Feeling sated she rolled over to look at the man she loved. His dark hair looked tousled, mainly from her yanking on it, his strong chin and chiseled features made her sigh. The man was good-looking, awake, asleep, yelling, or laughing the man belonged in some high-end underwear ad.
Unable to resist, Sara ran one small hand down his face and across his smooth chest.
Suddenly, green eyes flew open and immediately trapped Sara in their gaze. Sara refused to look away, she refused to be embarrassed for wanting him. Her eyes challenged him to deny that what had happened had been beautiful.
With one eyebrow arched Lucas smiled and pulled Sara close. Burying his face in her neck, he trailed light kisses on her collarbone.
“Lucas we need to talk.” She groaned tipping her head to the side to give him better access to her neck. Damn, but he was good with his mouth.
She felt him pull away from her, and his look went from lustful to serious. Frowning she blinked up at him.
“I’m not sorry Sara, I won’t apologize for what just happened,” Lucas told her. She was about to say something, but Lucas held up one hand. “And don’t say it was because Travis came by, or you were lonely, I love you dammit, and I know you love me.”
Lucas crushed Sara to him and took her mouth in a kiss so possessive, it made Sara want to slide down his body and lick him. Then as quickly, as the kiss began it stopped, with Lucas pulling back, his panicked eyes searching hers.
“Other than being referred to as ‘dammit,' that was the most romantic declaration of love I’ve ever heard.” Smiling, she brushed her lips across his.
“I love you, Lucas, I never stopped, I didn’t make love to you because I want you to protect me from Travis, I think I proved I’m pretty good at that on my own. I wanted you because I feel whole when we’re together, I feel complete, because I know who I am and what I want, and I want you Lucas, but I’m a package deal, so if you don’t feel like you can love Logan without thinking of Travis you need to tell me now. I’ll always love you Lucas but Logan is my son, and he comes first.” Her eyes speared his. This was non-negotiable; if this was going to be an issue than it was better that, they called this off before things got any deeper.
“Well if that’s how it’s going to be, then I guess you and Logan will just have to move in with me.” He announced as pulled her onto his lap.
Stunned she leaned away from him. Looking him over he seemed sincere. “Did you say move in with you?” She choked out.
Lucas’s determined gaze refused to let her go. “Yeah, move in and get married, Logan needs both his parents with him under one roof, you will be marrying me Sara.” His tone commanded.
Now that just pissed her off. Sure some of her lady bits were excited by the take charge, alpha male tone, but her newly discovered independent woman side was about to poke his eyes out.
“Are you asking me or telling Hudson? I suggest you think before you speak.” She ordered as she moved off the bed and stood to face him, hands on her naked hips.
Lucas growled, actually growled, as he took in her naked form. Refusing to back down she glared at him.
“I mean it, Lucas, this is not the Lucas show, where I follow you around like a puppy and let you take me for granted, I deserve better than that and so does Logan.”
Ignoring the way his eyes narrowed she continued, “If that means walking away from you Lucas then I will, I’m not the old Sara or the new Sara, I’m just Sara and…”
Lucas didn’t let her finish her rant. He couldn’t sit there while his woman stood there, bare-assed, dressing him down, looking sexy as hell. He ignored her squeals as he slammed his lips to her. When he had finally kissed her breathless, he pulled back.
“I just want you and Logan. I know I haven’t been there, but I’m going to be, I want Logan to trust me, I want to a father to him, shoot, I already love the little guy Sara, how could I not? He’s smart, feisty and his mama has raised him to be a wonderful little man.”
Lucas watched as Sara's shoulder slumped in relief. “And I am asking Sara, I know it’s fast, I get you might want time, but I need you under my roof, even if its separate bedrooms to start.” He grinned when she raised one perfect eyebrow
“Okay, separate rooms for a very short time, with me taking icy showers.” He conceded.
“Look, I’ll admit Travis coming around worries me, he said things about Logan and I would feel better having your family around us right now.” She told him.
