Baylor burst out laughing. “I’m not exactly sure that’s what Hudson wants.”
“It doesn’t matter what he wants,” she said, with an impish smile. “If that’s the way this goes, then he should be next,” she said, with a decisive nod.
“Oh, I’ll have fun telling him that,” he said.
She looked at him and said, “He won’t be too happy about it, will he?”
“Well, lots of the guys were, but I wasn’t,” he said. “I just figured there wouldn’t ever be anybody for me, so I didn’t want the guys to go down that lane to find out I was the only one who was unmatchable.”
She stared at him in shock. “My God,” she said, “why would you even think that?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “maybe because I haven’t got a partner?” Such a wry tone was in his voice that he realized he was only half joking. A part of him had always wondered if he’d ever find a permanent partner. Somebody long-term. Somebody who would let him be himself and still be happy with him. So often it felt like relationships changed a person, and he didn’t want to be the only one who changed, unless it was an improvement.
“You are seriously a beautiful man, both inside and out,” she said. “Absolutely no way should you be single.”
“Well, I am.”
She looked at him, then batted her eyes and said, “Well, … you were.”
He burst out laughing, picked her up, and swung her around the living room, then hugged her close.
“See?” she said. “You’re magical.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “I spent a lifetime just working, trying to be the best I could be.”
“And it shows,” she said. “When you think about it, that’s all any of us can do.”
“What about you?”
“I basically shut out the relationship issue,” she said, with a shrug. “The last few years I was so focused on my mom and her healing that I put everything else on the back burner. She kept telling me that I needed to go out and find a partner, but I didn’t really want to. I didn’t want to lose touch with her.”
“So then our timing is perfect,” he said. “When we were both ready, things worked out that brought us together. I just wish it hadn’t been such a rough time for you.”
“I’m just so thankful you were here. I can’t imagine going through all this without you,” she said. Looking around the room, she asked, “Will they really be gone for a few hours?”
“Yep,” he said. “Why?”
She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “It just seems like such a waste.”
“Waste of what?”
He looked at her, frowning, because she was already confusing him. Something he was unfamiliar with in terms of females and women. She definitely wasn’t a victim, and he highly applauded that. She was also a little more forward, a little more demanding, and a little bit more of a spitfire than what he was used to. But he was loving every minute of it.
“It just seems like such a waste,” she said, looking at him, with a particular light in her eyes.
His gaze widened as he realized what she meant, and he said, “Well, we can’t have that now, can we?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “You’re awfully slow at moving.”
He smirked and immediately snatched her up into his arms and walked into the bedroom, and said, “We’ll fix that at once.”
She burst out laughing as he dropped her gently on the bed, and she just laid there, with her arms up. “You better be coming down here to join me,” she said. “It’s awfully lonely.”
“You won’t be lonely for long,” he said, and he quickly stripped off his clothes. Then he stood in front of her, fully nude. She gasped as she stared at him, and he felt self-conscious until her fingers reached out to some of the old scars that he had.
“What happened?” she asked.
He looked down and shrugged. “Oh, I don’t remember where I got that one from.”
She reached out, kissed it, and then found another one and kissed it, and then another one.
“If you do that,” he said, “I have to tell you that you’ll take a long time.”
Her gaze widened, and she asked, “Is your job always that dangerous?”
“No, some of these were sustained during training,” he said. “And believe me. I felt them all, but none of them worried me. They were just part of what I was doing.”
She nodded slowly. “I get that. I really do. I guess I have some adjusting to do in that regard.”
“You do,” he said, happy that she was quite prepared to even look at adjusting.
She smiled, wrapped her arms around him, and said, “You truly are a beautiful man.”
He shook his head, unwrapped her arms, and said, “And you are overdressed.” And, with the same spirit he’d seen all the way along this op, she quickly shed her clothing, until she stood there in just her bra and panties. He gave a happy sigh, as he slipped a finger in the waistband and said, “I think you’re still overdressed.”
She slid a little closer and said, “Yeah, well, maybe you should take care of that then.”
He pulled the material with a jerk, and it separated at both seams. Embarrassed, he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. Well, I did but not exactly that way.”
She burst out laughing, until his finger slipped into the tiny tight curls at the apex of her thighs. She gasped and said, “Oh, wow. This will be a hard and fast ride if you keep that up.”
“Ride?” he asked, an interested look in his eyes.
She smiled and asked, “Don’t you get to go riding?”
“I think the question is, do you get to go riding?”
“I hope so,” she said fervently. “I really do hope so.”
He shook his head, still amazed at the laughter and the light in her voice. And just the sheer freedom of the moment and her ability to
