Page 88 of All the Ugly Things
He chewed on the inside of his cheek. Whatever he was thinking was busy and intense.
I didn’t know what he was planning, what he was trying to solve for me, but he’d already done so much.
I tugged the blanket off me and stretched out my legs. “I should go. I still have to get ready for Judith’s.”
“Are you turning in your notice tonight?” He pushed off the couch with me, and stood, swiping those large, strong hands down his thighs.
“Yep. And then you’ll probably see me so much at work and in our same building you’ll be sick of me before you know it.”
It was a lame joke, but when Hudson was silent, not rising to the bait at all, I turned to him. “What?”
His eyes were narrowed, not in that sad way of his but something else. He shook his head. “Nothing. I’ll walk you home.”
I laughed. It sounded scratchy. First he walked me around the block, and now this? “I live three floors below you.”
He grabbed his keys and slid them into his pockets. “I’ll walk you home.”
“Okay.” I was fighting a smile. This guy. None of this was necessary. What was going to happen to me on an elevator ride inside a secure building?
He didn’t speak again until I got to my door and turned, shyly grinning up at him. He smelled like citrus and sunshine and as I opened my mouth to thank him for a great night, even if we’d fumbled our way through it, his fingers pressed to my lips.
“You wanted tonight to be as friends,” he said. “I gave that to you. And if that’s what you want, you have that from me. No questions, no expectations. But I think, while I wasn’t going to say anything, I want you to know if you’d like more from me than that, I want to explore that with you.”
I trembled beneath his touch. My head spun as I tried to make sense of everything he was saying. I hadn’t… I hadn’t expected this. And I lifted a hand to press it to my chest, trying to settle my racing heart.
That finger brushed across my lips, to my cheek until his hand was at my jaw, cupping my face like I was porcelain.
“Hudson—” I had no clue what else to say, only that I wanted to say his name, over and over again, and have him keep touching me.
“Don’t say anything. Friends until you say more.” He leaned closer, and every millimeter he moved closer, my body warmed in exponential degrees until he was right there. His lips at my cheek. His body crowding me in a way I was almost desperate to reach for him, wrap my arms around him. See if hugs made me feel as safe as his presence was starting to.
“Have a good night, Lilly. Thank you for dinner.”
He kissed me then. Lips brushing my cheek as he whispered.
My eyelids fluttered closed while I inhaled every memory of this moment, cementing it into my mind forever. A rush of excitement and nerves slid through me, making every part of me hot.
It was barely a kiss. A hint of one. My first in seven years.
And it was glorious.
I reached for him as he pulled back, hands sliding to his sides above his hips but as he stepped back, my hands fell down, unable to get a grip and pull him back.
Did I have the guts to do that anyway? In the grandest scheme of things, I was so inexperienced.
So much less confident.
So incredibly surprised that a guy likehimwould even consider such a thing with someone with my past. This moment… it was beyond my wildest imagination. And it was true. This was really happening.
“Be safe at work and I’ll see you soon.”
“’Night.” That word fell on a breath from my still stunned lips, still feeling his finger at them. I licked my lips to see if I could seal in the taste of him.
He walked backward to the elevator, grinning at me in that way of his that made my toes tingle, but didn’t move to press the button.
“Get inside, Lilly.”
“Maybe I wanted to make sure you get in the elevator okay.”
