Allie squared her shoulders. “Well, lucky for you, Sophia was more than happy to take my place.”
Hudson frowned. “It’s not what it looks like. I didn’t come here with her.”
“Well, it certainly looks like you’re leaving with her,” she fired back.
“If we’ve learned anything from our past, Alessandra, it is not to make assumptions.”
“And yet history keeps repeating itself, doesn’t it?”
A door swung open at the end of the hallway and several waiters emerged carrying trays laden with entrees. Hudson’s jaw tightened but he waited until they’d passed before speaking. When he did, his voice was lower than it had been before.
“We need to work this out,” he said.
“No, what we
need
is for you to stop. There’s nothing to work out. I don’t feel—”
“Don’t bother denying it,” he said, cutting off the lies she was about to spew. “It’s obvious you still have feelings for me or you wouldn’t be running out of here.”
“I wasn’t running anywhere. I needed a quiet place to look over my notes before my speech.”
He gave a harsh laugh. “If you say so.”
Anger burned in the pit of her belly as she regarded his smug expression. “It’s over.”
“The hell it is,” he growled. When he reached for her she stepped back. “Don’t do this, Allie.”
“I’m not doing anything, Hudson. You broke my heart all on your own.”
Allie heard Hudson’s sharp intake of breath but Colin rounded the corner before he could reply.
“There you are.” Finding her with Ingram’s other CEO stopped him dead in his tracks. “Mr. Chase, I didn’t realize . . .” His voice trailed off as he took in the sight of the two of them, locked in a physical and emotional standoff. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine,” Hudson said, shooting her new assistant a glare that would have withered most men. But Colin didn’t so much as flinch, holding his ground and once again confirming what Allie’s instincts had told her right from the start.
A tense moment passed between the two men before Colin turned his attention to Allie. “They’re about to begin the presentation. I can stall them if you need more time.”
Allie caught Hudson’s gaze and held it as she answered. “No. We’re finished,” she said, before turning to follow Colin back to the reception. The heat of Hudson’s stare burned into her as she walked, but she fought the urge to look back.
When her speech ended and the crowd stood to applaud, she couldn’t help but notice the empty seat at the table near the front.
Hudson stopped in front of the bank of elevators and shoved his hands into his hip pockets, his dark blue Armani suit coat parting to the sides. He stood there, his stare focused on the vintage cast-iron dial, circa 1930, as it crept smoothly upward. The steel cables and pulls rattled and lifted the elevator higher and higher up the post-Depression era skyscraper, which was the paragon of a man who had taken pride in outward appearances versus nurturing a stable infrastructure. Hudson Chase was the opposite of such theoretical bullshit. But that was the irony; he was putting on one hell of a poker face while inside he was tap dancing on quicksand.
The dial continued to glide over the arch, and with each passing floor Hudson contemplated his latest merger. It was the icing on the fucking cake of his portfolio and he should’ve been full of high-octane joy. But he didn’t simply want another billion-dollar merger. No, what he wanted, what he needed, was the woman who avoided his stare at all costs. And when she did flick her steely gaze at him, her pain was directly communicated into his own chest until it was his heart being cleaved apart.
Bottom lining it, his victory was her personal loss, and the truth of that twisted in his gut.
At his side the high-priced suits squared off like a couple of pit bulls in a deceptively calm discussion. Hudson knew he should engage in their Monday ritual, but at the moment he could think of nothing but Allie and the way she’d looked standing in the corridor of the Art Institute on Friday night. She’d lost weight, goddamn it, too much weight, and although her sharp tongue had been a verbal blow torch spitting fire, her tear-rimmed eyes had revealed the pain that lay beneath.
The elevator chimed, plugging him back into the present, and when the doors slid open his eyes locked on Allie’s slim figure. The knot between his shoulder blades tightened further and the verbal boxing match beside him receded into white noise. She held his gaze and for a split second looked as if she was ready to go bare knuckle with him. There wasn’t a chance in hell that she would have him, much less forgive him, and yet his body behaved with the stupidity of a teenager and insisted on responding to hers. But the only glint of passion that flared in her eyes was an anger that cut so deep he feltit down to the marrow of his bones.
Fuck. Was the damage irrevocable?
