‘HEY, HONEY, I’M HOME,’ Charlotte called out her standard greeting as she entered the lounge room of their tiny Bondi apartment, dumped her satchel and fell into the nearest seat. ‘I hope you had a better day than I did.’
Makayla’s day had been average. What had happened after rehearsal in Hudson’s bathroom had more than made up for it.
Even now, three hours later, she couldn’t believe it.
He’d gone down on her.
Giving her an orgasm to end all orgasms.
What that man could do with his tongue...
‘Why was your day so bad?’ Makayla managed a sensible question while inside she still screamed, Oh, my God, Hudson and his tongue!
‘New boss from hell.’ Charlotte took off her heels and stretched her legs out, scrunching her toes. ‘Haven’t even met him in person yet but taking orders from him remotely is bad enough.’
‘I thought all accountants were perfectly polite types who treated each other with dignity and respect?’
Charlotte flipped her the bird. ‘That’s how much I respect your opinion. As for my boss being an accountant, I think he’s one of those business drones who only see the bottom line and couldn’t give a flying fig about personnel.’
‘Sounds like a rough day,’ she said, busting to get Charlotte’s opinion on what had gone down with Hudson—literally—but not sure she wanted to talk about it.
‘Looks like yours wasn’t.’ Charlotte tucked her legs under her, eyeing her with curiosity. ‘You’ve got this weird smug smirk thing happening.’
‘Rehearsal went well,’ she said, her lips twitching, unable to stop a grin spreading over her face, the kind of grin that made her cheeks ache. ‘Really well.’
‘What the...?’ Charlotte’s eyes narrowed before she squealed. ‘No way. You slept with someone on your first day?’
‘Of course not.’ But she’d wanted to drag Hudson into the shower with her. She’d admired his self-control while cursing him for it.
When he’d first asked to watch, she’d been shocked at his cheekiness. He’d asked her to do the very thing that had ensured he’d ended their friendship five years earlier.
Yet her surprise at his audacity had quickly given way to intrigue and she’d been turned on by the suggestion. But she’d wanted to make him sweat. In trying to prove a point—that he was duplicitous for wanting to watch her naked when he’d freaked that one time she’d done it with good reason—her plan had backfired.
Having him watch her shower had been the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced. She’d tried to stick with the programme of deliberate torture as revenge for how badly he’d treated her the last time he’d seen her naked, intent on purposely driving him crazy. Unfortunately she’d driven herself nuts in the process.
She’d never been so turned on, had been shocked yet relieved when he’d opened that shower door. Not that she was a complete fool. She’d known what might happen when she’d agreed to let him watch her. Had counted on it, so she could call him out for being a hypocrite and release all the pent-up regret that she’d harboured despite their newly awakened friendship now. She’d planned on stopping him with a few terse words. She hadn’t expected to admire him because he’d been man enough to acknowledge the attraction simmering between them.
Even as her resistance had crumbled and her residual anger had faded, she’d had reservations. Getting physical with Hudson would change everything. He’d already seen her naked and found her lacking once. What was to say his freak-out that night years ago wouldn’t happen again because of his baggage she didn’t know about?
She’d been an idiot. She should’ve known that in agreeing to his challenge out of anger, it would backfire on her. She’d been curious to see how far she could push him. She hadn’t expected him to push back...and how. But she couldn’t get past one question that kept bugging her: was he genuinely so damn hot for her that he couldn’t resist or had he been trying to prove a point—to himself—as she’d been doing?
Whatever his rationale, when her anger had dwindled and she’d released the bitterness of the past, she’d realised Hudson was staring at her with admiration, not disgust, and she’d never felt so empowered as she’d showered in front of him. Knowing he was finally looking at her the way she wanted him to look. Knowing he wanted her.
‘You so did sleep with someone. Look at your cheeks!’ Charlotte yelled. ‘You’re crimson.’
Makayla pressed her palms to her scorching cheeks. ‘I didn’t sleep with anyone but there may have been other stuff going on.’
‘Ooh, do tell.’ Charlotte rubbed her hands together, but before Makayla could reveal the partial truth, the doorbell rang.
‘That’ll be Abby,’ she said, glancing at her watch. ‘She’s bringing leftovers from the patisserie.’
‘Good, I’m starved.’ Charlotte leapt nimbly to her feet, her petite frame always making Makayla feel like an ogre. ‘Dealing with an asshole boss gives me an appetite.’
