She went still. “Hudson—”

“The desk isn’t the right height when you’re sitting on it,” he whispered. “This will be a better angle for you, I promise.” As he spoke, he pressed open-mouthed kisses to the sweet spot just beneath her ear as his hands found her breasts. When his rough fingers teased her tight nipples, she went soft and compliant.

Very gently he inserted a foot between hers and urged her legs farther apart. Keeping an arm around her waist to cushion her from the edge of the wood, he trailed a hand between her trembling thighs.

She moaned and squirmed, and he sank his teeth into the nape of her neck. “Shh,” he reminded her, loving the scent of her—coconut shampoo, soft and willing woman, and maybe a tinge of apprehension. She shivered and pressed back against him.

Nope. Not apprehension. It was arousal, in every beat of her heart and every hitched breath.

“Please,” she breathed, and pushed her hips back into him, gripping the edges of his desk and quivering like a bow strung as taut as it could get. “Oh, Hud, please…”

Making quick work of a condom, he thrust into her and she came. Instantly. Barely managing not to do the same, he held her through the tremors and stroked her up again. He was trying to slow her down, trying to slow them both down, but she kept rocking those hips back for more and he lost himself, just completely lost himself in Bailey.

When their frenzied need overtook them both, they detonated. Hud just barely managed to keep them both upright in spite of the fact that his legs weren’t a solid bet. He was still working on that and also trying to catch his breath—and come to terms with what had just happened. He was pretty sure that what happened was his heart had just rolled over and exposed its tender underbelly—when there was another knock at his door.

“Hud?” It was Penny this time. “Hud, have you seen Bailey? Her car’s in the lot but no one’s seen her. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”

Penny was smarter than both of his brothers. In fact she was smarter than all of them added together. “She’s okay,” he said to the door.

There was a beat of silence from Penny. Never a good sign. Then, “So is that ‘she’s okay’ as in you just want me to go away and leave you the hell alone?” she asked. “Or ‘she’s okay’ as in you’ve got her in there with you and you’re making good use of your desk the way I do with Gray’s?”

Bailey squirmed. “Door number two!” she said.

Jesus. Hud dropped his forehead to Bailey’s shoulder. “Now you’ve done it,” he murmured. He could feel her shaking with laughter and it occurred to him that any other woman might have been pissed. And with good reason. He’d just bent her over his desk and taken her. And also, his family was certifiable. Completely. “Now that you know she’s okay,” he said to Penny through the door, “you can go away.”

“Will do,” Penny said, sounding very amused. “I’ll retract the search party. Hey, you guys want to come for dinner tonight?”

Hud closed his eyes. “Penny?”

“Yeah?”

“Go away. And if you tell, I’ll let Gray know you’re the one who put that dent in his precious truck.”

There was a shocked beat of silence and then “I was never here!” This was followed by the sound of her footsteps hurrying away.

“Shit,” Hud muttered, turning Bailey in his arms to face him. “She’ll have told everyone by the end of the day.”

Bailey, looking soft and dazed and sated, smiled and he gave her a kiss. Then he propped her up against his desk and picked up her clothes for her. Since she still looked boneless and adorably wobbly, he ended up helping her get back into them. He added his own sweatshirt to the top of her ensemble to keep her warm.

Bullshit. You just like the way she looks in your clothes…

When yet another knock came on his door, he just about blew his gasket. Since they were both put back together, more or less, he yanked his office door open and was prepared to blast whoever stood there.

It was Penny again. He’d have to kill her. He’d have to kill Gray, too, of course, but Hud thought he could easily learn to live without them both—

These thoughts collided on themselves when he realized that Penny was looking extremely sorry to be interrupting, and also that she wasn’t alone.

Behind her was a fiftyish woman—

“Mom?” Bailey asked, sounding shocked as she came up to Hud’s side and peered around him. “What are you doing here?”

The woman looked at Bailey with such shocked horror that Hud turned to look at Bailey too.

Shit. The sweatshirt she wore—his—was on inside out, her ski cap was askew—from his hands—and she was hopping into her other ski boot without a sock since they’d been unable to locate it.

“What’s going on here?” Bailey’s mother asked dramatically, slapping a hand to her own heart as she divided a gaze between Hud and her daughter.

“A meeting,” Penny said smoothly. “Just an everyday old average meeting. Isn’t that right, Hud?”

But Bailey’s mother’s eyes ignored Hud entirely, locking on Bailey. “Then why are you all flushed and sweaty? You’re either running a fever or you were just—”

“Mom,” Bailey said, righting her cap. “Just give me a minute here to finish up and I’ll take you to the cafeteria where we can talk—”

“I came up here to see the mural you’re always talking about. I wanted to take pictures for all my friends who are constantly asking me how you’re doing and if you’re needing any more help, financially or otherwise. I thought—” She broke off and shook her head, and turned her hard, angry eyes on Hud.

He held out his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Moore.”

She stared at his hand and then whipped back to Bailey. “We’ve been worried sick about you. You’ve been putting so many hours into work, and then on top of that coming up here to work some more—or so I thought.”

“Mom,” Bailey said with quiet reproof. “You’re being rude.”

“I’m being rude? I thought—” She broke off and shook her head. “Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. I was wrong. You’ve been up here cheating on poor Aaron!”

Bailey stepped forward to take her mom’s arm and steer her out the door, carefully not meeting Hud’s eyes.

Which, for the record, Hud hated.

Bailey’s mom tugged herself free and shook her head again. “No. I’m not staying.”

Bailey sighed. “Mom—”

“I can’t,” her mother said, voice quavering. She took a step back, eyes shimmering. “I don’t even recognize you,” she said, and then she was gone.

Bailey started to go after her, but Hud caught her and held on when she tried to break free. He bent a little to look into her eyes.

Yep. Filled with humiliation.

Dammit all to hell.

He easily switched his anger from Penny to Bailey’s mother. But much as he’d like to, he couldn’t strangle the woman. She was Bailey’s mother. “Hey,” he said softly, holding her gaze and wishing she’d let him console her, wishing she’d acknowledge that what they’d just shared was worth fighting for. “That was pretty rough. Take a minute.”