Images filtered through her mind. Hudson’s body pinning hers against the mirror . . . his warm breath fanning out across her neck . . . his fingers teasing and taunting before sending her spiraling over the edge . . .
“So what’s the real scoop with you and Mr. Hottie from the party?” Harper asked as if reading her wayward thoughts.
Allie tried to hide her blush behind her glass, needing a moment to regroup before once again denying any interest in the man who’d brought her to orgasm during her lunch hour. In a dressing room. At Macy’s. Dear lord. She tipped the glass higher, practically gulping her cocktail.
“He seems like a man who knows his way around a bedroom and would be more than happy to give you a tour.”
Allie choked on her drink.
Harper sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh my God, you slept with him.” It was a statement, not a question, and one Allie knew there was no point in denying. The proof was all over her face, not to mention spilled halfway down her blouse.
She wiped her chin with the back of her hand. “A little louder, Harper. I don’t think the valet heard you.”
“Sorry. It’s just . . . I don’t know, you’ve always been so reserved. You’re not exactly the type to get down and dirty with someone you just met.”
“We didn’t just meet.”
Harper paused with her drink in midair. “Come again?”
“We knew each other a long time ago, when we were teenagers.”
“I thought he grew up in Michigan?”
Allie raised a brow. Clearly she wasn’t the only one who’d done a bit of research on Mr. Chase.
“What?” Harper feigned innocence. “I was curious.”
“My parents and a few of their friends rented houses up on Lake Charlevoix the summer before I left for college. I met Hudson on the water taxi the day we arrived.”
“Summer romance at the yacht club?”
Already feeling a bit warm and fuzzy, Allie reached for her drink. “Hardly. Hudson worked at the pier. He drove the water taxi.”
“And Dick and Vicky were okay with their daughter dating the hired help?”
“They never knew.”
“You were able to keep it a secret?”
Allie nodded as she sipped on her straw. “From everyone. We spent the whole summer together and no one ever knew. Well, except for his little brother.”
“That is so romantic, like Romeo and Juliet,” Harper said.
“You do know they died in the end, don’t you?”
Harper frowned. “You know what I mean. So how did it start? Did he slip you a note or something?”
“A note? Seriously?” Allie shook her head. Harper had to stop reading so many Nicholas Sparks novels.
“Whatever. Finish the story.”
“I saw him again that night. My friends had heard about a bonfire at one of the mainland beaches and Hudson was there with a few of the other townies. At first I thought he was a cocky little jerk just like the rest of them. They were awful. It started out simple enough, a few whistles, some rude comments from behind beer bottles. But after awhile one of them started to hassle us. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, started pawing at me. Hudson knocked him on his ass.”
“Holy shit.”
“We ended up talking for hours that night, just walking on the beach.” She smiled at the memory. “I’d never met anyone like him.”
“So what happened?”
“The last time I saw him was on the water taxi. I was stuck playing tour guide to some kid whose dad was doing business with mine. Hudson got the wrong idea, thought I’d chosen the yacht club guy over him.”
“Why didn’t you just explain the sitch?”
“At the time, I didn’t know that’s what he’d assumed. But that’s only half of it. My parents were on the boat that night, too. I was so scared they’d find out about us. I thought if I even looked at him, my mother would see right through me.” Allie took a deep breath. “I ignored him completely. Acted like I didn’t even know him.”
“Ouch.”
“I wanted to apologize, but I never got the chance. The next day my dad had some crisis at work and we headed back to Chicago a week early.” Allie’s throat tightened. “I never saw him again.”
Harper got a wistful look in her eye. “And now here you are, ten years later, like it was meant to be.” Her dreamlike state, no doubt the result of reading far too many romance novels, baffled Allie. This wasn’t a Lifetime movie. It was her life. A life, she might add, that included wedding invitations that were already in the mail. It was too late to start wondering “what if.”
When Harper finally snapped out of her trance, a wicked smile spread across her face. “He was good, wasn’t he? Like, multiple orgasm good.”
“Harper!”
“Don’t bother denying it. I’d bet my next paycheck that man knows “ladies first” isn’t just something you say when holding a door open.”
Allie’s face heated. “No comment.”
“He’s probably a little kinky, too.” Harper leaned forward. “Did he tie you up?”
Allie’s mouth dropped open in shock. So much for Nicholas Sparks, she’d gone right to Fifty Shades. “We are so not having this discussion.”
“Oh, c’mon! At least tell me if it was worth the wait. Shit, after ten years of foreplay you two must have been ready to combust.”
Allie couldn’t help but smile. “Let’s just say if I’d known what I was missing back then, I might not have spent so much time saying no.”
“I knew it!” Harper grinned. “Although I gotta say, didn’t think you had it in you to take on two men at once.”
“I’m not . . .” Allie lowered her voice. “I’m not taking on two men. I haven’t been with Julian since he got back from New York.”
“Really? How’d you managed to keep the Count at arm’s length?”
“Julian,” she said, emphasizing his actual name, “stayed at his hotel all week.”
“He seems to be doing that a lot lately.”
“I may have given him the impression my period started a few days early,” Allie muttered into her glass.
“And let me guess, Prince Prissy Pants has a problem with a little blood?”
Realizing that correcting Harper was a waste of time, she ignored the term of endearment. “He thinks women are too emotional to begin with. Can’t deal with all the drama.”
“What you see in that man besides his great hair is beyond me.”
The waiter appeared at the table, his gazed trained on Harper. “Would you like another Sucker Punch?” he asked. “Or maybe a Screaming Orgasm?”
Oh. My. God. He had to be kidding. Although judging by the way Harper was batting her eyelashes at him, the lame pickup line was actually working. Quite well.
“Just the check, please,” Allie said, meeting Harper’s scowl as the waiter turned to leave. “Don’t look at me like that. We both have work tomorrow.”
“So what are you going to do?”
Allie dug through her purse, looking for her wallet. “Pay the bill and put us each in a cab.”
“I mean about the Tempting Tycoon.”
Honest to God, the nicknames! Allie opened her mouth, intending to change the subject with some pithy reply, but then closed it again. She considered her answer for a long moment, and in the end, simply spoke the truth. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
And there it was, the doubt she’d been denying since Hudson first kissed her in his office. Apparently two lemon drop martinis and something called a Sucker Punch were all it took to shine a big old spotlight on the truth. She almost laughed in spite of herself. If Hudson only knew. Then again, he did a pretty good job of breaking down her defenses without the help of three lethal cocktails.