Starstruck - Book Four

by Gemma Brooks

  Mia was too polite to go into details, but I could only imagine. I’d only met Ava a handful of times, but I’d witnessed enough to know she was willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted.

  “We were friends for a while,” Mia added. “A very short while.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “She stole my boyfriend,” Mia sighed. “In retrospect it was a good thing. He was an ass. And I think he ended up cheating on her too. What goes around comes around.”

  Alec stood patiently behind Mia with his tape measure in hand.

  “I’m sorry,” Mia said. “We totally got side tracked.”

  Alec whipped his tape measure out and Mia stood up.

  “Brynn, write these down for me,” he said as he began spouting out Mia’s dimensions. I’d forgotten for a second that I was there to do work.

  As Mia tried on garment after garment and laughed and joked and flitted about like some giggly girlfriend, I was enchanted. In another world, we’d have been best friends.

  “Thanks so much, Alec,” Mia said as she simultaneously walked us to the front door and pulled the giant Velcro curlers from her hair. Each released section bounced perfectly, resting on her lithe shoulders. “Brynn, it was so nice meeting you. I’d love to get together sometime and hang out. Maybe we can reminisce about home? Or talk about how much we can’t stand Ava. Whatever you want.”

  She flashed her infectious smile once again, and I couldn’t help but return it. “I’d love to. Alec has my number if you ever want to get a hold of me.”

  “Sounds great,” she said before waving us off and shutting the door.

  “Oh, my God,” I said to Alec when we got back to the car. “I love her. I’m in love with her. Isn’t she the greatest thing ever?”

  “Yeah, you haven’t stopped smiling for the past hour,” he said. “I knew you’d like her, but sheesh. Didn’t know you’d be that smitten.”

  “I’m a smitten kitten,” I joked. “But in a total girl crush, friend kind of way.”

  Alec winked at me. “Mm, hm.”

  In the car on the way to his condo, Alec’s phone buzzed.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “It’s Mia,” he said. “She just texted me and told me to give you her number. She wants to do coffee sometime.”

  “Are you serious?!”

  “Uh, yeah,” he said as he playfully rolled his eyes and handed me his phone.

  “That was fast,” I said. “She must be smitten with me too.”

  I pulled my phone out to start putting her number in, but the last thing I expected was to see that I had a missed call from Hudson. And a voicemail. I promptly added Mia to my contact list then shoved the phone back into my purse.

  CHAPTER 18

  The second I had a minute alone at Alec’s place, I whipped my phone out and listened to the voicemail from Hudson. I wanted to be by myself when I heard it because it was either going to be really bad or really good.

  “Brynn,” he said, his velvety smooth voice making me melt on the spot. “Come home. Please.”

  I heard him breathing, as if he wanted to say something more, but he hung up. For once, he wasn’t using his convincing words. He wasn’t telling me to calm down or that I was overreacting. Most importantly, he wasn’t giving up on us. Despite everything he still had some fight left in him.

  He must be a glutton for punishment, I thought. That or he must truly be crazy for me.

  I dialed him back as quickly as my fingers would let me, and he answered in the middle of the first ring, just like before.

  “Brynn,” he answered.

  “Hi,” I replied. I didn’t know where to begin.

  “So…” he said. He must have been waiting for me to make the first move.

  “I got your voicemail,” I said. I probably sounded like a complete idiot. We’d never had such an awkward conversation before.

  “And?” he said.

  “I’m just a little confused,” I said.

  “About what?”

  “You want me to come back and you chased me down earlier when you saw me, but you changed the code on your gate,” I said. “You locked me out.”

  Hudson let out an indiscernible groan. “Brynn.”

  He was clearly frustrated with me.

  “What?”

  “I changed the code because I didn’t want Ava getting in,” he said. “I have no idea how she got in the other night, but I wanted to take all precautions, so I had the code changed to something else. Your birthdate actually.”

  Was this man for real?

  “Oh,” I said. I was a total asshole.

  “Yeah,” he said, echoing me. “Oh.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me that?” I asked.

  “When did you give me a chance?” he replied. Match point. “You get so worked up sometimes, Brynn. It’s like there’s no getting through to you. Once you get an idea in your head, you’re convinced that it’s a fact when most of the time it’s fiction.”

  “What about you going to Ava’s?” I asked. “I saw you there, Hudson, with my own eyes. I saw it.”

  “Do you know why I went there?” he asked. “I went there to put an end to all this insanity. I told her if she so much as bothered you one more time or broke into my house or tried to contact me, she’d be sorry.”

  “Hudson,” I sighed. “You’re too nice. I’m sorry, but that kind of a threat isn’t going to scare someone like her.”

