Hudson (Anderson Billionaires #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,54

there’s no more touching.” He moved forward as if he was going to change her mind, and she made a quick retreat. She had no doubt he could change her mind faster than she could blink.

“I’m first,” she said, moving farther away from him. Then she halted and held up a hand. “You have to follow the rules.” She used her most serious voice — the tone she’d used when blocking a building from wrecking balls.

He stopped and grinned. It wasn’t a reassuring grin. It was a predator’s smile, and she had no doubt she was the one being hunted.

“I’ll follow the rules . . .” he said slowly. But his grin grew. “. . . for now.”

“Good. I’ll be here at eight tomorrow to pick you up,” she said, taking a few more steps away.

“Where are we going?” he asked. His smile didn’t diminish even a little.

“You’ll find out,” she said as she left. She’d gotten a reprieve, and she was taking it.

The only question now was how she was going to survive this mission without losing her mind . . . or surrendering her body.

Chapter Sixteen

Hudson pulled up to his work trailer at seven thirty in the morning, figuring that would give him time to go over a few things in his office, and of course, make coffee.

Even though he was half an hour early, there was Daisy, a smile on her lips as she sat on his trailer steps. She stood as he climbed from his truck. He’d been grumpy all morning, but at the sight of her, he felt his heart rate pick up and anticipation wash through him.

“Good morning,” she said. “I’m glad you’re early. I want to get to the place so you can see the entire process.”

“You’re obviously a morning person,” he said with a bit of a chuckle as he skirted around her and opened his office door. “I wouldn’t know that since you were gone the only morning I had with you.”

She rolled her eyes as she swatted her hand through the air, blowing off his sentence as if it wasn’t important. Was she going to simply pretend they hadn’t had sex? If she could, he could as well. Okay, maybe not pretend, but he could act as if they were a brand-new couple, anticipating the moment they fell into a bed together.

“I love mornings,” she told him, as she stayed right on his heels. “But I love evenings too. I could do without the middle part of the day. I like to start a morning off with a good workout to increases the happy drugs in my body and then dive into work. I’m usually a few hours into my day by the time most people are leaving their homes. But there’s nothing better than sitting by the river as the sun goes down, reflecting on the day I just had.”

“You know I don’t like to waste too much time on sleep as you learned on our plane ride,” he said, deciding he wanted to reference that time as much as possible so it never strayed far from her mind. “But we never did find out how much sleep you normally get,” he said as he moved over to his coffee pot.

“In the summer it’s decidedly less, because I hate wasting daylight. There’s a lot of life to live,” she said. She wasn’t looking at him, but eyeing his coffee-making supplies. He had her hooked on his one kitchen skill, a phenomenal cup of coffee. He could grill, too, but that’s where his culinary talents ended.

“So you were making fun of me for my lack of sleep, but it’s okay for you to go without?” he said with a laugh.

“Of course. I don’t even mind being a hypocrite,” she said with a laugh. He chuckled. She was certainly honest — just one more thing he truly enjoyed about her.

“I didn’t see your car. Are we walking to this place we’re going to?” he asked as the coffee finished brewing and he began putting their sugary treat together.

“My car doesn’t have a lot of room in it. I figure we can take your truck, even though it does suck a lot of fuel and pollutes our natural resources. But it can carry items so if anything needs hauled, it’s a win at least,” she told him. She added a thank you as he handed over her cup. She took a sip and sighed, making his body harden. That happened a lot