She growled and somehow hid her anger under a rather convincing smile she presented to the hot guy, then whispered, “If you even think this man is your mate, then I won’t bother asking him to strip. I’ll just kick his ass and tear his clothes from his body for you. You can check him for tatts then.”
Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself as much as I could. “I’m sorry. I think I could use some more sleep. I’m standing here overreacting. What in the hell are the chances he’d suddenly show up all these years later asking for Jude of all people? He’s not the only man who sounds like Cowboy. And he’s hardly the only tall, dark hunk out here. I was just a bit foggy from—”
“Getting a firsthand full body feel of what Mr. Tall Dark and Doable has hiding under those black jeans and snug t-shirt?”
Looking up at the man, I smiled, being sure to use my best dimple-showing one, and let my voice go back to normal. “Excuse us, umm, it’s one of those odd, unexplainable girl moments. Like when we flock to the restroom as a well-oiled unit. We do the same thing for extremely handsome men. Now, I’ll do my best to pry myself from you, Mr…?”
He watched me closely and grinned. “I’m Hudson.”
“Nice to meet you, Hudson.”
Shona pushed in front of me. “Hudson, by any chance are you a god-like warrior and First to the king of—?”
Slamming my hand over Shona’s mouth, I smiled sweetly at Hudson who swayed slightly, his eyes wide and locked on Shona. The man had to think we were bat-shit crazy. Most did. “She’s very long-winded when she wants to know if someone shares her obsession with, umm, hockey…yes, hockey. She’s a huge Warrior’s fan. She loves those god-like or fanatical fans who are first in line for tickets.”
Lamest explanation ever. And I really hoped there was a hockey team called the Warriors.
Shona’s eyes widened. She tried to protest, but I kept my hand pressed to her mouth. Our oddities were already hard enough to explain away. We certainly didn’t need to add to it, especially when it was forbidden to let humans know the truth of what we were and what was out there. Often, the final result of humans learning the truth was their death—it was simply the easiest way to maintain the secret of the supernatural community as a whole. We might be charged with protecting mankind, but protecting the existence of supernaturals outweighed even that. And I didn’t want the guy dead. Far from it.
Leaning into her, I dropped my voice low, Shona the target of my words. “If you so much as blink, I will call Dillon and tell him that you lied. He really was the best night of hot—what did you call it again?—oh, monkey sex you’ve ever had. I’ll add some juicy bits because he can’t tell when I’m lying.”
Her eyes widened. She often referred to her night with Dillon as hot but never to be repeated again. It had happened after a lot of whiskey had been involved. Whenever Dillon showed up at the club for work dealings with Jude, Shona hid like a coward. She’d always sworn she’d never bed a Guardian. That slayers and Guardians shouldn’t mix. She’d broken her own rule.
“Oh, I’ll call Dillon. And then I’ll hit you both with compulsion spells, making you run to each other. I’ll slap a fertility one on you and jack that boy’s sperm count through the roof. You’ll wake up in Vegas, pregnant with triplets and married.”
Shona shook her head no, a total commitment phobe.
“Are we shutting up now?”
She nodded.
“Are we going to bother this man and press him to find out every detail of his life when I turn around and walk away?”
She nodded.
“Oh, I’m feeling like quadruplets.”
Her eyes bulged.
“Now, one more time. Are you going to bother him, at all?”
Shona shook her head no.
I smiled. “Good girl. I knew you’d see things my way. And I don’t know what they’re talking about. You aren’t a scary demon slayer at all. You’re just the sweetest li’l thing I’ve ever known.” I released her mouth and let my voice rise to normal level. I shoved the cookies into her hands. “Thanks, have fun checking on your niece and passing out cookies, Shona.”
She took a few steps back and gave me a fake dirty look. “It’s always the sweet ones you need to watch the closest, Hudson. Be warned, she’s a slayer in sheep’s clothing.”
Hudson drew in a sharp breath, his grip on me tightening. “W-what did you call her?”
Shona merely watched him, amusement on her face.
