Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (4 page)

Nodding, Hudson traced a gentle finger under her necklace before lifting, but not touching, the two rings that hung as pendants at the center. “Because of this?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

His thumb caressed her cheek lightly in comfort and her eyes closed as she let herself accept the soothing touch. It was the most healing moment she’d felt in a while.

Which literally only lasted a moment before Caine came stalking back toward them, looking about two seconds from calling her other brothers upstairs as well to drag her the hell out of there.

A foolish feat it would definitely take all three of her brothers to accomplish.

Her sharp glare cautioned Caine not to be stupid enough to try. When he just plain ignored her and advanced till he was close enough for her to smack in annoyance, she returned her focus on Hudson. “Do you want to stay here or go somewhere else?”

Caine’s eyes almost jumped right out of its sockets.

With a tired sigh, she quickly motioned for Hudson not to leave and pulled Caine over to the side. “If I promise no more drinks tonight, will you please stop big-brothering me?”

A part grimace, part reluctant smile cloaked his face in sympathy before he promised, “Never.” Pained concern darkened his eyes. “Especially not today of all days. Not with him. The guy may as well have ‘government issued’ tattooed across his forehead.”

Swallowing the lump in her throat at the avalanche of memories that came with his silent look, she shook her head lovingly. “You worry too much. He and I are just going to talk. Nothing crazy.”

“You’re not wanting to hook up with him?” asked Caine suspiciously, arms crossed Mr. Clean style.

The corners of her mouth tilted up. “I didn’t say that.”

An overbearing grunt huffed out of him. Followed by a truly pained groan when her smile wouldn’t quit. “Christ, Lia. When did you learn the evil pin-up look?” He pinched his nose bridge in an obvious attempt to stem the type of headache that only family could inspire.

“The evil pin-up look?” she laughed. Sometimes her brother cracked her up.

“Yeah. The one those pin-up models all wear in photos. The one that drives men crazy wondering if the woman’s really thinking what they hope she’s thinking.” He glowered. “Evil.”

Lia smothered an oddly pleased grin. “I wield that look?”

“Damn effectively,” he complained, looking at her as if she’d sprouted neon orange tentacles. “I’m sure you have lover-boy over there turned on like a light switch right about now.”

They both looked over at Hudson, who shrugged in a ‘can you blame me?’ sort of way, with just the faintest grin of appreciation slid in there just for her.

Caine’s eyebrows crashed together in annoyance. “Don’t get any dumb ideas, wise guy,” he called out with a growl. “In my book, making moves on a girl who’s been drinking is grounds for an ass-kicking. Sister or not. Badge or no badge.”

Lia put her hand on Caine’s arm lightly. “You’re not going to kick his ass,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Because if you try, you’ll just end up getting
your
ass handed to you.”

That made Caine flinch in surprise and turn to size Hudson up once again. More carefully this time. Sure, she could read fighters better than most, but so could Caine. Generally. He just needed to take off his big brother goggles to see what anyone with twenty-twenty street sense could plainly see in Hudson.

An honest to God warrior.

With almost as many deep scars as she had.

“I’d still do it if it meant keeping you from getting hurt,” said Caine finally.

A small smile touched her lips. “I know you would.”

“He’s obviously military.”

“I know that too.”

Caine looked at her for a long second before pulling her into a bear hug. “I just don’t want you to go through it again,” he murmured, chin settling on the top of her head. “It just about broke all our hearts the last time.”

“Easy there, you’re getting way ahead of yourself, don’t you think?”

“No,” he said quietly, shooting another assessing glance at Hudson. “I don’t.”

Her eyes widened in surprise.

He released her from the hug. “Don’t even
think
about going somewhere else to hang out tonight. I’ll be by the darts with Gabe and Max. One of us will take you home. Not Rambo, over there. Clear?”

Sighing heavily, Lia shook her head. “Of all the families the universe could’ve matched me with, it had to be a family of three boys, huh?”

“You should be thankful.” He grinned. “We could’ve been a family of three girls.”