  “She knows I could end her career if I wanted to,” he said. “I have so much dirt on her. I know things. Horrible things. If she bothers you one more time, she knows her career is over in this town.”

  “Doesn’t she have dirt on you too?” I asked, remembering her words that night by the pool. “She mentioned your deep, dark secrets or something.”

  Hudson laughed. “She’s so dramatic. That was just her trying to get under your skin. I have no deep, dark secrets. I could run for office, I’m so clean.”

  “Oh,” I said. “How did she know about the ring?”

  “That’s a good question,” he said. “Still trying to figure that out.”

  As always, everything he said made perfect sense. We were headed right back to where we came from.

  “Look,” he said. “I don’t want to keep going rounds with you to prove to you that I really love you, Brynn. I’m not going to keep doing this. Either you love me or you don’t. Either you want to be with me or you don’t.”

  “I do love you,” I said. “I love you so much it’s scary.”

  “And that’s your problem,” Hudson said. “This whole time you’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Guess what? It’s not going to drop. Stop running away when things get a little tough. It’s you and me, Brynn. Us against the world.”

  My eyes burned hot. I loved him so much, and he was so right. But he didn’t deserve me. I’d put him through the ringer and we’d only been together barely a few months. I’d never understand why he fought so hard for us. All I knew was that he made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I had to stop fighting it and just accept it or we’d never work.

  “I’m leaving in a couple hours for New York,” he said. “I’ll be back on Sunday. Brynn, come home.”

  Just like that, he’d reeled me in once again.

  CHAPTER 19

  Coming back home to Hudson’s was bittersweet. Bitter because I never should have left him the way I did and sweet because it was good to be home again. The only thing missing was him, but he’d be back in a few more days.

  I typed the code into the box by the gate and smiled at the fact that he’d made it my birthday. After parking the Mercedes in the garage, I headed in the back door kitchen entrance. I could hear Flor’s voice. She seemed to be deep in conversation, so it was no surprise when she didn’t hear me come in.

  “Yes, Ms. Fox,” I heard her say.

  What? I mouthed to myself. Was she talking to Ava?!

  “She’s moving back in today,
” Flor said in a low voice. “He will be home on Sunday. Yes, I can do that. I’ll let you know, Ms. Fox.”

  “Flor,” I said as I stepped closer to her.

  Flor was startled by my voice and dropped the phone on the marble counter.

  “Ms. Brynn,” she said as she plastered a fake smile on her face. “Good to see you. Welcome back.”

  I squared my shoulders back and crossed my arms. So she was the mole all along. She was the one feeding Ava all her information.

  “How could you, Flor?” I asked. “How could you betray Hudson like that?”

  She planted her feet firmly in place as she stared back at me with her piercing brown eyes.

  “You’re simply not good enough for him, Ms. Brynn,” she said.

  “That’s not for you to decide,” I snapped back. “What gives you the right to meddle in Hudson’s personal life?”

  Flor’s bottom lip trembled and her rude demeanor quickly changed into a sorry one as she knew it was all over. She’d been caught.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “Lo siento. Lo siento.”

  She started sobbing and buried her face into the palms of her hands.

  “Why’d you do it?” I asked. I wanted to comfort her, but I was still angry. I had a lot of questions.

  “Ms. Fox paid me a lot of money,” she said. “Money I sent to my family in Mexico. My mother is sick. That money was paying her hospital bills.”

  I wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe she had some sort of honorable intentions underneath all the shitty things she’d done.

  “You have to come clean to Hudson,” I said.

  “No,” she replied with tears in her eyes. “You don’t understand.”

  “What don’t I understand?” I asked. “Either you tell him or I will.”

  She mumbled something under her breath as she sighed, realizing the extent of the damage she’d done.

  “I think it’s time for you to leave now, Flor,” I said. “We’ll see you next week. That’ll give you a few days for both of us to calm down and for you to think about what you want to say to Hudson.”

  Flor wouldn’t look at me as she walked out the door.

  CHAPTER 20

  “Brynn?” Hudson called out Sunday afternoon as he walked through the door. “You home?”

  Flying from around the corner, I practically jumped into his arms. It had been nearly a week since I’d seen him last and we were due for some incredibly hot makeup sex.

  He let the bag on his shoulder drop to the floor as he wrapped his strong arms around my waist and pulled me in. His breath sweet like cinnamon, he leaned down and placed his soft lips onto mine.

  “I’ve been waiting so long to do that,” he said.

  “I missed you,” I replied.

  “Me too.”

