Page 10 of The Wedding Fake
“‘Member last week when those horrible boys from the third floor nearly knocked me over getting off the elevator?”
I nodded, vividly remembering the buttoned-down dress she’d worn, but not sure what the event had to do with anything. “The Probst boys,” I volunteered, waiting for more information.
Claire nodded. “Well, my sister called a few minutes after I got off the elevator, and when she asked me for a name, I said the first one that came to mind.”
My brain seemed to run molasses-slow, not sure what she was saying. “Probst?” I repeated.
She shot me an eye roll that probably hurt to make, it was so oversized. “Yes, Hudson. I told my sister my boyfriend’s name was Probst. Can we never speak of it again?”
A few seconds of quiet went by while I tried to make sense of her mood shift, and then my eyes went wide. She groaned, dropping her head back until it hit the wall behind her with a thunk. “Hudson?” I asked, a grin playing at the corner of my lips. It was me. I was her mystery man.
“I was put on the spot. My mind went blank,” she protested.
Blank, or full of me? I didn’t ask. Instead, I glanced down at my watch. It had been over two hours, and I’d been enjoying every minute. With a dry laugh, I realized that made this the best date I’d had in almost a year.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she muttered glumly.
My grip on her knee tightened, and I pulled her closer. The action slid her dress up her thighs and closed the distance between us to inches. The proximity made my mouth go suddenly dry. “I’m not laughing at you,” I whispered, reaching up to tuck a lock of wavy brown hair behind one ear. I cupped her cheek, and she let out a contented sigh. It was a sound I wished I could record to play back on lonely nights.
I knew without a doubt I could lean in and kiss her, but I went slowly, enjoying every flutter of eyelash and intake of breath. Claire felt like the kind of girl you sealed to memory.
Our foreheads met before our lips did, and for a moment we stayed like that, breathing each other's air. She was magical. Mesmerizing. “Christ, you’re beautiful,” I murmured as my lips fell on hers, my fingers tightening on her jaw to pull her closer.
I jolted when a noisy thud sounded behind me, and Claire jerked back, out of my grasp. I reached for her automatically, but a voice interrupted us. “This is the fire department. Is everyone okay in there?”
6
CLAIRE
Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit.
Was I about to make out with my hot neighbor in the elevator? Absolutely, I was. And if the fire department hadn’t shown up, would I have stopped at making out? No. Absolutely not. If we made it out of here alive, I’d be crazy not to follow him back to his apartment, for chrissake. The man could kiss. I breathed out slowly, trying to calm every screaming nerve in my body, but between the firefighter currently shouting through the doors and the man still cupping my jaw, locating zen seemed like a wildly optimistic goal.
Hudson hopped up with an irritable grunt, turning to face the elevator doors. “There are two of us here, no injuries.”
“Stay back from the doors while we open them,” the deep voice replied. Hudson stepped back, slipping me mostly behind him, one strong arm in front of me as if the door might attack.
It only took a few minutes for the fire department to pry the doors all the way open, revealing a man in his forties who lay on his belly, peering into the elevator car.
My heart rate ticked up exponentially. When the elevator had stopped, I’d assumed we’d gotten stuck at the fourth floor, not halfway between three and four. I was not prepared to be climbing through tiny openings between floors.
“You okay?” Hudson asked, shifting his attention from the firefighters to me.
Hudson looked entirely calm, and I wanted to emulate that. Was I an anxious person? Absolutely. Did I need the hot guy who had kissed the hell out of me to know that? No. “How are we going to get out?” I asked, aiming for an even, steady voice, but failing miserably.
Hudson glanced between the door and me. “They’ll pull you through the door. It’ll be easy. I’ll lift you.” He said the words with an authority that almost made me believe him. Almost.
“Ma’am, I’m Lieutenant Wallace. What’s your name?” The firefighter said. He was handsome in a fatherly sort of way, gray showing at his temples and in the stubble of his chin. I wondered absently if he hadn’t shaved in a while or if it grew quickly and his shift had gone long. A power outage was sure to be a long night. “Ma’am? Are you okay?” he asked, and I could see Hudson was looking at me with more concern now, as if maybe I had some injury he’d failed to notice.
“Claire,” I replied, surprised to hear the tremble in my voice. I’d really expected the power to come back on and safely deliver me to floor four. Maybe floor one. Certainly not floor three and three-quarters. “My name is Claire.”
“Good. Claire, I’m going to have you go first.” Lieutenant Wallace’s booming voice cut through my thoughts, and I felt myself shaking my head no.
Hudson looked between the door and me, his dark eyes scanning my face. “It’ll be fine, Claire. I’m going to lift, and they’ll pull. You’ll be out in a second.”
My breath was coming quickly, but it wasn’t enough air, and I leaned back on the wall of the elevator, as far as I could get from the door.
“Claire,” Hudson said gently.