A muted smile crossed Todd’s face. “I am. I’m the only one you’ve—”
“Hudson Porter is my father,” she spoke right over him, fearless and bold as ever. “You’re nothing but the man who hurt my mom. You’re…you could never be the man Hudson is.”
Todd’s eye twitched.
His shoulder flinched.
And I saw it coming before he’d moved.
Still, I wasn’t fast enough. My limbs heavy, sluggish.
The asshole drugged me.
His fingers tangled in her shirt as he hauled her off the floor, jarring her slightly.
“You have a mouth as bad as your mom’s, you little brat,” he said. “Now, you can take the easy street, or the hard one—”
In a blink, I was on my feet, my head swimming with pain that felt distant because of the adrenaline swarming my veins.
A breath, and his hair, all the greasy clumps of it, were twisted in my fingers. I yanked his head back so fast he lost his balance, instantly dropping Elliott.
She hurried backward, but I didn’t relinquish my grip.
I was no longer a weak girl, cowering in the corner of one of these cheap motels, fearing for the next time he kicked.
I was the mother of an incredible girl.
I was the woman who had come from nothing, just so I could give her everything.
And I would not let him subject her to what he’d put me through.
“You worthless, spineless, piece of garbage,” I said, rotating my wrist and using all the strength I possessed to yank him to the floor.
He yelped, his own hands flailing at where I held him by the roots of his hair. I blocked his hands with my free one, and drew my heeled foot up, right over his balls, and snapped my leg down.
“Gah, fucking bitch!” he screamed, his hands dropping to protect his junk.
So I dropped my knee against his exposed neck instead. Pushing it just enough that he stopped flailing, enough that water filled his eyes as his mouth gaped. God, I wanted to keep pushing until there was nothing left.
And before I could be horrified at that thought, I was yanked backward.
I spun within the embrace, digging my nails into the cheek of the man who’d grabbed me.
The unknown.
The partner who had hit me over the head.
“Bitch,” he hissed, spun me around and locked his arms around me so forcefully I couldn’t move.
Elliott made a step toward me, but I shook my head. This man was much stronger than Todd. And I wouldn’t catch him by surprise.
Todd limped to standing, glaring at me.
“You’ll pay for that,” he said.
“No,” said the man holding me. “Her man will,” he continued. “He’s agreed to the drop.” He held a phone out to Todd. “That’s the place.”
Todd rolled his eyes. “‘Course the fucker would want it at the arena.” He touched his balls again like he needed to make sure they hadn’t stuck to the spiked heel of my pump.
I wished.
“Couldn’t even be drawn away from his precious game for more than ten minutes to save you,” he said. “Sure you mean that much to him?”
“He’s paying,” the other man said. “Good enough for me.”
Todd huffed. “Fine. Get them in the car.”
Cold terror iced my veins as we were shoved into the back of their car.
But some relief pooled into my blood at the thought of them driving us toward Hudson.
I glared at them both from the backseat, Elliott tucked against me.
They had to be the dumbest criminals on the planet—taking us to him. Taking us toward safety, toward where no doubt Hudson had called the cops. At the very least, he’d beat them both to a pulp with his bare hands.
Idiots.
Not that I would ever point it out.
The twenty-minute car ride felt like an eternity, my mind swirling at the time gap I’d lost. Being knocked out and drugged for long enough that I’d missed an entire night and half the day. And by the time Todd’s partner was hauling us out of the backseat, my muscles were aching. The tension in my body a living, breathing thing as I calculated how to get away from them. Get lost in the crowds no doubt filling the arena because of the game.
I didn’t doubt Hudson would be there, but I couldn’t trust Todd’s word.
Couldn’t trust that this wasn’t all some part of their sick, spineless attempt to get money.
“He’s on the ice,” the partner said after he’d run toward the main stadium seating.
My heart lurched.
He was still playing?
No...Hudson wouldn’t do that. Not if he knew we were in danger.
“Good,” Todd said, shoving me a bit. “Now we just have to wait until the game is over.”
Heart pounding, I made sure Elliott walked in front of me as they led us down concrete stairs and through a set of doors that filed under the arena. Thankful that they at least didn’t touch her. Just me. I was fine with that. I would do anything to keep her from getting hurt, though the emotional scarring this would do…
I turned to glare at Todd, let him see the rage that churned because of him.
They stopped so suddenly in the middle of the tunnel-like hallway I thought that Todd might actually be scared of that ice-cold rage I shot at him.
But it wasn’t me he was looking at with wide, panic-stricken eyes.
It was Hudson.
Then who did he see on the ice?
Like a giant he stood, Hudson’s arms crossed over the other, a small black bag fisted in his hand. The cool, chaotic calm on his face? It was more terrifying than anything I’d ever seen before—not that I was afraid of him. No, that power inside him, the one that made him the best protector on the ice, the bruiser who ended fights, the strength that fueled the heart of the team? It was beautiful and awestriking, and it was both terrifying and so wonderful to see him standing there, ready to pay for us, to fight for us, that I almost cried.