5
Chapter 5
The idea of me being anything close to the femme fatale she was making me out to be was laughable. I was hardly some sort of heartbreaker, which was what I think Shona was aiming at. If anything, I was the girl who seemed to get her heart broken. The girl destined to be picked last in the game of mates and chance. Yes, it had happened only once, but once had been enough to make me love shy, and since it had happened with the man I was supposedly true mates with, it made the sting all the more potent. “That would be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Hudson, nearly an afterthought in the back and forth between me and Shona, stood eerily still, a blank expression on his handsome face, his gaze locked firmly on me. Good—awkward moments were catchy.
“Oh, looks like the cat got his tongue,” Shona said with a soft laugh. The flirty undertones in her voice let me know she was in rare form and unlikely to stop anytime soon—even with the threat I’d made over her head. “Maybe if he’s lucky, you’ll let your kitty—”
Putting my hand to my mouth, I pretended to cough. “Quintuplets.”
Shona grinned, removed my hand and looked past me at Hudson. “Sleep with one eye open, stud. One eye open.”
Hudson laughed, the deep, rich notes easing over me once more. Shona appeared to be having an orgasm from the sound of the man’s laugh. I’m fairly sure I had the start of one too, so I didn’t comment. Pulling myself together, I gathered my thoughts. “You said you needed Jude. We’ve held you up long enough. I’m sorry, he won’t be in for a while yet.”
Hudson bit his lower lip and Shona and I both let out breathy sighs. “Hmm, maybe you could help me out then.”
Narrowing my gaze on him, I tried to read him and got nothing. “You said it was personal. Why are you suddenly so willing to share it?”
A slow, lazy smile moved over his face and made me want to touch him. “It gives me a reason to keep talking to you before I have to find this guy who is my newest charge…uhh, I guess you could say client.”
I tried to figure out if he meant what I thought he meant. The hot guy that I couldn’t stop staring at and wanted to see minus his shirt was a male prostitute? It shouldn’t have surprised me. He was really friggin’ hot and the area wasn’t exactly short on them. Several weeks back Jude had chased away a group of sex workers who thought they could start using the walks in front of the club to troll for clients. Ballsy of one of them to come in and demand a face-to-face with Jude.
Very ballsy. Not to mention heartbreaking to my hormones.
It’s always the sexy ones.
His cheeks reddened, though I wasn’t sure why he’d be embarrassed. Everyone had to make a living. To each his own. As he ran his hand through his tousled hair, the muscles on his arms flexed, leaving me practically drooling. “Ah, that came out wrong, didn’t it? I don’t mean client. I think the feeling of really knowing you is messing with my thought process. Hopefully, it will pass. I can assure you I’m not normally a guy who lacks for words. Let me rephrase that. I normally say a lot and what I say pisses people off.”
Still staring at his biceps, it took me a minute to respond to him. When I did, I still didn’t look away from his arms. The men who surrounded me in my everyday life were ripped. I shouldn’t have been so swept up in the new guy but I was. “No, it came fine—came out fine.”
He chuckled again, and the sound of it combined with his very presence threatened to make me leap upon him and wrestle him to the ground. My ovaries were raging lunatics that I feared might demand he try to make
a baby with me. They’d only responded that way to one other man, and since he had been the one who’d broken my heart— shattered it, actually—he wasn’t a guy I liked thinking about.
And ironically enough, I wouldn’t have been able to pick him out of a line-up if my life depended on it. The Powers That Be were dicks. Total and utter dicks.
Hudson ran his hands up my arms. Heat rushed through me again, making my breathing speed and my heart race. The guy was pushing all the right buttons and he’d only skimmed my skin with his hands.
He pulled me towards him and drew in a deep breath. Looking up, I found his brown gaze locked on me. The slightest hint of hunger inched its way through his eyes. Those were eyes I wanted to see staring down at me while we romped between the sheets.
Between the sheets?
Whoa.
I needed to put the brakes on whatever was happening before I asked a guy I’d only just met to do me hard and now. Coming to my senses, I shook my head. “So, what is it you do since you claim you’re not a male prostitute?”
