Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (24 page)

All week.

And now he was driving over here to finally tell her about all these developments. And to officially tell her goodbye.

The least he could do was be on time.

A hiccup of emotion escaped her. She was definitely going a little nutty. But who could blame her?

Hudson had left his apartment in California a few hours after she did and she’d gotten back six hours ago. Even with the one errand he’d said he had to run after his teleconference with his physician and CO, he still should’ve been here by now.

The fact that he wasn’t meant she’d spent the last six hours worrying her brains out.

Now she finally knew how her brothers felt.

What if he got in an accident?
Normally, Lia wouldn’t worry, but she knew he was riding his bike over and it was the first time he was riding again with his newly-healed hands. It had been one of the things he’d been insistent upon today. Could be that he was lying in a ditch somewhere on the side of a deserted road.

She sat down and dialed Gabe’s phone. Again.

“For the last time, Lia, I don’t know where he is,” answered Gabe on the first ring.

“How is that even possible? You and Drew rigged all our phones specifically to track us to within a mile radius even if we were peeing in the middle of a rain storm.”

“But it only works if it’s powered on.”

“Why are you so calm? Don’t you find it a
little
strange that his phone is off?”

“Uh, have you met his friend Fiona?”

Dammit, good point.

“Plus, didn’t you say he had some military stuff to do this morning? Maybe he had to switch his phone off for security purposes.”

She hated when Gabe was all level-headed and logical.

The world inevitably tilted on its axis to shift the crazy over onto her to maintain balance.

She was definitely going crazy right now. But it had less to do with Gabe, and more to do with the roar of one of the biggest commercially-available motorcycle engines rumbling into the alley beside her apartment, at the exact moment a beeping alert sounded over on Gabe’s end of the phone line.

“According to this, Hudson should be—”

Lia dropped the phone and went running to her front door.

She skidded to a halt when it belatedly occurred to her that the beeping alert she’d heard from Gabe’s phone wasn’t the lo-jacking alert. It was his text message alert.

Eyes narrowed, she pulled open her door and sure enough, saw Hudson on his bike texting.

Good lord, he looked good.

Better than good. Godlike. Melt-your-panties-off sexy.

It was a good thing she hadn’t seen him on his bike before this or her virginity would’ve made it off the endangered list much, much sooner.

“Tell me you’re not down there texting my brothers instead of rushing your ass up here to tell me why you’re late.” Her voice traveled down the stairwell, sounding not nearly as disgruntled as she’d intended.

Somewhere around ‘ass’ her words definitely took on a far different sound quality altogether.

All she needed was a blonde wig and knowledge of when the President’s birthday was to complete the effect.

By the slow, lopsided grin he directed up at her, Hudson was in wholehearted agreement.

She stood there, feet cemented in place as he swung his leg off his bike and climbed the steps two at a time. By the time he got to the top, his sunglasses were no longer covering up his hungry gray eyes, and his leather jacket was already shrugged off one shoulder.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he picked her up and slammed his lips down onto hers, carrying her back into the apartment without breaking his stride. He threw his jacket down and strapped another arm around her, this one braced up her back with his hand sinking into her hair.

Hand cradling her skull, he tattooed one hell of a kiss on her lips.

And her heart.

“I like it when you trigger the Hudson Alert System,” he murmured against her lips. “Having you worry about me is crazy cute.”

She buried her burning cheeks against his neck. “You had me going crazy, period. I played out a dozen different scenarios in my head, each one worse than the last.” Leaning back she frowned up at him. “You could have at least called.”

“Would you have wanted to know where I was?”

“Of course.”

“And that’s why I didn’t call.”

“For three hours?”

“Sue me for wanting to spend a few hours looking for the perfect engagement ring for you,” he lobbed back, eyes glued to hers to measure her reaction.

She was robbed of speech as she watched him pull out a stunning diamond ring, the design of which reminded her of her favorite silver earrings. Then the man went and stole all her oxygen as well when he pulled out a second velvet box with a platinum chain.

