AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His face turns a little red and he nods, his expression filled with regret. “You’re right. I was caught and I knew it. But I promise from here on out, only the total truth.”
Part of me wants to tell him all is forgiven and give him a big hug—like a really tight hug where I press my everything up against his everything. It’s a lonely part of me that hasn’t been touched in a very long time. But the rest of me knows better. “Good, because if we’re going to work together, it’ll go much smoother if you’re honest with me. I don’t have any patience for liars. Like, none.”
“I know. You’re allergic to them.”
Now my cheeks are the ones turning pink. I feel the heat rising and I let out a small smile. “Yes, I am.”
“What about lentils? Are you allergic to them too?”
“I just don’t like them.”
“So, you also lied.”
I let out a reluctant grin. “Yeah, but mine doesn’t count.”
He smiles down at me. “How exactly?”
“Because in my case, I said something snarky and I was trying to cover it up, on account of you being a VIP around here.”
“Ah, okay, gotcha.”
“But I promise not to lie again either. So long as you don’t do it first.”
Hudson presses his hand to his heart. “I swear. No more lies. In fact, while you’ve got me in the confessional, I don’t wear glasses.”
“Contacts?”
“Nope. Twenty-twenty vision. Those were fakes the other day.”
“Really?” Damn, because he looked seriously sexy in them. Wait, I mean, good, because he looked way too sexy in them.
“Yup. Bought by my stylist, who also bought the pastries.”
So, the blonde is his stylist, not his girlfriend. Zia Fernanda was right. “Huh.”
“Smoke and mirrors, Allie, that’s all it is,” he says, pushing himself off my desk and standing up. I glance at his butt as he walks toward his desk. The word ‘taut’ pops into my mind, so I force my eyes back to my screen. The last thing I need is to get caught staring at his nice ass. Or any other totally muscular part of him.
“Oh here, I’ll put the fan back on so it doesn’t get too hot for you,” he says, pressing the button.
A jolt of guilt comes over me. Another lie. Who am I turning into? “Thanks, that’s really helpful.”
“How’s your AI system coming along?”
“Not bad. He seems to have detected a Black Widow Pulsar,” I answer, feeling the excitement building in my chest. “Do you know what a pulsar is?”
Hudson shakes his head.
“Oh, well, it’s a neutron star.” I take in the blank expression on his face. “Doesn’t matter. The point is, I’m proud of Frank because he managed to detect something from outer space for once.”
His eyes light up. “Wow. That’s impressive. I’m proud of myself when I manage to build anything from IKEA without having leftover pieces.”
Laughing, I say, “As you should be. IKEA furniture is nearly impossible.”
“Right? It’s always those little metal brackets. I don’t even know what they do.”
“Nobody does.”
We exchange a smile, which immediately makes me feel guilty for making him think the only reason I’ve been pawning him off is because I was mad at him when it’s mainly because of my project. “The thing is, this system I’m building is time-sensitive. There are other teams in the world working on the same thing, and even though we should be working together, we’re not. It’s a race to the finish and whoever cracks it first is going to be a very big deal in the SETI world.”
