Read Online Hold Me Closer (Sea Island Brides Book 1) by Georgia Kelly - Free Book Online

approached them.
Annabelle had only spoken to her once all evening, but she already
liked her. As the youngest girl in the family, Jilly was somewhat of
a tomboy. She was a real hands-on architect, and Annabelle thought
about the latest photograph she’d seen of Jilly at the
construction site of a new hotel the family was building in San
Francisco. Jilly had been in full construction gear, looking
completely in her element. Tonight she looked soft and feminine in a
dark blue sun-dress.
    “I
hope we haven’t scared you off just yet,” Jilly said,
taking a long sip of her drink.
    Annabelle
smiled when she noticed that Jilly was barefoot on the tiles, her
heels probably discarded in the house hours ago. “Not yet,”
she said. “I wasn’t expecting to be put on the spot so
quickly, though.”
    “For
what it’s worth, you did great,” Jilly said with a sweet
smile. “Of course, this was nothing compared to next week.”
    Annabelle
tensed. “What do you mean?”
    “Tonight
was just close friends and family,” Jilly said. “It’s
the press that can be real vultures sometimes, and when you guys
announce that one of America’s golden boys is engaged, you’re
going to be feel like a starlet on Oscar night.”
    “Jilly,
are you trying to scare my new girlfriend?” Hudson asked,
putting his hand on Annabelle’s back again. She could feel the
heat emanating from his touch in the humid night air. His presence
pulled at her like a magnet.
    “Of
course not,” Jilly said, playfully swatting her brother’s
shoulder. “She looks like the kind of woman who can stand on
her own two feet.”
    Annabelle
watched the two interact and was amazed by the obvious love and
respect they had for each other. She fully expected to arrive at
Cottonwood to find the kind of wealthy, stuck-up family she watched
on TV, constantly fighting over money or who gets to use the yacht
next. Instead, she saw a normal family unit that genuinely cared for
one another.
    Well,
normal except for the beachfront mansion and the helicopters and
such.
    So
why had Hudson dismissed Julia so quickly when he learned she was
carrying his brother’s child? It didn’t make any sense.
Watching him now, it was difficult to imagine how he could possibly
be the same person who had thrown Julia out of his house.
    “Annabelle?”
Hudson’s hand on her arm brought her out of her daze. “Are
you feeling okay?”
    “Yes,”
she said, embarrassed that she let herself get so lost in her own
thoughts. “I’m just a little tired from all of the
attention and the drive down here.”
    “Oh,
Hudson, I told you it was too soon to have a dinner party,” Sue
Ellen said, a worried look on her face. “We should have given
Annabelle a night to get settled.”
    “I
didn’t see any point in waiting,” Hudson said. “I’ve
learned the hard way that the tabloids are just looking for any
chance to create a scandal. The sooner we go on record as a couple,
the less opportunity they have to smear us. We want them telling this
story our way with our terms.”
    “You
should know better than to believe that’s entirely possible,”
his mother said. “The press will always tell the story their
way.”
    “Maybe,”
Hudson said. “But I like to be holding at least some of the
cards.”
    His
mother and Jilly excused themselves to go refill their drinks,
leaving Annabelle alone with Hudson.
    “You’re
always thinking about the business angle of things, aren’t
you?” she said. “Do you ever just relax and have a good
time?”
    “There
will be plenty of time for that once this acquisition is finalized.
Right now, this deal is the only thing that matters to me,” he
said.
    The
hard line of his jaw tensed as he spoke, and it was clear how much he
cared about his family’s business. No surprise there. It was
abundantly clear to Annabelle that Hudson would do whatever it took
to be a successful CFO. She might have admired him for it too, if it
wasn’t for the fact that he