“Call me baby, again,” Shaney rasped out. Shit, his throat was raw. He nuzzled against the warm palms, still feeling floaty and warm and dreamy.
“Anything you want, baby. Just open your eyes.” And Shaney did because that gravelly voice could convince him to rob a bank.
A flutter of light, and then Shaney focused on a pair of stunning blue eyes. Shaney curved his lips and covered one of the hands on his face. Large and strong. He loved manly hands. Once his thought process caught up, Shaney gasped. The torture, Caleb, the killing energy, Todd… and, holy shit, Hudson had called him baby!
Shaney bolted upright. Every muscle screamed a complaint and his chest ached and head pounded, but there was no more kill-me-now agony.
“Whoa, take it easy,” Hudson said. He sat next to Shaney on the bed and placed his hand on Shaney’s shoulder.
“Where? What…?” Shaney so couldn’t think with Hudson’s hands on him.
“It’s okay. You’re at my house.”
That only answered about a tenth of Shaney’s questions. In seconds, panic trampled any peace he’d felt. “What happened?” Shaney grabbed at the over-sized T-shirt that Hudson must have put on him and yanked it up his chest. No black symbols. “The energy. Is it gone?”
Hudson leaned in and stilled Shaney’s hands, lowering the shirt. “You seem to be okay,” Hudson assured him.
“But I was dying. I thought I was going to die. It was ripping me apart… He couldn’t stop it… And Todd…Shit, Todd. Where is he?”
Hudson sat back and ran his hand through his short hair. Shaney could see that tic in his jaw but couldn’t figure out his actual expression. “Hudson?”
“Look, I just grabbed you and told them all to stay the fuck away from you.” He scowled.
“You grabbed me?” Shaney’s last memories were of giving in, accepting his death.
“Goddammit, Shaney, you were chained to the fucking wall and being tortured!” Hudson jumped up and paced by the bed. “They’re lucky I didn’t rip them apart with my bare hands. You were so… You were barely breathing!”
“But Todd was tied up. He kept screaming at them to let him go so he could help me.”
“He wasn’t tied up when I busted in there.” Hudson sneered and crossed his arms across his chest.
Shaney shook his head. None of this made any sense. He struggled to pull in a deep breath. The energy had been tearing him apart, Todd had been screaming, and Caleb had been doing whatever agony-inducing geometry to remove the rogue energy. Then Hudson had showed up…
“Wait. Why were you even there?”
Hudson sighed, a definite struggle on his face. “I went to pick you up yesterday morning and you weren’t there. I called your phone and it went straight to voicemail. Couldn’t find Todd either. And—” Hudson’s eyes darted around the room. He shifted foot to foot, and then scrubbed his rough hands over his weary face. “Damn, this is going to sound crazy.”
Shaney rose from the bed and placed a gentle hand on the man’s forearm. Hudson looked down at the unexpected touch, then up to Shaney’s eyes. The depth of that gaze pulled at Shaney’s gut and squeezed his chest. “No crazier than what I’ve seen and heard the past few days,” Shaney said in an encouraging tone.
“I-I just knew where to find you. I mean, it wasn’t exact, but something pulled me in that direction. Of course, I thought it was crazy, but the pull got stronger. I swore…” He licked at his lips. “I swore I could hear you calling to me, in my head, and I tried to ignore it. But it just got stronger.” Hudson turned away and Shaney could see the bunching of his tight muscles through his white T-shirt. His anguish was palpable. “But when you didn’t come home or answer your cell, I followed that pull because I knew something was wrong and I’d sworn to protect you.”
Shaney’s breath hitched. “Sworn to protect me?” Shaney whispered.
Hudson turned and lifted his hand. His calloused finger wisped over Shaney’s jaw, leaving a trail of warmth. “Protect you, Shaney,” Hudson confirmed, then took that last step to close the small distance between them.
Heat and the spicy, leather scent of Hudson enveloped Shaney. He wanted to ask why he’d sworn to protect him, but Hudson’s immense arms wrapped him up, pulling Shaney in tight to his hulking frame. Without pausing, Shaney’s arms returned the embrace, sinking into the heaven that was Hudson. Even if Hudson’s actions were merely that of a scared man reassuring himself that his self-imposed ward was okay, Shaney embraced the fantasy world where Hudson really wanted him.