AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He comes to a stop, his gaze moving over me. It’s possessive and it sends a thrill through my flesh.
“I like the color.”
The wine red of the simple silky shift suits me, and the dress looks quality without trying. I don’t own much jewelry, so I’m wearing my studs in my ears and a simple white gold slender bracelet with a little four-leaf clover on it that is the only thing I have of my grandmother.
“Thank you.”
He leads me to the car and the tension and awareness is thick and tight between us as we cut across Manhattan to the Upper East Side to East Seventy-Ninth Street and a beautiful old apartment building with the old servant quarters on the roof.
Hudson obviously knows the place as we waltz in and take an elevator that skips the first twenty floors until we come to the top floor. It opens into a vast room of glamor and money and taste.
We say hello to people, or he does, and then Hudson leads me outside to the wrap-around rooftop that’s more like a deck than anything else. It’s beautifully landscaped and we finally come to stop, taking in the view.
At least I am, because when I turn, he’s looking at me.
My mouth goes dry.
“A breath of fresh air and the stunning view before family time.”
I gloss over the view part of his sentence because it doesn’t mean what my head’s suddenly thrown at me and I get myself ready. “What’s the plan?”
“Look good, stay with me, and act like you’re into me.”
“I’m a good actress,” I say airily. “I should be able to pull that off.”
A low smile hits his mouth. “No one will ever see the struggles.”
“God, no.”
The evening spins out and his mother is the perfect hostess for what’s clearly a fundraiser for a school for the underprivileged. His brothers come over to chat, but they’re all checking me out. And through it, Hudson is a dream.
Attentive, always there, smiling, little touches that border on intimate, and inside hope begins to form. Insane hope, obviously, because I’m not even sure what I’m hoping for except that I’m attracted to him and I think he likes me, too. At least enough to sleep with me.
I don’t go around sleeping with people just because they’re hot, or they want to get their rocks off with me. But the crazy part inside is willing to go for it, no matter what my brain might say. And my brain isn’t saying much, as I think it’s drunk on desire.
Somewhere a quiet little voice says this is what he wants. Me feeling like this is real. But I squash that voice.
The tension between us grows thick, intense, and it crackles in the air and sends heat cascading through me every time he looks at me. And finally, Hudson leans over and says, “Want to get out of here?”
I nod, and I’m not above having fantasies of him having his wicked way with me in the elevator down. He doesn’t and the matronly woman sharing the ride might have something to do with it.
The night is warm and lovely when we get down to the street, and his car pulls up like magic.
The ride to my—Sarah’s—building is short and long and weird and full of anticipation of what’s going to happen next.
He gets out of the car and opens my door and helps me out, and then I turn to him and wait because I’m not going to be the one to kiss him. He leans in. My eyelids flutter shut.
“Goodnight, Scarlett.”
And he’s gone.
I stare after him.
What the hell was that?
Last night I tossed and turned and it took forever to get to sleep.
It’s not like I haven’t been rejected. I’ve been rejected. A lot. But I didn’t expect…that.
