Chapter 9
NATALIE
Icouldn’t even look at him without thinking about the damn kiss. One kiss and I was a smitten puppy dog. Thank goodness for the modicum of self-control I had to keep myself from panting after him.
I hated that I had become one of those people.
The people who thought about sex all the time.
If he waggled his finger and told me to strip, I would.
I would drop to the floor, crawl on my desk, anything he wanted.
I had to get a date. I needed to shake this feeling of being ridiculously horny. This was not me.
“Want a soda?” Hudson asked. He was leaning against my office doorframe looking sexy as hell.
“No. I want to work.”
“I think you need to get laid,” he teased. “You’re very uptight.”
“Hudson! Go away! Go watch your people!”
He was laughing as he walked away. He was doing it on purpose.
He’d been doing it all day. I was certain he knew he had me flustered.
I didn’t miss the glint in his eye when I asked him to leave me alone.
I didn’t know what his game was. Was he teasing me?
It had to be a tease. I didn’t miss the women that suddenly needed to come in and ask questions about boats they would never buy. They wanted to see him.
He had graduated to the most eligible bachelor in a matter of days.
Poor Hux had been replaced. Everyone wanted him.
When I compared myself to the women currently in line to get him into their bed, I didn’t feel like I measured up.
Plus, he was way out of my league. I wouldn’t know how to handle a man like that.
I wasn’t a virgin, but there was no way I had the experience to keep up with him.
I worked maybe fifteen minutes before Hudson returned. “I’m going to hide in here for ten minutes.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I need a minute and you always tell me to stop talking,” he said and flopped into one of my chairs.
“You’ve got dark circles again,” I pointed out.
“I’m sleeping on an air mattress,” he said.
“Why don’t you buy a bed?”
“I will,” he said. “Shh, I just need a power nap.”
“I don’t know how you can do that,” I said with a shake of my head.
He’d been doing this exact thing all week.
He would show up to work looking like he’d been up all night.
Halfway through the day, he would come into my office and take a power nap.
He could fall asleep in an instant. He would sleep about ten to fifteen minutes and then get up.
He always appeared completely refreshed.
“It’s part of the training. Shh.”
I smiled and went back to work. I found myself trying to be extra quiet while he got his nap in.
I couldn’t help but steal some looks. He was unshaven.
The scruff didn’t look dirty on him. It just enhanced his hotness.
His thick black hair was already growing in fast. I noticed he always wore cargo shorts or pants and a black T-shirt. It was so him.
His eyes popped open. We stared at each other for several seconds. “I need to make some calls,” he said. “Let’s get a drink after work.”
“What?”
“Me, you, and Hux,” he said. “Teresa has been on us to stop by the pub.”
“Okay,” I said, shrugging.
He winked. “It’s a date. A threesome.”
He walked out laughing again. He loved to do that to me. He liked to keep me on my toes. His flirting was almost too much and he knew it. I didn’t really mind. If it helped him smile and appear less distracted, it worked for me.
We closed up early and the three of us walked to the pub.
There weren’t too many people in the place.
The fanfare surrounding Hudson’s return had faded a little.
He was old hat. Just another one of the guys.
There were a few tourists, but it wasn’t too packed.
We found ourselves a table and ordered a pitcher. I sipped my drink.
“What’s it like to be home?” Hux asked his brother.
“Good,” Hudson said, shrugging. “I think. I don’t know. I’m still trying to get into the groove of things.”
“He needs a bed,” I added.
“You don’t have a bed?” Hux asked with surprise.
“Nah, I’m good,” Hudson said, shrugging. “I’m used to not having a bed.”
“You need a bed,” I said again. “You’re home. People sleep in beds. I’ll go shopping with you if you’d like.”
“You’re going to help me pick out a bed?”
“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “You need a bed. You look tired. You’re too big to be sleeping on an air mattress every night.”
He smirked and finished his glass. “Dance with me.”
“Hudson, no one dances in here,” I said with a laugh.
“There’s a jukebox,” he pointed out. “My dad put it in here so people would dance.”
“I don’t think it works,” Hux said. “Teresa unplugged it a while ago. She got tired of listening to the same old shit.”
“Then I’ll plug it in,” Hudson replied.
“How much have you had to drink?” I asked skeptically.
The pitcher was almost empty, but I hadn’t seen him drink that much. “You guys go dance,” Hux said. “I’m going to order another pitcher.”
Before I could protest, Hudson was pulling me out of the chair. He plugged in the jukebox and popped a dollar in the machine. “What do you feel like dancing to?” he asked. “Country? Old school nineties? I hope you like old because I don’t think this thing has been updated in the last twenty years.”
“I don’t want to dance,” I complained.
“Ah, here we go,” he said.
Music started. At first, I didn’t recognize it. Then I did. I smiled as he pulled me into his arms. “Remember this?” he asked.
“Um, yeah,” I said. “You used to blast this all the time.”