Hudson blinked, apparently coming to his senses as well. The very fact he seemed to have gotten swept up while watching me made my heart do a tiny flip-flop. “I’m sort of a bodyguard. I was supposed to meet with Jude. He was going to introduce me to my new client. But since he clearly forgot, I guess I’ll be going. Will you be in tomorrow? I mean will he be here tomorrow?”
His slip of the tongue amused me more than it should.
“I don’t know. Jude hasn’t really been himself lately. Do you want to tell me your client’s name? I might know who he is.”
Shona appeared next to me, grinning mischievously. She was up to no good again and must have thrown the cookies at the girls. “Aww, I think we may need to tweak things a bit if Hudson is staying. The girls want to finish up with the day’s activities so they can go celebrate taking that next step. Plus, they want you to entertain them.”
With a Cheshire cat grin, she looked Hudson up and down blatantly, making no attempt to hide her appraisal. “Yummy.” Shona winked at me. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but they don’t want me. They want you. How come your class is their favorite?”
Sighing, I shook my head. “Do you know Steffy started in about that while a bunch of humans—er, hungry patrons were here?”
“Pennie made up a song about it all and sang it at her school talent show. I think Jude may have to sit them down soon and explain to this group a little bit more thoroughly that—” She stopped and stared at Hudson.
Relief shone on Hudson’s face. “They’re slayers-in-training, right? And I take it the two of you are the slayers who train them.”
I wasn’t exactly a slayer. I was more of an honorary one who was offered the privilege of training new recruits, but I didn’t correct him. I wasn’t ever intended to be as powerful as I was. The plan for me had been to mate a powerful alpha male who was vital to the side of good, keep him on the side of good, and pop out his babies.
Hey, I never said it was my plan.
Just a plan.
That plan had sucked and fallen through.
Shona exhaled. “Whew, I thought for sure I’d have to whisper around you forever and make up lame excuses for our slips. And you’re mostly right. Except, this li’l dimpled thing here is a whole lot more than a slayer.”
“Whisper forever?” I asked, ignoring her comment about me being more than a slayer. Why in the world would she have had to whisper forever? The man was just here to see Jude.
She gave me a wicked grin. “Yeah, if you’re going to be dating him then I’d always be talking in code and whispers, and that gets old fast.”
I shook my head, even more embarrassed than I’d already been. I really needed very little assistance in the make-a-fool-of-myself department. Near Hudson, I seemed to have that well in hand. “Do you ever get sick of doing things like this to me?”
“Nope. But I’ve got a feeling about this one.”
I snorted. “Shona, you have a ‘feeling’ about everyone and I end up having to clean up your mess. Just like I’m going to try to do when you walk away. The fact you’re blonde helps. I just point it out and most men nod in understanding.”
Hudson laughed, making me feel a little less uncomfortable about the position Shona put me in.
Shona picked up a handful of my hair and let it fall through her fingertips, as if pointing out I had small bits of blonde in mine as well where the sun had naturally lightened my brown.
“Ha, ha. Made your point.”
She shrugged, her focus on Hudson. “Beware of the dimples. Men who are centuries old have fallen victim to them.”
She was laying it on thick. I half expected her to whip out a bulleted list of all the stuff she thought might make me sound like a sex kitten.
Hudson bent down slightly and smiled at me. “I’m fine with falling victim to your dimples, just in case you were wondering.”
Shona pulled harder on my hair. It hung to my breasts, but that didn’t mean it doubled as a leash. “I can see it in your face already. She just had to meet your gaze and you were hooked.” She yanked harder on my hair. “Oh, she’ll get out of line, and if you aren’t man enough to put her back in her place, she’ll walk all over you. You scream alpha male. I’m doubting you’ll tolerate that. Tell her now. Put your foot down. Too many men find out just how much she has them by the shorties when it’s way too late to do anything about it.”
She’d officially lost her damn mind.
“Shona,” I said as I tried to pry her hand out of my hair. Her behavior was a bit much, even for her. I didn’t know where it was coming from and I didn’t care for it.
