“Wait till they light the tiki torches. No one’s gonna wanna leave.”

They studied each other for a long moment. Annika snorted at the same time that Hudson chuckled, the sound a deep rumble that somehow echoed in her chest.

“Well played, by the way,” he said, nodding toward the roaming band. There was a shadow of real admiration in his voice. “They were a really nice touch.”

“Yeah, well—you’re pretty good at thinking on your feet.” She gestured to the boisterous crowd. “Everyone here thinks you’re a party-planning genius.”

“It was touch-and-go for a minute,” he said, giving her a wry look. “But I think I managed to salvage it, yes.” Glancing back over the crowds of people clutching the Break Up–branded gift bags a model was handing out, he added, “I don’t think they’re going to forget us anytime soon.” He said it casually, but Annika detected an intensity under the surface.

“So, what’s the plan now?” he asked, turning back to her. A soft breeze wafted his cologne over to her. His eyes seemed to shimmer and glow in the dusky sunset. “Are you staying or leaving?”

She blinked, refusing to let him get to her. “Staying.” When he began to return her small smile, though, she added, “But not with you.” Taking another sip of her margarita, she began walking across the rooftop toward the crowd, unable to resist checking his reaction over her shoulder as she went.

Hudson was watching her go, his golden hair tinged red by the setting sun.

With creeping dismay, she realized she was enjoying his attention more than she strictly should. Her plan had been to treat him as an irrelevant speed bump. You didn’t mingle at parties with speed bumps, and you definitely didn’t accept margaritas from them.

Annika groaned inwardly as she joined the crowd, ready to network. One thing was certain: She needed to figure out why Hudson was having such an effect on her, and she needed to do it quickly.

For the next two hours, Annika—and June, though she seemed slightly distracted by Ziggy’s attempts to impress her with his dancing abilities—went from group to group, from potential client to potential client. Annika was surprised by just how many people in the building were interested in Make Up. She had a thick stack of their business cards in her bag to prove it. When Make Up was ready to officially launch, they’d have a long list of early users.