Fixed on You (16 page)

“He takes after his horny older
brother,” I whispered.

“Behave.” He took my hand in his.
I shuddered at his commanding tone and the feel of his skin against mine.

We followed the younger Pierce
siblings across the ballroom, weaving around tables and the increasing crowd of
people until we approached one of the tables closest to the stage.

“This is our table,” Chandler
said. He gestured with his chin to a group of people talking a few feet away.
“Mom’s over there.”

I stared at the back of the woman
I knew to be Sophia Walden Pierce from Internet pictures. Her dark blonde hair
was swept up in a tight bun showing off her long graceful neck. Even from
behind, it was evident that Hudson’s mother was a beautiful, commanding woman.

As if she sensed our presence,
she peered over her shoulder at us, offering a smile to her acquaintances as
she did so.

A wave of unexplainable nervous
energy rolled through me. What if she didn’t buy our act? What if I screwed it
all up?

Hudson must have sensed my
anxiety because he tightened his grip on my hand and leaned in to whisper,
“You’re going to be great. I have no doubt.” He kissed my hair.

His distraction worked. I was no
longer worrying about impressing his mother, focused now on wondering whether
his tender kiss had been for me or for anyone who might be watching us.

And why did it even matter? We
weren’t a couple, this was pretend. Tender kisses were romantic and we were not
involved romantically. Sexually, yes. Romantically, no. I visualized another
snap of the elastic band. Obviously I hadn’t counted on holding Hudson’s hand
all day when I’d put the dang thing around my wrist.

By the time I’d thoroughly
reminded myself that everything Hudson did was pretend, Sophia had wrapped up
her conversation and approached us. As I had suspected, she was quite
beautiful. Her body was lean and trim, and her complexion perfect. She’d had
Botox, her forehead smooth and unexpressive. Or else she wasn’t an expressive
person, which was highly possible considering she was related to Mr.
Show-No-Real-Emotion at my side.

“Hudson.” The slight nod of her head
matched the stiffness of her greeting.

Hudson responded in kind.
“Mother.” Her eyes flickered to me briefly. “I’d like you to meet Alayna
Withers. Alayna, this is my mother, Sophia Pierce.”

“Glad to meet you, uh…” I
suddenly didn’t know what to call her—Sophia? Mrs. Pierce? If I had inflected
my voice differently, I could have ended at “Glad to meet you” but I’d left the
sentence hanging and I had to finish. I settled on the safe bet. “Mrs. Pierce.”
I let go of Hudson’s hand and thrust mine out to shake hers, hoping my palm
wasn’t noticeably sweaty.

My worry was unfounded. Sophia
Pierce made no effort to take my hand. Instead she scrutinized me with narrowed
eyes, circling around me like a hawk. “She’s pretty enough.”

I lowered my hand to my side and
made a conscious effort to close my jaw.

Before I could decide if I was
supposed to say thank you, she’d moved on. “Where did you find her again?”

I was flabbergasted. She spoke
about me like I wasn’t there—like I was a puppy Hudson had found on the side of
the road.

Mira tried to save me. “Mom—”

Sophia waved her away, and I
caught Mira’s unspoken apology in her eyes.

I looked to Hudson, but his gaze
was locked on his mother’s. “I told you. We met at a function at Stern.”

Sophia chortled. “What the hell
were you doing at NYU? Slumming?”

I flushed with anger, my hands
balled into fists at my side.

Hudson stiffened as well.
“Mother, don’t be a bitch.”

Chandler smirked openly at his
brother’s choice of words.

Sophia, on the other hand, made
no indication that she even heard. “Tell me, Alayna—were you first attracted to
my son because of his money or his name?”

Pissed didn’t even begin to
describe how I felt. I was seething, but still in control. Without skipping a
beat, I wrapped my arm around Hudson’s and answered. “Neither. I was attracted
to him because he’s hot. Though, I stayed with him because he’s fucking awesome
in bed.”

Sophia’s mouth fell open. I had a
feeling she was a woman that was rarely thrown off guard and seeing her taken
aback gave me a thrill.

