26. Faith
The only time I’d heard of people coming in here was to hook up. Glancing around at the four walls, I winced. There really weren’t a whole lot of places to get it on. I mean, there was a folding table against the back with a couple of chairs at it and a long, wide wall shelf to one side.
I had a feeling the table would collapse if anything over a hundred pounds were plopped on it.
But that shelf—that shelf had potential.
As my thoughts spiraled right into the gutter, Hudson whirled to scowl at me.
“Slimy? Really?”
I blinked visions of him and me getting down and dirty from my head and focused on the dismayed outrage in his expression.
“Huh?”
He slapped a hand to his chest. “I can’t believe you called me slimy. I mean…ouch. That actually hurts.”
I winced. “Genesis told you about that, huh?”
“Yes! And turpentine?” he went on. “Do you know what that would legit do to my dick? You honestly intend to cause me lasting bodily harm, don’t you?”
“Wow.” I blew out a miserable breath. “She just told you everything I said, didn’t she?”
“Yes, she did,” he growled irritably. “And I did not appreciate the third degree she gave me, demanding to know how long I’d known you, where we’d met, how close we were. She damn near accused me of cheating, and I didn’t even do shit wrong. I literally only bumped into you.”
“I mean…” With a cringe and tip of my head, I squinted at him before saying, “You did kind of stay over at my place last night and then made me breakfast this morning in your underwear…after raiding my panty drawer and buying me a damn cat.”
“But nothing untoward happened,” he argued.
Untoward? Lifting one eyebrow, I made a small sound of disagreement and said, “Except for that incident in the bathroom where we almost had sex.”
“We didn’t even kiss,” he cried.
I tipped my chin in toward my chest to stare him down, and he huffed out a deflated breath, muttering, “Okay, so I slipped up for a microsecond. These are all things she knows nothing about. Right?” When I didn’t answer, he lifted his eyebrows and repeated, “Right?” with just a little more emphasis.
“Well, I certainly didn’t tell her.”
“Then, she doesn’t know,” he said, taking me for my word. “And yet she’s seriously pissed right now. So why the hell is she so pissed?”
With an irritated shrug, I said, “I don’t know. Because she has sand in her vagina? The bitch is just naturally a pissy individual. I’m not sure what else I can tell you.”
He stared at me a moment longer before snarling, “Oh my fucking God. You’re honestly just going to stand there and not tell me that you’re the reason I’m stuck in this situation in the first place, aren’t you?”
My heart skipped a beat. “What?”
“Don’t you, what, tome. I can see the guilt all over your face. Genesis didn’t just walk into the kitchen at her dad’s restaurant and fall madly in love with some rando. She doesn’t even know what love is. She recognized me from somewhere and wanted to use me to hurt someone, and with me being her father’s employee, she knew she had me by the balls and could get me to do whatever she wanted.”
“I really have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said, lifting my chin self-righteously, even as I gulped uneasily.
And here, I’d just convinced myself I was better than playing dumb.
I guess I wasn’t after all.
“You know,” he murmured, rolling his jaw as if to keep his cool. “I may not be the smartest person out there, but I was able to get into Haverick on my own steam, and I know people. I know there’s a reason why I’m supposed to wait for her on that very bench every time she goes to Statistics class. She’s using me to get at someone else, to make someone else jealous. Now, I had my suspicions, but I didn’t know for sure who that someone else was until today. Not until you pointed out to me where you always sit. Right within a bird’s eye view of my bench.”
My lips parted and my breathing went wonky as my head went light.
“You’re the cruel bully she told me about,” he said. “The one she claimed was such a good friend until you plagiarized some paper off her during freshman year.”
“Excuse me!” I snarled, utterly aghast that he would even dare say such a thing aloud. “The fuck if I plagiarized her. I’ve never cheated a day in my life. That lying bitch cheated off ME!”
His mouth dropped open. “So you are the reason I’m still stuck with her. You two were actually friends? Then you had a falling out, and now she’s using me as revenge because you told her you had some kind of crush on me or something? FAITH!”
“I didn’t cheat,” I swore through gritted teeth, shaking my head and feeling the anger steam off me all over again.
Hudson only snorted and rolled his eyes. “Well, that’s obvious. I’ve seen her grades. Only a true moron would plagiarize her.”
I blinked. Then my mouth dropped. “Then why the hell didn’t anyone on the school’s advisory council seem to realize that?”
Hudson’s shoulders collapsed, and he tipped his head with a get-real glance. “Because her daddy’s funding the entire culinary arts division. How do you think she got accepted into Haverick in the first place?”
