Hold Me Closer (Sea Island Brides Book 1) (11 page)

It
would be so easy to draw her into his arms and make love to her under
the boughs of the pecan tree. As she spoke, he imagined pulling her
close, exploring every inch of her body as she cried out for more.
But now was not the time or the place. The things he wanted to do to
her right now didn’t need to end up on the cover of any
magazine.

He
knew now that privacy was an illusion. Even on his own private
property. He’d learned that the hard way when those photographs
showed up on the front page of The Informer. But one thing was
certain. If anyone had been watching them together, there would be no
doubt as to their mutual attraction and respect for each other.
Convincing people they were engaged was going to be a piece of cake.

Now
he just needed to convince Annabelle that not everything in their
relationship needed to be fake.

“Oh,
my goodness, look at this one!”

Annabelle
slid the photo album toward Hudson. She laughed as he wrinkled his
nose in distaste.

“Not
one of my best days,” he joked, sliding the book back to her.

“I
disagree,” she said. “I think you made a handsome Darth
Vader.”

“Luke,
I am your father,” he said, doing a terrible impression that
made her start giggling all over again.

She
turned the page and smiled at the Halloween pictures. The two of them
had been going through Hudson’s family photo albums all
evening. It was part of his “let’s get to know each
other” plan for when reporters started asking questions at the
bonfire the following night. For two days, Annabelle had been with
Hudson almost nonstop, and she was surprised at how well they got
along.

Whenever
she thought about the inevitable ending to their growing friendship,
her stomach tangled in knots. Keeping a solid distance from him would
be a much smarter path to take, but when they were together, it was
so easy to forget about her reasons for staying away.

“How
old were you in these pictures?” She traced her finger along
the gold rim of the page. It was hard to reconcile the smiling blond
boy in the pictures with the intimidating man she’d first met
that day by the pool. The Hudson she was getting to know was so
different from the cold man her cousin had described to her. He was
warm and caring and he made her laugh. It was hard to believe this
was the same man who had been so cruel to her cousin.

Hudson
leaned over to take another look. “Ten? Yeah, I think Jack was
about fourteen and Jilly was only seven.”

Hudson
and Harlen were both dressed as Darth Vader. His older brother was
Luke Skywalker, and his sister was a pouting Princess Leia.

“It
doesn’t look like Jilly was too thrilled with her costume.”

Hudson
laughed. “No, she wanted to be Luke.”

“Where
was Scarlett?” she asked.

Scarlett
was the oldest Montgomery daughter, just a year older than her twin
brothers.

“She
had come down with a terrible bug that year,” he said. “The
flu or something, I think. Dad had to take us trick-or-treating,
because Mom was at Scarlett’s bedside all night. That was one
of the only times I remember our father taking us out like that
without Mom. It was probably his worst nightmare.”

The
room grew quiet at the mention of Hudson’s father. He didn’t
talk about him much, but it was obvious how much he had adored his
dad. And how much he missed him.

Annabelle
knew all about what it was like to miss your father.

Just
as Annabelle’s thoughts started to turn more serious, she
turned the page and erupted in laughter again. “Now this one is
definitely a keeper.”

“Which
one?” Hudson asked, trying to get a better look.

“Uh
uh,” she laughed, shaking her head as she covered the picture
with both hands. “I’m not showing it to you. There’s
no way I’m handing this over without a fight. Next thing I
know, this picture will disappear, never to be seen again. I can’t
let that happen.”

Hudson
got up from the couch and stepped over the piles of photo albums
spread out around her. In an instant, he was by her side, crouched
down and studying the pictures around the one she was hiding. Her
heart raced as she inhaled his scent and felt the warmth of his body
close to hers.

“Oh,
no,” he said with a groan. “Those look like pictures of
my Boy Scout troupe. If the picture you’re hiding is the one I
think it is, you’d better hand it over!”

Without
hesitation, Annabelle sprang up, the leather volume clutched close to
her chest, a finger stuck holding the page. “I’ll hand it
over,” she said. “Right after I blow it up and frame it
to put on display at our engagement party.”

She
pressed her back flat against the wall on the opposite side of the
study and smiled at him. He stood and tilted his head, squinting his
eyes as if to say he was up to the challenge.

Hudson
slowly moved to his left around the piles of photos on the floor, and
Annabelle countered by moving in the opposite direction. After a
couple of steps, he stopped and started walking to his right. He
moved slowly, like a lion tracking his prey.

She
giggled, her heart pumping.

He
maneuvered around the books and papers, then headed straight for her.
Annabelle gasped and sprinted toward the door, but Hudson was too
fast for her. Just as she reached the doorway, his large frame
blocked her. Her heart was pounding fast, and she laughed nervously
as the back of her hand brushed his chest.

Hudson
walked closer to her and she backed up, her head tilted up toward
his. Their eyes locked and in that instant, Annabelle wanted nothing
more than to be in his arms. How many times over the past few days
had she wished for the feel of his lips against hers? Or his arms
around her?

She
licked her lips and let out a rush of air. “Okay. I’ll
cut you a deal,” she said, needing to fill the tense silence.
Giving in to him now was far too dangerous. She had to get rid of
this tension in the air before it overwhelmed her.

“Oh?”
Hudson asked, raising one eyebrow. “What kind of deal?”

“I’ll
show you this picture if you’ll agree to sit down with me and
look through the rest of the photos in this book. I want to hear at
least one great story about your childhood before I go to bed
tonight.”

He
seemed to think it over for a second, and then agreed. “Sounds
fair. Now hand it over.”

“Of
course, Mr. Montgomery, sir,” she said, teasing him with a
salute.