Dealing with Makayla’s boss gave her an appetite too, but not for food.
‘Hi, lovelies.’ Abby breezed into the room brandishing the distinct pink and gold cardboard bags from Le Miel. ‘I come bearing gifts.’
‘Whatever you’re offering, I’ll have three of each,’ Charlotte said, padding into the kitchen to get plates. ‘Chardonnay okay for you two?’
‘Please,’ Abby said, shooting Makayla a ‘what’s up?’ look when she hadn’t said anything.
‘Tell you in a minute,’ Makayla said, waiting until Charlotte had poured them each a glass of wine and their plates were covered with lemon tartlets, petite croissants and beignets.
‘Makayla’s been up to no good with someone at work,’ Charlotte said, popping a tartlet into her mouth whole. ‘And she’s about to spare this poor, pathetic spinster no details.’
‘Someone at work?’ Predictably, Abby’s ears all but twitched. ‘Tell me it’s Hudson. He’s gorgeous.’ She swivelled towards Charlotte and wiggled her eyebrows. ‘You know the actor Tom Hiddleston?’
Charlotte’s forehead crinkled before she snapped her fingers. ‘English, right? Tall, blond, blue eyes, incredibly hot?’
Abby nodded. ‘Hudson could be his twin.’
Charlotte wolf whistled. ‘But isn’t he your boss?’
Makayla sighed, knowing she should’ve remembered that salient point around the time he’d opened that shower door. ‘Technically, yes, but we’re old friends.’
‘Friends or friends?’ Charlotte made smoochy sounds. ‘I do love a good juicy friends-to-lovers saga.’
Makayla snorted and pointed to a towering stack of novels on a side table. ‘Stick to your romance novels because there’s not much to tell.’
Abby’s grin channelled pure evil. ‘Maybe I should ask Tanner—’
‘Don’t you dare.’ Makayla glared at Abby, who feigned innocence before taking a bite out of one of her signature croissants.
Makayla loved Abby’s pastries but if she ate half of what Abby did she wouldn’t be able to fit into her leotards, let alone dance.
‘You’ll have to give us something, my friend, otherwise I’m getting Tanner to do some digging.’ Abby dusted off her hands and reached for her wine glass. ‘And trust me, he’s more of a gossip than I am.’
‘Okay, okay, sheesh.’ Makayla blew out a breath, keen to get her friends’ take on what had gone down with Hudson—literally—but nervous they’d reiterate what she already knew. She was stupid for complicating a working relationship with her boss. ‘But you promise not to breathe a word of this to Tanner, okay?’
Abby hesitated before nodding. ‘We tell each other everything, but considering you’re my best friend and Hudson’s his, we’ll stay out of it.’
Makayla glanced at Charlotte, who held up her hands. ‘Hey, who would I tell? You two are the only friends I have.’
Makayla searched for the right words, something to tell her friends that didn’t involve revealing everything. Before realising if she left out the juicy stuff there wouldn’t be much to tell.
‘The short version? I had a dress fitting tonight for another show I’m doing, a one-off. Rehearsals ran late so I wouldn’t have had time to get back here to shower. Hudson lives in an apartment over Embue so he offered me his shower to save time.’ Makayla felt heat flush her cheeks as Abby’s eyes widened to saucer proportion.
‘You didn’t! He showered with you?’
Charlotte blew a raspberry. ‘I’m so freaking jealous. You lead the most exciting life ever.’
Not usually. Exciting things didn’t happen to Makayla often. Today had been an aberration...that she’d remember for a very long time. ‘Do you want to hear the rest or not?’
‘Yes!’ both girls yelled in unison, so she continued. ‘The shower mixer thingy wasn’t working and I couldn’t get the water temp right. So I called out to him to fix it.’
‘And?’ Charlotte prompted, her elbows resting on her knees, chin in her hands, leaning forward and hanging on her every word.
‘He said he’d fix it.’ Makayla paused for dramatic effect. ‘If I let him watch me shower.’
Charlotte squealed and Abby’s mouth dropped open. ‘No way. That’s so hot.’
‘I know, right?’ Makayla’s skin pebbled at the remembrance of having Hudson watch her with that intense gaze of his. Like he couldn’t look away. Like he was really seeing her for the first time. ‘I should never have agreed but we’ve got this attraction going on, always have, so I thought why not?’
