Speechless (Pier 70 #3) (14 page)

Hudson shrugged.
There’ve been cases where the vocal cords are repaired and there is successful sound produced to a degree. From what I know, what I remember, my mother never was concerned about it. I communicated via sign language, and since it wasn’t affecting me physically—no issues breathing, etc.—she left it at that.

“I’ve never heard you cough or groan, either.”

He again used his hands to explain:
No sound.

“And you don’t mouth the words, either,” Teague mused aloud.

No, he didn’t. He shook his head, agreeing. For whatever reason, he had never tried to pronounce the words. Most people—unless they were deaf or hearing impaired in some way—didn’t read lips, so it never made sense for him to do so. It wasn’t something he’d ever given much thought to, actually.

Teague nodded, then looked at Hudson again. “I was looking it up. Curious, I guess. One article said a doctor was able to refashion a voice box and vocal cords from one little boy’s own tissue.”

Hudson smiled. He liked that Teague had been interested enough to do research. The only other person Hudson knew who had cared that much was AJ.

There have been tremendous advances in medicine. But I’m thirty-five, Teague. The advancements weren’t all there back then.

“Wait.” Teague’s eyes widened after he read the text message. “What? You’re thirty-five? Then why the fuck did Cam have thirty-one put on your birthday cake this year?”

Hudson shrugged and smiled. He had asked himself the same question.

Eighteen

TEAGUE HAD NO idea why he’d become Chatty Kathy all of a sudden. During the drive back to the marina, he had told himself he would make an effort to be cordial to Hudson. By asking questions, he felt as though he was doing that. Only the questions he was asking, he honestly wanted the answers to. He was curious.

And of all the things Hudson had told him about his mutism, the only thing he latched on to was Hudson’s age. Thirty-five. That made the guy almost a full decade older than Teague. It should’ve made a difference, but for some reason it didn’t. Perhaps it would have if Teague hadn’t been around Hudson all this time. Or if Cam, Roan, and Dare weren’t all several years older than him. He was used to being the youngest guy in the room, and it looked like he still was, only now there was a bit more of a gap.

A gap that honestly didn’t matter.

Some might say they had nothing in common because of that, but Teague knew better. He’d been around Hudson… They had quite a bit more in common than he’d thought they would.

“Do you and your parents get along?” Teague inquired.

Something passed in Hudson’s eyes and Teague knew he shouldn’t have gone there. But now he wanted to know, so he waited patiently. It was hypocritical, sure. He had no intention of talking about his own mother, but he couldn’t help but wonder about Hudson’s family.

My father left when I was two. Haven’t seen him since.

“And your mother?”

Hudson signed, but Teague couldn’t make out what it was. Nothing other than
mother
.

Hudson turned to his phone, tapped something out, and then Teague’s phone vibrated.
My mother took her own life when I was sixteen. She suffered from depression.

Teague desperately tried to hide his shock. Seriously, what were the odds that they’d both lost their mothers to…? He decided it was time to drop the subject. No way was he going to talk about…

He didn’t know when Hudson had gotten up, but Teague looked up to see the big man staring down at him. He wished he could read Hudson’s mind. He wanted to know what he was thinking, wanted to understand how he was coping with his mother’s suicide, but at the same time, he didn’t.

Teague didn’t move when Hudson curled his finger beneath his chin and tilted his head more. He let out a low moan when Hudson’s mouth came over his. The kiss was soft, sweet. He shouldn’t have liked it, but he did. He allowed himself to get lost in Hudson’s kiss, wrapping his arms around him, digging his fingertips into the tense muscles of Hudson’s back while Hudson worked his tongue. He didn’t want it to end, but that decision was taken from him when Hudson pulled back.

Hudson signed:
Good night
.

Teague nodded, then signed good night back to him, stepping out of the way and allowing Hudson to leave. He watched the door for long minutes, wondering how he’d gone from angry to confused in the matter of a few hours.

