Chapter 11

Mia

“So, you just socked him right in jaw?” Hudson asked, his voice incredulous.

“Yeah, I did, served him right for hitting on my woman,” my grandfather confirmed proudly.

We were seated for dinner in almost the exact same way as we had been on the first night Hudson was here, but things seemed to have simmered down considerably.

Hudson and my grandfather seemed to be getting along, which was strange. My grandfather didn’t get along with anyone outside of the family. I wondered why he was getting along with Hudson, of all people.

My grandfather’s approval of Hudson drew my dad out of his shell, and he joined in on some jokes with the two of them.

My mom adored Hudson after he’d baked with her the other morning.

It was only Ryan who was still glaring at Hudson like he was about to grow a second head.

I’d asked Hudson what Ryan had wanted to talk to him about after the two had gone for their walk around the yard, but he’d insisted it was nothing but guy talk, and told me not to worry about it. Then he’d cut me off by setting his laptop on the desk in my room and calling in to the office.

Ryan had given me an equally cryptic answer when I’d rounded on him the previous night, claiming he and Hudson had stuff to talk about that didn’t involve me.

They didn’t fool me for one second. The only thing they had in common was me, but I let it be, after a pep talk from Tina. She assured me one of them would tell me what it was about if I needed to know.

“You know, Hudson,” my grandfather was saying when I returned my focus to the conversation happening around the table. “I think it’s safe to say you’ve turned the skeptics into believers in two short days.”

“What do mean?” Hudson asked, picking up his glass after pushing his cleared plate away from him. My mother beamed. It was quite obvious that he’d figured her out.

Dinner was almost done, and my grandfather’s cheeks were warm from the wine he’d consumed during the course of it. His eyes were just a little out of focus. It was quite endearing and made him look younger than his years. “I just mean that when you arrived two days ago, I was quite convinced there was something untoward going on between you and our Mia, but you two seem genuinely happy.”

His eyes moved to where Hudson’s arm was resting on my shoulders, as it had been for every meal since we’d arrived. My grandfather raised his glass to us. “Cheers to the both of you.”

Hudson and my mom clinked glasses with him, but my dad’s eyes grew serious.

Crap.

“Before I can raise my glass to that, Hudson,” my father started. “I would like to know what your intentions with my daughter are.”

My mother sucked in an audible gasp. “Charles, this is hardly the appropriate time, is it?” my mother admonished, smiling apologetically at Hudson. “And this isn’t the middle ages, where you can demand a man declare his intentions.”

“I think it’s appropriate, Alice. Everyone in this room loves Mia. She brought this man here out of nowhere. For the first time ever, she’s introducing us to a significant other. Either, it must be more serious than she’s letting on or it’s helping her career.” He was joking about it helping my career, as evidenced by his wink and tone as he said it, but I bristled.

He was trying to embarrass me in front of the family. I’d been through it countless times before. My father couldn’t, or wouldn’t, accept that I was working for BC Records and didn’t want to come home to manage the family business. He seemed to firmly believe he could bend my will to match his by embarrassing me.

It strengthened the resolve I’d been lacking to tell them what needed to be said.

“Actually, Daddy, we are serious. Much more than we’ve been letting on.” Hudson’s arm tightened around my shoulders. I appreciated the silent show of support.

We exchanged a glance, and he nodded encouragingly. It relaxed me, looking into his confident blue eyes. I gripped onto his thigh nonetheless, my fingers meeting steel beneath his jeans.

I pushed any lascivious thoughts from my mind. Now was not the time to become distracted by him. This had become about so much more than Hudson’s immigration status.

“We’re so serious, in fact, the reason we actually came down here is to tell you we’re getting married,” I confessed.

“What?”

Everyone in the room stopped breathing at exactly the same time. Every eye was on me. Ryan’s fork clattered to his plate, sending rice flying all over the table. No one seemed to notice. Hudson squeezed my arm gently, spurring me on.

“Hudson took the blame for me the other night, but the truth is, I wanted to come home and share the news with you all. We want to get married here. On Friday.”

The room exploded with noise. My father and Ryan looked like they were about to pass out, my aunts were thrilled, while my uncles looked to my grandfather, who seemed to have popped into another dimension for all he had to say.

My mother’s voice was the first to make it over the din. She yanked me from my chair and pulled both Hudson and me into a tight hug.

“Oh, my angel, I’m so happy for you. I had a feeling something like this might be coming.” She whispered to me, while she ruffled her hand through Hudson’s hair. I wanted to run my hand through his hair so carelessly, yet Mom had beat me to it.

A few hours passed before they’d let us go to back to my room. I told my mother I wanted a low-key ceremony, right at the house, in the back yard. We didn’t want much more than an average, Sunday lunch. And I also told her Tina had already agreed to be my maid of honor and was ready to help with whatever we needed.

My mother immediately kicked into celebration mode, opening two bottles of champagne from God knew where and made everyone toast to love, forever and happily ever after.

