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“Thank you.”
“This is my dress.”
Tia jumps up and races toward me and I hold my arms out as she hugs me tight.
“I love you, Audrey.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I love you too.”
I really do and it’s dangerous and scary to love someone else when I don’t even know if what Hudson and I have can last past the end date we set, but loving Tia wasn’t a choice. Just like loving her brother wasn’t.
19Hudson
“Areyou sure Tia will be okay all day?”
I grip my wife’s hand and bring her palm to my lips. “Yes, she’ll be fine. She was excited she got to help Mrs. Price pick out a dress for tomorrow.”
Audrey shakes her head in wonder. “Can you believe we’re getting married again in twenty-four hours?”
I can’t, but I’m so incredibly happy about it, even if for Audrey it’s all a ruse for her dying father. For me, it’s as real as it gets. “I know, and this time we’ll remember it.”
Audrey laughs and it’s light and airy. “I know and that’s pretty important for a wedding. Can you remember anything from that night?”
I know now isn’t the time to confess we didn’t have sex and I have a thousand excuses ready for why I shouldn’t, but I never want us to get derailed by secrets again, so I fess up. “If you’re talking about our wedding night, nothing happened.”
Audrey turns her knees toward me in the car and my gaze drops to the hint of creamy thigh in her short black sequin dress. By most standards it’s modest but on her body, everything looks sexy.
“Hudson!”
I blink and snap out of the sexy fog she’d wrapped me in. “Sorry. You just look fucking gorgeous in that dress.”
Her chin dips and she gives me a look with one brow raised, which I know is a warning or is meant to be, but fuck, she’s hot.
“Hudson, I’m gonna need you to rewind and make that last comment compute for me.”
Audrey rolls her hand in a rewind gesture, and I capture it in my hand and kiss her palm. “We didn’t sleep together the night of our wedding.”
Her eyes flare with annoyance and she tries to pull her hand away, but I don’t let her, instead. dragging her closer. Her body language is closed but she lets me hold her and I take that as a win.
“I knew if you thought we hadn’t had sex, you’d demand an annulment, and rightly so, but I needed more time with you. I needed more time to show you how much you mean to me and make this right.”
Her hurt eyes lodge a stone in my chest.
“You lied to me.”
“I did and I’m sorry. It was a dick move and I shouldn’t have done it. But when I woke up and saw you lying beside me, your hair spread over the pillow like a fucking goddess, I knew I had to do everything I could to fix this between us. A divorce would give me more time, more opportunities.”
“Do you realize how fucked up that is?”
Her voice is soft with none of the anger I expected. Burying my head in her neck, I kiss the pulse that beats wildly, and she shivers. “I’m sorry, truly I am.”
“I forgive you, but don’t pull a stunt like that again, Hudson. Trust is important and once it’s gone, it’s a hard thing to get back and we’re still fragile. Don’t break us before we have a chance.”
Before tonight, I wasn’t convinced that Audrey was all in with us trying for real, but that sentence cements it for me. She might not believe the wedding is real, but she believes in the relationship, and I won’t give her another reason to doubt me.
“I promise. I love you, Audrey, and I’ll prove to you that I’m a good bet.”
Her lips find mine and we kiss. Tender and deep, it’s the kind of slow languorous kiss that leaves you feeling drugged.
