Page 87 of The Sweetest Cruelty: Hudson
His lip curled, but he didn’t call me a liar. He leaned forward and swept the hair off my shoulders with his fingers.
“Why so snotty, English?”
Clutching my cup, I attempted to fold my arms across my chest and glared. We stood like that for a minute or so, it was like a game of who blinks first.
I finally broke the deafening silence between us, which was rich considering the music and noise from the party were so loud.
“Where have you been?” I questioned frostily, shooting daggers at him. I must have sounded like an outraged girlfriend who had been stood up. The whole thing was ridiculous, but that’s what this boy made me feel. Like a silly little girl in the throes of her first high school crush.
“Why, did you miss me?” Hudson drawled with a cocksure expression.
“Like a headache,” I lied.
His head tilted to one side as he regarded me thoughtfully. “What are you doing here, Molly?”
“It’s a party. What doyouthink?” I shot back, lowering one arm but keeping my drink against my chest.
“You’re a junior. DoesDaddyknow you’re here?”
My fingernails bit into the palm of my free hand, and I took a drink to distract myself from the sting. I couldn’t help making a face; the fizz was flat.
“That good, is it?” Hudson chuckled at my distaste.
“Either tell me where you’ve been or go back to your little friend there,” I said tartly with a flick of the cup toward Tate as she walked past us. Thankfully, she was busy with her phone.
“Well?” I repeated.
“Well, what?” he husked, as he watched me. He was doing it to make me feel uncomfortable, and it was working.
I’d had enough cat and mouse. Even though he had treated me appallingly, I liked this boy, but I wasn’t going to throw myself at him. “Forget it. Just say what you want, Hudson?”
I looked up into those deep, dreamy pools of his eyes.
He smirked. “Now that’s a loaded question, kitten.”
He was wearing one of those shit eating grins I was coming to hate. There was no doubt in my mind now that this boy would eventually push me beyond the brink of my sanity. The mixed messages coming off him were insane. One minute he was all over me; the next I was a nobody. I was surprised he’d text me to say our tutoring session was off; he could have just stood me up; a typical boy thing.
“Maybe I just want to talk to you. Get to know you better?” His words were innocent enough, but I didn’t miss the edge of sarcasm there.
“Why?” I huffed, swirling the liquid around my cup.
“Why not. You’re a beautiful woman.” I should have been basking in his compliments, but then he ruined them by adding. “You’re the hottest piece of ass in here, English.” Kitten, English? Pick one and stick to it, I felt like saying.
With a confidence I didn’t feel, I stated. “I know. Although it’s not hard, is it?” Half the women in the room were smashed, and a drunk female was not a good look.
“No, but it could be,” he replied with a suggestive smile. Was he drunk?
“Shouldn’t you be sucking face with your date?” I motioned towards Tate again, who was now at a makeshift bar, talking to a tall black guy with a shaved head. The cups of her padded bikini made her breasts look huge.
Hudson’s perfect white teeth shone as he chuckled to himself. “Jealousy looks good on you, princess.” Ah, another pet name. Great.
Narrowing my eyes, I snapped. “I’m not jealous.” I was.
Hudson shrugged his huge shoulders and flicked his head towards his brothers. “If you say so.”
Micah raised his eyebrows and grinned at me as he passed Hudson a fresh beer. There was a bucket in the middle of the small coffee table full of ice and refills. Phoenix and Reed were still with Storm.
The boys were all dressed similarly, in jeans and dark button-down tops. Hudson looked gorgeous dressed down, as I had only ever seen him in his school uniform orfootball kit. The sleeves of his top were rolled back, revealing his thick, tanned, and veiny arms. I noticed he wore a chunky watch on his wrist.
