Page 62 of Georgia-Blue & Hudson

“George, don’t be like that.”

Her gaze is fierce and I know enough to know when she gets like this, there’s no backing down. She’s like a furious little bull.

“Tell me! Are you just doing this because you made some stupid promise to my brother?”

“I’m supposed to be looking after you!” I grit out. “How am I supposed to do that when you look so goddamn beautiful! We kissed a few weeks ago. Then you tell me you’re a virgin while some asshole paws over you and I’m supposed to just turn around and walk away?”

Her frown lifts and her eyes glow with so such warmth I could fucking bathe in them.

“You like me?” she whispers.

“Georgia-Blue.”

“Your eyes tell me everything,” she goes on. “I know how to read them, how to read you. They’re scorching through me right now, Hudson. Why do you fight it?”

I sigh, long and hard. Running a hand over my hair, unable to come up with any excuses except the same one. “Because if we crossed that line, there’s no going back,” I say. “That and Gray will kill us both, you know that, right?”

“You’re not potentially fucking Gray,” she whisper-shouts.

I blanch, lowering my voice. “You keep speakin’ like a brat and I’ll put you over my knee.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “Promise?”

She has no idea what her pouty little defiance does to me, but she’s about to find out if she keeps it up.

I grip her chin with my thumb and forefinger. “I’m supposed to keep you outta trouble.”

“I guess you really don’t know how to wrangle the wild bull after all.”

“You got me all wrong,Princess,because that’s exactly what I’m trained for. I just never expected it from someone as stubborn as you.”

“Stubborn?” She balks. “Ask anyone in Stoney Creek and they’ll tell you that Hudson Nash is the grumpiest cowboy this side of the mountain.”

“Is that right?”

“Uh, huh.”

“What else do they say?”

She bites her lip, then says, “According to Dolly Simpson, you go all night.”

My breath catches in my chest. “You can’t let up about that, can you?”

“She certainly can’t. She also tried to snag Gabe, Travis, and Gray, and probably Beau and Brooklyn, too.”

“But that’s not what makes you mad. What makes you mad is that I slept with her.”

She’s about to spout something else but then Liz appears behind us and we both turn at the same time. “There you are!” she coos. “Come on, we’ve got some southern country music for y’all, and I know that you know how to move those dancin’ shoes!”

She tugs on Georgia’s arm, effectively spilling her drink as I take it from her hand and set it on the bar, but Georgia reaches for my hand and for some inexplicable reason, I take it.

I don’t fucking dance, that’s not to say Ican’t,but tonight it looks like all bets are off.

We enter back through the ballroom and the party lights are in full twinkle mode, the band starting up and everyone cheers. I guess there’s a few more people here from the south than I thought.

Liz is already running toward her groom, leaving Georgia by my side.

I spin her in my arms as she falls into my chest. “You were sayin’?”

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