Glancing at the clock, he realized it was already after midnight, and he would have to be at work early because he was once again helping with the tours. After stripping off his clothes and crawling into bed, Teague stared at the ceiling for a long time, thinking about what Hudson had said about his mother.

Looked as though they had more in common than he’d thought. Aside from the fact that they were both good with engines and they both enjoyed being out on the water … they both had mothers who had taken their own lives.

What were the odds?

More importantly, Teague wondered how Hudson had been able to so calmly relay that information. The guy had said he was sixteen when his mother killed herself. Maybe that was the reason. Maybe he felt as though he’d had enough time with her.

Teague doubted that was the case. Hudson should’ve been more attached to her. Hell, his own mother died when he was three and Teague still didn’t forgive her for what she’d done to him. In fact, he hated her for it. Hated that she’d been so selfish.

He remembered Hudson’s comment:
She suffered from depression.

Admittedly, Teague had done research on depression over the years, his curiosity getting the best of him. Depression was always the answer he was given when he tried to ask why his mother had taken her own life. Not that he was on board with that assessment, but that was everyone’s reason. They said it as though it made sense. A lot like: that’s the sky, the color is blue. She had depression, she took her own life. Like the two went hand in hand.

That was stupid.

He had wanted to know how his mother could’ve been so selfish, so caught up in herself that she would take her own life because some stupid asshole broke her heart. Teague wanted to know how she could’ve left him the way she had.

Rolling over, he clutched his pillow, frowning. Why did it seem that Hudson had come to terms with his mother’s suicide? It was as though Hudson didn’t blame her, rather blamed the mental illness. The
depression
. Did he honestly believe that some mental problem had caused her to end her life?

Closing his eyes, Teague tried to push it all away. He hated thinking about his past. Hated thinking about how his mother had abandoned him, how the world had given him the middle finger.

He’d been dealt a shitty fucking hand, that was all there was to it. And he was doing the best he could. So what if he would never be truly happy?

At least he was still breathing.

For now.

HUDSON STAYED AWAKE for a long time after he’d left Teague’s apartment. He hadn’t bothered getting into bed; his brain was running full throttle, so it wouldn’t have done any good.

After popping a frozen pizza into the oven, Hudson shot a text to AJ.
I assume you made it home okay?

His phone buzzed almost immediately.
I got out of there as soon as you did. Not my scene, no matter how good the music is. Guess you’re home safe and sound, too?

All good here. Talk to you tomorrow.

He wasn’t surprised that AJ had left when they had. The bars—gay or otherwise—had never been a place he or AJ frequented. They were more the outdoor types. When they were younger, the way to spend a weekend was a camping trip, usually just the two of them, sometimes a couple of their friends would come along. A tent, fishing pole, and time away from people was their idea of a good time. Damn sure not dancing or mingling in bars.

For Hudson, his reasons were simple. Communication was difficult, no matter what social situation he found himself in. It was rare he would meet a random guy who knew sign language, which meant he usually had to have a wingman along for the ride. And first dates … those were nonexistent for Hudson. He’d been on a couple, but having a conversation via text message with someone you didn’t know while attempting to share a meal…

In a word: awkward.

However, he had met a couple of guys on the Internet years back. He’d even had one serious relationship in his early twenties. The guy’s sister had been deaf, so he knew sign language, which was probably the only reason it’d progressed. And by that, Hudson meant it had lasted more than two months, but three was his max. Long term had never really been his thing.

Relationships were difficult for him. It wasn’t easy getting close to people, and he had a hard time trusting. He’d spent too much of his life being ridiculed for his lack of speech, and then when his mother had taken her own life, he was mocked about that. One group of bullies had tried to tell him that it was his fault she had died. According to them, his own mother couldn’t handle the fact that he was the way he was.

Kids were cruel.