It had only been last night that my scars had driven him away.
And I hated that I’d been afraid he wouldn’t show.
Wouldn’t want any part in this madness.
But he was here.
And that spoke more than any words ever could.
“You’re supposed to be on the ice,” Todd snapped.
“Nothing more important than what is right here,” he said, his voice a lethal calm.
“You got the money?” Todd snapped.
Hudson didn’t look at him, instead he focused on Elliott, some sort of silent communication I couldn’t follow because one second she was in front of me and the next she’d sprinted to him. He immediately shoved her behind him, forming a protective wall before her.
I did cry in relief at that, but the partner only yanked my hair, flaring the lump on my head so much I yelped.
“You got it?” Todd asked again.
He chucked the bag at Todd’s face. He unzipped the bag and nodded toward his partner. “Smarter than you look,” he said to Hudson, and then the partner released me. I hurried over to Hudson, who cupped my cheeks, his eyes scanning my body.
“I’m okay,” I whispered. “We’re okay,” I said again.
“There’s more,” Hudson said, never taking his eyes off me but his words clearly directed at Todd.
They paused where they’d turned around to head back up the stairs with the money.
Todd smirked. “You want to play this game again, Porter?”
Hudson positioned me behind him, making a show of drawing his watch to his face.
“You want to give me more money? Have to say she’s not worth it.”
Hudson growled, dropping his watch. “I never said anything about money.”
“Then more what?”
“Three, two,” Hudson counted down the seconds. “One.”
Four people rushed past us in civilian clothes but speaking in cop terms. It took my brain a minute to catch up, to realize that the cuffs they wer
e locking Todd and his partner in were real. That Hudson had in fact called the cops and made sure they’d get caught. Get sent where they belonged. Hopefully for good.
“Shea,” he said after they finished taking our reports of the incident and hauling them away. “Shea,” he said again.
I blinked away the tears, sucking in the first real breath since that morning.
“I didn’t mean it,” I said, my words coming in sharp bursts. “I was going to call and tell you before they came for us. That I’d never be afraid of you. That my anger over the fight wasn’t because of you but because of me. Because of my past with…” I glanced in the direction they’d taken Todd away and sighed. “It was me. All of it. And I’m done with letting my past control my future. Done with it all, Hudson. Please...give me another chance. Let me prove to you that I can be rational and trusted. That I’d never—”
He covered my lips with his, kissing the breath out of me as he hauled me against him.
“I know,” he said against my lips. “I know. God, Shea,” he said. “I thought I’d lost you. When you didn’t show up to the game…I thought you’d left—”
“Never.” I shook my head, burying it in his chest, inhaling the scent of him. Drawing it in for warmth and strength and solidarity. “Not of my own will,” I added.
His hold tightened on me. “They were idiots,” he said.
“Yes.”
“I wanted to put them in the ground for touching you. When I heard on the tracker…” his eyes fell to Elliott, who was finishing up her report with a female officer. “I wanted to find them and bust down the doors. Wanted to rip them apart with my bare hands.”
I shuddered at the rage in his voice.
“But you didn’t,” I said.
“Much to Lukas’s dismay,” he said, sighing. “I’m not Liam Neeson.”
“Thank God,” I said. “The last thing I need is for you to be arrested because you played hero like in a Die Hard movie or something.”
“Yippee Ki-Yay,” he teased, the bad joke easing the strain of the day.
“Funny,” I said.
“Speaking of funny but incredibly serious,” he said. “Let’s go get married.”
I rolled my eyes at the joke he continuously made and sagged against him.
He held my weight easily, the events of the day catching up to me.
“Let’s go get that bump checked out,” he said, smoothing his hand over the back of my head.
I nodded, and he held out his free arm for Elliott, who ran to it with no hesitation. He tugged her against him, kissing the top of her head.
“Thanks,” he said to her.
“For what?” she asked, glancing up at him.
“For what you said about me.”
I gaped up at him, a smile on my lips when I finally understood. They’d been listening in on the tracker. He knew what he meant to her, and to me, and…he’d shown up.
“And I always will,” he said, and it was only then that I realized I’d said the words out loud.
Chapter 21
Hudson
I closed the bedroom door and locked it with a quick press of a button.
“I need you,” Shea whispered, her hands on my chest, pushing me against the door.
I let her, then gripped her ass in my hands and lifted her to my eyelevel.
“Not as much as I need you,” I growled against her lips.
It was our first moment alone since they’d been taken three days ago, and the first night that Elliott had felt safe enough to sleep by herself.
My lips claimed Shea’s, my kiss hard, impatient, needing to claim every inch of her all over again.
Her fingers gripped the back of my neck, holding me to her, as if there were anywhere else I would ever want to be.
We broke apart to shed our clothes, fabric flying only to land scattered in a path to my bed. Our bed.
“Hurry,” Shea demanded as I lifted her again, her ankles locking around my back.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I murmured between kisses, my dick jumping as it slid through the slickness between her thighs.
“You won’t,” she swore. “Please, Hudson.” She ended her plea with a gentle bite of my lower lip, tugging it as she pulled back.
