Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (Cactus Creek #3)(27)

“Is this about the whole virginity thing?” queried Lia with a fierce little frown that told him she was ready to go to the mat on this one. “Because you know, there is a very obvious remedy for that.”

“Not going to happen, Lia. You deserve so much better for your first time.”

She gave him a look that said he’d just given her a non-answer…and one she considered not very bright, at that.

“I’m trying to do right by you, honey. Yes, it’s been impossible not to flirt with you these past few weeks—you’re just so sweet to tease. But I’m leaving in a few months. You don’t want to lose your virginity to a guy who’s not going to stick around.”

“Becaaause…” she stretched out the word, brow raised in challenge, “every virgin in the history of time has stayed with the person he or she lost their virginity to?”

He shut his mouth. Criminy, she was going to fight him on this.

This was one battle he absolutely was not prepared for.

“Face it, Hudson, there could be far worse ways for me to lose my virginity. Like having my first time be with a man who has all the geographical qualifications…only to later wish it’d been you all along.”

Honestly, give him a knife fight with dull blades over a battle of wits with a sharp woman determined to get her way.

He tried a different tactic to make her see reason. “I like you, Lia. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. Truth is, even if you weren’t a virgin, you’re just not the sort of girl that guys like me usually pick up at a bar for stateside sleepovers and temporary hook-ups between tours. You’ll end up getting hurt and I’m just not willing to let that happen.”

Irrefutable argument, right there.

“Why would you automatically think it would be a temporary hook-up?”

Okay, irrefutable to his gender, at least.

“The mere fact that I’m leaving in a few months would make this the exact definition of one.”

“Or could it be just the type of relationship that ends on schedule in a few months?”

He sighed. Her cuteness carried some serious firepower. “Lia, that’s not an actual thing.”

“Tons of relationship don’t even last that long,” she argued as if he hadn’t spoken.

True.

“So unless you’re telling me that our being together would be just about sex, I still disagree with you. Is that what you’re trying to say?” she asked with a slight waver in her bravado. “That all you want from me is just sporadic bouts of sex for the next few months?”

Hell no, he didn’t want just anything from her, he wanted…everything. Therein was the problem. He sighed. “No, it wouldn’t be just about sex, Lia. I don’t think this thing between us has ever been only about sex.”

A radiant smile hit her lips in response to that, before she concluded, “So then it wouldn’t be a temporary hook-up for us. More like a…relationship with a shelf life. A ‘best by’ expiration date, if you will,” she teased lightly.

“Are you comparing a relationship with me to a can of soup?”

He kind of hated that.

“You said you had a few months before you have to go back to California, right? Then definitely not a can of soup.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “More like a box of Thanksgiving stuffing—my favorite.”

He liked stuffing too, loved it actually. For him, it was the best part of Thanksgiving. “Do you make good stuffing?” he asked for no logical reason.

Her burst of laughter was a clear ‘no.’ “Out of the box, sure. I can follow cardboard directions like no one’s business. But otherwise, my brothers will tell you I’m not that great of a cook.”

Well, thankfully for them, he was. He’d have to show her this Thanksgiving.

What the hell?

“We’ve gone horribly off track here,” he muttered more to himself than her.

“You’re right, we have. You were still in the middle of making up more reasons why the next few months can’t constitute a relationship for us.”

“You don’t go into a relationship knowing it’s doomed to fail. If it fails on its own after a period of time, that’s different.”

“Why would it be a failure? Just because it ends? Can’t it be a successful relationship that was shorter than others?”

Damn her and her twistedly logical reasoning…which was even starting to make sense to him.

“Fine.” She crossed her arms in a this-is-my-final-offer pose. “We can call it a prototypical ‘friends with benefits’ relationship if that makes you feel better. But no more excuses. Hudson, you and I both know that our futures can change with the speed of a bullet.”

Did he ever.

“Expiration dates are a part of life. I’d never let something like a shelf life hold me back from something potentially great. If I did, I’d never buy corned beef and marble rye from the deli.”

Shoot, now he didn’t know if he was hungry or…well, he was definitely hungry, and now the woman has managed to tie herself to his all-time favorite sandwich.

Judging from the twinkle in her eye, she darn well knew it too.

He’d have to keep his wits about him for the next few months—

Criminy. She got him. He exhaled gruffly and mentally looked around for a white flag. “So ‘friends with benefits’ for the next few months? That’s really what you want?”