It had been easier to keep his relationships limited to a couple of really good friends and his brother. He’d been lucky to befriend Calvin and Shawn. Neither of them had ever looked at Hudson as though he were a freak of nature. In fact, they’d seen him as no different than they were. It’d probably helped that Calvin’s mother was a special education teacher. At a young age, Calvin had learned to sign the alphabet, and he’d picked up quite a bit of sign language from his mother. When they’d become friends, she was the one who had helped Calvin and Shawn learn to communicate with him.

All in all, Hudson knew that AJ, Calvin, and Shawn had his back. He’d learned over the years that those three people were all he could truly depend on. For the past few years, AJ had been focused on his career, which took him to California a lot, usually for weeks at a time. He owned a place about ten minutes from the marina, but he was rarely there. It was only recently that he’d started being around more. He’d mentioned they had assigned him a big account located in Austin, but Hudson was fairly certain AJ had manipulated that so that he could be closer to Hudson.

But when AJ wasn’t around, Hudson’s interactions with people were limited. In a sense, it seemed he and Teague had the trust issues in common as well.

After taking a shower, eating his pizza, then plopping his ass down on the couch, Hudson stared at the front door for the longest time, reliving the conversation he’d had with Teague a short while ago. He wished he would’ve had the nerve to ask Teague about his mother. After sharing the details about his own, Hudson had seen something in Teague’s eyes. A pain so deep he could only assume it was the root of Teague’s anger.

And who are you? Dr. Phil?

He smiled at himself. Okay, fine. He shouldn’t be attempting to figure Teague out. He should’ve been content that Teague had come home with him from the club and he hadn’t had to knock any assholes out for touching the kid. But he wouldn’t deny wishing that Teague was there with him. When he’d kissed Teague before telling him good night, he had been tempted to take things to the next level. Not wanting to get Teague spinning out of control again had been his only saving grace.

Now he wished he could go to sleep, let his mind rest for a little while. He wasn’t sure how things would play out tomorrow. With Teague, it was always a gamble. The kid had drastic mood swings. Unlike anyone Hudson had ever known before. He was angry one minute, subdued the next.

He could only hope tomorrow would be one of Teague’s good days.

Nineteen

Friday, July 22
nd

BY THE TIME Friday night rolled around, Teague was a little less anxious than earlier in the week. It helped that Hudson was pretending that Teague hadn’t gone off the rails the other night. In fact, Hudson was acting as though nothing had happened at all.

On Wednesday, Hudson had picked up sandwiches on his way back from the gym, and they had sat on Teague’s couch, eating and watching baseball. On Thursday night, Hudson had ordered pizza and invited Teague down to the restaurant pier. They’d managed to hold conversations, but it all seemed to revolve around Hudson teaching Teague more sign language. He was getting better, although he wasn’t anywhere near fluent. He could understand a lot of what Hudson said, but signing back was a little more difficult, but Hudson didn’t seem to mind.

It had been at that point that Teague had realized Hudson was attempting to put Teague’s mind at ease. He was ensuring that Teague wasn’t worried that they’d end up falling asleep at Hudson’s place again. By avoiding his apartment altogether, it had helped.

Except tonight, Teague was in the mood for something a little less friend-like. Although he would secretly admit that he was enjoying the friendship aspect of this thing between him and Hudson, he was seriously getting worked up, and he was damn near ready to explode. Sure, he’d bitched about the hand jobs and blow jobs, but at this point, he would take either—he didn’t have a preference—just as long as he got off.

However, when it came time to put his plan in motion, he found that Hudson wasn’t home. While he sat staring at his phone, tempted to shoot Hudson a message, he felt his frustration level building. He hated sitting at home by himself. For the first couple of months it had been cool, but now he wanted to do something. He needed someone to talk to.

He blamed Hudson for that. He’d never craved that type of interaction, but since he’d had it, he found he wanted more.

Getting to his feet, he paced the floor, thrusting his hands through his hair. He couldn’t go to a club, he couldn’t call Jason and Benny, or any of the others from his long list of one-night fucks. It was too late to go out on the water, and Dare was no longer in the position to be Teague’s wingman since he’d settled down. Cam, too. Of course, he could always call Roan, but he knew the guy was dealing with his own shit right now.

