Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (3 page)

Largely due to the content smile that filtered across her face as she shook her hair out.

Damn, she had a great smile.

Hudson had intended to go up and talk to her after her lecture, maybe ask her out for some drinks. Unfortunately, she’d gone from being bombarded by audience questions to following the two Spencer’s employees, who had loaded the dozen rifle cases into the Spencer’s van waiting for them out front.

He’d lost sight of her shortly after. Only to find her here in the motorcycle parking area doing her little jeans shimmy dance.

Precisely when his brain had stopped functioning.

And it was slow going starting it back up. The fact that she’d moved on to slowly peeling off her classy gray top wasn’t helping one bit. Jesus. The tantalizing sight of her athletically toned back, revealed slow inch by slow inch in plain sight of the entire neighborhood…

Had Hudson been able to un-cement his feet from the ground, he would’ve rushed over to block her gorgeous body from any spying eyes.

Finally, with a shuddering sigh of relief, tinged with the tiniest bit of disappointment, he saw that she had on a thin tank top under the top she’d been wearing. Black, like the plain tee she dragged over her head next and the no longer business-like knee-high boots she yanked back on her feet. While it certainly wasn’t uncommon to see women clad in far skimpier tops, seeing this particular woman in a simple, sporty tank had been nothing short of mind-blisteringly hot.

Before he got a chance to reel his senses back in and reboot, she hopped on her bike and started across the lot. He headed straight for his jeep, and was in the middle of telling himself that going after her wasn’t at all stalkerish when he saw her stop at the parking exit and turn her head in his direction. A flick of her helmet shield and he saw her laughing almond eyes smiling right at him. Startled to a halt, he just stood there as she tilted her head and waved once, briefly, before slapping her helmet shield back down and zooming down the street.

Hudson felt his muscles slowly unlock one by one like dominoes until he was finally able to pull out his cell phone to dial up his buddy Luke’s number.

Hey Luke, you think you could ask your wife if her bouncer is single?

Definitely high up there on the list of top ten things he never thought he’d say.

CHAPTER TWO

LIA DOWNED HER third tequila shooter of the night with a lick of tabasco and a gulp of the newest brew on tap at Ocotillos, the only place in town where actual, albeit rare, instances of her having a social life had been known to take place.

A far cry from the goings on here tonight.

As of an hour ago, after who knows how many magically refilling glasses of beer, the you-poor-thing looks being cast her way by the workers and regulars had magnified tenfold.

And she couldn’t even resent them for it.

Truth was, she loved the town folk of Cactus Creek. Every last quirky, sweet, and nosy one of ‘em. Even when they were fussing over her with beers of affection. Along with a bunch of annual casseroles they delivered to her door on this day each year.

At first, she’d thought they acted this way simply because she was the event bouncer who spent a few nights a month doing a damn good job keeping the peace here, the beloved local brewpub owned by her friend and town beer-brewing sweetheart, Dani Dobson-Bradford. Just some small town nosiness over the female bouncer with an annual Achilles heel. And then one day, Dani opened Lia’s eyes to the real reason she hadn’t seen.

They all cared about her.

Remarkable. Despite having essentially given up after years of ineffectively searching for a place in life to fit in and call her own, she’d somehow managed to find that place in Cactus Creek.

It was nice.

Unfortunately, it also translated to her spending the last few hours at a secluded table up on the roof deck of Ocotillos amidst a sea of sad eyes watching her quietly drink the night away.

Alone. As always.

No one came up to chat with her, and the handful of out-of-town guys who looked like they were about to hit on her were stopped in their tracks, courtesy of her shadow entourage, the treasured few close friends in her life who made it a dogged tradition to look out for her on this day each year.

She frowned. For some reason, tonight felt different from other years—not sadder, just lonelier. She didn’t want to be hit on per se, but it would’ve been nice to talk to someone for a change.

Just then, a low voice rumbled in her ear. “You up for a dance, sugar?”

Lia shivered, every cell in her body reacting with acute awareness to that voice as she turned to the rough-cut man standing beside her. Boldly curious, she let herself take him all in, from the thoroughly male grin on his lips, to the gentle, refreshingly
not
sympathetic, and rapidly-warming look in his eyes.

