never see him again.”

“So he’s leaving and you’re suddenly over
Luke anyway?” Piper asked, squinting at me as if I were making no sense.

“Right,” I said. “I’ve tasted caviar and
champagne, my friend. I don’t think there’s any going back.”

“Okay, now you’re just being weird,”
Piper
said, shifting on her feet.

I could tell she was uncomfortable with
this new side of me. Heck, even I was a little uncomfortable with it. I was
changing, rapidly, and I didn’t know why. I just knew it was all because of
Hudson.

“Listen to
yourself
,”
Piper said as her eyes were as round as saucers. “You’re going to regret this
someday.”

“I don’t think I will,” I said.

“So are you going to move out of Rock
River?” she asked. “Or do you really want to stick around and watch Luke marry
Mandy McClintock and see her get your happily ever after.”

Mandy McClintock was my biggest rival in
high school, and she would’ve done anything to have Luke all to herself. And
man, did she try. She was pretty and mostly
well-liked
,
but she had a vicious, competitive side. She had flirting down to a science and
Luke took the bait every time. She came home from college once a month and
spent most of her nights at The Manhattan trying to get her hooks into Luke. He
never gave in to her, as far as I knew, but it was still painful to watch him
drool all over her big breasts and mile-long legs.

“Mandy can have him,” I said.

Piper looked taken aback at my flippant
attitude about Mandy McClintock and Luke.

“I should probably get back to work,”
Piper said. In other words, she was done with our conversation and wanted me to
leave.

I wondered if she was just jealous of me.
She’d always sort of lived vicariously through me our entire lives. She’d never
had a lot of friends or a lot of men who paid any sort of attention to her. She
was a late bloomer and pretty much looked like she was thirteen until the day
we graduated from high school. She’d been starting to come into her own the
last few years, but most of the guys our age had left town or couldn’t shake
the image of a tender-faced Piper from their minds and see her as a young
woman.

“I suppose,” I sighed to her. “I’ll let
you get back to work. Since you’re so busy and all.”

I winked at her. I didn’t want to walk
out of there on awkward terms. She was still my best friend and nothing was
going to change that.

“See ya,” she said as she avoided eye
contact with me. She was still pissed. I could tell.

***

My
eight hour
shift at the Brown Bag Diner was about to end with ten minutes left on the
clock. It’d been a long day and an even longer night. It was steak night, which
meant the entire town of Rock River came out for dinner.

My hair was greasy from running all over
the place, and I smelled like steak and baked potatoes and fryer grease. By the
time I’d closed up the register and locked up for the night, I wanted nothing
more than to soak in a long, hot bubble bath in the comfort of my apartment.

But Hudson had other plans for me.

“Hi,” I said as I saw him leaning against
my car. I immediately felt self-conscious as I smoothed loose strands of hair
back behind my ear. Under the pale moonlight of the parking lot, I was thankful
he couldn’t see all the makeup that had melted off my face or settled into my
pores. “I was hoping I’d see you again.”

His lips curled into a smile as he walked
towards me, slipping his hands around my waist and giving me a sweet kiss.

“Come with me,” he said.

“Huh?” I laughed. “What are you talking
about?”

I figured he wanted one last roll in the
hay before he left town.

“Can I go home and shower first?” I
asked. “I feel gross.”

“No, I mean, come with me back to L.A.,”
he said.

I scrunched my face as the idea of it. It
wasn’t realistic as much as I wished it
was
.

“I can’t do that,” I said.

“Why not?” he argued. “Of course you
can.”

“I don’t have a job there, money, any of
that,” I said.

“You don’t need any of that,” he laughed.
“I’m going to take care of you.”

My heart skipped a beat. I’d never had a
guy who wanted to take care of me before, and especially not one like him.

“I have to see if this can work,” he
said. “If I leave Iowa tomorrow, I’m probably never coming back. I can’t
imagine not seeing you ever again, Brynn.”

The truth was, I couldn’t imagine never
seeing him again either.

“We’re from two different worlds,
Hudson,” I said. “I don’t know how we could ever make this work.”