Which left him with absolutely no one.

His phone buzzed and he stopped pacing, staring down at it. He was tempted not to look because he knew it could only be one person. For weeks now, the only person who had texted him was Hudson. He really didn’t like the fact that he was looking forward to spending time with the man.

With a shaky breath, he snatched up his phone and read the message.

Be home in ten. I’m bringing dinner. You will eat with me, so don’t try to get out of it. But first, I need a shower, and that’s where I expect you to be when I walk into my bathroom—naked. Probably smart to turn the water on soon so you don’t freeze your ass off.

Teague’s dick twitched. He had no control over it, thank you very much. It wasn’t that he was excited for Hudson to summon him to his bathroom or anything like that. Except, he kind of was, and proof of that was the fact that he was already walking out his door and across the hall to Hudson’s.

For the past few weeks, neither of them had been locking their apartments, rather only having the exit door of the building locked. It made it easier to come and go from each other’s place on the rare occasions they did. Like now.

Hudson’s apartment was the mirror image of his own. Well, except for the fact that Hudson’s place was decorated more than Teague’s and it actually had enough furniture to fill the space. Teague had a thrift-store couch, a cheap coffee table, a decent queen mattress set connected to an inexpensive metal headboard, and a wooden stand that held his alarm clock. Hudson’s place was much nicer, as was the furniture. It was a studio, like Teague’s—completely open, other than the bathroom, which contained a sink, a toilet, and a regular porcelain tub with a clear curtain hanging from a rod. Rather than turn on the water, Teague leaned against the sink and debated whether or not he wanted to go back to his place and pretend he hadn’t received Hudson’s text.

Then again, he couldn’t do that because Hudson would probably show up, and if his door was locked, he would know something was up.

“Shit.”

Teague set his phone on the sink, then pushed away from the counter and went to turn on the shower. No sooner did he have the water on than he heard the apartment door open and close.

Fuck. There was no way that was ten minutes.

It took all of thirty seconds for him to strip out of his shorts and T-shirt, leaving them in a pile on the floor before he was hopping into the shower, swallowing a scream when the cold water pelted his skin. He gritted his teeth, waiting for the water to warm. It was just like at his place, the hot water taking forever to kick in. Had he done as Hudson instructed, he probably wouldn’t have had to endure the ice shower.

Before he had time to flip-flop on his decision, the clear curtain was pulled back, and Hudson stepped in, completely, gloriously naked.

And when Hudson’s giant body instantly backed Teague against the wall, the water temperature was suddenly the least of his worries.

HUDSON HAD NO idea what had come over him or why he’d been so adamant that Teague come over, but halfway through his workout, he’d had to stop. No matter what he did, he couldn’t stop thinking about the kid. When he spent more time adjusting his semi-erect cock than lifting weights, working out became a wasted effort.

For the last few days, he’d seen little of Teague while they were at work. The boys in the office were busy and had needed Teague’s help out on the water, leaving Hudson on his own. He was used to that, so it wasn’t the workload that had bothered him; it had been not seeing as much of Teague as he’d hoped to. That was the very reason he had insisted he have dinner with Teague during the week, but he’d made a conscious effort to keep his hands to himself.

Other than some boner-inducing groping last night as they stood in the hallway between their apartments, which had left his nuts aching when Teague finally had left him, Hudson had been the perfect gentleman.

Until right this moment.

Stepping into his shower to find Teague naked and waiting, just as he’d instructed, had him worked up more than ever. So horny, in fact, he hardly registered the tepid water that pelted his skin.

Without allowing Teague to say so much as hello, Hudson backed the kid against the tiled wall and inhaled him. Tonight wasn’t about sweet kisses or teasing; he needed something more than that, and he suspected Teague did, as well. When Teague’s tongue speared his, rough hands gripping Hudson’s ass, he knew he was right.