He slid the ring onto the delicate necklace and held it up poised to clasp around her neck.

“Liana Lin, will you do me the unbelievable honor of
possibly
marrying me one day? Five, ten, fifty years from now, whenever you’re ready.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I love you so much, baby. And I’ll wait however long you need. A lifetime, even. A lifetime showing you that no matter what the universe continues to throw our way, the very idea of a shelf life simply won’t apply to us.”

Oh, god. She fought to stay standing.

With her heart in her throat, she asked herself if she could really do it—seal her future to the frightening, unknown future of another soldier going on deployment.

Her expression must have revealed her heart’s biggest worries.

...Because Hudson clasped the two ends of the chain together and slid the necklace into her hands. Eyes disappointed, but no less intense with love.

“I told you, sweetheart—no shelf life. Not on this proposal, and not on our future. I don’t need to know whether or not tomorrow is going to come for us, for me to love you today. And every new today for the rest of our lives.”

That right there was her answer.

Lord knew he already possessed her heart and soul...her future was no different.

“Yes.” Lia opened the necklace and slid the ring off the chain.

He just stared down at her lips as she repeated, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Almost shyly, she put the ring in his hand so he could officially slide it on her finger.

And when it was officially in place, he gently traced the ring on her finger with the index finger of his right hand.

The one that could feel again.

Entwining her fingers with his, she promised, “No matter how far the Army takes you from me, or how many deployments you go on…my answer will still and always be yes.”

Hudson pulled her into his arms. “Have you been thinking a lot about my deploying, honey?”

“How could I not?” she whispered quietly.

“And still you said yes?”

She took a deep, steadying breath. Being brave wasn’t the same as having no fear. “Like you said—no shelf life. My yes will be waiting for you to come claim it, however long it takes.”

* * * * *

HE WAS HUMBLED. And officially the luckiest effing guy on the planet. Hudson had no idea what he did to deserve Lia, but he was going to thank the universe for her each and every day.

He slid both his hands into her hair and tilted her face up to his, seizing her lips in a heart-stopping kiss before explaining, “Honey, I’m not going to be deployed.”

His brave little miracle stopped breathing again for a second. And after he felt her heart begin hammering away in her chest as she ventured, breath hitched, “You’re not?”

“Nope. In fact, I’m not going to be going back to active duty either.”

“But your hands…your life—”

He grinned. “Are going to stay right here with you.”

She shook her head firmly. “I don’t want you making sacrifices this big for me. The Army is your calling, Hudson. I know it and you know it.”

“True. I think what the military does for our country is unparalleled, and while it was a hard pill to swallow, I realize now that I don’t have to be on the frontline to serve my country. In fact, where I’m concerned, being deployed is no longer where I’m needed most. Let’s just say my meetings with my CO, and a bunch of very interested government groups and medical facilities, were focused on my miraculous recoveries, yes, but only in the context of our launching the most promising new veteran rehab development in recent history.”

Her jaw dropped open in clear and utter shock.

“I still want to serve my country and answer the Army’s call. And I will. Here. There are a few training and weapons projects that I’ll be working on as a civilian contractor for the Yuma Proving Ground, but for the most part, I’ll be spending my days working on the nationwide expansion of the new ‘Spencer’s VA Weapons-Based Rehab Program.’” He smiled. “Again, thanks to you.”

Tears flooded her eyes and her hands flew up to cover her mouth. “That sounds amazing.”

“It will be. I’ll get to help injured veterans all over the nation, Lia.”

Over the last few meetings he’d had with Spencer’s and the various project backers they were able to quickly acquire, the scope of the program was expanding every day. “I will have to travel domestically of course, but I was hoping we could do some of that traveling together.”

She just nodded wordlessly, caught somewhere between laughing and crying.

“But for the most part, we’ll be in one place. Wherever you want to live, honey. Personally, I like it here in Cactus Creek, if it’s all the same to you.” He winked. “The weirdness here makes me feel incredibly normal.”

Now she was leaning more toward laughing.

