A frisson of exhilaration ran through her as Hudson took a slow, predatory step forward. Allie chewed on her bottom lip, trying to anticipate his next move. She shifted to her right and he followed, mirroring her movements, all the while never taking his eyes off hers. With one more step she was past the breakfast bar. The dining room table was in her peripheral vision. Two or three strides and she’d make it.

“Well, you’ll have to catch me first,” she challenged, knowing full well she was raising the stakes of their game.

“Count on it, baby.” Quick as a flash, he lunged for her. Allie squealed as she turned and made a run for the table, only pausing once it stood between them. Hudson shook his head, his eyes blazing with excitement. “And you know what will happen when I do.”

Adrenaline spiked in her veins. She watched him, pacing the length of the table as she shifted back and forth along the opposite side. He wanted her, and damn if she didn’t want him, too. In fact, right there on the table would do just fine. But she’d started this thrilling game of cat and mouse, and now she had to finish it.

She backed toward the living room, her smile growing wider as she dashed around the couch. “Bring it on, Chase.”

Hudson’s eyes flared. “Taunting me?” he asked. But he didn’t wait for an answer. Instead he lurched forward in a few powerful strides, palming the back of the couch with his free hand and leaping over it.

Shit.

With her heart pounding, Allie took off in the only available direction. When she reached the stairs, Hudson was right behind her, taking them two at a time. She gasped as his fingers grazed her hip before dropping to catch her ankle.

He yanked her down as he prowled up her body, his hips surging against her backside as he lowered his mouth to her ear. “I’ve caught you, baby.” He buried his hand in her hair and pulled her head to the side. She moaned when his lips found the spot on her neck that never failed to drive her wild. Pleasure shot through her as he sucked on the sensitive skin and she writhed beneath him, her sex clenching and releasing in response to his hardening arousal. “Now, what shall I do to you?” he growled, grinding against her.

Her lips parted on a ragged breath. “Whatever you want.” And she meant it. In that moment she was on fire for him, desperate to have him anyway he wanted.

Turning her on her back, Hudson leaned in with one hand pressed into the stair behind her head. When his eyes met hers they were full of dark intent. “I believe there is the matter of some decorating.” She watched as he squeezed a small bead of red frosting onto her bottom lip.

“You like the frosting, do you?” Her chest heaved but her voice was nothing more than a whisper.

He licked his lips. “I might need another taste, just to be sure.” The tip of his tongue traced her lower lip. “Hmm, even better on you.”

She lifted her head in an attempt to deepen their kiss, but he reared back.

“Would you like to try some?” he asked.

“Yes,” she breathed. His eyes flared when she added a breathy, “Please.”

“As you wish.” He arched over her, sealing their mouths. She moaned as his skilled tongue slid over hers, hot and velvety and tasting of a delicious mix of sweet sugar and Hudson Chase.

Allie heard the tube of frosting drop on the stairs, and then his hand was beneath her sweater. He wrenched it up and over her head before tossing it aside, then jerked down the lace cups of her bra. One of the straps broke, but she didn’t care. She was too busy watching with coiled anticipation as Hudson reached for the discarded frosting. A moment later a thin line of icing circled one of her nipples. “Even better this way, I’m sure,” he said in a husky voice.

She arched her back. “Perhaps you should take a taste.”

Hudson groaned his agreement against her skin as he latched on to her nipple, sucking it gently before releasing it and blowing a stream of cool air across the glistening tip.

Allie’s hips began to move of their own accord, gyrating against him as he dragged his tongue across her chest, leaving a smear of red icing in his wake. His teeth closed around her nipple and it was almost more than she could bear. She couldn’t wait any longer. She needed him to take her, right there on the stairs. Her fingers twisted into his hair, tugging his head up to hers. “Hudson . . .”

He gazed at her with hooded eyes. “Do you want me inside you?” he asked. The rasp of his voice sent a shiver of awareness down her spine. His hand smoothed up her ribcage, caressing the side of her breast. She glanced down at the heavy rise and fall of her chest as he brushed his thumb back and forth across the swollen nipple.

“Yes,” she panted. “Hudson . . . please.”

She felt his rough stubble on her skin as he dragged his tongue down the center of her stomach in a sleek, wet glide. “Slow and easy or fast and hard?” he murmured against her skin. His hands glided up her thighs. In one smooth movement he pushed her skirt up and swept her panties down her legs. They fell open, shamelessly offering him more room to maneuver. “Which is it, Alessandra?”

Allie’s head dropped on a frustrated groan, her body sinking back against the hard and uncompromising stairs. “Either . . . both . . .” She knotted her fingers in Hudson’s hair as a barely audible whimper escaped her lips. “I want you.”

He settled his shoulders beneath her thighs.”Mmm, hard and fast then. I want to feel you come against my mouth.”

Her lips parted on a silent gasp as his tongue, slick and warm and right on target, tortured her, flicking and stroking her sensitive flesh. His arms looped under her legs, holding her in place as she tilted her hips to match his strokes. Then his lips closed around her, sucking in an unrelenting rhythm, and a single finger pushed inside.

“Is this what you wanted?” he asked, although he didn’t need to. Hudson knew her body so well, he knew without asking that she needed more. But he wanted to hear her say it. The realization made her skin tingle with anticipation.

“More,” she pleaded. “I need more.” She rocked against his hand, near mindless with the need to come.

He eased a second finger inside. “Does it feel good, Allie?”

“God, yes . . .”

His mouth was on her again, his fingers and tongue stroking her rhythmically, driving her hard and fast to the release her body so desperately craved. She glanced down, and the sight of him, his head moving between her thighs and his fingers moving inside her, sent her over the edge. She cried out, spiraling unexpectedly into an orgasm that stunned all her senses. Hudson’s hand shot to the small of her back, holding her tight to his mouth. Only when the last convulsing wave of pleasure wracked her body, did he position himself between her thighs. Lifting her leg, he entered her on a solid stroke, shoving her further up the stairs. Almost immediately he began an unyielding rhythm that had her insides quickening once again.

“That’s it,” he coaxed, his words and body driving her to the clenches of another orgasm. “Give it to me.”

Allie’s hand curled around the lip of the stair as a second orgasm rolled through her, no less devastating than the first. Hudson followed a moment later. He came growling her name as his hips jerked in one last powerful thrust.

Pressing a kiss to her temple, he slid an arm under her boneless body and gathered her up. He held her tight against his chest as their bodies cooled and their breathing slowed.

When he finally spoke his voice was a hoarse whisper. “I believe we’ve settled the matter of the decorating competition.”

Allie nearly snorted. “Hardly.”

“How do you figure?”

“You had an unfair advantage decorating, um . . . nonedible items.”

A soft chuckle vibrated deep in his chest. “I beg to differ on the nonedible.”