Chapter 12
HUDSON
It’s ridiculous how she has turned my cane corso into a whining mess. Not that Maximus is particularly vicious. I’m convinced that he’s the best damn dog ever born, and he’d never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it. But he’s trained to protect me and mine, so he’s known to be unfriendly toward strangers.
It usually takes him time to warm up to people. On one hand, I’m glad he’s taken to her since after Andrea and I will be married they’ll be seeing a lot of each other, but now I can’t even use him to threaten her.
“Why didn’t you tell me Maximus was just a soft little marshmallow? You wanted me to believe he was dangerous to make me cower, didn’t you?” She accuses me as I lead her to the first floor study, so we can have some privacy while we talk.
“When would I have had the chance to bring my dog up?” I ask, giving her a pointed look. “What exactly are you doing out of our bedroom? Who unlocked the door for you?” I open the study door, giving her a small frown.
Her eyes go wide; she immediately spins to face me as she enters the room. “It wasn’t her fault. I pushed her back as soon as she opened the door and took a run for it.”
So it was Diane. My lips purse.
“No, seriously, Hudson. It wasn’t her fault, I swear. Don’t blame her,” she continues earnestly. I watch in fascinated amusement as she sidles closer to me. She hesitates briefly and runs her hand up my chest. My heart jumps at the contact, but I don’t let it show that her touch affects me. Is she going to use her wiles on me now?
“You have to believe me, okay? Say you won’t punish her.” She bites her bottom lip, blinking coyly as she beseeches me. I’m aware of what she’s doing, but fuck if it’s not working anyway.
I shift away from her touch and clear my throat. Dangerous female. “I know how hard-headed you can be,” I tell her as I walk to my desk. “If I’m going to punish anyone, it will be you.”
My back is turned to her but I can still hear her relieved breath. “Are you still mad at me?” she asks quietly.
I sit behind my desk and study her. I was never angry at her. Okay I was when I saw the state of my closet, but I’m long over that. But that’s not what she’s asking, anyway; she thinks I’m mad because of the slap. In truth, I was mad at myself for letting my guard down. Did I really think she’d jump happily into my arms after I had kidnapped her? No…but after our obvious chemistry in her bar, I thought she might be a little more…intrigued. And for some reason, I thought she was starting to get complacent. I won’t make that mistake again.
“No,” I answer curtly. “Were you trying to escape?”
She rolls her eyes. “As if I would be able to get around all fifty–five men you have stationed here. I’m not fool enough to believe I could actually leave without your permission. I needed to get out of that room, though, and fuck I was irritable because of a lack of caffeine. I’m still irritable.”
Her expression seems sincere. “That’s right. You have a little caffeine addiction. I’m trying to get rid of that inconvenient habit for you.”
She gapes at me and jumps to her feet. “Who the hell do you think you are?” I watch in fascination as she speaks in rapid French, cursing me colorfully as she paces up and down the study. When she faces me again, she’s successfully worked herself into a frenzy.
She pants as she glares at me. “I want you to take that notion out of your head right now, or I swear I’m going to be as uncooperative as possible.”
“I see,” I say simply.
“You see? You see?!” she screeches and takes a threatening step toward me. I raise a hand in surrender.
“I meant that I didn’t understand you felt that strongly about coffee. Hold on.” I text Walker to bring a coffee for her. “Two sugars, no milk right?” I confirm as I drop my phone.
“I’m not even surprised that you know how I take my coffee. At this point, it feels like you know everything about me,” she complains as she takes the seat across from me.
“I do,” I confirm. She doesn’t like that if the glare she tosses at me is any indication.
“You’ve been watching me for a while before you kidnapped me. How long?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“How long!?” She slaps her hand on the desk between us.
“Two months.”
“Oh,” she mutters softly.
“Since around the time Ezra told me he wanted to leave the organization. I sent my man to find out everything about him. I wanted to know what had changed when I was certain that he had been content previously.” I knew he wasn’t exactly happy, but I hoped that would change over time.
“That was when he found out about Charlie’s pregnancy,” she says. “He must have wanted to protect his new family.”
He could have still done that even if he remained with me. “I don’t want to talk about your brother. Let’s talk about our–”
“First.” She raises a hand to stop me. “I’d like to know just how deep your research extended. How did you get a copy of my car fob with you? How do you know so much? Did you have your man go into my apartment?”
I study her wondering just how much of the truth she can handle. “I stopped him a month ago and took over your surveillance myself.”
She nods slowly and agrees, “Okay. What did the surveillance entail?”
I sigh, deciding to let it all out. What do I have to lose? I have her right where I want her. Nothing I say will change that. Not while she still fears for her family’s safety.
“I copied your apartment pin and the code to unlock your car, as you know.” I watch her, but she only nods for me to continue. “I had visuals and audio of all the rooms in your apartment…except the bathroom. Your car too. Oh, and I bugged your phone so I could see your texts and hear your conversations on the phone as well as in person as long as you had your phone with you.” That’s how I had heard her conversation with her father.
“You’ve been watching me in my own home?” Her eyes track back and forth frantically, clearly recalling all of the personal moments that I could have witnessed. “I had people over. Men. Once or twice. You saw me with them?”
“Yes, pet. I saw their sad attempts to pleasure a woman so clearly out of their league. Just like I saw you tend to your needs the moment you politely shoved them out the door.” She looks at me, her eyes wide in shock. “And every other time you took matters into your own hands… which I must say was quite often…” I add with a knowing smirk.
She’s visibly fuming at this point, but I continue. She needs to know the lengths I went to understand and appreciate her.
“I know everything about you, Andrea. I know how many coffees you need to function in the morning and the orgasms you take greedily to fall asleep at night. I know every little sound you make while you come. And neither of those men you had allowed into your bed were able to get them out of you.”
She stares at me, chest heaving breathlessly. “‘You’re unbelievable.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet, love,” I promise. “One of these days I’ll show you what a real man feels like because I know exactly what you desire and how to give it to you. You just have to ask.”
That last statement clearly caught her offhand because she stops breathing altogether. Should I perhaps have held back a little? I stare at her pale face with concern. She explodes out of her chair in outrage.
“You crazy motherfucker!” Just as she starts toward me, the study door opens and Crew and Eli burst in. What the hell?
“YOU!” Eli growls at her with murderous intent on his face. She spins around to glare at him. “She stole my knife again,” Eli tells me. I stare at her, waiting for confirmation. She snatches the offending weapon from her bra–a-fucking-gain–and wields it, shaking it at me and my men.
“None of you move,” she growls, her blue eyes wild with an unhinged quality. In this moment, I know if anyone gets within her reach, she wouldn’t hesitate to use the knife, consequences be damned.
“Leave us,” I tell Eli and Crew. “I’ll deal with this.” They both hesitate, as if I can’t deal with a small woman holding a knife. “Now.” They exchange glances. Eli leaves after one last glance at Andrea.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, H,” Crew stammers in Italian and leaves as well. Alone with my captive, I stare at her, wondering what sent her over the edge. Probably the proposition to beg me to fuck her. Yeah, that was probably it, I think and laugh internally.
“If I don’t go through with our farce engagement and marriage, will you really go through with your threat?” she demands.
No, but I can’t fucking tell her that or I’ll lose all the ground I’ve gained, so I give her a pointed glance. She screeches angrily and starts for me, knife raised up. All I do is lean back further in my chair and wait for this wild, beautiful–and possibly a little crazy– woman to try to stab me.