I frowned. “But that’s not?—”
“Fair?” Hudson asked, finishing for me. “No shit. Life’s not fair, sweetheart. Rules get broken for the privileged and rich. And some people who don’t deserve to get accepted into this university get in, anyway. Then they lie their asses off to the administration, and everyone believes them because they can’t afford not to. But what I can’t believe,” he went on, gripping his head, “is how a bright, talented girl like you managed to find yourself on her bad side, let alone reveal to her what your weak links were so that she could hurt you with them. God, I can’t believe you even befriended her in the first place. I mean, Genesis? Really, Stalker?”
Hugging myself, I muttered, “I was new to town and desperate to make a friend. And she was nice to me.”
He wrinkled his face into a grimace, as if trying to figure out how the word nice could ever be applied to Genesis.
“But I have no idea how I got onto her bad side,” I railed. “She’s the asshole who plagiarized me and nearly got me thrown out of college. I have a permanent mark on my record now. She should be worried about getting off my shit list.”
“Pfft. I can already imagine your shit list, darlin’. And you couldn’t destroy a person’s life the way she could. She could totally annihilate someone before breakfast and then completely forget their existence by lunch. You have way too much heart for that.”
“Well, I don’t know why she’s still gunning for me after all this time. I didn’t do shit to her.”
“You didn’t necessarily have to,” Hudson answered with an exhausted sigh. “All you had to do was wear fucking shoes she thought were cuter than hers or?—”
I gasped. “Is that why she stole my shoes?”
“Probably. There’s no telling what’ll set her off on any given day.”
“And my necklace too,” I complained. “That was my favorite damn necklace. It had a pure gold chain with the cutest Haverick horseshoe hanging from it and seven tiny diamonds embedded where the nail holes would go. It was a present from Mirlande, the owner of Jezebel’s Nest, and she’d gotten, Be your true self, inscribed on the back, just for me. I freaking loved it.”
Hudson stared at me in confusion before shaking his head. “Anyway… The only thing I know is that Gen makes everyone around herpay when she’s miffed, and you and I are both paying for whatever imagined slight you did do.”
“Well, great.” I muttered, lifting my hands helplessly. “That’s just…great.”
His eyebrows rose. “Is that really all you have to say right now? Great?”
“I don’t know what you expect me to say,” I snapped. “Sorry that I got you caught up in her drama? I’m telling you, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I want you to say yes,” he rasped.
Wrinkling my nose in confusion, I shook my head. “Yes to what?”
“Yes to my proposition,” he said, stepping closer. “Because if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, and I promise it’ll make us both feel incredibly good.”
My brows furrowed suspiciously. “If you think offering me sex is going to entice me to do anything for you, you’re delusional.”
His eyebrows shot up, and he opened his mouth for a good two seconds before saying, “I…actually hadn’t even considered the idea of offering up my body as ransom.” Then he tilted his face curiously and started to grin mischievously. “Damn, Stalker,” he cheered. “Just how bad do you want me?”
“Oh my God,” I mumbled, feeling my face heat with mortification. Spinning toward the exit, I started to march toward it. “I’m leaving.”
“Alright, hey.” His voice was soft and urgent as he gripped my arm, halting me. “We’ll table the sex talk for later. Right now, I have a plan. And it can work. For both of us.”
I turned my face to look up at him and shook my head. “Why do I already not like where this is heading?”
“No clue. Because there’s nothing not to like here,” he promised. “All you have to do is get me out of this relationship—or whatever the fuck it is that she has me trapped in—without me losing my job in the process, and I’ll get your little plagiarizing record expunged.”
I stared at him blankly for nearly five seconds before I sniffed. “Bullshit. You don’t have the authority to do a thing like that.”
I turned back toward the door, and he leaped in front of me, blocking the way. “But I can get access to Gen’s phone,” he argued.
“What?” I shook my head, not tracking.
“I’ve seen Genesis punch in her passcode a hundred times. So I can get into her text messages to her friends.” His eyebrows lifted encouragingly before he added, “Friends that she tells everything. I’m saying, these are the people she brags to about every evil thing she does. Like cheating off other students.”
My heart did a little double thump, and I turned to Hudson fully, unable to help myself.
His grin broadened. “All I have to do is a little search for the word Faith in her messages app, and bam…I bet I can find exactly where she dished to them about what she did to you.”
My lips parted in wonder. But if he could get proof of her admitting her guilt…
“Want to clear your name with the university?” he asked, waggling his brows enticingly. “I can help with that.”
“Whatever,” I argued, too afraid to dare hope. “She probably erased all her messages from that far back.”
