Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(10)

Hudson slammed himself back down onto the couch, hands fisted in the couch cushions.

You’ve GOT to be kidding me.

For chrissakes, he wasn’t made out of steel. Then again, if this kept going in the happy-ending-for-her direction it was heading, parts of him were going to turn positively bionic.

The quiet, sighing groan she made then punched him clear in the gut.

It took him a good three seconds before he finally found his voice in the jumbled and now useless pileup that was his oxygen, sanity, and restraint.

“Lia...” he managed to growl in a voice he didn’t recognize at all. He’d never, in his entire life, thought he’d ever be on the receiving end of a vibrator used as a martial arts weapon. It was hella effective.

His name slipped out of her lips in a questioning murmur, still mostly asleep.

God help him. “Lia,” he rumbled again, voice low and barely controlled. “I’ve never considered myself a particularly weak man but if you get yourself off without my assistance right now, that will be just too cruel for words.”

He heard her tumble gracefully out of bed with a soft gasp and even softer feet, sounding like the world’s sexiest cat burglar landing on all fours.

Shit, even that image was a turn-on.

In retrospect, had some of his body’s blood still been pumping up to his brain, he probably wouldn’t have jumped up to meet her halfway. In the dark. Talking in a voice that sounded just this side of menacing.

Yeah. He definitely deserved what happened next.



*



“SON OF A BITCH!”

For a second, it seemed like time had stopped for Lia. Before fast-forwarding at warp speed. She’d realized about two seconds too late that her leg was whipping around to make contact not with some ski mask wearing psycho stalker rapist in her apartment.

But rather, Hudson.

The hot, sexy man she’d been dreaming about all night, who could’ve easily gone on the offensive and fought back. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the man could fight. But instead of going G.I. Joe on her as she was sure he could, he just muscled up and took the hit, jutting one of those canon-like arms up to presumably take the brunt of the kick on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, Lia had impeccable aim.

Along with a tendency to fall back on her foundational Chinese kung-fu training when she was reacting on instinct. He’d probably been expecting an MMA fighting style response, which would have resulted in her shin catching him in the shoulder.

Not her ankle clocking him in the head.

“Hudson!” She shot forward to his side as he staggered back against the wall.

While she was glad he was still standing, pride be truthful, she was rather surprised he wasn’t out cold. She’d knocked out bigger men before with the same kick. Without nearly any of the self-preservation kill-or-be-killed adrenaline rushing through her veins.

Was it wrong that the fact that he was still standing there was a huge turn-on? It wasn’t very evolved of her. But color her impressed.

The not-so-silent curse slipping past his clenched teeth brought Lia’s attention back to what was definitely going to turn into a massive bruise on his temple. She flicked on the hallway light and ran to the kitchen. Grabbing an ice pack from the freezer, she spun around and jolted again when she found Hudson right behind her.

This time, he caught, not just blocked her impending strike.

“Woman, stop attacking me.”

“It’s reflex,” she defended by way of apology. “You’re the one who keeps sneaking up on me.”

“Only in self-defense. Earlier, it was to stop you from torture with a deadly vibrator.”

“What?!”

She jumped back a foot and refused to look down, the question poised for fire over his comment completely forgotten now due to a more recent…development. “Seriously, Hudson? I just kicked you in the head and that’s your body’s response.”

“Cut me some slack,” he grabbed the ice pack she was holding and paused just long enough for Lia to wonder if he was contemplating sticking it down his pants to ‘cool off.’

A travesty she was glad he didn’t go through with. Not that she was looking. And not that she was a connoisseur of that sort of art, or even a first-time spectator if she was being brutally honest. Then again, she didn’t have to see the Eifel tower to be a fan. And where Hudson was concerned, his ‘tower’ had felt unbelievably sexy. She was definitely a fan.

“Not helping, Lia.”

Dammit, who took control of her eyes and sent them drifting down south?

All the female atoms in her body boldly raised their hands in reverence.

She shot her gaze back up to his face.

It occurred to her then that he was avoiding looking at her.

Maybe he was embarrassed. Not about this but rather, the whole head-kicking thing. Most guys didn’t like it when she beat down on them. Funny, but she hadn’t pictured Hudson with that sort of ego. “Look, Hudson—” she began and took a step toward him.

After which, he promptly slid a step away from her. Eyes still averted. With a hand holding the ice pack to his head and the other balled in a fist and shoved down his front pocket, Hudson’s voice graveled even more as he said, with what sounded like instant-jello-quick-dissolving patience, “Lia. Could you maybe put on a pair of shorts. A sheet. Something?”