Lucas tried not to fist bump the air, but he was so damn happy he felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest.
“They're your family too and Logan’s, we protect our own, say yes Sara.” Yeah, he was ready to beg, on one knee or two, whatever it took to get a second chance with this woman.
She cupped his stubbled cheek. “Yes, but it needs to be a long engagement, I want Logan to get to know you and you him, Lucas.” She replied looking for any kind of hesitation.
Lucas grinned a big, huge, goofy grin that made her heart skip. “Actually, Logan and I have spent a lot of time at daycare together, only we had secret spy names, Logan’s was Bone Crusher, and I was Mangler.” He told her laughing.
It had been a game that Lucas had played with all the kids at the daycare, each one getting their own spy name. Outside of the center when Logan would greet Lucas he never called him by his spy name, according to Logan it would blow his cover. So Lucas had no reservations about getting close to Lucas, he loved the little boy, already considered him his own.
“So? Will you come stay at the cottage?” He asked her stunned face.
“Wow.” Sara blew out a hard sigh. “You Hudson’s are a formidable bunch.”
“Sweetheart you have no idea.” He replied moving away to put on his clothing. He had millions of things to do, including getting a hold of Dalton to find out about those DNA results, and then calling a Hudson Brother meeting to figure out how to get rid of Travis. Lucas was so busy making plans he didn’t even here Sara calling his name until she snapped her fingers in front of him.
“Lucas!” She shouted.
“Yes, dear?” He asked smugly.
Sara whacked him on his arm; except she was pretty sure, it hurt her more than him. Geez, the man’s arms were hard as granite. “I said yes, we’ll give this a shot.”
Lucas shrugged, “Oh that, I’m way past that, now I’m planning on how to get all your stuff moved in.” He told her grinning.
Exasperated Sara, groaned, “Damn Alpha males.” She mumbled walking toward the bathroom. A shower, it would all seem better after a shower.
“You love me.” He shouted at her retreating form.
“Yeah, I do.” She yelled back as she shut the door and smiled. She did love him, she really did.
.
*********
A few hours later Sara was settling into the cottage with Synclair and Rachel helping her to put away her and Logan’s things. As happy as Lucas was that Sara had agreed for her and Logan to stay with him, he knew he still had an issue.
On the way to the cottage he had sent out a text to his brothers, telling them he needed a Hudson meeting. As he joined his brothers at the large oak dining table, he hoped that the girls would be occupied for a while.
“Travis is out, and he’s already paid Sara a visit,” Lucas announced.
“Dalton filled us in, where’s Sara?” Reece asked, visibly irritated. Sara was like a sister to him, and he was ready to annihilate that bastard for even breathing in her direction.
Lucas looked at the table, his brothers, the ones he had helped raised had turned into fine men, all of them willingly to go all in making sure Sara was safe, without question or hesitation.
“Sara’s settling into the cottage, her father is going to drop off Logan here later,” Lucas explained.
“Settling in for good, right Lucas?” Matt growled. Matt had been the one that had given Lucas the hardest time when Sara had been attacked. He deadpanned his little brother.
&n
bsp; “Sara and Logan are Hudsons, it’s just a matter of paperwork before its legal.” He told Matt firmly. Matt nodded.
“Speaking of paperwork, the results you want are in here.” Dalton threw a small manila envelope on the table and slid it across to Lucas.
In one fluid movement, he picked it up and moved his chair back, pulled open a drawer, dropped the letter inside, shut it and moved his chair back in position. His brothers nodded, it didn’t matter what that DNA test said, Logan was his. Sure, he could look inside, and if Logan was his biological child then Travis could never come after Sara that way, but he didn’t want Sara to think that his wanting her and Logan to move in with him was because of those test results. He needed her to know that no matter what, Logan was his and so was she.
“So what’s the plan?” Dalton asked getting down to business.
