Smitten

by Brooks, Gemma

  “I just can’t believe you’re going from someone like her to someone like me,” I said.

  He looked up at me and shook his head. “Brynn, you’re a breath of fresh air compared to her. I love that you’re absolutely nothing like her. That’s my favorite thing about you.”

  He leaned over and kissed me, sealing his words with a little bit more reassurance.

  ***

  Our second night in L.A. began with Hudson treating me to a fancy dinner at a local eatery. I tried to talk him out of it at first, as fancy dinners have never been my thing, but he insisted. He said he wanted to show me off and do something special to commemorate my first trip to L.A.

  When I tried to tell him I didn’t have anything appropriate to wear, he made a phone call and within a few hours, a dress, jewelry, and high heels had arrived at his house. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  I’ll never forget opening that Saks Fifth Avenue box and pulling out a slinky, black dress with just the right amount of shimmer. I’d never worn red-bottomed shoes before, and I didn’t even know how to pronounce the designer, but I knew they were a big deal. The diamond jewels around my neck and dangling from my ears were, of course, on loan for the night, but they made the outfit. I felt like a princess for the first time in my life.

  I took my time getting ready and spritzed on a bit of my perfume from home. It instantly comforted me. When Hudson emerged from the shower and dressed up to the nines, I couldn’t help but get goose bumps.

  Date nights with guys back home usually consisted of streaming a movie online and curling up with some microwave popcorn in our pajamas. Every once in a while we’d go to Des Moines and eat at a big-name chain restaurant and go to the mall, but those trips were few and far between, especially with the rising price of gas.

  “I can’t wait to walk in there with you on my arm,” he said as he leaned down and nibbled my ear. “And after dinner, I’ve got big plans for us.”

  My stomach did somersaults as his voice vibrated in my ear. We had both been too jet lagged the night before to do anything beyond a goodnight kiss, and I’d been dying to get my hands on him all day. Actually, I was dying for him to put his hands all over me. I loved being taken by Hudson Smith.

  “Just a warning,” he said as we drove to the restaurant. “There will be paparazzi here.”

  “I thought people like you avoided paparazzi,” I said.

  He laughed. “Pretty hard to avoid them in this town. Anyway, the food is worth it. Trust me.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what I’d look like in a tabloid magazine hanging on Hudson’s arm. Celebrities almost always looked great, even when they were just coming or going from the gym. It had to be the cameras, right? The angles? The lighting? Paparazzi were better off taking flattering pictures they could sell, I assured myself.

  “We’re here,” Hudson said a short while later as he pulled into the valet of an Old Hollywood looking restaurant.

  Just as he’d warned, there was a group of men and women with cameras loitering up and down the sidewalk outside the restaurant.

  “Hudson! Hudson!” I heard them yelling the second he stepped out. “Is it true you and Ava are broken up for good? What happened? Can you tell us what happened?”

  I stepped out of the car reluctantly as he walked around and extended his hand towards mine.

  “Hudson! Who’s the new girl?” another paparazzo asked. “What’s your name, girl?”

  “Ignore them,” he said as he leaned down and whispered into my ear. “Smile and keep walking.”

  I thought I was doing great. I smiled. I ignored them. I did my job as Hudson’s arm candy. I felt beautiful, truly beautiful, and everything was going great. We were just a mere ten or fifteen feet from the entrance of the restaurant.

  And then I tripped.

  The fancy, red-bottomed shoes were harder to walk in than I ever could have imagined. Without any warning, my ankle rolled and I tumbled down onto my knee, skinning it on the sidewalk below me.

  “Brynn, oh, my God. Are you okay?” Hudson said as he rushed down.

  Flashes of light and camera clicks surrounded us. My tumble from grace was had been officially documented.

  He pulled me up and I brushed the tiny bits of sidewalk gravel from my knees, inspecting the hem of my skirt for any tears.

  “Are you okay?” Hudson asked again.

  “Yeah,” I said with a flushed face. I brushed the hair from my eyes and pulled my shoulders back. “Just extremely embarrassed.”

