Page 81 of Too Broken to Love

“Oh yeah?” He dropped to his knees and placed a kiss on her stomach. “I can think of a few other parts of your body I own. I plan to spend forever worshipping them if you’ll have me.”

She grazed her teeth across her lower lip. “Is that your proposal?”

A throat cleared next to them.

Hudson whipped his head to Malcolm. “Can’t you see we’re busy?”

“Um, in case you two haven’t noticed, half of D.C.’s police force and the FBI are watching.” He looked at Tessa. “Tell Hudson you’ll spend the rest of your life worshipping him too so these people can do their jobs.”

She laughed again as tears filled her eyes. “I already do worship him, and plan to for the rest of my life. In our home. On our beach.”

“For the rest of our lives.” Hudson rose and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sure Pop is insufferably pleased to hear that.”

She rose on her toes and brushed a kiss over his lips. “Sounds perfect, but we need to add wherever life takes us to the ‘rest of our lives’ part.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She took his hand and placed it on her cheek. “Because wherever you go, Hudson, I go.”

Three Months Later

Tessa stood next to Lia by the door to the terrace in Sam’s study as the sun dipped below the horizon.

The heavens had blessed their wedding day with unseasonably warm weather, just like when she’d met Hudson. Heat lamps and the white tent erected over the terrace would keep wedding guests warm throughout the night. The chairs set up in front of the arch teemed with friends of the Langley family, Hudson’s rugby and military buddies, and Tessa’s friends from Bay County Memorial.

After the ceremony, there would be a bonfire on the beach, just like Hudson had promised.

She smoothed her hand down her white halter dress. The tiny beads on the bodice that fanned out to the formfitting skirt grazed her fingers. The ruby earrings Hudson had given her last night hung from her ears. Another ruby dangled from a thin platinum chain around her neck.

Lia handed her a bouquet of deep red roses. “Ready to get married to a gorgeous man in the most beautiful place on the Jersey Shore?”

She looked out the window, past the fairy tale setting on the terrace, to the ocean. Every grain of sand and piece of stone, from the driveway to the water’s edge, and everyone who lived and loved in the house felt like the home she’d been searching for her entire life.

She let out a deep, joy-kissed sigh. “This really is the most beautiful place on earth.”

Much to her surprise, Vivian hadn’t lobbied for a country club extravaganza. Instead, she’d planned the wedding Tessa had never dared to dream about. Somewhere between bulldozing the florist to add three hundred more roses and booking a string quartet that played eighties rock because classy can be edgy too, Tessa had bonded with her as quickly as she had with Sam.

Shayla picked up her bouquet from a table. “I agree that this is the most beautiful place on earth, but I’m not going to lie. I’m jealous as hell right now, but I’m happy for you.” She kissed Tessa on the cheek as she peered at the crowd seated on the right. “And by the end of the night, I plan to let one of Hudson’s military buddies out there make me very happy.”

Tessa laughed, the sound as beautiful in her ears as the instrumental music from the terrace. She’d been surprised at how easily a friendship with Shayla blossomed the more time they spent together.

She peeked down to make sure Sam’s letter was securely tucked inside her bouquet. As she looked up, her full heart executed a flip.

Hudson stood at the edge of the terrace next to the General under an arch adorned with greenery and red roses, like he’d been dropped from the heavens. He’d chosen not to wear his uniform. He was officially retired from the Navy now and on his way to an even bigger opportunity.

Project VIPER.

They’d had a long discussion, well more like an argument, the morning after her abduction. Hudson had said he was fully retiring from military service because she’d been through enough turmoil in her life and he didn’t want his career to bring on more.

She’d told him hell no.

She loved the mansion and every reminder of Sam, but Hudson, not a house, was all the stability she needed. Besides, after surviving Frank, she could handle anything.

And after Hudson had asked her to marry him on the beach a few nights later, just the two of them under stars and a pile of blankets, he made love to her in the sand.

Smiling, she ran her finger over the small tuft of fur she’d snipped from Fluffy. She’d tucked the reminder of her favorite memory with her mother into her bouquet between Sam’s letter and a butterscotch wrapper.

Every week she sent Frank his favorite candy. And each week he sent back a short letter from prison with an empty wrapper. She hoped the smugglers who’d kidnapped her and Frank were rotting in a dark cell, and that Passage International was next to go down.