Bedhead, page 8
What had Hudson been about to say before he’d stopped himself, though? Once upon a time I could’ve read his mind just looking at him, but with the wall he’d put up over the years, there was no way to tell what he was really thinking. And he sure as hell wasn’t about to just tell me. Not without a pair of pliers and some duct tape.
I chuckled to myself at the thought as I squeezed out piles of ketchup, mustard, and mayo on my plate and then swirled them together with a fry. As I popped it in my mouth, I saw Hudson looking down at the plate, and it took me a second to realize why.
“You used to give me so much shit for that,” he said.
“That’s because it looks disgusting,” I said, eating another. “But it tastes fucking amazing.”
Hudson’s lips quirked, and then he grabbed a couple of fries and dipped them in the mix. “Glad to see you kept at least one good habit.”
“Jesus, you can’t help yourself, can you?”
“What?”
“I kept one good habit? What, among all of my many bad ones?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Didn’t you?”
Hudson pushed the plate toward me. “Why don’t you eat more, talk less?”
“Why don’t you stop being a controlling bastard who tells everyone what to do?” I glared across the table at him, fully expecting him to come back with some other directive that would annoy me, but he just stared right back. At least until my hunger won out and I went back to shoving as many special-sauce-laden fries into my mouth as I could. He wasn’t allowed to have any more; he could wait for his own damn plate.
As I finished off a couple of plates, the waitress came back around with more food, including Hudson’s, which would keep at least his mouth occupied.
Too bad he didn’t use it on me the way he used to, because that would’ve been a hot way to keep busy.
Uh uh. Nope. Wasn’t going there. Even if the man did have a mouth like a Hoover.
For fuck’s sake, snap out of it. The only thing I was Hoovering was this patty melt.
As I went about devouring everything on my plates, the lights flickered again, for longer this time. It was enough to have the kids in the room start wailing.
Speaking of parents, I needed to check in with mine. Sure, I was a grown-ass man, but I knew how they worried, especially when I traveled. I sucked down the rest of my soda and reached into my pocket for my phone—
Dammit.
I groaned as I patted my pockets down and came up empty.
“Don’t tell me you forgot your wallet and need me to pay. I saw you put it in your pocket before we left,” Hudson said.
“Watching awfully close, weren’t you?”
“Hardly.”
“Whatever. I forgot my phone, so can I use yours?”
Hudson gave me a blank stare. “No.”
“I need to call my parents—you remember how they are. It’ll take two seconds.”
“Then I guess it’ll have to wait.”
“Wow.” I stabbed at the ice in my empty glass with a straw, amazed once again that I’d ever known this man. “I get that you hate me, but way to be a dick about something so small.”
Hudson polished off his burger and wiped his fingers off with a fresh napkin. “I’m not being a dick. My phone’s upstairs too.”
“Bullshit.”
“Why would I lie?”
“The better question is, why wouldn’t you bring your cell with you?”
“Because I’m not addicted to it.”
“Hudson, everyone’s addicted to their phone. What makes you so special?”
He took in a huge breath as he sat back and ran his hands through his hair, like he was summoning everything inside him not to react to my jabs. It must’ve worked, too, because after a moment he dropped his hands and said, “How are your parents?”
“Fine.”
“Drew… I’m trying.”
Trying not to kill you. Yeah, I understood the subtext.
I held up my empty glass gratefully as our waitress came around to refill it. “Mom’s still the head of the emergency department at Mount Sinai, and Dad’s itching to retire.”
“Oh yeah? How’s that going?”
I pictured the many heated discussions they’d had over the years that had gotten them nowhere. “Not well. He thinks they should get a condo in the Virgin Islands and live as beach bums, and I think Mom would go nuts without a million fires to put out every day.”
“Is that why you’re pushing so hard for the deal with Viper? To prove you’re capable of taking over?” The words seemed to come out of Hudson’s mouth before he’d even thought them through, and he instantly sat up. “Not that—”
“You think I’m not capable of handling E Group?”
“No, I didn’t mean to imply—”
“It sure sounded like that’s what you meant. And no, I don’t need a celebrity deal to prove to my dad I can run his company. But thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Hudson looked properly chagrined, his face flushed slightly as he looked down at his clasped hands on the table. “I’m sorry. It was a genuine question. I know how you used to feel about living up to his expectations, is all. But you’re right; you’ve proven yourself over the years, and I have no doubt you can handle it. If your dad’s keen to retire, he must feel the same.”
Guilt had me swallowing hard as I watched Hudson. He wasn’t wrong about my dad’s high standards, but he didn’t know about all the shitty things I’d done to win his favor. Oh, he knew about some things, just not everything. Maybe it was time to confess my sins and let him see that I really was the shit he thought I was.
“Hudson, I—”
A huge boom from outside pitched the room into utter blackness, and I jolted in surprise. Shouts rang out, and as the seconds passed and darkness remained, flashlights from cell phones began to illuminate the space.
Well. It’d been bound to happen.