  I traced my fingers behind his ear and ran my hand through his thick, dark hair. I loved the way he looked at me. It was like nothing else mattered to him. Nothing else in the world.

  He stepped away and led us down the hall towards his bedroom, pulling me by the hand and yanking me closer to him the second we stepped inside and shut the door. His expression was hungry, almost needy, as he began removing his shirt. Reading down to unbuckle his pants next, I began stripping down one article at a time, our eyes never leaving each other’s.

  I walked backwards until I reached the edge of the bed, where I laid back and waited for him to pounce. His moves were slow, deliberate, and calculating. He was taking his time, though he was definitely holding back.

  The heat of his body soon covered mine as he buried his face in my neck, biting and kissing my soft skin as his fingers traced down the length of my body until they stopped between my thighs.

  With his hot mouth leaving kisses all over me, his fingers slipped inside me. One finger first, then two. I relaxed my hips and let him do all the work. He was devouring me one bite at a time, as if I were the most delicious thing on earth.

  As he worked his way south, I grew wetter in anticipation of what was coming next. Within seconds, I could feel his hot breath on my sex and his wet tongue tracing and swirling around my clit.

  His hands pressed against my inner thighs, spreading them as far as they could go. And soon, he rose up onto his knees and gripped his thick cock, placing it at my entrance. I was ready. I wanted him inside me. I wanted to feel close to him again.

  With no warning, he pressed himself inside me, slow and gentle, and we were connected once again.

  “Oh, god,” I sighed. “I’ve missed this so much.”

  He said nothing as he stared deep into my eyes and continued to make love to me. He buried his face in my neck once again, nibbling my ear this time, as his hands gripped and traced every curve of my body.

  “I love you, Brynn,” he said. His hands reached down and gripped my sides as he rolled me over on top of him.

  Straddling his manhood, I rocked my hips back and forth on him while his thumb pressed against me clit. My long, chestnut hair spilled down my shoulders and covered my breasts as I rode him. I was getting close, and I didn’t know how much longer I could hold off.

  I tossed my head back, letting my hair fall behind my shoulders, and grabbed my breasts. I bucked a little faster and faster yet, until I was right there at the brink.

  A few soft moans escaped my mouth as my body went crazy. I felt the pulsing of his cock inside me, and seconds later it was all over.

  Collapsing in his arms, I was spent. Nonchalantly wiping the perspiration from my brow, I pulled the hair from my eyes and nuzzled up under his arm next to him on the bed.

  Basking in our post-coital bliss, he suddenly sat up and reached over to pull something out of his drawer.

  “Give me your hand,” he said.

  He slipped something over my right ring finger.

  “My ring,” I said. It was the canary diamond eternity band I’d tried to sell back to the jeweler. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. I was mortified.

  “How’d you get this?” I asked.

  “They called me last week,” he said. “They thought maybe it had been stolen.”

  He laughed.

  “If you needed money, all you had to do was ask,” he said.

  “Yeah, right,” I puffed. “I’d just accused you of cheating on me. I wasn’t about to ask you for a single penny.”

  “You know I’d have helped you anyway,” he said. He placed a sweet kiss on my forehead.

  “I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pay for my mom’s treatment,” I said. “I didn’t expect you to keep paying for it. That’s why I tried to sell the ring. I was going to pay you back.”

  “Brynn,” he stopped me. “You don’t have to explain. It’s fine. I would’ve done the same thing. But for the record, I never would’ve kicked your mom out of treatment. You should know me better than that.”

  On the inside I was cringing with embarrassment.

  “Just so you know, I have a job now,” I said. “I work for Alec as his assistant.”

  “You don’t have to work,” Hudson laughed.

  “I want to,” I said. “I want to have my own money. My own career. I hate being dependent on someone else.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I can respect that. If that’s what you want, I get it.”

  “Thanks for being so understanding,” I cooed as I cuddled up closer to him. I couldn’t get enough of him. He was truly amazing.

  CHAPTER 21

  Flor prepared our usual breakfast Monday morning. As we sat poolside, drinking our tea and coffee and relaxing, I couldn’t help but wonder when Flor was going to come clean. I was sure she was nervous, but she couldn’t wait all day. Plus I wasn’t about to let her get away with what she’d done.

  “Thanks, Flor,” Hudson said as she sat his plate of food in front of him. She spun around to head back inside.

  “Flor,” I called after her.

  She spun back and shot me a worried look. She raised her eyebrows as if to ask me what I needed, but she knew dam
n well.

  “Isn’t there something you were going to tell Hudson?” I prompted her. “That thing we talked about the other day?”

  Hudson, confused, looked at her and then me. He knew something was up, but he didn’t know what was going on.