Angst and sex, hooray!
Let's have a lookie-loo at what's in this magical piece of literary goodness known as the newsletter:
  1. Greetings and salutations
  2. Pact with a Heartbreaker, chapter 14
  3. What even am I doing with my life? 
Hey there, friend!
 
Welp, it's about that time. I can't believe how fast this summer has gone—thanks, in part, to delivering Pact with a Heartbreaker to you every week! Sadly, all things must come to an end, and this newsletter exclusive is winding down. This was supposed to be the last week, but I've got one more chapter for you, so I'm going to extend it a week.
 
Pact with a Heartbreaker can be read either as your first foray into Havenbrook, my fictional southern small town, or after you've read Second Chance Charmer because I'm crafty like that. 😉

In case you've missed any previous chapters, you can get caught up here. If you're not a fan of reading books in a serialized manner, Pact with a Heartbreaker will be released on its own hopefully sometime in the fall.
 
Quick disclaimer: in order to get these chapters to you every week, they are raw and unedited, so thank you for excusing any mistakes! 

Chapter 14

Hudson didn’t let Mac speak…hadn’t let her speak. No matter how many times she’d opened her mouth to tell him this didn’t change anything, he’d steal her breath away. With his fingers, his mouth, his cock. 

He’d gone from frantic and wild to soft, slow, and sweet. Purposeful. Now, she sat astride him, her ass nestled in the cradle of his legs while hers wrapped around his waist. As he stared into her eyes, not letting her hide though she desperately wanted to, he pulled her down on his length. 

Unable to restrain it, she let out a soft moan as he filled her up inch by inch, making her so full, it bordered on painful. But before she could even seat herself completely, he was already rocking her against him, cupping her bottom in his palms as he focused on bringing out as much pleasure from her body as he could. 

It was as if he were trying to fit a year’s worth of sexual experiences between them into one last night. 

Or maybe that was just her.

“Kenna,” he breathed, his fingers digging into her flesh. He dropped his mouth to her neck, kissing a line up the length of it before swiping his tongue over her bottom lip.

She opened for him, letting his tongue slide against hers. Tightening her arms around his shoulders, she ran her palms along the tight length of his back, loving the feel of him beneath her. His muscles bunched under her roaming hands, his exhalation coming out in a groan when she scored her nails along his skin.

Fuck. You’re killin’ me.”

Despite how heavy her heart felt, her lips curved up in a smile. For as much as she’d known about Hudson—more than any other soul on earth—she hadn’t known this. How to make him moan and gasp and swear up a storm. She hadn’t known what would make him twitch while inside her, make him break away from her just to squeeze his eyes shut, his neck going taut as he tried to stave off his inevitable pleasure. Just so he could spend a few more minutes inside her.

It felt like a tiny taste of the most delectable dessert right before it vanished into thin air. 

This was only going to make it hurt worse in the end. She knew that. Knew this only prolonged exactly what had to happen. Only tied her mind…her body and soul…to him more than she already was. But she couldn’t say no. 

After all, she only had so much willpower, and it was going to take every ounce she had to stand firm in her decision that they couldn’t take this any further than the cabin. That what they had would end here before she went off to school and he went to basic training.

She knew as well as she knew her own name that Hudson thought this would change everything. That he could make her change her mind simply through the power of his body and what it could do to hers. And though there was no denying it was powerful and had the capability of making her lose her damn mind, she couldn’t bend on this. Not when something so important was at stake.

And there wasn’t anything more important to her than Hudson’s safety.

She felt the telltale burn in her eyes, signaling the impending tears at the same moment Hudson pressed his thumb to her clit. With her head tipped back, she breathed out a half-sob disguised as a moan, clutching him closer to her when he tried to pull away.

But Hudson was never one to give up easily.

With one hand still working between them, his thumb rubbing lazy but insistent circles around her, he cupped her head with his other hand and tilted her face down to his. 

“Kenna…” he breathed. He kissed away the single tear that’d slipped out of her eye. “Don’t cry. It’ll be okay. We’ll figure out a way.” With his eyes focused on hers, he held her prisoner in his gaze as he brushed his thumb along her cheek. “I’m not gonna lose you.”

“You won’t,” she promised. She could agree on that much, though she knew he meant something completely different than she did. 

He didn’t nod. Didn’t tell her he knew, that he believed her. Instead, he put all his focus into wringing out every ounce of pleasure from her body. He sped up his hand between them, his other cupping her ass so tightly as he lifted and dropped her along his length at a pace designed to make them both fall into bliss.

The waves crashed over her in a slow, rolling pace, her orgasm washing through her only moments before Hudson clenched her to him. He buried his face in her neck and groaned her name as he emptied his release inside her.

They sat like that for long moments before he lifted her off him, tossed the condom into a nearby wastebasket, then flopped back on the bed and pulled her to his chest.  Neither of them said anything as he trailed his fingers up and down the length of her spine and she traced mindless patterns onto his chest and abdomen.

Eventually, Mac fell asleep like that, listening to the lullaby of Hudson’s heartbeat under her ear and attempting to ignore the pain that awaited her when the sun came up.

 

***

When Hudson woke again, Kenna wasn’t in his bedroom. He stiffened for a moment, terrified she’d left without a word, until the smell of pancakes wafted through his closed door. He threw off the covers and tugged up a pair of boxer briefs before slipping out of his room and to the kitchen. 