Hudson held up two fingers to halt his already in-motion hounds. “Take the next one,” he said, his voice low, deep, and with a hard edge. With a nod his colleagues immediately took a step back, nodoubt planning to use the extra time to go toe-to-toe over what his next venture should be in their pursuit of world domination.
When he stepped onto the elevator, Allie shifted to the opposite corner. Without question his presence angered her. Fuck that, she was straight up pissed that he was breathing the same air. But even in her anger she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
The doors shut and the elevator lurched into motion. Hudson turned to face Allie, her stillness reminding him of the consequences of his ambition.
“If you’re going to try and persuade me to side with you at the board meeting tomorrow then you’re wasting your breath.” Defiance blazed in her eyes. “It’s a terrible idea.”
Hell if it was. His proposal to liquidate the newspaper division and transition to a solely digital format was a flash of brilliance, not to mention that it made sense for balancing the books. But at the moment spreadsheets were the last thing on his mind.
“I don’t give a damn about that right now. We need to talk.” With a quick movement he punched a card into the control panel and the elevator jerked to a halt.
Allie’s eyes darted to the panel and her spine straightened. “We talked at the gallery.”
“That wasn’t a conversation.” More like verbal sparring.
“I said all I needed to say.” She appeared to be completely composed, but Hudson could see the rise and fall of her chest, the white-knuckle grip on her bag.
“You may have unloaded, but hell if I have. And no matter what it takes you’re going tohear me out. Even if it means keeping this godforsaken elevator stopped all fucking day.” He tried to remind himself that anger would get him nowhere. Calm, levelheaded domination was the key to pressing the advantage, except he was way past that. With her he felt like he was gripping sand and every grain was slipping through his fingers.
“Stop trying to control me, Hudson.” Allie turned and lifted her chin. The anger was gone and in its place was a mask of complete indifference. Goddamn, it shredded him. He’d take anger over apathy any day.
He took a deep breath. She was going to ride this facade like the Macy’s Day Parade, marching through their little exchange as if they were nothing more than business partners forced into a resentful coexistence. He had to get her to drop her guard, to let him in. And if pissing her off was what it took to incite a reaction, then so be it.
“It’s never been that way between us and you know it, Alessandra.” Hudson flashed a slight smirk as he prepared to drop the H-bomb. “Well, except for the bedroom. And if memory serves, you enjoyed it.”
He braced himself, expecting a slap to light his face on fire, but instead her eyes dilated and fixated on his mouth. Her lips parted and her breath quickened. He had her. No matter how unaffected she pretended to be, she couldn’t help but respond to him. And the longer they stood mere inches apart, the more desire took over and became a downright menace.
Never one to miss an opportunity, Hudson reassessed on the fly. He stepped closer and his voice dropped to a low, seductive murmur. “Is that what it will take for you to hear me out?” He swept a hand across her collarbone and up the side of her neck. “You, tied to my bed as I move down your body.” His mouth hovered just inches from hers and his fingers cupped the soft skin at her nape. “Your every sense heightened by my touch.”
Allie’s eyes closed, her chest rising and falling with each breath she labored to control. Up close he could see the flush coloring her delicate skin and the lashes fanning out against her cheeks.
“Do you feel me? Feel my breath on your skin, my tongue flicking across your nipples, biting and tugging until you tremble beneath me?”
She licked her lips and his cock punched against his fly, every instinct telling him to fuck her until they were both too exhausted to fight.
“Is that what you want, my hands gripping your hips, anchoring you so you don’t move while I slide the head of my cock inside you, slowly, with just the slightest of movements.” With that, he pressed her against the wall of the elevator and her hands fell to his shoulders.
“I hate you,” she whispered. Her words were venom but they lacked conviction. Her hands flattened against his chest and her biceps tensed as if she were going to push him away, but instead her fingers curled around the fine fabric of his suit jacket, holding him in place.
Hudson took a deep breath through his nose. His heart pounded, pumping adrenaline through his body. “You wish you did,” he rasped in her ear, then tugged the lobe between his teeth.
Allie’s head thudded back against the elevator wall. “Bastard,” she breathed.
“I know, baby, I know.” His mouth slanted over hers, ravenously licking across her lips and sucking her tongue into his mouth. Sweet hell, he wanted her. Every inch of this woman was his, and he’d crawl through hell with his dick on fire before he’d let any other man put their greedy hands all over what was his and his alone.