Hudson reached out and undid Shona from me. “Your concerns are duly noted. I get what you’re doing, and to answer your question, I will not hurt her. I won’t nod along to placate you because that says I’m more than willing to lay a hand on her and that I’m okay with thinking she’ll deserve it at some point. No woman deserves it. Well, I’ve met a few female demons who would have ripped my throat out if I didn’t rip theirs out first, but I think we know what I’m talking about.”
He chuckled. “Now, if you could refrain from tearing the hair from her head, you can ask me flat out whatever you want. And on a side note, it’s good to know I don’t have to speak in code or low voices around you once she and I are married. That would be something—eternity spent making up code words to use around our friends.”
I staggered backwards. “Good Lord, there are more people like you in the world, Shona. Great, now I’m sure to never sleep at night for fear of waking up married to a stranger.”
Hudson licked his lower lip and reached for me. “Baby, I told you my name is Hudson and I’m positive I know you from somewhere, so we aren’t strangers. And you will only be wakin’ up next to me from here on out, so that takes care of that.”
Shona beamed. “I like you, Hudson. You have my blessing.”
“Thank you, Shona. That means a lot.”
“Pfft, you’ll need to run that by JP first.” I didn’t fill him in on who JP was. The element of surprise would be ruined and where was the fun in that? Rubbing my head, I rolled my eyes. “The only thing I can possibly say at this moment is that Shona almost never gives someone her blessing. Now, I need to go handle my last class with the girls as entry-level slayers. When I see them again they’ll be second-year trainees. I feel like a proud mommy. You’re welcome to hang out and wait for Jude if you’d like. The girls are hormonal preteens who are boy-crazy at the moment.”
He smiled, and darn if it didn’t make me want to touch him again. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“Nope. Though, I should warn you that Shona is most likely spreading her approval of you around. She’ll have the rumor mill buzzing with news of a marriage that isn’t real. Makes sense. She likes Guardians, though she’ll deny it. That’s what you are, right—a Guardian?”
Hudson’s dark eyes lit as he heard me call him by his obvious title. “We could make the
rumor mill real. We could elope and I could still be the guy’s Guardian. See, that way, I get to keep you.”
“Oh, you will fit right in here, lover boy. Come on,” I said, laughing.
“I hope so.” The sexy smile he gave me almost made me faint. “Would you be strongly opposed to me hanging out after I talk with Jude? And so we aren’t getting wires crossed, I’d be staying to get to know you better.”
I sighed. “You can stay. But just so we don’t get our wires crossed—” I hated to assume he wanted to have something between us, so I stopped there.
Hudson took hold of my hands and glanced up at me. “Since I’m not finding any signs you belong to someone else, I’m going to have to assume it’s just me you’re trying to gently let down.”
Instantly, my hand went to the silver chain on my neck. It was long and hung down beneath my shirt, between my breasts where it held a ring. The ring belonged to the one man I’d loved. The one man I’d truly let into my life and let my guards down for and the one man who had hurt me the most.
Cowboy.
Fondling the ring was something I did when I was nervous—like now. I avoided looking up at Hudson. Instead, I let out a soft laugh, my mind wanting to carry me down memory lane, but I knew that path led only to heartache. “No, I don’t belong to anyone anymore.”
“Anymore?”
I couldn’t stay on the topic. If I did, I’d be a mess later. Already I was sore, tired, and running myself into the ground. I couldn’t let myself be emotionally drained as well. “I need to get my class going. I’m running behind already. We’re having a celebration today too. You can hang out until Jude comes—if he shows—but stay out of the way. I don’t really need you underfoot. You’re cute, but that doesn’t mean I want to have to deal with you.”
Hudson faked being shot in the chest. It was meant to be funny. To be an over-the-top gesture of how I’d supposedly wounded him with my rejection. Anyone else doing it might have brought a laugh from me. Seeing him, this stranger to me really, do it bothered me tremendously. The blood drained from my face and I launched forward. “Please don’t joke like that again.”
Crossing Hudson Page 5