  “The good thing is, no one knows who you are,” he said. “If they knew your name, those pictures would be all over the internet by tomorrow morning.”

  “Are you sure they won’t sell them?” I asked once we were finally safe inside the dark confines of the restaurant.

  “Trust me,” he said. “They can’t sell pictures of someone no one knows.”

  “Not even if I’m with you?” I asked.

  “Nah,” he said. “Just forget it happened. Let’s have a nice dinner, okay?”

  He leaned over and kissed my cheek before approaching the host.

  “Yes, Mr. Smith,” the man said with a huge smile on his face. “We’ve been expecting you. Right this way.”

  Hudson grabbed my hand and led me to the back of the restaurant to a cozy, circular booth in the corner.

  Frank Sinatra music played lightly from the speakers above us as little candles flickered in the middle of our table. The place was dark, but I could see enough to appreciate Hudson’s dashing good looks from across the way. His eyes sparkled against the candlelight, and I couldn’t help but notice he couldn’t take them off of me.

  “Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio used to eat here,” he said. “At this very table.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked. “Wow.”

  Hudson ordered us a bottle of blush wine and some sort of appetizer I’d never heard of before. I peered over the menu. Everything was so fancy. Everything had pine nuts or capers or pesto or was something I’d heard of but couldn’t pronounce.

  I settled on a steak and house potatoes. It was the closest thing to something I’d find back in Iowa. Hudson ordered roasted duck and sautéed root vegetables.

  “So what do you think?” he asked as I took my first bite of my steak.

  “Perfection,” I said once I finished chewing.

  He smiled. “Great.”

  I was enjoying our intimate little dinner in the corner, but I could still feel eyes upon us. I tried to ignore it, but the voice in the back of my head kept telling me that everyone was wondering why he was with someone so ordinary like me.

  “I feel like people are staring at us,” I whispered as we were halfway through dinner.

  “Get used to it,” he said as he rolled his eyes. “Welcome to my world.”

  “How do you get used to it?” I asked. Two days in and I was already struggling with the loss of anonymity that came with being Hudson Smith’s girl.

  He shrugged as he continued to chew his food with his gorgeous mouth. “You don’t really. You just learn to ignore it. Everyone wants a reaction out of you. Just don’t give it to them.”

  We finished our dinner with full bellies, and I had a pleasant little buzz going on from the blush wine. I didn’t want to leave our cozy little cocoon, but I knew we couldn’t stay there forever. Hudson had plans. He had things he wanted to do to me that night, and I wasn’t going to miss out on any of that.

  “Get ready,” Hudson said the valet pulled his Range Rover up and he opened the front door. The vultures were still there and in full force.

  I lowered my eyes as the flashes nearly blinded me and we ran to his car. They were still yelling things and taking pictures of us, but I did what Hudson told me to and tuned them out.

  He pulled out into the busy street and headed back to Brentwood.

  “Uh, oh,” he said.

  “What?!” I asked. I felt around, fearing for a split second that I’d left my purse back
at the restaurant.

  “I think we’re being followed,” he laughed. “This is going to be fun. You buckled in?”

  I nodded. Hudson clearly thought this was some sort of game, but all I could think about were all the tabloid articles I’d seen about young starlets getting into car accidents after being chased by paparazzi.

  I gripped onto the side of the door as he gunned the gas pedal. We went flying forward, weaving in and out of traffic.

  “It’s that white Subaru,” he said. “They’re still on our tail.”

  “Hudson,” I said with a quiver in my voice. “Is this really worth it?”

  He said nothing as we continued to weave through traffic. I squeezed my eyes tight as my stomach churned and I tried not to throw up.

  “Ha! Caught at a red light, asshole!” he said with a victorious tone. “And shit, he just blew through it. God damn it. I hate when they do that.”

  “Why are they so hell bent on chasing you?” I asked. “What do you have that they want? Isn’t a picture of you driving pretty lame?”