“You and that stubborn attitude of
yours,” he said. He laughed, but I could tell he was frustrated. “Let me paint
a picture for you.”

“Okay,” I said as I placed my hands on my
hips and waited for his wordsmithing to begin.

“I’m getting on that plane tomorrow
morning and never coming back,” he said. “How does that make you feel?”

“Sad,” I said. “Disappointed that you
couldn’t stay. Disappointed that it’s all over.”

“And what remains of your life once I’m
gone?” he asked. “What’s your life going to be like? Are you going to run back
to Luke, beg him to forgive you, and spend the rest of your life trying to make
it up to him? Hoping he finally admits his true feelings?”

He had a point.

“Or are you going to kick yourself and
wish that you’d hopped on that plane with me?” he asked. I glanced up into his
eyes, and I knew right then and there that he was committed to trying to make
this work.

“I’m not asking you to marry me, Brynn,”
he said. “I’m not saying you can never go home. If you hate L.A., if you grow
sick of me, I’ll put you on the first plane back home. Swear.”

It did sound rather appealing when he put
it that way. What did I have to lose?

“Come with me, Brynn,” he said, my name
spilling off his tongue like butter once again. I felt my knees grow weak at
the thought of actually having a relationship with Hudson Smith. I wasn’t even
sure I was going to get to see him again before he left, and suddenly he was
asking me to fly away with him.

“Fine,” I said. “You win. You get me.”

His eyes lit up like the Fourth of July
as he squeezed me tight.

“Go home,” he said. “Pack your bags. I’ll
pick you up in the morning around eight. Get plenty of rest tonight, tie up
your loose ends, do what you need. Tomorrow is going to be amazing.”

He leaned down and kissed my mouth again,
lingering for a few seconds, before pulling himself away from me. He turned on
the gravel and walked back towards his hotel. The sight of Hudson Smith walking
away and knowing that I was going home with him tomorrow felt so surreal.

My heart raced as the reality of what I’d
just agreed to set in. It was already after nine. I needed to pack. I needed to
tell my mother what was going on. I needed to quit my job.

I fished around on the floorboards of my
car for some paper and pulled a pen from my purse. I scribbled a hasty
resignation, signed and dated it, and ran back to slip it under the back door
of the diner.

Back home, I ditched the bubble bath
routine in lieu of a quick, hot shower and dug my suitcase out from the back of
my closet. I hadn’t used it in years, not since our senior trip to Minneapolis
five years ago.

I ransacked my closet and dresser drawers
like a crazy person, pulling out only my best items. I didn’t have a lot of
clothes, especially not compared to most girls my age, but I had a good
foundation of jeans and t-shirts and sneakers.

I wondered how I was going to fit in out
there and if Hudson would soon realize that his little country girl wasn’t such
hot stuff in the city next to the all the pretty models and actresses who could
dress to the nines.

I forced myself to stop overthinking it
as I finished packing my clothes. If I continued to fill myself with
self-doubt, I knew I’d never get on that plane in the morning.

Once I was all packed, I called Piper.

“I think you should know that I’m getting
on a plan tomorrow,” I said.

“What
?!
” she
yelled.

“I’m going to L.A. with Hudson, and I
don’t know when I’ll be back,” I said. “We’re going to see if this thing could
work between us. It was his idea.”

Piper was quiet on the other end.

“Piper?” I asked. “Still there.”

“Yep,” she said.

“Don’t be mad at me, please,” I begged.
“I’ll be back. We can talk or text every day.”

She was still quiet.

“You think I’m making a mistake, don’t
you,” I said.

“Uh-huh,” she replied.

“If I’m making a mistake then I’m making
a mistake,” I said. “It’d be a mistake not to go. I don’t want to spend the
rest of my life wondering what would’ve happened. And if it doesn’t work out,
then I’ll have one hell of a story to tell my grandkids someday.”

“Are you going to tell Luke?” she asked.
I wondered what was up with her being so protective of Luke lately.

“No?” I said. “Why would I? I don’t owe
him anything. Not after the way he’s been treating me lately.”

“I just didn’t know if you were going to
or not,” she said. “That’s all.”