“Did you finish everything, or should we hunt down some to-go boxes?” Hudson asked.
I rubbed my full stomach, completely satiated but also feeling like maybe I’d overdone it. Strike that, I’d definitely overdone it. “No boxes. I think I ate too much.”
“Really,” he deadpanned. “You think.”
“I panicked, what can I say? I get dramatic and stupid when I freak out.”
“Explains so much,” he said, and with a nearby cell phone flashing, I could see the outline of him pulling a few bills from his wallet.
Cash was probably a smart idea right about now. I hoped the waitress didn’t have anything against wet twenties. I peeled off enough to cover double what we’d had, and then we slowly made our way through the room at a snail’s pace. Even that wasn’t enough to stop us from running into tables, but eventually we made it to the register. After handing over our wad of bills, we walked out of the diner and into nothing but darkness. No cell phone flashlights, no backup generator, nothing but the tiniest sliver along the floor some distance away that maybe, maybe was coming from the lobby.
And if it wasn’t? We were screwed.
12
HUDSON
“OW. I CAN’T see shit.” The tips of Drew’s fingers brushed against my back as he followed me up the pitch-black staircase. It was disorienting not being able to see anything, but I kept my hand on the rail and took cautious steps.
“Hold on, I think this is the landing.” I tapped on the space in front of me with my foot and tentatively stepped up.
“This would be easier with a flashlight.”
“You’ve said that five times already.”
“It’s been true all five times,” Drew grumbled. “See, this is why people should be addicted to their phones. Because without them, bad things happen.”
“Then next time don’t forget your shit.”
“Hey, you noticed I grabbed my wallet, but you couldn’t remind me to grab my phone?”
“Maybe someone was about to walk out the door without shoes on. What are you, five?”
“You know what, smartass? I have half a mind to take this flip-flop off and beat you with it.”
I snorted. “At least part of that statement is true. Half a mind.” There was no venom behind my words anymore, though. Whatever harsh tension there had been at the diner had seemed to deflate, and now all that mattered was making it to our room in one piece. One grumbling-and-annoyed piece, but that was due to the circumstances. Hey, we were even helping each other up the stairs rather than pushing each other down them.
“Oh wait, here it is,” I said as my hand hit the cold, smooth steel of a doorknob. I twisted it open and walked…into more blackness. Shit, now which way did we go?
“Maybe we should just try every door on one side first,” Drew said by my ear. I didn’t miss the way he had hooked one of his fingers into the waistband of my pants so he didn’t lose me.
It’s called staying close for survival. Nothing more.
I reached into my pocket for my key card, and as I moved slowly down the hall, I kept one hand on the wall. Wait…
“Will this thing even work if the power’s out?” It hadn’t even occurred to me before now, but if I had to go back downstairs for an actual key at this point, I was just going to sleep in the damn hall.
“Um. It should be battery powered, right?”
My fingers grazed the outline of a door, and I felt along it for the security pad. “I guess we’ll find out.”
I ran the card over the pad, and a light blinked red.
“Good news is it works,” I said. “Bad news is we have 5,647 more rooms to go.”
“I’ve got my card too. Should I try the other side?”
Maybe it would’ve helped us move along faster, but the thought of Drew wandering off without me made an uneasy feeling settle in my gut. “I don’t think we should split up. You’re right behind me, and I can’t see you.”
“Okay.” He moved in beside me, still holding on, his arm now grazing mine. It sent a torrent of goosebumps over my skin, but I didn’t pull away. Something about it was comforting in the darkness.
Something about it also had my heart beating a little faster.
I tried another door…and another. It wasn’t until we’d made it to the other side what felt like a million years later that one of the doors flashed green and the lock disengaged.
“Oh thank God,” Drew said as I pushed the door wide and held it for him so it wouldn’t knock him in the face. “For a minute there I thought we might have to sleep in the hallway.”
I could hear him feeling his way through the room, knocking into the chairs, and then a moment later he pulled the curtains wide open. Even though it was dark, the constant lightning flashes gave off enough illumination to make out the room.
Drew went straight for his phone, and after a quick two minutes reassuring his mom he hadn’t been swept away by the storm, he powered it down and set it on the table.
I clutched my chest. “Did I hallucinate, or did Drew Edwards just turn off his phone?”
“My battery won’t make it through the night if I don’t. And I don’t think anyone’ll be trying to get in touch right now.”
“No? Not even your date from the other night?”
Uh, where had that come from?
Drew gave me a funny look. “No, I’m sure the storm’s got him a little preoccupied.”
Right.
We both stood there with our hands in our pockets, avoiding eye contact. Without the distraction of other people or a television or…anything at all, it was a little awkward. And, in such a closed-in space in the darkness with someone whose body I knew intimately well, more than a little dangerous.
“So,” Drew said.
“So.”
I rocked back on my heels and wondered if it was late enough that sleep was an option.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I could feel every exhausted muscle in my body. Yeah, passing out after the events of the day sounded like a better idea than trying to make small talk with Drew.
Or do things that don’t require talking at all.