I finally crashed down on the couch in my room, snuggling into it. I was unbelievably tired and relieved to be welcomed into its familiar folds. It had been one hell of a day.

Hudson emerged from the bathroom wearing low riding pajama pants and nothing else. My mouth watered.

His torso was lined in hard edges so perfect, they’d make a sculptor weep. They tapered into those perfect lines between his hips that pointed like an arrow to the prize that his dick was sure to be.

Fuck me lines, Tina called them. And God were they.

He toweled his hair, then look surprised I was still awake. Fake as our relationship may be, I kicked myself for missing even a moment of his ripped body by falling asleep early on the previous nights.

He was prime spank bank material. Not that I had a spank bank, but if I did, he would be the only person in it, now and forever. How was that for a wedding vow?

His gaze ran slowly over my body, and he paused to allow me to get my fill of him, as well.

“See something you like, Mrs. Blake?” he teased, although there was a dark, sexy undertone to his voice.

“I could ask you the same thing, Mr. Blake.”

His eyes had grown slightly darker, and his silk pajama pants betrayed the beginnings of an erection. I wasn’t going there. I couldn’t. We’d have to get used to one another barely clad until we figured out how to live our lives separately and avoid these kinds of situations.

Thankfully, he slid under the covers of my bed and stayed silent. Then he rolled onto his side to look at me. The room was illuminated only by my muted bedside lamp. It looked like a porn shoot. I hoped it was dark enough he wouldn’t see the heat rising in my cheeks.

“You okay?” he asked, tucking a hand under his chin. “What happened?”

“I’m fine. It’s just been a long couple of days, you know?” I yawned.

“Yeah, it has been. What made you blurt out the big news over dinner?”

“The way my dad was acting, I guess. He still wants me to...” I trailed off.

“He wants you to what, Mia?” he asked gently.

I sighed. “He wants me to move home.”

“Is that what you want?” I was surprised he even asked. Or he cared what I wanted. Nobody else seemed to.

“No. God, no. I love Portland, I love my life there. I imagine you feel the same way about it.”

His expression turned fierce. “I do,” he replied, the muscles in his arms rippled as he rolled onto his back. I averted my eyes. No good could possibly come from staring at him.

“What do you say we swap tonight?” he asked. “Couch for bed?”

“I fit on the couch better.” I doubted his six-feet-two frame would fit on the couch that my five-feet-three frame barely fit comfortably.

“Even so, I’ve heard marriage is all about compromise. Let me take the couch tonight, please?”

“Wait, the word please is actually in your vocabulary? I’ve often wondered about it.”

He grinned. “Occasionally.”

“Fine, then.” We switched spots. I stretched my arms out luxuriously and then eyed Hudson, feeling more than a little guilty. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.” he curled into the couch, trying to get comfortable. “So, since we’ll be married in forty-eight hours, tell me something I don’t know about you.”

The stark reality of the situation hit me. There were so many things I didn’t know about him. Big and small. I needed to fix that before I could walk down an aisle to him. I asked the first question that sprung to mind. “Who’s your favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?”

He thought for a moment. “Master Splinter. My question was for you to tell me something about you, though.”

“You know so much more about me than I know about you. It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Okay, what’s not fair? What do you want to know?”

“Let’s start with the basics. Master Splinter isn’t a turtle. Which of the turtles would you be?”

“I honestly don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. Raphael, maybe.” He hooked an arm around the back of the couch in an honest to god model pose. It was seriously hot.

No, Mia. Focus. “Why?”

“If I remember correctly, he was the bad boy of the team.” The corners of his mouth turned upward. The whole picture was ridiculously sexy.

I rolled onto my back. If I kept staring at him, I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions. “You think you’re a bad boy, huh?”

“Aren’t I?” His voice sounded more serious than it had before. “Okay, what else do you want to know?”

“I don’t know. It just feels like we should get to know each other. How about, Marvel or D.C?”

“I didn’t realize you were this into pop-culture. So, your getting to know each other thing seems to be working. Marvel, hands down. You?”

The tips of my ears burned. Maybe I was a bit of nerd sometimes, but I didn’t want him to know it. “Same. And I’m not that into it. I enjoy it as much as the next person. They just seem like safe topics.”

“Fair point. Why do you want to stick to safe topics?”

“The day has been long enough. There’s been more than enough heavy stuff for one day.”

“Another good point. Okay, safe topics for tonight it is. How about this one, if you could have one superpower, what would it be?”

“I feel like I should have an answer ready for that one, but I don’t. The power to clone myself, maybe? That way, I would be able to keep up with everything my boss expects from me.” I couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“He sounds like an asshole. You should tell your husband to beat him up for you.” A wicked grin spread across his face.

“Maybe I will. Should be quite an interesting show to watch.”

We talked about everything and nothing, until the early hours of the next morning, until my eyes were falling closed between questions, and Hudson agreed it was time to call it a night.

The last thought I had as I drifted off to sleep was how strange it was that we were becoming so comfortable around each other.