Small Town Girl (24 page)

“Ah, so there is something,” he said as
he sat his fork down and sat back in his seat.

“It’s not worth bringing up right now,” I
assured him.

I waited for him to return to his food,
but he never did. He just sat up with his gorgeous, chocolate eyes fixated on
me.

“Stop staring,” I said with a half-laugh.
“You’re making me nervous.”

“Brynn, whatever it is,” he said. “Just
say it.”

I forced myself to make eye contact, and
part of me wondered if he thought something had happened back home. He looked
at me like he was about to lose me. Like I was going to leave him and never
look back.

“I-I,” I stammered. “I just want to know
how Ava knew about my ring.”

Hudson clenched his jaw and began to rub
his temple.

“I don’t know why you can’t let the Ava
thing go,” he said, nearly seething. “I told you I’m handling it. All you have
to do is focus on
me and you
. That’s all that matters.
Not Ava. Not any of the bullshit
back
in Iowa.”

“Who said anything about Iowa?” I said
with a scrunched face.

“I just assumed,” he said. “We didn’t
really talk that much about what happened. I thought maybe you were still
preoccupied with the Luke and Piper thing.”

“They can have each other,” I said with
furrowed brows. It wasn’t that it didn’t hurt
anymore,
it just wasn’t relevant in that moment. Ava was my number one issue, and I
wasn’t going to rest until she was out of our life for good.

“I don’t know how Ava found out about the
ring,” he said. “She has her ways. I told you she’s a little nutty.”

“A little?” I snorted.

“Did you tell Alec about it?” he asked.
“Alec tends to have a big mouth.”

I instantly felt sick about spilling my
guts to Alec earlier that day. I didn’t realize he had such a big mouth and
knew so many people, but it only made sense given his line of work and his
social aptitude. He had more people in his phone contacts than I’d ever met in
my entire life. Alec knew everyone, and if he didn’t know someone, chances were
he knew someone that did know them.

“I did tell Alec,” I said.

“Then maybe Alec told someone and it got
back to Ava?” Hudson proposed. “There you go. There’s your answer.”

I thought about my conversation with Alec
earlier. I figured he would’ve told me if he’d spilled the beans to someone
about the ring, but then again, maybe not. Like he said, people lied to get
whatever they wanted, and it was in his best interest professionally not to
screw things up with Hudson.

“Why does it matter anyway?” Hudson asked
,
his eyes squinting as he tried to understand where I was
coming from. “Does it change the meaning of the ring for you?”

I didn’t want to tell him that I’d feared
the worst. I was worried he was the one who had told Ava. I lowered my eyes,
unable to meet his stare, as I imagined them lying in his hotel bed together
and him laughing at how he’d given me a ring with some sort of cheesy symbol
attached to it so I wouldn’t suspect a thing. I’d clearly been watching too
many Lifetime movies lately.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Okay, Brynn,” he said as he threw his
napkin over his plate. He’d barely touched his food.

He stood up to walk back inside.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Inside,” he said, annoyed at me. Though
was probably
more angry
than anything else.

I stood up and ran after him, catching
him halfway down the hall towards his bedroom. He turned to face me, his face
twisted into a disgusted glare. I’d never forget the look he gave me in a
million years, and I never wanted to see that look ever again.

“Hudson,” I said as I placed my hand over
his beating heart. “I’m sorry.”

He breathed hard through his nostrils as
he stared down at me, his expression still hard and unforgiving.

“Why do you fixate on these things?” he
asked. “You take these little, stupid things and you obsess over them and
nitpick and you don’t let them go until we have a fight about them.”

“I know, I know,” I said as I continued
trying to calm him down. He was right, but it still didn’t change the way I
felt. I couldn’t ignore my feelings. “I’m sorry.”

“I feel like you’re looking for an out,”
he said. “You’re looking for a reason that this won’t work out. You’re dooming
us from the start, Brynn.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing
came out. He was right. I was so fixated on him cheating on me or us not
working out, that I was already hurting our chances.

“You’re right,” I said as I locked eyes
with him. “You’re absolutely right. I just want this to work.”

“Me too,” he said. “And it will work. But
you have to stop this. Stop assuming the worst all the time.”

“I know,” I said. I couldn’t promise not
to get worked up anymore, but I knew I’d have to be better at putting on a
happy face when things were bothering me. I didn’t want to fight with him
anymore. He always won.

I reached down and interlaced my fingers
in his, and his face began to soften. His anger began to dissipate right before
me and his eyes became familiar again.

“Let’s make things right again,” I cooed
as I nuzzled into the crook of his neck and laid three delicate kisses onto his
scruffy skin.

He tossed his head back as he savored the
tiny sensations before ushering me back to his bedroom. We took our time
disrobing, leaving a trail of clothing and undergarments down the hallway. By
the time we arrived in his master suite, we were naked as the day we came and
unable to keep our hands off each other. In the midst of all the chaos, it felt
good knowing our passion was still as crazy as ever.

His warm, ripped body against my soft
delicate skin was the best remedy for my busy mind. When we touched, the world
around us stopped.

Hudson hoisted me up, and I wrapped my
legs around his hips. He pressed me up against the wall as a hungry look
overcame his face. It wasn’t going to be a tender little romp in the sack. He
wanted to fuck me hard, and I wanted him to fuck me hard. I needed him inside
me, deep inside me.

With one hand wrapped around my lower
back and the other massaging my right breast, I clenched my legs around his
hips and kissed his amazing mouth. I loved the way he tasted, and I loved the
way he looked at me. When he touched me like that, I had no idea how I could
ever doubt his intentions. There was no way anyone else could have what we had.
I refused to believe it.

After a few seconds, he reached his hand
down and positioned his throbbing cock at my entrance, pressing
himself
inside me with reckless abandon.