“Doubt it,” he countered with a catty grin. “She has those little red notification circles on every fucking app in her phone. And some of those badge counts? In the triple digits. She doesn’t erase shit.”
I shuddered. “God. That would drive me crazy.”
“I don’t doubt it…since you rainbow-organize your underwear drawer.”
“And that’s another thing,” I said, pointing accusingly at him. “You really need to keep your damn hands out of my dresser. That was an unacceptable violation of my privacy.”
Hudson only grinned as he motioned to his ear as if I’d been put on mute. “I mean, I hear the words coming out of your mouth,” he said. “But that little gleam in your eyes says you like knowing I touched your panties.”
The next look I sent him could’ve burned baby puppies alive. “I hate you so much,” I seethed, even as the husky chuckle he sent me turned my nipples hard.
“Sure you do, darlin’. Now, do we have a deal or not?”
I shook my head, all disgusted and flustered and yet wholly captivated by this man. “You never told me what you needed me to do in return.”
“Oh, that’s easy.” He brightened. “Just make her believe you don’t care about me sucking on her tongue anymore.”
I pulled back, startled. “Excuse me?”
Hudson lifted his hands. “Stop acting so jealous of her being with me,” he said more slowly. “It’s as simple as that.”
My mouth fell open. “But I’m not jealous.”
Hudson barked out a quick laugh. “Yeah, no one believes that.”
“Well, it’s true,” I spat, starting to feel violent that he would dare suggest otherwise.
Even if he did just so happen to be right.
Lifting one eyebrow, he countered, “Oh yeah?” Then, he pushed away from the door with so much intent and heat in his eyes that I swallowed thickly and slunk an intimidated step back. “So if I told you that I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he started, and I slowed to a stop as he eased another step forward. “And I wanted to kiss you so bad it was like an ache in my bones…” My throat went dry as he stopped directly before me, so close that I had to tip my head back to see into his eyes. He lifted a finger and barely traced it down the front of my neck. “Then you wouldn’t let me take you against that wall right there at this very moment?”
“That,” I paused to catch my breath and swallow yet again. “That’s not playing fair.”
“No, it isn’t,” Hudson agreed before he had mercy and backed away a few inches. “But it proved my point, didn’t it?”
It really had. Except, now I felt so vulnerable and exposed that I hugged myself and tried to disappear as I backed into the nearest wall and leaned against it, folding slightly at the waist.
“I…I guess,” I rasped as I bowed my head so he couldn’t see how small and stupid I felt.
When my breathing went wonky and stuttered, a warm hand gently cupped the side of my head.
“Hey,” he said softly. “God, Faith. I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone that far. That was cruel of me.”
I bobbed my head without looking up. “Yes, it was.”
“Honestly,” he added in an encouraging voice. “I like this…interest you seem to have in me. It’s fucking flattering. Especially from you because you’re so…” He sucked in a sharp breath, as if describing me was too overwhelming to attempt. “I’m just saying, I wasn’t lying. The need to kiss you is becoming a constant ache in my bones. And if I wasn’t tangled up in about five different brewing shitstorms right now, I wouldn’t be able to stay away. But?—”
“You know,” I snarled, cutting him off right there so I could look up at him with a scowl. “It’s not like I want to like you, okay?” To prove it, I shoved him away viciously. And as he stumbled back, the warmth of his palm left my hair. I choked out my regret and blinked away tears that were building in my eyes.
“I barely even know you,” I ranted. “And I knew even less the first time I saw you when Genesis witnessed the whole beginning of my stupid infatuation. But whenever you’re around, the rest of the world goes mute and blurry. It’s like no one else in the universe exists but you. And then you… Then you sought me out at work and fucking charmed me with napkin roses and everything you did and said before you foisted a damn cat on me. I mean… What the fuck? Who does that? It was the most aggravating, audacious…thoughtfully sweet thing anyone has ever done for me. I fucking love that cat. I don’t know what I’d do without her. And the fact that you gave her to me… Yeah.” I shook my head cluelessly. “I have no idea how to just…stop wanting you.”
“Well, that’s easy.” Hudson shrugged as if the impossibility of my situation was no big deal at all. “We just gotta knock me off that pedestal you put me on, which honestly…” He lifted his eyebrows and nodded encouragingly. “Shouldn’t be hard at all because, trust me, darlin’, I ain’t that special. My own parents can’t even stand me.”
Except hearing that didn’t repel me in the least. Now I just wanted to soothe his poor wounded soul because the assholes who’d raised him obviously hadn’t appreciated how special I knew deep in my bones that he had to be.
Unable to help myself, I lifted my hand tentatively toward his face. When he didn’t stop me, just watched me with lifted eyebrows as if curious to see what I’d do next, I barely touched his cheek with the tips of my fingers.