Eyes wide in horror, a shudder ran through her then at the prospect of three girly sisters bugging the crap out of her constantly. Yes, this
was
definitely the lesser of two evils. She yanked him into another tight hug that finally drew a real smile out of him.

Of course, that smile shifted into a deathly glare at Hudson. “Fine, you have fun, sis,” he told her before shooting Hudson another look. “But not too much fun. Or your friend here might find himself with an APB out on his ass, headlining a high speed police chase.”

“Trust me.” She laughed lightly. “I know.”

* * * * *

HUDSON KNEW THAT all this big brother smothering should’ve been a big red flag that perhaps this one was more drama than he needed or ever usually had in his life. But for some reason, he liked that Lia’s brothers protected her so fiercely, the same way the dozen or so silent, watchful folks around the bar tonight had so obviously been prepared to do as well. Strange. It’s not like the woman was a delicate little flower who needed sheltering.

And he liked that, too.

Both the fact that she could clearly take care of herself, and that she cared enough for all these folks around her to let them fuss over her to within an inch of her sanity.

So when Lia turned to him all serious-like and told him in no uncertain terms that she was ‘giving him an out’ for their plans for the night with no hard feelings over her crazy brothers, Hudson had tipped her face up to his and told her straight-up that he didn’t need or want out of anything when it came to her. The brief, astonished flash of pleasure in her eyes was of course followed up with her mulishly persisting that her round of goodbyes around the pub over the next five minutes would land her at the pub’s side entrance—where he was absolutely in no obligation to meet her.

The second she turned away, he’d gone over to plant himself at that entrance to wait for her.

It was an interesting five minute wait.

Seeing Luke’s number on his caller ID just as he was cozying up to the doorway was a surprise. Hudson had left Luke a message earlier in the day, sure, but it was before he’d realized that the newlywed couple was still on their honeymoon. He hadn’t actually expected Luke to call back.

“Hey, man. Sorry about calling you earlier. I forgot you guys weren’t going to be home until next week. No need to interrupt your trip—”

“
Is this Hudson?
” broke in a hushed female voice.

He checked the caller ID again.

Yep, definitely Luke’s number.

“This is Dani, Luke’s wife,” she clarified in the silence that followed.

Okay. Still strange though. “Hi Dani. Can I…help you with something?”

“No, no. I’m calling to help you. You called earlier about my bouncer friend, Lia—the woman you saw at the wedding, right?”

“Yeah. But that’s alright, I already—”

“I just wanted to tell you more about her,” she cut in again, sounding hushed and hurried. “And also where you could—ˮ

“
Woman, where are you hiding with my phone?!
We’re on our honeymoon for godssakes; leave the poor man alone,” came Luke’s voice bellowing over the phone line in the background.

Dani’s laughter was immediate, as was the sound of her running, and clearly getting caught and swept up in the air a few seconds later.

Valiantly, Dani proceeded to still call out some fun facts about Lia while the phone was jostled around and then held at a distance where Hudson could only just barely make out what she was saying.

Apparently, Lia liked watching old kung-fu movies for fun.

And by the by, she was temporarily living in Dani’s old apartment over the brewery if he wanted to stop by one day for a visit.

She preferred really good coffee over flowers.

Two creams and three sugars.

Geez, and he thought his friend Fiona was a meddler.

Not that he wasn’t appreciatively taking mental notes of all this info.

A laughing, audibly doting Luke came on the phone line following what was most definitely a pillow to the face. “I’ll call you when we get back next week, man,” called out Luke amidst what sounded like a pretty serious tickle fight. “But if you can’t wait, just head over to Cactus Creek and ask the town folks about her. I have to warn you though, she’s got some insanely protective brothers. Good luck.”

And with that, the phone cut off.

When he looked up to see the very brothers in question staring him down, he pocketed his phone and settled in for the next scene in this bizarre off-Broadway play.

The guys left a short, highly intrusive while later, and at exactly the six-minute mark, Hudson heard a soft, slightly awed voice say quietly, “You stayed.”

“Of course, I did.”

She looked around as if she could smell something suspicious in the air. “Did my brothers find you here?”

“Of course, they did.”

