Chapter Twenty
Scarlett
I t’s the perfect opportunity to tell him. Everything. To just come clean and hope for the best.
Okay, not hope, because that’s the kind of wishy-washy thing he doesn’t like. Hudson likes plans and smart moves, and coming clean would normally be just that. And with everything that’s happened between us, by the way he’s touching me, looking at me like he wants another taste, I could work that.
Use my actual brain, solve the problem by coming up with a smart answer for him.
But I can’t.
All actions like that come with a risk, and risk is one thing I can’t do. Not now. Not after what Danny told me.
If Hudson turned me down, broke the contract, then I’d have zero money. I’ve read the fine print. Oh, I’d get the pay for the work at the office, but the rest? The real payout, the one I want for Danny? The one I now need for him? No. Not a cent.
And, just as bad as that is this: we’re in this now. Deep enough that the time count to what he wants doesn’t leave him room. He can walk away, yes, but he won’t have time to find someone else to do this now. I’m trapped.
And I need not to be.
I need to think. I slide my hand up from his thigh, over his hard chest that lies beneath the elegant suit, and twist my fingers into the tie and draw myself up close. His fingers are still cradling my face, but no longer doing that sublime and distracting dance against my lips.
“Are you trying to seduce me, Scarlett?”
His voice is low, dark velvet, quietly dangerous, and it’s a calling to my blood. I know this can get away from me, fast. “No.”
If I was a different kind of woman, a femme fatale, one of the sleek, effortlessly elegant women he no doubt slept with, I’d ask if he wanted me to.
But I don’t have the chutzpah for that. Instead, I close the gap and kiss him slow.
And he lets me.
A quiet exploration of a kiss, where I taste his lips, lick a path of my own, dip inside, pressing into him. He lets me. But he doesn’t kiss me back. My heart thumps hard in my chest, my pulse lurching. I’m not glamorous or powerful. I’m just me. But I know he wants me. The dark and hungry looks he’s given…his kisses and touches and the sex. Oh my God, the sex.
I know he wants me for some reason.
I don’t know why.
He could have his pick of any woman. And maybe it’s because I’m different or maybe it’s because I’m there and time is short and it’s smarter for him to use my attraction to make this seem real. I don’t know. But I’m ashamed to say, even if it’s the latter, then I’ll take it.
What that makes me I’m not sure, but I’m getting off track. I’m trying to find a way to give him the right words and to save my brother and get my money.
But as I’ve said, it’s more than that. It’s also for him. If this falls to pieces now, no one gets what they want, including Hudson and…I promised I’d help.
I pull back but his hand comes up from my cheek to my hair and he holds me there, right in kissing distance and I can see the stubble that’s starting to form, feel the warmth of his breath on my lips as he looks at me.
“Here’s the thing. I like you, Scarlett. I’m not in the habit of fucking women I don’t like on some level. But you can’t use that. Others have tried and failed. Others with way more…experience than you.”
I narrow my eyes. “By experience, I’m assuming you mean they’re more talented.”
“Did I say that?”
“You didn’t have to.”
He half smiles, drawing me back in, “Not what I meant at all. I meant…actually, it doesn’t matter, because games and manipulation and seduction, they aren’t going to work on me. I told you. Love doesn’t exist. And passion and need and attraction are physical things to be either ignored or indulged in. I can go either way.” His gaze drops now, to my lips. “No matter how difficult ignoring that can sometimes be.”
His words make my stomach somersault and I almost blurt out everything, but I grab hold of myself and pull back from that dangerous edge. “We can make this work.”
“You lied.”
“So I don’t live here, as I said—”
“I need to trust you in everything going forward, Scarlett. I told you that. Going in circles is a waste of my time.”
I know what the answer is, but it’s just as dangerous as that precipice, that edge.
“You’re right. I don’t want to waste my time, either. Hudson, we need to up the ante.”
“That’s what I said.”
I slide up and onto his lap and that hard on is there as I straddle him, half surprised he’s letting me do it, and half drunk on the whole bold move.
“What are you doing?”
I take his face in both hands, that strong, lean, gorgeous face. “What do you think? I’m upping the ante.”
“Or taking it down.”
I push against him and he half groans, his hand in my hair tightening as his other one comes up to my waist to hold me there, pressed in against him.
“Or maybe you’re just playing a dangerous game.”
“We’ve already had sex, Hudson, so we should use that.”
“And fuck now? Your ante is all over the place.”
“And your cock is hard.”
“Physical reaction, like I said. I’m attracted to you.” He moves his hand down to my throat and half circles it, his thumb teasing against my carotid artery. “What are you up to?”
“I’m saying we use this. Use it, this attraction, when we’re out, when we’re in the meeting, we can make this happen and…” I take a breath. “You’ll be okay.”
I’m babbling and I know it, and this time, when I kiss him to buy myself time, he kisses me back and all thought goes south.
It’s a powerhouse of a kiss, and the moment our tongues touch, the gentleness in how I began is gone, and it’s electrifying hunger. It burned in my veins and the kiss is pure sex, need, desire. All dark and wild, a storm that’s just him and me and we both know where it goes.
He takes over, his fingers sliding through my hair, back to my throat, and then down, over my breast, lingering, and he uses his other to bring me into tight, hard contact with his erection. And I throb with need. It’s a pressure within, tightly coiled, full of desire that knows what he can do, and I can’t help myself. I rub against him, and I know I’m getting wet.
My hands are in his hair and I’m kissing him with everything I am. All of it. Like I can come just from this.
And then he stops kissing me. Hudson lets go of me and pulls my hands from him, taking them down and he holds them by the wrists, behind my back.
His hair is mussed and I’m breathing hard. I don’t have to look to know my clothes are in disarray, and my skin is hot everywhere. His eyes glitter hard as he rakes his gaze over me.
“Seduction isn’t going to work, Scarlett, no matter how pretty your package. And I’ve meant everything I’ve said.”
Like his threat. I haven’t forgotten that. Of course I haven’t. Promise, threat, call it what you will, we both know what it is. Exactly. And I’m playing with fire and my brother’s future by playing Hudson.
Even if that’s not my intent.
“I’m trying to help.” The words are slightly breathless as I say them.
“By upping the ante?”
“Yes.”
I’m still pressed against him and I know what I have to do.
He’s not asking for me upping the ante like this. He knows we have that already. He’s asking me for the truth.
I dig in.
I’m going to dive down into my white lies with more, pepper them carefully, so they don’t seem as big as I think they’re becoming, but I know I can get through all this. There isn’t that much time and then after the meeting, after Hudson gets what he wants and he pays out, I spend the rest of the year rolling along until we split up.
What’s a handful of lies and months between friends?
Not that we’re friends, and I’m not under any illusions we’ll be doing anything much except perhaps make appearances after he says he’s in love and wants to marry me. They just want to see he’s found a bride. It’s not like he’s inheriting a family fortune. He has his own. I just have to play my role and show him I’m trustworthy.
Dangerous games, I know, but I’m not out to hurt him or anyone.
I’m going to have to take him to my place in Brooklyn. And I know I discussed this with Amber, but what if she lets something slip?
That’s if she’s home.
But I have to do this. Take that risk.
And—
“Scarlett, you’re plotting, I can see that.” He sighs and releases me, then puts me from him and leans back in the seat. “I don’t need plots. Just honesty.”
“I know. And I’m going to give it to you.”
He sits up and looks at me. “You are?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I’ll show you where I live.” I pause. “In Brooklyn.”
“When?” It’s that dark note in his voice, like I’m playing for time that really does it.
And I look at him, and I smile. “How about now?”