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I pull away and look at this man who I barely know. He has a hard edge about him but also a softness which I don’t think he shows to many people. “Why would you do that? You barely know me.”
“No, but I see a woman doing whatever she can for a child she loves, and I respect that.”
“Do you have children, Hudson?”
He frowns and I wonder if he’ll answer when the silence elongates.
“No, I don’t but you remind me of my mother.”
I can’t help thinking that’s the most personal emotion this man has shown in a very long time. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He grins and it transforms him from handsome to devastating and he still falls short of Lincoln Coldwell, and I hate that the man who broke my heart still has such a hold over me, when he clearly never gave me another thought.
“It’s a compliment. I’m a total momma’s boy.”
I smile and touch a hand to his knee and feel him tense. “I don’t need you to be my hero, Hudson, but I do need someone to watch my back legally and maybe be my friend?”
He grips my hand and squeezes gently. “Deal.”
He turns away and the private moment is gone but I do feel like I finally have someone in my corner fighting with me and I hate that it isn’t Linc. But he gave up that right when he humiliated me and broke my young heart, ruining me for all other men in the process.
Two hours later I’m walking beside Hudson towards the conference room in his building. I’m surprised Linc, being the control freak he is, agreed to the meeting being held here but I’m glad he did.
The second I enter I feel the electricity sizzle on my skin as my eyes lock with the man who’ll become my husband in just five days’ time. His gaze is hard, unreadable, as he scans me, stopping on the hand Hudson has on the small of my back.
Linc’s jaw tenses as he stands abruptly, buttoning his jacket as he walks toward us. “Hudson.”
Linc shakes hands with my lawyer causing him to remove his hand from my back. As he does, Linc turns and puts his body between us. Bending his head close, his breath fans my neck tickling my hair and making me shiver.
“I suggest you discourage any man from touching what’s mine unless you’d like to see me break every bone in his body.”
He smiles as I freeze as if he hasn’t just threatened bodily harm, and I wonder again who this man is that I agreed to marry. Linc leads me to the chair beside his and pulls it out for me. I sit because my legs feel weak and I wish I’d eaten the lunch Hudson provided, but I was too nervous about this meeting.
Hudson moves to sit beside me and Linc blocks him.
“You can sit over there.”
Linc points to the seat beside his lawyer and Hudson glares at him, before turning to me with a question in his eyes. He’s giving me the choice and it feels good, which is why I nod.
Once we’re settled, I feel Linc lean back, his arm stretched behind the back of my chair, in a proprietary manner. “Shall we begin?”
Hudson reads out the terms I want to be added to the contract.
“Miss Miller would like it added to the contract that two of the three million will be put into a trust for Eric on the day of the wedding. The remainder is to be paid when the contract is fulfilled and paid directly to her.”
“No.”
I startle and turn to Linc at his vehement denial. “No?”
“I’ll agree to the two million in trust for Eric to be set up exactly one year from today, but the one million will be paid as soon as the marriage papers are signed.”
I know what he’s doing. By adding this clause he’s trapping me so that I won’t be tempted to break the one-year deal. “I have no intention of breaking this deal if that’s what you’re concerned about, Lincoln. I don’t lie or break promises like some people.” I see his eyes crinkle and wonder if his dentist will be able to repair the damage he’s doing to his pearly whites by grinding them in such a way.
“Well, now you have the added incentive.”
I sigh and nod at Hudson, who continues.
“Miss Miller wants it stipulated that she won’t be expected to act as your wife when you aren’t in public. She’ll share a bed, but any other wifely duties will not be fulfilled. She’d also like it that Eric not be made aware of the true nature of the situation.”
