He cut me off. “It’s not. But I need you to know that I’m trying and I’m not going to stop trying until I get there. Do you hear me? Don’t give up on me.” He was vehement, his expression frantic.

“I’m not giving up on you.” I reached my palm up to caress his face and he leaned into my touch. “Why would I do that? I love you, Hudson. So much.”

His eyes closed tight, almost as if my statement were painful to him. “I don’t deserve your love. I don’t think I ever will.”

“You deserve more than I can ever give you.”

“We have a difference of opinion on that. We’ll have to agree to disagree. Again.” He pushed at my shoulder. “Turn,” he ordered.

I shifted to face the back of the couch and immediately felt Hudson’s thick erection pressing behind me. Lifting my leg up and back around him, he slid into me again. “This time,” he whispered between kisses at my neck, “we’re going to take it slow.”

Chapter Fifteen

As I imagined would be the case, Hudson was eager for my moving in to commence immediately. Correction—immediately after another round of lovemaking. Bursting with an excitement I’d never seen from him before, he made arrangements with “his people,” and by the end of Saturday, the relatively few things I owned had been boxed and brought over to The Bowery. It happened so fast that the anxiety of it didn’t even have time to overwhelm me, and whenever I felt it creeping up, I simply promised to deal with it at my Addicts Anonymous session on Monday.

It was easy to unpack. Almost all my belongings fit in the extra closet in the bedroom—our bedroom. Only one item, a hope chest that had belonged to my mother, found its way to the extra room. I was completely settled by Sunday evening, and the sore muscles I boasted were not from carrying boxes but from other physical activity.

Monday came too soon, yet wasn’t dreadful since I adored our wake-up routine. Our cell alarms going off in tandem, a quickie in the shower, getting ready side by side at the twin sinks, sharing a fast bite at the kitchen table—all of it rocked. The still thrilling newness of it combined with the security of knowing the situation wasn’t temporary sent me to the club with a spring in my step, a rarity for me since I had never been anything near a morning person.

Since I was in such a good mood, I began my workday by tackling what felt like the most daunting of my tasks: rescheduling with Aaron Trent. I had suspected that the only reason he’d agreed to meet with me in the first place was because of Hudson. When he’d canceled on Friday night, my suspicions were confirmed. All it would take was one call from my boyfriend and I knew the meeting would be back on. But I wanted to do it myself.

Since I didn’t have a direct phone number to Trent’s office, and I didn’t want to ask Hudson, I had to use the agency number listed on his website. It took two transfers before I reached Trent’s assistant. “I need to make an appointment with Aaron Trent. Is that something you can help me with?”

The voice on the other end was bubbly and professional. “I can take your information, but I’ll have to check with him before any meeting time is approved.”

“That makes sense.” I ran my hand over my face. Why on earth did I ever think I’d be able to get to talk to the man myself? Despite the futility of it, I delivered my information. “This is Alayna Withers from The Sky—”

“Ms. Withers,” Bubbly Professional cut me off. “I didn’t realize it was you. Mr. Trent said if you called that we could go ahead and reschedule for whenever would be most convenient for you.”

“Oh. Okay.” So maybe he hadn’t been planning to bail on me after all. I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I was fooled that his eagerness to meet had anything to do with me and nothing to do with whom I was sleeping with, but I also knew if I had him in front of me, I could impress the balls off the guy.

We made arrangements for an evening later in the week, but before I hung up, I asked the question itching on my tongue. “Hey, do you have any idea why Mr. Trent canceled to begin with? I know it’s none of my business. Just curious.”

Bubbly Professional seemed surprised. “Mr. Trent didn’t cancel. Some woman from your club called Friday afternoon and said something had come up. I’d assumed it was you.”

That was impossible. No one even knew I had the meeting that night except for David and Hudson. And last I checked, neither of them were women. “It wasn’t me. Are you sure?”

“Yep. I took the call myself.”

Either someone had canceled my meeting on Friday without my permission or I was seriously being pranked. Whichever it was, Bubbly Professional didn’t need to hang on the line while I figured it out. “My mistake. Thank you and please apologize to Mr. Trent for any inconvenience it may have caused him.”

“Honestly,” her voice lowered as if she were sharing a secret, “this worked out better for him. He would have had to miss out on a daddy daughter dance if you’d kept the Friday appointment, and Rachel’s the type of girl that doesn’t take disappointment well. So you kind of did him a favor by canceling.”

Ah, so it was probably Rachel Trent who canceled. I’d never been close to my father, but I could appreciate her wanting to be with her dad. I’d definitely done things equally as manipulative as a teen.

I thanked Bubbly Professional for the information, hung up the phone, and moved on to the other items on my day’s agenda.

It was nearly three when the bell rang at the service entrance. I checked the camera feed since we weren’t expecting any deliveries. It was Liesl.

“Be right there,” I told her through the intercom then ran down to let her in.

I opened the door and opened my arms for Liesl to give me a bear hug. She was one of the only people I allowed to touch me so intimately and only on my terms.

“What are you doing here so early?” I asked into her hair. “Do you work tonight?”

“Nope. Off tonight.” She let me go to give me a high five. “We could hang out later, if you want.”

“I do want. I have group at five-thirty. Maybe after that?”

“Groovy. I just had coffee with some friends next door. They want me to go to a concert with them so I came by to check out next week’s schedule. Is it up yet?”

“Yeah, I think I saw it. Come on up.”

We climbed the back stairs to the office. I found the schedule on David’s mess of a desk and turned around to hand it to her and jumped when I saw a figure in the doorway. Another half second and I realized it was Hudson. I’d almost forgotten he had his own set of keys.