Over the years, she’d cooked him breakfast dozens of times, either at her house or his. Because of that, the sight of her doing so shouldn’t have been mesmerizing. But, in all the times she’d made him something to eat, she’d never done it wearing his shirt and little else. Nor had she done it while he could remember, in great detail, exactly what she felt like wrapped around his cock.

She must not have heard him come up behind her, because she hadn’t turned around to offer him a greeting. Instead, she stood in front of the griddle, her hair pulled up into a messy thing on top of her head. She balanced on one foot, the other resting against the opposite calf as she flipped pancakes like a professional. Despite his shirt coming down to mid-thigh, and despite the fact that she, no doubt, had panties on beneath that shirt, he’d never seen her in anything sexier. 

Unable to help himself, he walked up behind her and wrapped his hands around her waist, laughing against her neck when she yelped.

She jabbed an elbow behind her and into his stomach. “You ass. I could’ve burned myself.”

“But you didn’t,” he murmured into her neck, letting his lips rest against her skin as he spoke.

“You’re still an ass,” she said even as shudder ran through her. 

He couldn’t restrain his smile knowing that her body responded to him even when she was cranky. He also couldn’t stop his hands from slipping under the material of his T-shirt and sliding them up along her stomach until he cupped her breasts, her nipples hard points against his palms.

“An ass who turns you on, apparently.” He didn’t even attempt to keep the smile out of his voice.

That time, she smacked the spatula down hard on his thigh, the sting causing him to bark out a laughing groan. “Ow, I think that still had grease on it.”

She held up the spatula over her shoulder. “You want another?”

He dropped his hands from beneath her shirt and held them up in surrender before she could land another blow. “I was sorta hopin’ a few orgasms would make you less of a grouch in the mornin’. My mistake.”

She cocked an eyebrow, shooting him a look that said he should keep talking and come a little closer while he was at it. Like, within striking range. Instead, he grinned, grabbed one of the silver dollar pancakes cooling on a plate, and shoved the whole thing in his mouth as Kenna continued working. Without even looking up from the griddle, she swatted his hand when he reached for another, then went right back to flipping the pancakes that were ready. 

Now this…this was familiar. And he couldn’t help but smile because of it. They were going to be fine.

“Make yourself useful and get the table set, will you?” Even though she posed it as a question, he knew it wasn’t really one, so he didn’t waste time and did as she asked.

Once the pancakes were done and their plates were both piled high, they sat at the table and dug in. Kenna had one knee pulled up to her chest, the other tucked beneath her, and the sight did nothing but make Hudson hard. She’d slipped her shirt over her knee, making it so he couldn’t actually see anything, but he could imagine. And the best part? He didn’t have to just imagine anymore. He could go by memory now. The look of her. The feel of her. The goddamn taste of her.

“Hurry up,” he said around a mouthful of pancakes, his eyes continually straying to her legs.

She looked up at him with an eyebrow raised as she took a slow sip of her orange juice. “Somethin’ goin’ on today I don’t know about?”

“Nothin’ other than me spendin’ all day inside you, but I’d like to get to it as soon as fucking possible, so hurry up.”

Her eyes twinkled as she breathed out a laugh, and his shoulders relaxed. He hadn’t realized it, but it’d been too long since she’d laughed… All thanks to his announcement. He also hadn’t realized just how tense he’d been until he’d heard the husky sound. Kenna could hold a grudge like no one else, and though she’d shared her body with him last night—multiple times—he couldn’t deny how worried he’d been that she was still mad.

“I’ll even let you pick the next spot.” He shot her a sly grin. “Wanna head out in the boat and finish what we started yesterday?”

At the mention of yesterday and what had happened in the boat, her entire face fell. Goddammit. He should’ve stopped while he was ahead. The smile dropped off her face, and her shoulders slumped on a sigh. She picked at her pancakes before finally shoving her barely-touched plate away from her. 

She wrapped her arms around the leg she had tucked up to her chest, resting her chin on her knee as she looked at him. Her eyes were so full of pain it nearly cracked his heart in two.

He shoved his plate away, too, before dragging his chair around the table until he was in front of her. Reaching out, he gripped her hips and pressed a kiss on her forehead. “We can figure this out, Kenna. I know we can. It’s gonna be hard as hell, but we can do it.”

“No. We can’t.” She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears as she pulled back from him. “That… Last night… It doesn’t change anything, Hud.” Her voice cracked, but she steeled her shoulders and swiped at the trails of moisture running down her face. “I can’t let it.”

 

***

Eeeep... Only one chapter left. Have an inkling of what's gonna happen? Head over to the Brigade and share! Gossip on all things Havenbrook is welcomed and encouraged.

Why is it that I can never sleep as soundly as my adorable dog, Jack? My Fitbit keeps screaming at me that if I don't start getting more than 50 minutes of deep sleep a night, things are gonna be rough. #momlife

This week is back to school, and I'm still trying to get into a work schedule for myself. My husband has been home 3 out of the 4 days the boys have been in school, so...yeah. Things aren't going as routinely as they could be. LOL

One routine I have started? Yoga! The last time I truly did yoga was when I was in my early twenties, and I found it slow and boring. Now? I love it. It combines my love of meditation with actually getting my body moving. Right now I'm YouTubing different routines, so if you have a favorite, shoot me a reply and let me know!

xoxo,

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