Free Hold Me Closer (Sea Island Brides Book 1) by Georgia Kelly Page A

inside. What the hell was wrong with him? A woman had
never affected him like this before, and it left him feeling out of
control and frustrated.
    “If
you’re scared of them finding out about our engagement, you
have to realize that this is going to be front page news. They will
find out eventually. Trying to hide it would be pointless.”
    “I’m
not trying to hide it,” she said, shifting in her chair. “But
I don’t see any point in inviting anyone to my engagement party
when it isn’t even real.”
    “That’s
the point, though. To convince everyone that it is real.”
    “There’s
no one,” she said. “I’ll follow your rules, but you
need to respect my privacy and my decisions about the people in my
life.”
    Her
tone reminded him of the way he spoke when he was solid on a point
and was not willing to back down. He knew better than to push the
issue, so he moved on, but in the back of his mind, he wondered why
she was so protective of her personal life.
    “Moving
on,” he said, picking up the paper on his desk again. “Number
two. Everything you say to the press should show the Montgomery
family in a favorable light. Basically, to the press, we need to
appear happy and in love.”
    To
his relief, the tension in her body relaxed and she was back to her
normal self again.
    “Does
that go for after we break up, too? Or can I pretend to be your
bitter ex-fiancée? You know, tell everyone how you broke up
with me through email and didn’t buy me enough diamonds?”
    “Can
a woman ever have enough diamonds?” he joked, and she laughed.
The sound filled the room, warming his body from head to toe.
    “And
what if the press asks me how we met? Or where we went on our first
date? Or even whether you were a Boy Scout when you were little?”
    “Those
are good questions. We’ll need to come up with a story and
stick to it. As for the Boy Scout question, the answer is yes.”
    “Why
am I not surprised?”
    She
giggled, and Hudson leaned back in his chair to study her. So far,
Annabelle was full of surprises. He had no doubt there were many more
surprises lurking beneath the surface.
    He
intended to dig deeply until he’d
uncovered every one of them.
    Last
night, his ego was wounded when she said she was only coming on
to him to get a good story. Reporters had been treating him
like that for as long as he could remember. In fact, most women
treated him like that, thinking they could use their bodies to get
anything they wanted from him.
    He’d
had to learn about that the hard way. Thoughts of Haley rose to the
surface, still painful after almost seven years. Never again would he
let a woman into his heart like that. It gave them too much power and
control.
    Annabelle
might have wanted to get a good story, but she was lying when she’d
said she wasn’t attracted to him. He could see it in her eyes
every time she looked at him. He could feel it in the air between
them, snapping with all the tension of two people who were meant to
be lovers. Before she left Cottonwood Plantation, Annabelle was going
to be his. It was the only way he could get her out of his system.
    “There’s
just one more thing I wanted to discuss with you, Annabelle.”
He stood and circled around the desk until he stood directly in front
of her, his eyes drawn to the curve of her breasts, straining against
her tight black shirt. “If we’re going to make this
believable, we’re going to have to get comfortable being close
to each other. Touching each other. Even kissing. Are you going to be
okay with that?”
    The
air in the room seemed to change as he moved closer to her. A feeling
of grand anticipation swelled within him as she rose, her body so
close he could hardly resist the urge to crush her to him.
    “I
understand what you’re saying, and I completely agree with
you,” she said, stepping around him. “But let’s
leave the show for when there’s an audience.”
    She
turned the brass handle and opened the door,