“We need to know where the bastard is at all times, he’s angry, bitter and blames Sara for being sent to prison, probably because she filed the first police report after he raped her.” Lucas gritted his teeth on the word rape. He hated that Sara had to deal with this all over again, but if he had his way he would stop that bastard once and for all.
“Can I take point?” Dalton asked apparently wearing his Navy SEAL hat.
Lucas smiled. Everyone thought that Dalton was this charming, carefree, womanizing jokester, not many people knew how lethal his little brother could be or how steel-minded when it came to strategy.
“You got it, Dalt, what do we need to do?”
“Okay, Matt, you’re the accountant for the property tax assessor, I need to know all the family holdings, every house, every piece of land the Donaldson's own.” Dalton shifted his attention to Reece.
“Reece, you’re the vet, it won’t seem odd for you to be on the Donaldson property. He’s staying at Michael’s house so I’m gonna need you to call me when you see his car there, I want to put a tracker on it.”
“Like the one you put on Synclair’s mustang?” Matt asked. When Synclair had first come to Carson City, Dalton was sure she would bolt, so he put a GPS tracker on her car. Unfortunately, he was right, she had bolted, but she had flown instead of driven, making following her a lot more difficult.
“Yeah, just like it, then we can track where the bastard is at.”
“Why do you want all the asset records?” Lucas asked.
“I need to know all his hiding places if he makes a move and we give chase I need to know the best way in and out without being noticed.”
“Whoa!” Reece exclaimed putting up one hand. “What are we talking about here, are we saying that if Travis makes a move, we make him disappear?” Reece had never killed a man, he was sure if someone was threatening Synclair or his family he was capable of it, he considered both Logan and Sara part of his family.
“No, I won’t resort to that, but if he comes near Sara or Logan, I’m not making any promises, and I won’t lose one wink of sleep over it either,” Lucas stated.
His brothers nodded in agreement. They weren’t violent men by nature, but there were no limits to what they’d do to protect one of their own.
Satisfied with their plan the men grabbed their car keys and left to take care of business. Lucas stayed behind. He pushed open the back door and walked the short pathway to his cottage, the cottage where Sara was waiting for him. Along the way, he made a note to have Dalton build the biggest jungle gym ever seen, that way Lucas and Logan could continue their spy games.
His only question was how much to tell her. Synclair would go postal if Travis came near Sara or Logan, with her elevated blood pressure the last thing he wanted to do was endanger his nephew. However, he wasn’t sure how easy it would be to keep it from her, the woman had instincts like a bloodhound.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite future brother.” Synclair greeted him as he entered the cottage.
He laughed, “I thought Matt was your favorite.” He told her teasingly, every day she had a new favorite.
“Nope, Bastard stole my cinnamon roll, he is officially on my shit list.” She grumbled.
“Hello, love.” He whispered as he kissed Sara lightly on the lips. He wanted everyone to know they were a couple, and he wanted to make sure Sara knew she belonged to him.
“Awwww.” Rachel groaned. “Seriously, not again, aren’t I traumatized enough?” She whined.
“Brat!” Sara yelled as she tossed a throw pillow from the couch at Rachel’s head.
“I’ll kill him.” Lucas suddenly growled. Even though Sara's cheek looked better than last night, the purplish bruise on her cheek from Travis slapping her made Lucas want to hunt down the asshole and skin him alive.
Sara patted his chest, “He can’t hurt me, Lucas, not anymore, Logan and I are safe with you.”
Her trust in him made his heart soar, he mentally high-fived himself as he gathered her in his arms.
“Hey, I could help with that, I saw a chainsaw in the garage and lots of black trash bags under the sink, we’d need to drain the blood first before we dismembered the body, though, cause eww, that would be messy.” Synclair rambled lost in her murderous thought. It wasn’t until she looked up and realized everyone was staring at her that she figured out that she had said all that out loud.
Lucas shook his head, “Damn woman, no more Forensic Files.” He told her referring to Synclair’s obsession with the cable television show that showcased murders and how they were solved.