Hudson raised a brow, but he
didn’t appear displeased. In fact, the gleam in his eyes seemed amused. It
empowered me to continue. “Look, Sophia Pierce. I may not have graduated from
Harvard like your son and your husband—” Admittedly, I paused to note Hudson’s
reaction to the fact that I knew details about his family even though he hadn’t
told me a single thing. Again, I saw the gleam. “But I’m proud of my NYU
degree. And I didn’t come here today to have my education insulted by a woman
who dropped out of law school.”

Sophia took a threatening step
toward me. I was taller than her by a couple of inches in my heels, but she
carried her stature with authority. “Why
did
you come here today?”

It occurred to me that as bitchy
as Sophia Pierce was being to me, she wasn’t
my
mother. And though my
parents were dead, they had been kind and loving and would never have treated
anyone—let alone someone I supposedly cared about—with the judgmental malice
that Hudson’s mother had imparted on me.

And now I understood why Hudson
didn’t have any qualms about lying to his mother about a relationship. If I had
to deal with her, I’d do anything to get her out of my life.

So instead of backing away, I
straightened, my arm still wrapped around the man at my side. “I came here because
Hudson wanted me to meet his mother. He seems to care about your opinion, for
some reason. And since I care about him—a great deal, I might add—I agreed to
come.”

Hudson wrapped his arm around my
waist, drawing me in closer. I felt his grin as he kissed my temple.

Sophia’s lip raised into a slight
smile.

“Oh,” Mira gasped. Chandler
appeared to be equally shocked.

As before, Sophia ignored the
reactions of her family. “We’re going to our Hampton house later this week. I
expect you and Hudson will join us.”

I opened my mouth to say,
thanks,
but no thanks
. Okay, maybe I really meant to say,
fuck off, bitch.

But Hudson spoke before I could.
“We can manage a long weekend.”

Sophia appeared to want to
interject, which was nothing compared to what I wanted to do.

“That’s all I can promise, Mother.
Some of us work for a living.”

She sighed. “Fine. Now I have
important people I need to speak with. Excuse me, please.” She waved her hand
in greeting. “Richard! Annette!”

I watched her saunter away,
amazed by her suddenly pleasant and friendly tone of voice. I guessed
pretending ran in the family. When I turned my attention back on the Pierce
offspring, I saw they were all looking at me. “What?”

Mira and Chandler exchanged a
glance and then burst out laughing.

I furrowed my brow, still
confused.

Hudson pulled me into his arms, a
grin playing on his lips. “Alayna. You’re amazing.” 

I started to melt into him, but
remembered he’d told his mother we’d join her in the Hamptons. I punched him
lightly on the shoulder. “I’m working this weekend.”

“Get out of it.” It wasn’t a
request, it was a command.

I couldn’t tell him that “getting
out of work” was impossible, because, well, he owned the place. It would be
awkward though. I had a meeting scheduled with David for the next day—hopefully
to officially give me a promotion. What was I supposed to say?
Thanks for
the raise, now I need Friday and Saturday off?
I’d have to tell him I was
seeing Hudson, though the thought made me cringe.

Beyond that, I didn’t want to go
to the Hamptons with Sophia Pierce. I pulled back from Hudson’s embrace. “H,
I’m sorry to say this since she’s your mother and all, but I can’t handle
spending time with her. She’s not nice.”

He laughed. Then he locked eyes
with mine, sweeping his thumb down my cheek so softly it made me shudder. “We
won’t spend every minute with her. And, anyway, you seemed to handle her just
fine.”

I couldn’t help it. His boyish
grin and gray eyes had a power over me. And, he’d said we wouldn’t spend every
minute with Sophia, sending my imagination into overdrive with images of what
we’d be doing instead. My nipples tightened at the thought. How could I resist
him? “Okay, but I can’t be responsible for my actions if she’s like that
again.”

He leaned in to kiss me,
whispering as he did. “That’s what I’m counting on.”

Lunch passed quickly. Sophia was
too busy greeting high-paying donors and socializing to eat with us, thank god.
Adam, Mira’s husband, joined us after our salads had been served. He was a
surgeon and had an emergency case that morning. He looked good with her despite
their differences in height—Adam tall and lanky, Mira petite and small. For
half a second I tried to picture them having sex before I realized that once I
thought it, I wouldn’t be able to unthink it.