A deep growl escaped his mouth as he found the damp lace between her thighs. “I want this,” he murmured. Moving the fabric aside, he slid his fingers over her slick skin. “And so do you. You’re wet for me.” He pushed two fingers inside her and she gasped. Like a bullet shooting out of a steel barrel, he crushed his mouth to hers, his tongue thrusting into her mouth as his fingers worked her sex.
Moaning, Allie arched into him, giving herself over to what he knew was going to be raw fucking. She grinded herself against his hand, rocking her hips at the same time her fingers reached for his fly. The belt came undone and the zipper was just as accommodating. And then his cock, his rock-hard, aching cock, sprung from his hips and fell heavy into her palm. The moan he let out could’ve probably been heard through the metal doors ofthe elevator but he was too far gone to muzzle his response. He wanted to leave his mark on her, and by the time he was through he was going to be all over her, inside and out.
With a sharp tug he turned her lace panties into nothing more than shredded artwork, then grabbed her by the hips and tilted them to the angle he wanted. Her thighs obeyed before an acquiescence could move past her lips. His palm shifted between her spread legs, grasping one and curling it around his hip. In a white-hot possession he pushed into her on a solid stroke. When he started to move, she grabbed his shoulders, bracing herself against his relentless drives. It was complete domination, his body pumping in and out, his hips rolling in a sensuous motion that became faster and faster until he felt like his balls were going to explode. And to top it off, at any moment Chicago’s 911 could yank the doors open with their jaws of life and catch him fucking her as if his life depended on it.
Her hands slipped under the lapels of his jacket and her nails raked across his skin. He felt the bite of pain through the fabric of his shirt, but it quickly faded into a sweet utopia that carried him deeper into an ulterior universe. A universe where the past was permanently pitched into oblivion. A cosmic motherfucking do-over.
He wished.
Hudson’s fingers dug into the supple flesh of her ass as he slid her up and down, working her along the length of his thick erection. “God, Allie, I’ve missed being inside you.”
“No talking,” she groaned.
“You love it when I talk dirty.”
Allie shoved her hands into his dark waves and dragged his mouth to hers. “Shut up and kiss me.” With a raw need, his tongue thrust inside her mouth, mirroring the driving strokes of his cock. All the while her hips met him thrust for thrust and her breathless moans whispered across his neck. “Don’t stop,” she murmured again and again. Her words took him to the next level and he pounded her bare ass against the oak-paneled interior until the elevator walls vibrated.
Mine.
The word volleyed around his skull.
Fucking mine.
He wanted to say it out loud, but it would’ve been a buzzkill on a moment he was hell-bent on making last forever. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on the feel of his cock going in and out of her. The sensation of her impending orgasm pulsing around him nearly wiped out his vision.
Her hand gripped the collar of his shirt and with an involuntary yank the top button was sent airborne as her body seized against his. He glanced down to where they were joined, watching the head of his cock slip out before driving deep again, and he was done for.
“Fucking hell.” He cranked his eyes shut and buried his face into her neck as his orgasm broke free. There was no way of holding back, and the feel of her own climax gripping his cock like a vise was a direct sucker punch to the gut. Bastard that he was, he wanted to ricochet her into one orgasm after another, until she was crying out his name as if it were a benediction.
But like everything else between them, the moment was only temporary. And as he pulled out and the cool air hit his cock in a rush, he felt like he was leaving his goddamn fucking heart with her. She was the only woman that gave it another function other than beating behind his rib cage.
He lowered her leg to the floor and she stepped away. His belt clanked as he tucked himself and his shirttails back into his pants, while across the elevator Allie yanked her skirt down and swept her massacred panties off the floor. Hudson lifted his gaze from his fly to her eyes. He didn’t know what to say.
The elevator filled with a heavy silence.
She just stared at him. She didn’t look away; she didn’t even flinch. But those eyes, those fucking eyes of hers were obliterating him with a slow, resenting burn. And yet the way he still wanted her just about stalled out his lungs.
“Allie . . . I—”
“Don’t.” She yanked the key out of the panel and let it drop to the floor. The doors slid open on the thirtieth floor, and without another word she was gone.