With a tired sigh, she surmised, “Let me guess, Caine took a photo of your driver’s license, while one brother borrowed your phone for a minute, and the other just glared at you in silence.”

The woman knew her brothers well. “Don’t forget the part about Caine getting a text message from your friend Dani to let me pass go.”

Lia’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, that one’s new.”

“Really? Because it kind of sounds like it’s her thing to meddle.”

“Oh, it is. But she’s never tried to meddle into my life before. Weird.”

Huh. Clearly, he’d managed to upset the balance of her world order.

Well now they were even.

“That could have something to do with my calling Luke’s phone earlier today…in search of you.”

Her smile was radiantly pleased, and then just plain amused. “You have no idea what you just got yourself into.”

Tell him about it.

He cupped her cheek gently. “I have a feeling you’re worth it.”

She gazed into his eyes and asked softly, “Do you want to go back to my place?”

“Are you just trying to get a rise out of your brothers?” he asked, and then smiled. “Because that’d be okay with me. But that will only be okay with me until we get to your apartment. Your brother is right, you’ve been drinking and you have more pain hidden in you than I think even this whole town realizes, as protective as they are.”

Her brows shot up in surprise.

“And while I’m not drunk, sweetheart, around you I may as well be. So I can be whatever guy you need me to be tonight…except for the one you regret tomorrow morning.”

When she peered up into his eyes, he was surprised to find she looked almost sober.

“Hudson, I may have had a few extra drinks tonight—it’s the one day a year I do—but I’ve never, not once, asked a guy to come home with me until you. And it’s not because of the town’s meddling, or my brothers’ threatening any male within a 10-yard perimeter around me. It’s because I’m a twenty-seven year old virgin widow whose work is her life. And if you have breakfast with me in the morning, I will tell you the whole story. But as far as tonight goes, to be clear, I wasn’t inviting you back to my place for sex.”

He processed the bomb she’d just dropped, and watched her hooded eyes betraying the bravado in her words for a moment before he replied, “Do you have cable? Or at least a DVD player? Because the mobile home my company booked for me for the next few months doesn’t have either. And for some reason, I’m really in the mood to watch some old kung-fu movies tonight, maybe with some really good coffee.”

With that, he caught her hand in his and led them off the side entrance steps and onto the walkway to the parking lot. The woman didn’t have a good poker face. When her expressive eyes flipped from startled to wildly curious, he grinned. “You’re not the only one that can be cryptic and mysterious until morning.”

CHAPTER THREE

HUDSON SHOVED THE throw pillows from the couch up against his ears, flipping over onto his belly to grind the unmistakable evidence of the last four hours of torture down into the sofa cushions.

All because Lia’s apartment had paper-thin walls.

And she was one noisy little sleeper.

Not because she snored or anything remotely humane like that. No, because she moaned, sighed, purred even, and made every other imaginable sound a woman could make when she was having sex dreams about a man. And not just any man. Him. Lia had whispered his name a few times throughout the night, once with a sexy little plea that he knew he’d be getting sainthood points for doing absolutely nothing about.

Truth be told, he could’ve left sometime in the night after she’d fallen asleep on his shoulder during their TV marathon. But he’d wanted to stay close. Keep an eye on her. So after tucking her in, he voluntarily subjected himself to a hard-on that lasted well over the four hours those commercials cautioned men about.

At one point in the night—how, he still had no idea—he eventually passed out from exhaustion for a bit. It was his own damn pre-dawn inner clock that had woken him up.

But it was his sheer proximity to Lia that had kept him up since.

It was still pretty dark out but Hudson noticed that Lia’s breathing had changed slightly over the last ten minutes. She sounded like she was starting to wake up.

Thank God.

He wasn’t sure how much more he could take without going over there and waking her up himself. In about a hundred different ways he’d been fantasizing about all night.

The reminder made him sit and grab the quilted blanket slung over the arm of the sofa when the throw pillows he piled on his lap just made it look like he was building a festive, tassel-fringed teepee over his morning wood. He imagined Lia would be surprised enough to see he’d crashed on her couch last night; she didn’t need to see he pitched a tent out here as well.