On its own accord, a whispered breath slipped past her lips...
“Hudson Reyes.”

Rugged laugh lines crinkled around his eyes. “You did some recon on me; I’m flattered. So is that a ‘yes’ to the dance?”

She took his offered hand and backed them over to a quiet corner away from the many prying eyes around them before slipping into his arms and laying her head against his broad chest. A soft rock ballad playing over the speaker system had her swaying side to side in rhythm with his steady heartbeat. For a while, she just allowed herself to enjoy the moment before finally answering belatedly, “It wasn’t recon.” Smiling against his sternum, she clarified, “It’s just good manners to find out the name of the person who spent nearly an hour straight staring at me, don’t you think?”

“Is
that
the proper protocol?” He chuckled gamely and drew her in just a bit more so his words feathered softly against her temple. “Darn. Now I feel like a slacker for not ordering your detailed background check yet, seeing as how you spent an hour today staring right back at me as well.”

Ah. So she hadn’t been very covert. “You
should
feel like a slacker. You know how hard I had to work to find out that a one Mr. Hudson Reyes from California is not just an organ donor, but one of those wretched guys who takes an unfairly good driver’s license mug shot?”

His lips curved up in amusement, a soft caress against her hair. “Crafty. Maybe if I manage to make it out of here alive tonight, you can tell me how you were able to get that intel.”

“Why? Do you have a reason to fear for your life?” She smiled. This was fun.

“I think it’s a valid fear seeing as how the grim reaper himself has me in his sights tonight.”

“That is a concern. So what exactly does the grim reaper look like?”

“Mid-thirties, my height, moves in a way that’s department-issued with a gun and badge.”

“
Ohhh
, you mean the guy making his way through the crowd, ready to pummel in your head at...fifteen yards and closing?”

“That would be the one.”

She turned laughing eyes up to his and felt a jolt that had her defenses dropping and pulse rate rising. “Well then maybe you should give me a kiss goodbye so I have something to remember you by,” she said brazenly, shocking the hell out of her, while causing his thickly muscled arms to harden to steel.

Before either of them could fully jump into the changing tide of their banter, however, both of their free hands shot out to block the bear-like paws that had attempted to shove Hudson away from Lia.

With a disapproving little sister tsk, Lia turned her eyes, and only her eyes, toward her oldest brother. “Caine. You know better than to go around assaulting random folk for no good reason.” She released her hold on Caine’s left wrist, giving Hudson the silent green light to let go of his right forearm.

“I have an excellent reason,” rumbled Caine. “An asshole luring my drunk sister into a dark corner so he can take advantage of her.” He glared menacingly at Hudson, who, to his credit, looked thoroughly unfazed. Not really surprised, but extremely touched, Lia noted Hudson’s arm was still around her waist, taut with an increasingly protective tension as Caine fixed his big, bad older brother scowl on her.

Visibly giving Hudson a momentary reprieve in execution, Caine’s focus was solely on Lia now. Minus the growl. But multiplied by infinity in the concern department. “Since when do you get sloshing drunk enough to let a stranger grope you in public?”

She sighed. “For one, I’m not drunk. Secondly, we were just dancing. I know it’s been a while for me to know for sure, but I’m pretty certain his hands stayed in the ‘friend zones’ the entire time. And lastly, he’s not a stranger. Hudson, meet my brother, Caine Spencer. Caine, this is my new friend, Hudson Reyes.”

A soft smile overtook her lips as she repeated Hudson’s name in a hushed, savory murmur that had his now heated gaze falling to her lips. The scorchingly vivid images about where she’d like to place her lips had her thinking maybe she was a
little
drunk. But not on tequila and beer.

On Hudson.

Not the sort of thing you wanted to fixate on with family around, but she couldn’t help herself; she bit her lower lip in barely tamed restraint and watched his smoky gray eyes dilate with a warning she was too far gone to heed.