“Because the ladies loved it,” he replied.
It was Aerosmith. I found myself swaying to the slow beginning of I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. Hux and I had watched the movie a hundred times. It was enough excitement for a guy and romantic enough for a young girl who fell in love every other week.
“You were always so smooth,” I said.
“It wasn’t intentional,” he replied.
“Liar.”
I glanced over at Huxley who was talking with one of his friends. Hudson pulled me just a little closer. “What’s going on there?” he asked in a low voice. “Am I stepping on my little brother’s toes? Is he going to come over here and try to kick my ass?”
“Who? Huxley?”
“Yes,” he said in that raspy voice. “Did you guys cross that line you both said you would never cross?”
“Which line would that be?” I asked.
“You know exactly which line I’m talking about.” His voice was gruff and the way he was holding me intensified.
“No,” I answered.
“You never went there with him?”
“No,” I replied. “Hux and I are friends.”
“You haven’t crossed the line with him, but are you willing to cross it with me?”
I tried to keep my heart from pounding out of my chest. “I’m not sure I know what line you’re talking about,” I teased.
He jerked me against all his hardness. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“Hudson,” I whispered.
He chuckled and said nothing more. We continued to dance with more people joining us. The song ended and I thought we were going to be done. We weren’t. Another song came on. “Ah, Hoobastank,” I said with a laugh. “Another goodie.”
“What lame music,” someone said. “Who picked this shit?”
I felt Hudson stiffen. “Ignore him,” I said. “He doesn’t know good music.”
The guy continued to bitch about the music.
It was pretty clear he was drunk. That wasn’t exactly anything new for the pub.
People came out for the weekend and cut loose.
I did my best to distract Hudson from the drunk guy behind me.
The flirty man I’d been dancing with was replaced with a man coiled and ready to strike.
The man slammed into me from behind, his drink spilling down my back. I yelped and jumped forward. Hudson darted out of the way. With no one to break my fall, I stumbled over my own feet and hit the floor.
“You motherfucker!” Hudson shouted behind me.
Hux rushed over to help me to my feet. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I said.
Hudson pushed the man that had smashed into me. “What the fuck, asshole? Do you always go around pushing women?”
“Fuck you, man,” the kid shouted back.
“Hudson, don’t,” Hux said.
It was too late. Hudson swung and hit the guy square in the nose. Then, in rapid fire succession, he punched several more times. The kid’s head bounced back. The pub erupted into chaos. The guy wasn’t as drunk as he looked. That or the punches had sobered him up in a hurry. He hit back.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Huxley asked me.
“I’m fine. Get him!”
Hux pushed me out of the way and quickly jumped into the fray. I watched the fight and felt completely helpless. The guy’s friends jumped in and things escalated in a hurry. Chairs were being knocked over. A table crashed to the floor.
I watched in horror as Huxley attempted to break up the fight but was failing miserably.
A loud, ear-piercing whistle cut through the chaos.
The shrill noise was exactly the distraction needed.
Hux grabbed Hudson and pushed him out of the way.
Teresa was standing in the middle of the chaos blowing the damn whistle over and over.
“Get out!” she screamed. “Get out, get out, get out!”
She walked to the jukebox and jerked the cord out of the wall. “You get out before I call the police!”
I was scared. I tried to shrink against the wall. Teresa was not a woman to be screwed with. She was losing her shit.
“Teresa,” Huxley said with his hand up. “Stop blowing the whistle.”
She blew it loud and long right in his face. He backed away. “Get our brother out of my sight before I shove this whistle down his throat!”
I didn’t think she was joking. I grabbed Hudson’s arm. He jerked away and nearly knocked me over. “Shit, sorry,” he muttered.
“It’s fine. We should probably get out of here.” I gently pulled his arm.
“No.” He shook his head. “I need to clean this up.”
“I’m not sure she wants you to clean up,” I said.
“Let’s go,” Huxley said. “When Teresa gets in one of these moods, it’s no joke.”
“Go,” Hudson said. “I’ll get home on my own.”
Huxley took my hand and pulled me out of the pub. We walked outside with the rest of the crowd. Some people were laughing while others were bitching about not getting to finish their drinks. Hux cursed under his breath and kicked an invisible pebble on the ground.
“Is my nose bleeding?” he asked and raised his chin.
“What? Why?”
I finally looked at him and realized he did have a bloody nose. “What happened?”
“What do you think happened?” he shot back. “I tried to drag my damn brother out of a bar fight and got hit in the process!”
“Let me go get you a napkin,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it,” he growled. “This is so typical of him.”
I dragged him to a bench and pulled him down. “Let me see,” I said.
I grabbed my purse and searched for something to wipe his nose. I had a single napkin and a tampon. “Here,” I said. “Army guys use these.”
“I’m not putting a fucking tampon in my nose,” he growled.
“Fine. Bleed all over the place.”