“Fuck, Shea.” I groaned, sinking into her kiss again before lifting her higher to suck on one nipple, then another.
She cried out, and I was thankful Maddox had decided to get a hotel while he was here.
I shifted one of my hands supporting her ass, and let my fingers dip between her thighs. “Damn, you’re drenched, baby,” I said, feeling just how wet and ready she was.
She arched her back when I brushed against her clit, then slammed down on my fingers when I slipped two inside her.
“Yes!” She ground on me, her body writhing against mine, all naked and hot and mine.
She was the picture of sensuality, a woman who knew exactly what she wanted from her man and was more than ready to get it.
I positioned my hand so her clit rubbed against my finger with each movement of her hips, until her muscles tensed around me, locking hard. Her breaths were harsh pants against my lips, her fingernails biting into the skin of my neck.
“Hudson!” she cried out as she came, letting go completely, trusting me to hold her upright.
Her gray eyes were soft, glazed as her gaze met mine.
“Now,” she demanded.
I slipped my fingers free of her pussy and led my cock to her tight entrance.
“I love you.” I lowered her inch by inch as she whimpered, taking me to the hilt as I pushed through her rippling muscles.
“I. Love. You.” She gasped between words, already rocking on me.
I brought one hand to tangle in the hair at the nape of her neck.
“You’re mine. Always mine.”
“Always yours,” she promised, kissing me hard. “I love you.”
My tongue moved within her mouth, and it took every ounce of restraint I had, but I didn’t thrust into her, simply stayed seated deep within her, surrounded by her tight heat.
Fuck, I wanted to pound her, to lay her back on that mattress and lose myself in the sweet curves of her body.
“Marry me,” I said for what felt like the thirtieth time. I’d never had a woman ignore so many proposals.
Something about this time must have been different, because she paused, looking into my eyes. “You really mean it, don’t you?” she asked, those gray depths full of awe.
“I’ve meant it every time I’ve asked you.”
My cock twitched, and I silently reminded it that we had bigger issues at hand.
“Hudson…” She clenched around me, her muscles squeezing me like a vice.
“Don’t try to distract me,” I growled. “I want to fuck you so badly that I might die before I get you into that bed. But I don’t just want tonight. I want every night. Every day. Every morning. I want forever.”
Her lips parted. “I’m not an easy person to love. You’ve seen that.”
“I’m not either.”
“I’m stubborn.”
“Hello pot, meet kettle,” I growled.
“I really like sex.” She swirled her hips, and I groaned, pleasure shooting up my spine. Fuck, she felt so damn good. “I’m not sure you can handle how much I might require.”
A corner of my mouth lifted as I brought her up my cock, dragging through her sensitive folds, just to slam her back down. Her cry filled the room, her scent filling my nose.
“I think I can handle you,” I promised.
She said the one thing that she knew would break me, make me forget the question I’d asked.
“Fuck me, Hudson.”
Her command snapped whatever self-control I had. My hands gripped her hips as I moved her on me, thrusting into her again and again.
She was heaven, my own personal Valhalla on earth, the reward for my simple survival.
Maybe I was the reward for hers, too.
She took everything I had and demanded more. “Harder, please, Hudson. God, don’t stop.”
I carried her to the bed and laid her on the soft surface, careful to shelter her head.
“You want everything?”
“Don’t hold back. You won’t break me.”
I didn’t think Hell could break this woman.
Raising her knee, I slid even deeper within her and closed my eyes in sheer bliss.
“Hold onto me,” I ordered.
Then there were no words between us, only moans and touches as I thrust hard and deep again and again, keeping a punishing rhythm until we both dripped sweat, our bodies sliding against each other, our skin sensitive, every nerve ending alive and needy.
She was on the edge, and I let her linger there, only giving her enough to keep her on the brink, but not letting her fall over.
“Marry me,” I growled against her lips, my body screaming for release.
“Hudson,” she moaned, using her feet as leverage to rock back against me.
“Marry me,” I demanded, willing to use any means necessary to bind her to me. “Marry me, and I’ll fuck you like this every day for the rest of your life.”
“Promises, promises,” she whispered, then locked her inner muscles around my cock.
“Shea,” I groaned, but lost myself in her, plunging again and again until we both came, our bodies rippling in the kind of heaven I’d only known with her.
Three days later, Elliott’s team took the ice.
Shea and I sat in the bleachers, ready to cheer her on, win or lose.
The velvet jewelry box dug into my side, reminding me that we had a very unfinished discussion between us. And after the game, I intended to make her understand that I was serious.
I wanted her as my wife. My partner.
Wanted Elliott as my daughter.
I wanted the whole package that was Shea Lansing.
As the clock started the five-minute warm-up period, Elliott’s team lined up in front of the glass.
“What are they doing?” Lukas asked as he took the seat next to me. For someone who claimed to not like kids, he sure found himself at Elliott’s games every second he had free.
“No clue,” Noble muttered from his other side, waving to the coach with a grin.
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