There was only one problem.
I looked down at the elephant in the room, one double bed that my feet would definitely be hanging off the end of. It was better than the floor, though, and I wasn’t about to offer to sleep there after this shit day. No telling what people had tracked in, including us.
“So. What do we do about this?” I said, gesturing to the bed.
“What do you think? We sleep in it.”
“Which one of us?”
“Both of us.”
“Absolutely not,” I said, crossing my arms as I turned to face Drew. “We’re not sharing a bed.”
He mimicked my stance, crossing his arms and lifting his chin. “Really. You plan to sleep in the tub?”
“No, I’m taking the bed. It’s not big enough for the two of us.”
“Bullshit. We’ve slept together in smaller—” Drew cut himself off and shook his head, but I already knew where he was going with that. We’d once made it work on a tiny twin bed, but that was back when we wanted to actually touch and not kill each other.
“Look,” he finally said. “It’s not ideal, but we don’t have any other choice. You stay on your side, I’ll stay on mine. This doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
No big deal. Part of me felt like that was delusional thinking, but he was right about one thing: what choice did I have? We were both too stubborn to relent.
“Fine,” I said, walking over to the side closest to the wall and toeing off my shoes. I wouldn’t be doing more than that; my clothes were staying on if I was sharing a bed with Drew.
He, of course, didn’t seem to feel the same way.
With his back toward me and the sky lighting up the room, I watched as Drew unbuttoned his pants and let them drop to the floor. He kicked them aside and reached for the hem of his shirt, but as he lifted it, he hesitated. My eyes immediately fell to the skin I could see. The small of his back, the way his ass filled out his boxer briefs…the back of his muscled thighs…
Drew pulled the shirt up over his head and tossed it aside, and when he turned back to the bed, I quickly looked down and pulled the covers back.
As I got in on my side and plumped the pillows behind my head, Drew chuckled.
“Tell me you’re not gonna sleep fully clothed?”
“Yes.”
“For fuck’s sake, Hudson, I’m not gonna touch you. You can get undressed.”
“Worry about yourself, please.”
“Fine,” he said, getting in on his side. “I’m just sayin’, don’t put yourself out on my account.”
“Duly noted.”
Silence fell between us as we both stared up at the ceiling. The wind howled and rain pummeled the glass, but it was a decent distraction from the quiet that would’ve settled between us otherwise. I wasn’t sure I could’ve ever fallen asleep if that were the case.
As tired as I was physically, my mind still raced, playing over the events of the day in case I needed a reminder of how I got here. Right about then I should’ve been at Viper’s house, this much closer to landing a deal. Instead I was lying beside Drew, not touching, but so close I could feel the heat radiating off him.
What was he thinking about? He wasn’t asleep yet, that much I knew. I could feel how tense he was lying there, and every now and then he’d yawn.
Maybe he was conspiring to push me off the bed once I passed out. Or he was in the same boat, wondering how today had turned into such a clusterfuck.
Was he regretting giving me a lift? No doubt. I wasn’t sure what I would’ve done if he hadn’t come along, though, so while I’d never admit it, I was grateful.
And yeah, maybe there was something slightly comforting about his sleeping beside me while a wild storm raged and anything could happen. I wasn’t on my own. And Drew used to be pretty good company before shit turned sour.
Drew’s breaths evened out, his chest rising and falling in a way that told me he’d finally fallen asleep, and somehow that give me permission to let myself drift away too…
I WASN’T SURE how long I’d been asleep when something hard moved under my ankle and my eyes flew open. No one else was in the room, though, and it wasn’t Drew standing at the edge of the bed trying to pull me off.
No…
It was Drew’s foot. Tucked under mine beneath the covers.
My pulse instantly kicked up as I looked beside me, ready to shove him away and ask what the hell he thought he was doing.
But he was still fast asleep, lying on his back with one hand under his pillow. He hadn’t even realized what he’d done.
Calm down—he’s just sleeping.
Ever so slowly, I lifted my leg from his and turned on my side, facing away from him. It didn’t take long before my lids grew heavy, but before sleep could claim me again, I felt Drew move in close.
I immediately went on high alert, going completely still.
As the thunder crashed, Drew slid his arm over my waist, curling his fingers into my shirt as he scooted in closer. His chest was plastered to my back, and I couldn’t stop my shiver when his warm breath tickled the back of my neck.
Oh my God. What is happening?
“I missed you, H.” Drew’s voice was thick with sleep, and I wondered if he was still dreaming. He held on to me tight, pushing his leg between mine, tangling them together.
I didn’t think I breathed the whole time.
The whole thing was so sudden, so out of nowhere, that I couldn’t comprehend Drew wrapping himself around me…or that he missed me.
A soft snore left him, leaving me wondering what I should do now. He was obviously sleeping, maybe even thinking of someone else and wanting a body close.
He said H…
I shoved the thought away. It didn’t mean anything. He didn’t realize what he was doing. Really, I should push him away.
Several seconds passed, though, and I stayed right where I was, covered in Drew.