“Your parents are idiots,” I whispered.
His lips parted, and he released a breath. So I kept going. I ran my fingers up his jawline and into his hair, making him groan and close his eyes. He tipped his face down until he was pressing his brow to mine.
“If you’re attempting to make me just as addicted to you as you are to me, I think it’s working.” He sank closer and I could hear his throat shift as he swallowed. “Please don’t stop.”
I didn’t. I plowed my fingers into his hair, and we both moaned in delight—him because I used my nails to lightly scrape his scalp and me because his locks were just so soft and silky.
“Faith.” Hudson slapped his hand to the wall next to my face. “I suddenly can’t remember why I’m not supposed to touch you.”
“Because of Genesis,” I reminded him.
He shook his head as if tormented. “Who?”
A smug smile crested my lips. “Your girlfriend,” I sang in a teasing voice. “Remember her? My biggest enemy.”
Hudson released a breath. “Right. Fuck.” Then he groaned in agony and tore himself away from me. When he lifted his face, he absolutely slayed me by running his tongue over his lip as if imagining what I tasted like. Then he shoved a harassed hand through his hair, right where I’d just had my fingers.
“I’m not free to do this, and I’m not going to drag you into my fucked-up, possibly even dangerous life right now.”
“Except I’m the one who dragged you into this situation. Remember? She wouldn’t have looked at you twice if it wasn’t for me.”
“Whoa! Hey…” Clearly offended, he lifted his hands. “I mean, I think I would’ve rated at least a second glance from her.”
When I merely blinked at him, he began to nod. “Granted, I don’t have the class or the big bucks to really draw her in, but I think she would’ve at least looked twice.”
“Okay, fine. She would’ve looked twice,” I agreed. “Three times even.”
With a moody sniff, he mumbled, “Thank you.”
“Admitting that doesn’t solve any of our problems, though.”
“Then we need to make her jealous right back,” he countered.
I shook my head, lost. “Huh?”
“She needs to see you with someone who puts me to shame so I’m no longer useful leverage in her jealous-inducing revenge plan.”
I snorted. “Yeah right. That’s not even possible.” There wasn’t a man on the planet perfect enough to put him to shame.
Hudson snickered. “Cut it out, Woods. I already have enough of an overinflated ego.”
“I’m serious,” I cried. “How do we find someone enticing enough to catch Genesis’s interest, let alone convince them to agree to some fake relationship charade with me?”
“Well…” He grinned engagingly as he twitched up his eyebrows briefly. “It just so happens that I have a rich, handsome, and arrogant prick in my back pocket who would be more than willing to help me out of any jam. And he is exactlythe type of guy to make Genesis sit up and pant.”
“What? Who?” I demanded, not even about to believe such a claim.
Until Hudson crossed his arms over his chest. “My buddy, Parker. From the other night.”
I stared at him cluelessly for a moment, trying to remember which one Parker had been. Keene and Alec, I’d just seen this morning. Thane was the only black guy. Foster, the football quarterback. And Oaklynn’s boy had been…Damien, I think. Which meant Parker had to have been?—
The big tipper.
Snapping my fingers, I pointed at Hudson with bright, excited eyes. “Oh my God, yes! Holy hell, he’d be perfect.”
But instead of nodding and agreeing, Hudson’s brow furrowed with displeasure. “Whoa, whoa,” he cautioned me. “What’s all this holy hell business? Don’t go gettin’ too excited about cozying up to him. It won’t be real, remember? We’re just trying to convince Gen you two are an item. I’m the one who makes the rest of your world go mute and blurry, remember? According to you, you’re not even supposed to realize Ohrley exists, since I was there when you met him.”
I gaped at him in puzzled confusion before tilting my head and saying, “You’re seriously not…jealous right now. Are you?”
“You’re my stalker,” he cried.
When I merely blinked at him, he huffed out a frustrated breath. “Sue me, but I like your attention being fixated on me.”
I shrugged. “Okay, fine. Then, we won’t use Parker. What about the football quarterback guy? He’s famous enough to interest Genesis.”
“No,” Hudson groaned pathetically. “Foster’s too honest and nice. He wouldn’t be able to act his way through something as deceptive as this. We have to use Parker. He is legit the perfect person for this gig. No one else could get her to eat out of the palm of his hand the way he could.”
“Then…?” I lifted my brows, letting him make the decision.
“We use Parker,” Hudson mumbled. “Just…” He pointed accusingly at me. “Don’t act so enthusiastic about the idea of having his hands on you.”
“Wait. Where are his hands going to be?”