As if reading her mind, he said, “I mean, neither of our teams are here yet.” It was nice of him to call June her team. “You’ll have hours until then to rehearse your pitch, and if you feel like a break…” He shrugged.

Annika thought about it. “Well … I mean, we are both going to be in the hotel. It seems silly not to—uh—take some time to unwind.”

His eyes twinkled as they moved forward another step. “Exactly. Plus, you don’t want to be over-rehearsed.”

Annika shook her head solemnly, even though Hudson was the last person she’d take tips from on this topic. “No, definitely not that.” Her heart thumped as she looked up into his eyes. “So … dinner. Tonight. You and me.”

He bowed his head. “Dinner tonight. You and me. Say, seven-ish? We can meet here in the lobby.”

“Okay.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, not saying anything else. Annika’s heart thumped again. He made it sound like a casual thing—just something to do, since they were both here and would otherwise be bored.

The man behind Hudson cleared his throat, which made Annika jump. “Excuse me,” he said, looking a little irritated. “They’re ready for you.”

Her face warm, Annika walked up to the counter, pretending she couldn’t hear Hudson chuckling at her obvious blunder.

“See you tonight,” he called after her. She swallowed hard.

Yep. Tonight. The CEO of Make Up having dinner with the sexy CEO of Break Up. No big deal.

Her room was beautiful. Gorgeous gold curtains framed a large window, which looked out onto a garden. Annika kicked off her sandals and turned on the glowing lamplights, the cool, air-conditioned air whispering over her skin. Then she sank into the crisply made sleigh bed and, falling backward, closed her eyes.

She hadn’t said anything further to Hudson, except to wave as she walked off to the elevators. Dinner with him—she still wasn’t convinced it was a good idea. She needed to focus on EPIC. And yet … after all he’d told her at her dad’s, there was a part of her that was curious to learn more about him. She wanted more of that other Hudson, the one who’d said Break Up chilled him.

Annika sat up and walked to her suitcase. There was no time for all that right now. She had a few hours today to practice for her pitch on Sunday morning—plus whatever she’d do tomorrow—and she intended to make good use of them.