  He was quiet for a minute as his eyes checked the rear view.

  “I think it’s you,” he said.

  “What?” I asked. “But you said they couldn’t sell my pictures because no one knows me.”

  “Well, I’m guessing they want to know who you are,” he said.

  “Why?” I asked, still confused.

  “Because you’re gorgeous and you’re dating me,” he said as his hands clenched the steering wheel and his eyes focused forward. “Hang on.”

  He gunned it as we blew through a yellow light and took three right turns. I glanced back every five seconds until the Subaru was long out of sight. It must have gotten stuck behind turning traffic a few blocks back.

  “Lost him,” Hudson said as he pulled into his driveway and opened the privacy gate. “And we’re home. Safe and sound.”

  My heart pounded hard and deep inside my chest. After all of that, I found myself oddly aroused. Hudson fled the paparazzi all because of me, because he wanted to protect me, and that was the sexiest thing any man had ever done for me.

  CHAPTER 8

  We rushed inside, as if they were still out to get us, and threw ourselves heaving and giggling over the marble island in the kitchen. The house was dark, except for the pale light above the kitchen sink on the other side of the room and the lights from the grotto area that spilled in through the sliding glass doors.

  As I hurried to catch my breath, I suddenly felt Hudson come up behind me and pin me against the island. I couldn’t move as his hand slipped down my hip and traced down my thigh until it reached the bottom of the hem of my skirt. His hand traveled underneath my skirt until it reached my panties, whereupon he began to yank them down slowly, teasing me second by second.

  I braced myself against the chilled marble island as he took his sweet time. His other hand traveled up the side of my waist and landed over top of my right breast, squeezing it gently. As he worked my panties down past my thighs, they fell to the ground. A faint moan escaped my lips as he spun me around to face him.

  I glanced up into his penetrating eyes as he pressed himself up against my hips and I could feel his arousal. He placed a single hungry kiss on my lips as he lifted me up and sat me on top of the counter. I leaned back against my elbows as he hoisted my skirt up to my waist, spreading my thighs and revealing my wetness.

  A single finger slipped inside me followed by the sensation of his hot breath on my flesh and his skilled tongue slipping and sliding around my clit. I let my head fall back between my shoulder blades as I enjoyed every lick, swirl, and suck. The counter was hard beneath me, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want him to stop.

  As my body began to shiver and convulse with little, mini orgasms, I tried to fight them off. I didn’t want to go yet. I wasn’t ready. The night was young, and there were so many things I wanted him to do to me still.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” he said as he stopped. “Not yet.”

  He reached up and pulled my hand towards him, pulling me off the counter and leading me back to his bedroom. I lifted my dress up over my head and sat it carefully down on top of an arm chair next to the bed as Hudson feverishly ripped off his clothes. He couldn’t take them off fast enough, and his eyes never left my body as I unhooked my bra and threw it at him.

  He dove at me like some kind of animal and pinned me beneath him on the middle of the king sized bed. I felt his hardness against my thigh and wanted nothing more than for him to be inside me right then and there.

  “Please,” I begged him as I looked into his deep, brown eyes. I kissed his neck as I dug my fingernails into his back. His muscles rippled beneath them as he situated himself over top of me.

  We were touching and he was so close to putting himself inside me, raw and naked, but then he stopped to grab a condom. If he wasn’t who he was, it would’ve killed the mood.

  As soon as he was wrapped and ready, he placed his engorged manhood into position, plunging it all inside me with one, hard thrust.

  He let out the sexiest moan my ears had ever heard as he began thrusting. He filled up every inch of my insides, pressing against every wall and stimulating every nerve and muscle I had. His cock was a work of art, a prize to be treasured, and he knew exactly how to use it.

  I bit my lip as I stifled a few moans. I was worried he’d think I was too loud in bed. I had never been very vocal with other guys before, but there was something about Hudson that made me want to scream at the top of my lungs with every movement.