‘Why not indeed?’ Charlotte sighed and slumped back on the sofa, wistfulness clouding her eyes. ‘You are so lucky.’
Since they’d been flatmates, Makayla had never seen Charlotte date, let alone have a boyfriend. She’d tried to encourage her to go clubbing or go out for drinks at their local bar on a Friday night, but Charlotte preferred reading to socialising. She hoped she could drag her to Embue to watch her perform. If Makayla was in a man slump, Charlotte was in severe drought.
‘So what happened after that?’ Abby prompted.
‘I was angry at first, really mad.’ For reasons she wouldn’t go into with her friends. She’d left the past behind and had no intention of rehashing it. ‘I wanted to tell him to stick his ludicrous challenge.’ Her grin turned sly. ‘But then I wanted to make him sweat for being so audacious, so while he watched I may have played up to him a tad and...he, uh...ended up in the shower...’ Hell, there was no easy way to say this, so she blurted, ‘He went down on me.’
‘Hells bells.’ Charlotte almost fell off her chair she leaned forward so far, while Abby tut-tutted. ‘Bad girl.’
‘Or good, very, very good, depending how you look at it.’ Makayla couldn’t keep the smug grin off her face now she’d come to terms with her fall from grace. And she’d fallen far. From indignant woman scorned to moaning, wanton goddess, she’d given in to Hudson when she should’ve rallied against his injustice. But the moment he’d lapped at her with his tongue her outrage at his double standards had been obliterated and, considering the ferocity of her orgasm, she couldn’t be sorry for that. ‘Let’s just say if I hadn’t had to rush off I’d probably still be there, returning the favour.’
‘You two are so going to end up together,’ Charlotte said, sounding pensive. ‘I can sense it.’
Abby, the more practical of her friends, seemed less caught up in the romanticism. ‘What does he think about this fling?’
Something in Makayla’s chest tightened at Abby’s casual labelling of what she’d shared with Hudson as a fling. She shouldn’t care, because if things proceeded with them that was exactly what it would be.
But having Abby articulate it meant her friend either thought she wasn’t up for anything more or she knew more about Hudson via Tanner and he wasn’t.
‘We didn’t really get to talk,’ Makayla said, some of her earlier enthusiasm at getting the girls’ opinions dwindling. ‘But I like him. He likes me. The shower thing could be a prelude to more.’
‘Do you want that?’
‘Of course she does,’ Charlotte answered for her. ‘If this guy is as hot as you say, why wouldn’t she?’
Abby’s furtive glance away made Makayla’s heart sink. ‘What aren’t you telling me, Abs?’
Abby hesitated before giving a brief nod. ‘Tanner and Hudson have been mates since high school. According to Tanner, Hudson hasn’t been in a relationship ever. He dates a few times max, moves on. Are you okay with that, considering you share a past?’
Makayla’s heart foolishly lifted at the thought of Hudson never being involved with a woman long term. Not that she was interested in changing his track record—far from it—but it meant that if they did have a fling it wouldn’t change the status quo for either of them.
She didn’t have time for mess. Not when this job could be the first step to achieving her dream.
‘We both grew up in Kings Cross. Our paths crossed regularly and we ended up friends. Then we had a falling out and we weren’t any more. But all that’s in the past, and whatever happens now we’ll both know where we stand.’
Sounded nice in theory but Makayla knew it had the potential to be way more complicated than that.
Working with Hudson could provide her with contacts she needed to climb the industry ladder. It could lead to her big break. So what happened if they had a fling but it soured? Their friendship had gone south once before and she still didn’t know the real reason behind his outburst that had effectively ended them. This time, it could have far more severe consequences.
The concern creasing Abby’s brow faded. ‘As long as you both know the score before you start something up, you’ll be fine.’
‘I think they’ve already started something up,’ Charlotte said with a cheeky wink. ‘You should go for it, sweetie. Have some fun. You deserve it.’
‘Here’s to both of you getting clean in many showers together.’ Abby raised her glass in a toast. ‘Or should that be getting dirty?’
Makayla chuckled and clinked glasses with the girls. While she didn’t need their approval to take things further with Hudson, it had been helpful to use them as sounding boards.
Not that she had a hope in hell of backing out. She’d made her decision the second she’d let the towel drop and allowed Hudson to see her naked several hours ago.
A bold move or a moment of madness?
Guess she’d soon find out.