Synclair was about to shoot back a snide remark when her phone dinged, letting her know she had just gotten a text message.
1:52 p.m. On my way to see you, can’t wait to see how fat you’ve gotten.
Synclair squealed in happiness, then made a loud crowing sound. She looked up to her audience’s stunned faces. Okay, she wasn’t normally a squealer, blame it on the damn hormones.
“My friend Taylor, the one I told you about, is coming to visit from Washington.” She explained while she typed out a reply asking for all the arrival details. Not bothering to explain the crowing. When she and Taylor would walk in the woods they always seemed to get separated and the loud crowing was the bird noise they would make to alert the other to where they were.
“Oh god, no, not another female.” Lucas teased getting a smack on the arm from Sara, a roll of the eyes from Rachel and a vulgar gesture from Synclair as she exited the cottage.
“Hey, where are you going? I thought we were going to watch Rachel Ray.” Sara shouted.
“Mmmm, we will but first I need a batch of cinnamon rolls, never get in between a pregnant woman and her sugar.” She called back as Rachel raced to catch up. Rachel never missed out on Synclair’s cinnamon rolls.
Sara laughed and snuggled deeper into Lucas’s arms.
“Will you be okay for a bit? I need to run an errand?” Lucas asked filling Sara with suspicion.
“An errand? Like a ranch errand?” She asked hoping his errand didn’t involve Travis Donaldson.
Lucas shook his head and refused to look at her. Her stomach dropped. She didn’t want Lucas near Travis, she knew what would happen. Travis would provoke Lucas and then Lucas would attack Travis and end up going to jail. She refused to let that happen.
“He’s not worth it Lucas, I was scared last night, but now I realize he’s a bully, and he can’t hurt us, not when we’re together.” She explained hoping her words would persuade him to drop this.
“I won’t let him hurt you, Sara, never again, I just want to go talk to Sheriff Jones about a restraining order, so that the police can deal with him.” It was partially right, he did want to speak to the Sheriff about a restraining order, but he also wanted to stop by his safe deposit box and get his handguns. He kept them away from the cottage so that accidents couldn’t happen. However, he knew that anything that happened with those guns shortly would be anything but accidental.
Sara eyed him for a moment and then he saw her visibly relax.
“Okay, I guess that makes sense, I’ll be fine here, my dad is going to drop off
Logan and then tonight you and I can talk to him about the new living arrangements.” She offered with a kiss to his cheek.
“You mean the ones where I have you in my bed every night?” He asked wanting to make sure she knew exactly where she’d be sleeping.
“Lucas we talked about this, Logan is taking the guest room down the hall, and I am taking the one across from you, just until we all settle in and see how things go, as a settling-in period.” She argued.
Pulling her back into his arms, he crushed her mouth to his. When she gasped in surprise, he invaded her mouth, teasing and sucking on her tongue until she was groaning with lust. Grudgingly he pulled back.
“I don’t need a settling-in period, you both are my family, but I’ll respect your wishes, just know I intend to seduce you into my bed every night until you show up there on your own.” He promised as he walked to the door.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” She called to him as he walked down the path to the garage.
**********
Sara spent the next hour unpacking the clothes she had brought from home for her and Logan. Originally she was only going to bring a few days worth, but Lucas had decided to help her pack and by the time they were done almost of her and Logan’s clothes had been loaded into the back of Lucas truck.
She was about to open another box when she heard her the ringtone that she had assigned to her father cut through the silence.
Running for her phone, she got it on the third ring, out of breath she slid the screen to accept the call.
“Dad, sorry I was in the other room.” She panted, geez she needed to eat less of Synclair’s cooking and log more gym time.
“Daddy’s not here Sara.” Came a cold, familiar voice. Travis. She knew that smug, baritone anywhere.
“Where’s my father Travis?” She tried to keep the rising panic out of her voice.
Baby Mine: A Hudson Family Series- Book Two- Lucas and Sara Page 14