  His hot mouth kissed my neck, his 5 o’clock shadow tickling my soft skin, and he worked his way down to my breasts, taking his time sucking, nipping and biting each one.

  “I’ve been wanting to do this all night,” he whispered. “You’re so beautiful, Brynn.”

  I smiled but said nothing. He had to have known I felt the same way.

  “I love that everyone was staring at you tonight,” he said as he slipped a hand under my ass and brought us closer together. “I love having you on my arm.”

  It was hard to believe that someone like Hudson felt that way about someone like me, but it only turned me on even more. He wanted me. He wanted me bad. And that was fucking hot.

  I stared at his beautiful face as it twisted and contorted into various expressions of pleasure, and I soon realized he was trying to fight it off. He wanted to stay in me just as long as he could, and that was fine, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could last.

  “Give yourself to me,” he sighed into my ear. “I want your pleasure. I want to make you feel good. Just let go.”

  I relaxed my entire body and did as he instructed. I let go. Soon the most intense waves of desire washed over me. My mind went blank as my body went buck wild under the weight of his body.

  His face was twisted for a bit and then completely relaxed as he thrusted a few more times and then collapsed on top of me. Our bodies melded together in one sweaty heap on top of his ridiculously luxurious comforter in the darkness of his master bedroom.

  “Oh, god,” he sighed. “That was fucking amazing.”

  I smiled as I kissed his lips. “Yes, it was.”

  He rolled off of me and sprawled out next to me, keeping a safe distance as he tried to cool off and catch his breath.

  “I could go all night,” I said as I rolled onto my side and traced his ripped abs with my fingertips.

  His lips curled into a smile. “I like the way you think, but I’m spent.”

  I didn’t know whether he was just being honest or if I should have been offended, but I forced myself not to overthink it. I climbed up and walked into his closet. He had carved out a small section for my things, and I’d hung up everything I owned, including my pajamas. I emerged wearing a comfy, jersey tank top and some faded, yellow pajama bottoms. I was very much the frumpiest thing in his entire room, maybe even his entire house.

  I climbed under the covers and positioned the pillows behind my head.

  “You goi
ng to bed already?” he asked.

  “Oh,” I said. “Did you have other plans?”

  “No,” he said. “Not really. It’s just kind of early.”

  The clock on the nightstand read just a hair past eight.

  “It’s my bedtime in Iowa,” I said.

  “You go to bed at ten?” he laughed.

  I shrugged. “Nothing good ever happens after ten o’clock. At least that’s what my dad always told me.”

  “That’s cute,” he said as he got up and stretched. His full manhood still somewhat engorged and hanging in plain sight. “I’m going to go jump in the shower.”

  “Oh, okay,” I said, half hoping for an invitation.

  I watched as his hot little ass trekked towards the master bathroom and he shut the door. Within seconds, the water was running. I reached over and grabbed the remote to his T.V. and flipped it on in hopes of finding something mindless to lull me to sleep.

  Some sort of entertainment tabloid show happened to catch my attention as I channel surfed. An unmistakable blonde with a big-toothed smile filled the screen as she was being interviewed by an entertainment anchor. It was Ava Fox.

  “So Ava, what’s new with you?” the bubbly, male anchor with the too-tan face asked.

  “I’ve just been on this journey,” she said. “Just trying to find happiness in the little things, you know? Like I wasted so much time investing my happiness in other people and it just didn’t pay off. I’ve got a few weeks off from shooting, and I’m really just focusing on myself.”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb here and read between the lines,” the anchor said.

  Ava did a cutesy eye-roll, and I could tell she knew what he was going to ask next. She was almost begging for it.

  “As we all know, you and Hudson Smith had a pretty intense romantic relationship going for a while,” he said. “We were all rooting for you. We all loved following up on you. And then out of nowhere things ended. I think half of America was a little devastated by that.”

  He laughed the worst fake laugh I’d ever heard as she crossed her legs and leaned into him. I could tell she wanted to discuss it. Her smile lit up her face, but her eyes had a fire lit behind them like nothing I’d ever seen before.