“Ah,” I sighed as it went in. It was just
what I needed.

With my back pressed firmly against the
wall and his hands at my hips, Hudson began thrusting his powerful hips back
and forth. It wasn’t too fast or too slow, but it was just right.

Occasionally he’d trace the outline of my
jaw with his finger before slipping a
finger tip
inside my mouth. I’d suck his
finger tip
for a bit
before leaning forward and nibbling on his ear and digging my finger nails into
the smooth skin of his back. He loved the mix of pleasure and pain. Every
scratch and every nibble would always manage to elicit some kind of moan or
groan from his gorgeous mouth.

The pressure of his pulsing cock against
my swollen clit told me only one thing was just around the corner. I didn’t
want to fight it. I wanted it to take over my entire being. I needed to ride
the waves of pleasure. I needed the release.

He whispered into my ear. “Just let go.”

I never understood how he always seemed
to read my mind, but I wasn’t about to try to figure it out. We were so in
tune. That was all that mattered. And just as he instructed, I let go. I let
the pulsing and the writhing and the pleasure wash over me as I clung for dear
life onto his sweaty shoulders.

By the time we were both done, we were
stuck together, melded into one. My hair was stuck to my face, and I pushed it
back so I could get a good look at him. His lips twisted into an accomplished
smile, and I knew we were headed back on track.

“Shower?” I offered.

He nodded, breathless, and followed me
towards the bathroom.

“Okay, I’m leaving,” Hudson said
Wednesday morning as he kissed me and then jetted out the door for a meeting.
“Can’t wait to see you tonight.”

Hudson had spent most of the week out and
about, leaving me at home to come up with creative ways to fill my time. It was
Wednesday. It was too soon to ask Alec to hang out again. I didn’t want him
thinking was too lonely and pathetic.

Hudson was on another media blitz tour
;
something about reviving his career and doing some early
promotional work for Heavenly Love 2. He’d mentioned a few local interviews for
some entertainment shows, and I’d heard his radio interview that morning, but
that was about all I knew. Again, I hated prying even though I was secretly his
number one fan.

In a fit of mid-morning boredom, I
switched on the TV and tuned it to a local entertainment channel. I wanted to
see him in action. It admittedly turned me on to see this movie God on TV, the
one who was crazy about me, the one I’d never thought I’d be with in a million
years, do his thing. I could remember fantasizing about what it would be like
to be with him, and somehow the stars aligned and my insanely unrealistic
fantasy became a reality.

By some stroke of luck on my end,
Hudson’s interview was just starting. He was sitting across from a teeny, tiny,
tan and blonde anchor
who
seemed overly flirty and a
little too excited to be in his presence. I immediately felt a small twinge of
jealousy and then stuffed it deep down where I’d never find it again.

He’s with me, he’s with me, I chanted to
myself. Calm down.

“So, Hudson,” the anchor said. “Everyone
has been talking about the upcoming release of Heavenly Love 2, the sequel to
the hit romantic comedy, Heavenly Love, which started you alongside the
beautiful Miss Ava Fox.”

“Yes,” Hudson said as he clasped his
hands in his lap and flashed his megawatt smile.

“So tell me what it was like filming this
sequel,” she said. “I mean, people thought it was going to happen and then it
was called off and then it was called back on.”

“We certainly had a lot of hoops to jump
through. A lot of red tape,” he answered. “Sometimes these projects just have
so many people involved and they don’t all see eye to eye. It takes a little
time for them to come together, but we made it happen and the movie is coming
out at the end of next month. We can’t wait.”

“Now, everyone knows that for a few years
there, you and Ava Fox were the big ticket Hollywood couple,” the anchor said.
“And then you broke up last year. We were all so sad.”

The anchor seemed so
fake
.
I wanted to punch her, but I knew she was just doing her job.

“It seems like every move you’ve made the
last few years was chronicled in the tabloids,” she continued. “Including your
breakup with Ava.”

“Yeah,” Hudson said, maintaining that
smile of his.

He’s just being professional, I reminded
myself.

“Tell me what it was like working on set
with her,” the anchor asked. “Was it awkward? Were there any lingering
feelings? Any chance of a reconciliation?”

I could see in Hudson’s eyes that he
hated the question, but he had to answer it. She’d put him on the spot. That
bitch. And an ounce of research would’ve told her he had moved on with someone
else. Lazy journalism, that’s what I called it.

“You know, Ava and I are still in touch,”
he said. “We ended the relationship last year and we’re still very good
friends. She was a big part of my life, and it was fun working with her, so
yeah, we’re still friends. That’s that.”

I couldn’t watch another minute of his
interview. He had just lied. I knew he had to be all political and
professional, but it still stung to hear him say they were still a part of each
other’s lives and he had fun working with her. A tiny part of me wondered who
was being
lied
to…the anchor or me.

Don’t go there, I reminded myself. Don’t
go to that place. You’re just going to get all worked up over nothing and he’s
going to pick up on it and you’ll have another fight. Don’t do it.

“Brynn?” It was Hudson. He hadn’t been
gone but five or ten minutes and he was already home. I didn’t even hear him
come in.

“What are you doing back so soon?” I
asked as I spun around, startled. “Shit, you scared me.”

“I left my phone…” he said. I could see
by the look on his face that he knew I’d watched his interview. “I saw what you
were watching.”

He sighed. He was so annoyed at me, I
could tell.

“I like watching you in action,” I said
as I tried to plaster a fake smile across my face. I didn’t want to start
another fight, even if I was secretly ticked.

Hudson shook his head. He knew me too
well. He knew exactly what I was doing.

“I don’t have time for this right now,”
he said. “I’m running late.”

With that, he turned and left through the
garage door.