Page 14 of Time Out

“It’s amazing,” I say, stepping back off the dance floor, mesmerized by everything I’ve seen. There was a library with shelves so high there was a ladder to reach them. I glimpsed a swimming pool through a glass-walled corridor, and a games room with a full-size snooker table. The kitchen looks like something out of Downton Abbey. “This whole place is amazing.”

He pulls his lips to one side, considering. “It is, now that you’re in it.”

Hudson steps forward, taking my hands and leading me back onto the dance floor. I shake my head. “I can’t dance, remember?”

“Everyone can dance, babygirl.”

“Not me. I have two left toes, or whatever that saying is.”

“Left feet. And yours are absolutely perfect. Put them on mine.” He pulls me closer, guiding me to put my feet on top of his own, then he turns his face up to the ceiling. “Carlton, play a Slow Waltz.”

“Who’s Carlton?” I ask, just as a disembodied voice comes from all sides, making me jump.

“Certainly, sir. Playing a Slow Waltz.”

“You have a butler?”

Hudson laughs. “Sort of. Carlton is an AI assistant. Kind of a robot butler. Ask him anything, and he’ll do his best to make it happen.”

Music starts playing, and Hudson starts to dance with me stood on his feet. I feel like a little girl playing at grownups with her father. I lean my head on his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart, and I never want this to end.

“Carlton,” I say out loud, “is there somewhere we can get pizza delivered here?”

A moment passes before the disembodied voice is back. “Yes, ma’am. Village Pizzeria delivers to our address. Would you like me to place an order for you?”

Hudson quirks an eyebrow.

“What?” I shrug. “I’m hungry.”

“You know there’s a fully equipped kitchen right here? I could make you something.”

“I want pizza,” I tell him, slightly starting to sulk. “I’ll pay for it.”

His face is suddenly serious. “No, you fucking will not. Carlton?” He raises his voice. “Order one every specialty pizza on their menu.”

“Very good, sir.”

The music ramps back up and Hudson doesn’t break his stride, waltzing us both around the dance floor like he was one of those professionals on Dancing with the Stars.

He’s so calm and natural here. To me, I feel like this is a movie set or a ride at Disney or something.

I never really imaginedbeingrich. It was enough for me to imagine not being poor. And honestly, I’ve never been greedy. But feeling so safe and secure, and like someone sees me as more than just the chubby girl with the brown hair for once is nice. Hudson treats me like I’m something special, like I’m beautiful and one of a kind. It’s a feeling I never want to end but there’s a niggling deep down that tells me this is all too good to be true.

“So, one of everything?” I purse my lips. “But what are you going to eat?”

He grins, and I laugh, then he glances down between us to where our bodies are connected, me still in his oversized t-shirt and nothing else. “I don’t need pizza,” he says. “I’ve got an appetite for something far better than pizza. And, just so you know, I’m ravenous.”

Chapter Five

Hudson

The only thing I don’t like about this moment is that I don’t have her under my own roof.

“What’s that place?” she asks, pointing out the window of the guest wing kitchen while I straighten up the pizza boxes and wipe down the counter.

“Oh, that’s an old guesthouse. Or, more like quarters for house staff. This house was built in stages, starting in the early 1900’s, then added on, updated, and so on. That was built when the first part of the main house was built. No one lives there now.”

I want to tell her I used to live there. When Jackson first hired me, I had a felony record, no money, no friends that were good for anything but another slippery slope back to Hudson Correctional. Except Wilson, but he had Kensie and I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on him.

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