“Fuck, Hudson,” Teague groaned against his mouth. “Oh, fuck.”

While Teague attempted to climb his body, Hudson continued to kiss him. He wasn’t pretending to be gentle; he wanted Teague to know just what he did to him.

When Teague took Hudson’s cock in his hand, he drove his hips forward, fucking Teague’s fist. And when Teague aligned their dicks, the kid’s slick hand gliding up and down both of them at the same time, their shafts sliding together … Hudson pulled his mouth away to watch. He was breathing hard, and he’d only been in there for a minute.

“What brought this on?” Teague asked, his eyes glittering with heat.

Not caring whether Teague could understand him, he chose to sign since he had no other option.
Want to taste you.

Teague watched his hands, then nodded.

Before he dropped to his knees, he signed again.
Do not come. This is only the beginning.

Another nod from Teague had Hudson going to his knees. He didn’t know if Teague understood or if he was simply saying yes to whatever Hudson wanted. Knowing Teague, it could go either way.

The porcelain tub bit into his knees, but Hudson ignored the pain when he was eye level with Teague’s beautiful dick. He pinned Teague to the wall with his forearm across Teague’s stomach. In order to keep from falling over, Teague widened his stance at the same time Hudson drew him into his mouth.

“Oh, fuck yes.” Teague’s hands rested on Hudson’s forearm, gripping tightly. “I’ve missed your mouth so fucking much.”

Unable to control his desire, Hudson bobbed up and down, slobbering all over Teague’s cock, taking him deep, teasing the head, fisting him with his other hand. He worked him hard and fast, loving the way Teague panted and moaned, his stomach muscles flexing as he thrust his hips forward, attempting to drive deep into Hudson’s throat.

Not wanting to push him over the edge, Hudson released Teague’s dick from his mouth but resumed fisting him as he got to his feet, slowing things down a notch. Once more, he fastened his mouth onto Teague’s smooth, warm lips, making love to him with his tongue. He was overwhelmed by sensation, but the urge to fuck was impairing his control, the need causing his heart to slam against his ribs. He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt like this before, and he was a little shaken by it.

Taking a step back, Hudson reached for the body wash, dispensing some into his hand before rubbing it over his chest. He needed to take care of business so they could get out of here and have dinner. If he didn’t, he risked fucking the kid right there against the wall.

Teague stepped forward, adding more body wash before he began rubbing his hands over Hudson’s chest. It seemed the guy was on to him, knew he needed a minute, because his hands moved slowly, his fingertips kneading Hudson’s tense muscles.

While Teague washed him, Hudson closed his eyes, relishing the sensation, enjoying the rubdown. It was intensely sensual, although Teague had successfully dropped the tension down a notch, for which Hudson was grateful. It wasn’t like him to lose control like that, but there was no doubt he had. If Teague wasn’t using those magic fingers on him, he would likely be ramming his dick into the guy’s ass, sending them both over the edge.

I could let you do that all day.

“Good. Then relax a little more.”

Okay, so apparently Teague did understand him.

Hudson gave him free rein, relaxing his muscles while Teague’s soapy hands worked him from neck to toe, then back up.

“Turn around.”

Hudson turned, planting his palms on the wall. Teague continued his ministrations along his back, his ass, his quads and calves. When he worked his way back up, Hudson’s heart slammed into his ribs again as slick fingers slid between his ass cheeks, rimming his hole.

Fuck, that felt good.

He didn’t allow Teague to play for long, ready for a turn. While the water rinsed the soap from his body, Hudson kissed Teague again, keeping the pace languid this time. The urgency had dissipated, but the need was still great. He doubted he could resist Teague for much longer. It scared him to think about giving in, to give Teague what he’d wanted all along. The risk that the kid would turn away from him afterward was significant, but he knew he would have to cave eventually.

He wasn’t sure he was ready to let go tonight, but on the other hand, he wasn’t sure he had the willpower to resist.