“And since I have excellent VA rates, I think we should get a house here with six...maybe seven bedrooms.”

Her eyes widened, and her slow, quiet reply was filled with hope. “That’s a lot of rooms.”

He kissed her gently, and answered all those question marks in her eyes. “Not if we fill it with a lot of kids.”

She was now back over to the teary-eyed spectrum, accompanied by a smile that was making thinking difficult and holding back on kissing her, nearly impossible.

“Kids? Really?”

“Yep. A blend of biological, foster, and adopted if at all possible.”

Eyes shining with love, she added, “Don’t forget canine and aquatic.”

She remembered.

“See, I love how you just get me, honey.”

Biting her lip as she slid her fingers lovingly over her new engagement ring, her eyes danced.

He loved when she got that look in her eyes.

It usually meant they were going to spar, in one way or another.

“So,” she began, her eyes roaming all over him like invisible fingers, “what do you think we should do as our first activity as an engaged couple?”

“I have a few ideas,” he rumbled out. More than a few. Dozens. Vivid ideas that had made the ride over here damn uncomfortable.

“Does one of them include trying out your new all-feeling right hand?” she asked innocently.

He dropped his forehead down to hers and dragged her into his arms. “Babe, I
love
how you just get me.”

Lia was too busy starting in on ‘getting him’ a whole lot more.

EPILOGUE

LIA FELL FLAT on her back in the middle of the mat.

Shortly before Hudson rolled over her and locked up all of her limbs, pinning her shoulders down in less than three seconds.

“Dammit!” She always held her own against him when they sparred, but in grappling, the man had an uncanny mastery over her body.

And he damn well knew it, too.

His grinning lips appeared in her vision and captured hers in a searing kiss
just
when her cursing was starting to get good and colorful.

Okay, so there were worse ways to lose in MMA.

“Keep it PG-13, people,” called out Xoey from the corner as Lia untangled herself from Hudson’s joint locks, making sure to get in a little well-placed payback while she did.

His heated eyes promised a second round in the privacy of their newly furnished bedroom when they got home tonight.

She wasn’t worried.

Whenever they grappled on their giant king sized bed, she always managed to come out on top.

“Dani,” called out Xoey, “can I borrow your MP3 player? I forgot mine at home.”

Hudson hopped up quickly. “Dani’s busy. Here, borrow Lia’s satellite player instead. It’s built into her watch and feeds into the Bluetooth earphones. That way you don’t have to strap anything on your arm.” He grabbed it from Lia’s bag and tossed it over to Xoey before Lia could even arch a questioning eyebrow at him.

Xoey turned Lia’s watch this way and that. “This tiny thing plays satellite radio?” She strapped it on and hooked on one of the wireless earphones. Her eyes widened with surprise a second later, presumably when the music started playing.

“Yeah, her brother Gabe is a gadget genius. It’s on an automatic shuffle.”

“Pretty cool. I’ll bring it back after my run.” Xoey waved her thanks and headed over to the treadmills.

“What was that all about?” asked Lia suspiciously. Hudson was wearing that special grin he reserved for when messed with his cousin Ben.

“What?” he returned innocently.

Lia smacked him in the gut. “You’re like a little kid sometimes, you know that?”

“Oh, c’mon. Aren’t you the
least
bit curious what kind of playlist Gabe’s emotion-sensing program will build for
that
one?”

She kind of was, yes.

“It’d be like looking into the eye of a tornado.” His grin grew wider as they looked over and saw Xoey make a face and furrow her brow down at the watch.

“What are you guys talking about?” Dani plopped down beside them with a bottle of water, immediately proceeding to spy on Xoey along with them.

“Remember Lia’s psychic satellite radio player?”

“Uh huh.” She sipped at her water.

“I gave it to Xoey to work out to.”

Dani’s hand slapped over her mouth before the water could come spraying out. When she eventually managed to gulp most of it down, she shot Hudson a look that called him a brave, brave fool. “She’s going to kill you when she finds out you’re messing with her.”