Thankfully,
one
of them was hanging on to some control. Hudson drew his lingering gaze away from her with an almost amused, very male headshake before he turned his attention over to the now astonished Caine. “Spencer—as in Jack Spencer?” asked Hudson in a neutral tone that belied the way his fingers were trailing up and down her arm. Each maddening, nerve-seducing stroke against her skin was telling her, in no uncertain way, that the very private conversation she’d been all but goading him into was far from over.

Caine did a double take. “You know my dad?” His sole attention was on Hudson now.

Lia knew the instant Hudson’s arm relaxed around her that he’d chosen his conversation opener for the singular, specific reason of redirecting Caine’s glare on himself as opposed to her.

So much more romantic than roses.

“My boss over in California contracts your dad’s shop for some of our prop fabrications.”

Before Caine could reply to that tidbit that had Lia’s eyes widening in surprise as well, however, they were interrupted by five vibrantly bedazzled nails appearing on Caine’s shoulder.

“
Officer Caine
. Now you know I positively love you, but I gotta say, you’re freaking out the customers up here a little. You mind dialing down those big, bad alpha grunts just a tad?”

Lia knew only one woman who could talk to Caine like that.

Him, too, apparently as he rolled his eyes and stepped to the side, revealing that sure enough, Xoey, the town’s favorite bartender and new co-owner of the brewpub herself had come up to provide Lia with some back-up.

Again with the wonderfulness of the townfolk.

“I’m just having a conversation with my sister and her new
friend
here.”

Xoey kept her hand firmly planted on Caine’s shoulder. “Looks more like you’re cock-blocking…or ‘clam-jamming’ rather than talking.”

Good thing Lia hadn’t been drinking anything or there would’ve been a liquid fountain show over that one. Xoey certainly had a way with words.

Caine was not amused.

“Your sister is doing just fine up here on her own, bud,” continued Xoey, smiling prettily. “I, on the other hand, have some very specific needs only you can address.”

Okay, there was helping, and then there was completely unnecessary oversharing.

In complete contrast to his earlier mood,
that
made Caine crack a smile. “I swear, one day, Isaac is going to revoke my membership to his gym and show me the business end of all his MMA training because of this fake flirting you do with me.”

This time it was Xoey’s turn to give him a piqued frown. “Who says it’s fake? And why do you all keep insisting on believing Isaac still has feelings for me? We’re just friends.”

“Uh-huh. Sure. Just like you don’t have feelings for him anymore either.” With a glance over at the small secondary bar they had for beer and shots next to the dance floor, he rolled up his sleeves. “Okay, now just cut to the chase and tell me which kegs you need me to bring up from the downstairs bar for you so Lia can stop being scarred for life over this conversation.”

Kegs. Oh, thank god. So she wouldn’t have to gargle her ears out with Listerine later.

As the pair turned to head over to the bar, Xoey flashed Lia a double thumbs-up sign.

“I saw that,” informed Caine.

“Well, yeah. I’m standing right in front of you,” Xoey recovered with a sweet, eye-fluttering smile. “I don’t care what your younger brothers say, you
don’t
need cataract surgery yet.”

Lia smothered back a giggle.

Caine heard it and spun around to shoot them both a look as Xoey continued to pull him over to the bar. “Don’t you two get any funny ideas about leaving. Max and Gabe are downstairs by the door and—” he took out his phone and snapped a photo of Hudson, “I’m texting them your picture.”

The second he was out of earshot, Hudson let out a whistle. “Wow, and I thought foreign dignitaries had a lot of security.”

“Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. They’re protecting you.” Hudson’s expression turned thoughtful then. “So you were just filling in as a family favor today at the gun show. That explains it.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Explains
what
, exactly?” If he brought up her gender or even
hinted
that her connection to the Spencers was in any way related to her qualifications as an expert in the field of antique arms, she might just let Caine get a punch in…before she got in one of her own.

Hudson’s gaze quietly studied her. “It explains why you were there today, and now here tonight. You don’t look like the type of girl who needs to shoot tequila after work.”

She blinked in surprise. “No,” she agreed reflectively, “I’m not. Tonight’s…different.”