He
held out his hand to take the photos, but she ignored him, plopping
back down onto the floor. Annabelle laid the album flat and patted
the rug where she wanted him to sit. “The deal was that you
would sit down with me, remember?”

Hudson
sucked in a deep breath and then exhaled, rolling his eyes as he sat.
Annabelle pointed to a photograph of a very young Hudson. He hair was
spiked up with a ridiculous amount of gell and he was missing one of
his front teeth, but he was smiling from ear to ear, sitting in a
canoe with his father and waving back toward shore.

Looking
at the picture, Annabelle fought off another bout of giggles. She
glanced over at Hudson, expecting to see him laughing as well, but
instead she saw that he looked almost somber as he stared at the
picture.

“What’s
wrong? Did I upset you?” she asked, wanting so badly to reach
out and touch his hand.

“I
had completely forgotten about this,” he said, touching the
picture with his fingertips. “I was working on different Cub
Scout badges that summer, competing with a friend of mine to see who
could earn the most before school started back that fall.”

Hudson
shifted his weight slightly, and Annabelle tried hard not to move
closer to him. She felt like there was a magnet pulling her body
toward his, and there was nothing more she wanted in the world than
to be closer to him in every way possible. Sitting back down to look
at photos was supposed to diffuse the tension, not ramp it up.

“Larry
Wexler was the kid’s name,” he said. “I haven’t
thought of him in years... Mid-summer he was already two badges
ahead, and you know me, I hate to lose.”

The
intimacy of the moment almost hurt her physically. Ever since the
death of her parents, she had purposely avoided moments like this.
Getting close to people only made it hurt that much more when they
were gone.

Tonight,
she wished she could believe that it wouldn’t hurt so much to
let Hudson into her life. She wished she didn’t know the
downside to loving someone, only to have them taken away.

But
she did know.

The
worst part was that it was her own lies that would send Hudson away
from her in the end. Anything they might have shared was doomed
before they even met.

“I
asked my father to go fishing with me one weekend,” he
continued, clearly deep in thought. “Our family owns a house on
Lake Hiawassee, up in the mountains, and we would sometimes go there
for a week or two. Dad wasn’t always there, of course. A lot of
the time, he was just too busy with work. But that weekend, he said
he’d drive up to the lake to help me earn my badge.”

Annabelle
watched as Hudson flipped the page, revealing another set of photos
taken of the two of them in the canoe.

“I
remember being so excited about the thought of getting out on that
lake, just the two of us. I had been looking forward to it all week,
but when Friday came, Mom broke the news that Dad wasn’t coming
to the lake after all. Work had held him up yet again, and he was
sorry, but he couldn’t make it.”

She could see the anguish in Hudson’s eyes. He looked so
vulnerable. So real. Not at all like the cold and powerful CFO of a
multi-billion-dollar business.

“Getting
up on Saturday morning, though, that was like Christmas. I woke up to
the sound of my Dad’s voice calling my name behind our house.
My eyes were open in an instant, and I ran down the stairs so fast I
hardly felt them underneath my feet. Turns out he stayed up most of
Friday night getting his work done so he could come out and fulfill
the promise he made to me.” He looked down at the photograph
again and smiled. His eyes glistened. “That was one of the best
days of my life. Just me and my dad.”

The
room grew quiet. For a moment, Annabelle was afraid he could hear the
pounding of her heart in her chest. Hudson Montgomery was full of
surprises. Just a few days ago she thought he was the most one-sided
human being she had ever known. But now, Annabelle saw a softness in
his features that was warm and new. His love for his father was
clear. She hadn’t thought him capable of such love until now.

“Annabelle.”

The
sound of her name on his lips was enough to send a rush of heat up
her cheeks.

“Yes?”
she asked, unable to look away from him.

“I
don’t know what it is about you,” he said, his hand
moving to cup her face. Her mouth went dry at his touch, and she bit
her lower lip to keep it from trembling. “I’ve never
really opened up to anyone like that before.”

Annabelle’s
body buzzed from head to toe with the thrill of his touch, as though
she were plugged into some secret electric
current. Hudson leaned closer. She was drawn to him, finally allowing
the magnetic pull between them to take over.

Their
lips brushed in one soft, tentative movement. She pulled away, but he
brought her closer. Annabelle opened her lips, yearning to taste him,
to get closer to him, and Hudson responded, moving his hand to
massage the back of her neck.

Their
bodies came together in a mixture of warmth and vibration. Annabelle
put her hands around his waist and pulled him closer, her lips
spreading wider at the probing of his tongue. The attraction she had
been holding inside bubbled to the surface and she let out a hungry
whimper.

As
Hudson’s hands began to run up and down her back, all Annabelle
wanted was to feel him on top of her, inside of her. Without
thinking, she began to pull his shirt from his pants, eager to feel
his skin against her own.

She reached under his shirt and ran her hands up his bare back, her
fingernails exploring his smooth skin. A lower, more guttural moan
escaped from Hudson and in that moment, she understood that he wanted
her every bit as much as she wanted him. His lips traveled down her
face to her neck, and she lifted her head to give him access.

Heat
spread through her body like wildfire. Hudson’s kisses burned a
path down her neck that left her panting and clawing at him, hungry
for more. He lifted her shirt in a frenzied motion, kissing her
breasts through her thin silk bra, her nipples taut with
anticipation.

From
somewhere deep inside, a small voice cried out against his touch.
This was wrong. But oh, each tiny exploration of his mouth on her
skin made her beg for more. She cried out as he lowered her to the
floor and kissed her quivering stomach. Her fingers entwined in his
thick hair, and she raised her bottom off the floor, begging for
satisfaction that could only come once they were joined together. For
a glorious moment she was lost in her own base nature, the pure
primal thirst for skin on skin and the joining of flesh.