Though nothing eventful happened
during the course of the meal, I enjoyed myself. I watched the friendly banter
between the siblings, joining in the laughter when one had a particular good
burn on another. The conversation directed toward me was easy and unencumbered.
I often feared it wouldn’t be with new people who wanted to know all about me
and my family. When something got too private, I noticed that Hudson deflected
for me. Was it because he knew the sadness of my past? Or was he politely
keeping my job light and carefree? Either way, the luncheon was more intimate
than anything I had experienced in a long time.

When I sent a casual look toward
him midway through the meal, his smile made my chest tighten. It may have been
for show, but my reaction was genuine. I realized that no amount of elastic
band snapping would stop whatever I was beginning to feel for him.

After dessert and coffee, the
ballroom became a bustle again with people visiting with other tables and more
guests arriving who’d only purchased tickets to the fashion show. Chandler
found a group of younger girls to hit on, and Mira roped Adam into assisting
with her backstage where she was managing the models and designers.

Though I’d liked getting to know
Mira and Adam, and while Chandler never failed to entertain, I was glad to have
a minute alone with my date. I trailed my hand across his shoulders and down
his back, drawing his gaze to me. I saw longing, the few flecks of copper
blazing in his eyes. He grabbed my thigh and leaned in, but the anticipated
kiss never came.

“Oh, you don’t need to be all PDA
on my account,” a silky voice purred behind us. “Remember, I know.”

Hudson stiffened under my hand
and my eyes followed his, landing on the leggy blonde taking a seat next to me.
She was intimidating, not because of her attitude, but because she was
drop-dead gorgeous. I tucked my hands into my lap, though Hudson’s hand
remained secure on my leg under the table.

“I’m Celia.” She smiled, showing
white perfect teeth. “I thought we should probably meet. Though, it doesn’t
look like Hudson’s too keen on it.”

I glanced at Hudson who indeed
appeared uncomfortable.

“No, you’re right. You should
meet,” he said, his hand stroking my thigh. I felt purpose behind his touching
me, but wasn’t sure if he meant it to claim me, calm me, or calm himself. “Now
you’ve met.”

“You aren’t getting rid of me
that easily, you oaf.” She smirked at Hudson then delivered another smile to
me. “Believe it or not, we’re actually friends.”

I believed it. She felt
comfortable around him, and he didn’t even flinch when she’d called him an oaf.
It made my stomach wrench unexplainably. Then, when I wondered if they’d had
sex, a sharp stabbing began in my chest. I didn’t need to flick the elastic
band, already associating the thought with pain, but I did anyway since my
hands were finally free under the table to do so.

Hudson sighed. “What do you want,
Ceeley?”

Someone Hudson actually called by
a nickname? The stabbing deepened.

“I wanted to personally thank
Alayna for this whole charade.”

So, she really did know.
Which really put me at a disadvantage since I knew almost nothing about her.

Celia leaned into me as if
confiding a secret, but loud enough that Hudson could still hear her. “You
can’t know how dreadful the idea of marrying that pain in the ass has been.” A
teasing grin appeared on her lips.

 “Um, I can imagine.” The stabby
pains in my chest made me want to stab Hudson, too. “He’s not the settling down
type.”

Hudson removed his hand from my
leg, and I instantly regretted my words, even though they hadn’t been
that
mean, had they?

Celia giggled. “Wow. You already
know him so well.” She giggled again.

Ugh, she was a giggler. I wanted
to puke. Or hate her. But something about her also drew me in. “It’s nice to talk
to someone else who knows.”

“But isn’t Hudson amazingly good
at pretending?” She narrowed her eyes at him, and I caught the daggers he shot
her in return.

“He is.” I thought about our time
together, the touches, the kisses in public. Some of them had been confusing,
and I had blamed that on my own tendencies to create more when there wasn’t
more. But maybe it hadn’t been my overactive imagination. “Quite good.”

“I’d love to continue this
wonderfully entertaining conversation, but I see someone I need to talk some
business with.” Hudson stood and reached his hand out for me. “Alayna?”

I had the strange feeling he
didn’t want to leave me alone with his almost-but-not-really-fiancé. The last
time I’d felt that way, I’d received rather interesting tidbits of info from
his little sis. “Go ahead, H. I’ll hang with Celia.”