Everly After Read Online Free Page A

he knows I don’t care.
    I suck in a deep breath, steadying the tremble in my hand before I pour the wine. I stare at the glass, filling it until wine almost overflows over the brim. After a hungry swallow, I pour half a glass for Hudson.
    “What are these maps here for, Ev?” Disappointment hangs heavy in his question. I don’t answer. “Where are you going?” He shuffles through the pile of paper continents covering the small coffee table. My paper continents, my escape.
    Far from you.
    I walk around the tattered couch and hand him a glass of wine. “Why are you in town, Hudson?”
    “You’re going to keep avoiding my question.”
    I see the way he looks at me, as if my silence is pulling him apart. The adult that Hudson is pretending to be slowly slips for a second. He loosens his tie.
    I take another sip of wine, licking the beads of Beaujolais nouveau off my lips with a slow sweep of my tongue. I like the way his breath hitches in his throat, the way his brown eyes blacken, if that’s even possible. All because of me.
    He plucks a purple bra wedged between the faded couch cushions and fingers the lacy cup. “Yours?”
    I curl up opposite him and tuck my legs beneath me. There’s a reason why he gets what he wants. It has something to do with that narrowed stare of his that makes your skin catch on fire. Hudson’s wild and untamed, fast to ignite and never quick to forget.
    I lean over and check the tag, knowing he can see down my shirt, then slowly recline and drag the moment out with another drink of wine. “Too small.”
    I’m sure I’ll be finding all sorts of souvenirs when I do cleanup detail later, but a cheap bra from H&M two cups too small? No thanks.
    I bet Hudson has some comment to make bordering on harassment and charm. I don’t give him the opportunity. “I haven’t seen you since my graduation party in December.”
    His eyes scan over my bare legs in a way that feels like a caress, and then he tosses the bra behind us onto the floor. I bite my lip when our eyes eventually meet. It takes a while. Hudson gets distracted when he reaches my chest.
    “It’s only been a few months.” His voice is gravelly. “I’m working at the company for the year. For my father.”
    Of course. His dad heads some hedge fund that manages billions in international capital. The company has offices all over the world. I should have thought of that possibility before I decided to start my adventure with a stop in Paris. Thinking things through has never been a strength of mine.
    “I have a job now, too.”
    He sets his glass down on the coffee table and shifts over the sagging couch cushions to face me. “Ev?”
    A chill hits me as those two letters ring in my ears. I don’t want his questions. “Yes?”
    “Why are you here?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “That’s not what I asked.” He moves closer. “Why. Are. You. Here?”
    “I needed a change.” I laugh off my confession, meeting his stare for a moment before I swallow another large gulp of wine.
    Hudson grabs the glass from my hand and places it on top of paper Africa. I look at the ring it’s going to leave around Kenya and wonder what it would be like to go on a safari. What would it be like to stare down a lion without the fear of its teeth sinking into you and tearing you apart?
    He shakes off his suit jacket and drapes it behind him on the couch’s arm. “You remember everything you have back home, right?” He turns back around. “What you have in Manhattan?”
    “Nothing,” I say without thinking. And maybe that’s part of an answer, too, but it’s not entirely true.
    A tight expression pulls at his face, a thin mask of control. For some twisted reason, it makes me want him more. This is all so unlike Hudson. He’s never one to care. He’s a cold, heartless asshole, always ready to push someone out of his bed to make room for another without apology. He takes without thinking of the consequences. They never hold to a man like Hudson,