Starstruck - Book Four (12 page)

“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.

“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.

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 damn 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.

“No, not that I can think of,” she said with a fake smile. She
tried to turn to go back inside.

“Yes,” I said. “There was something you wanted to tell him.
Something he should know.”

Hudson sat his fork down and stopped chewing his breakfast.
He turned to look at each of us, and I couldn’t help but notice Flor’s fingers
trembling. I almost felt bad. Almost.

“What is it, Flor? You know you can tell me anything,” he
said.

She stared at the ground, unable to look him in the eye, and
opened her mouth to speak.

“I-I think something’s burning,” she said as she ran inside
the house, slamming the sliding door behind her.

“What the heck is her problem?” Hudson turned to face me.

I bit my lip. “Well, I wanted her to be the one to tell
you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Last week, when I came home, she was on a phone call,” I
said. “She didn’t hear me come in, so I heard some things…”

“Okay, so…?” He didn’t see where this was going, and I
absolutely hated to be the one to drop the bomb on him.

“She was talking to Ava,” I said with a wince. “Telling her
things about us.”

Hudson scratched his chin as he took it in.

“I confronted her and she admitted she’d been the one all
along,” I said. “She’s been the one telling Ava about our whereabouts, giving
her access to the house, telling her things about us. It’s been Flor all
along.”

Hudson raked his fingers through his sexy mess of bedhead,
took a deep breathe, and exhaled slowly.

“I really wanted her to be the one to tell you,” I said. “It
should’ve come from her.”

He wouldn’t look at me, and I hoped to God he believed me.
Flor had been with him for a long time. I was sure the betrayal stung like
hell.

“Are you going to let her go?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine
keeping her around if we couldn’t trust her with knowing our business anymore.
Obviously Flor’s loyalty had a price and money talked.

“I don’t know,” he heaved. “I need to let this sink in a
bit.”

“You don’t know?” I couldn’t believe he was considering
keeping her on. “We can’t trust her, Hudson. All these issues with Ava? Flor
was behind all of them. She was working with Ava to destroy us.”

“But why would she do that?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” I said. I crossed my arms.

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” he said. “What’s done is done.
I can’t have people like that in my house. On my payroll. The trust is gone.”

He looked like his puppy had just run away, so I reached
across the table and placed my hand over his.

“Everything will be okay,” I said. “I have a feeling things
are only going to get better the moment the mole is gone.”

I shouldn’t have called her a mole, but there was no better
word for her. She had committed professional suicide by selling out like that.

“Didn’t you make Flor sign a non-disclosure agreement?” I
wondered.

“Yeah,” he said.

“So are you going to do anything about that?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s learned her lesson,” he said. “As
long as nothing else comes out, I’ll leave her alone.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

In true Hudson fashion, his heart of gold shone bright
through all the mucky muck. He had the power and authority to crush her like an
ant, but he wasn’t that kind of person.

He looked up at me and flashed a half smile. “Now, if I’d
lost you completely because of all this, I might be singing a different tune.”

I pulled into the circle drive of Mia Sterling’s house, iced
caramel macchiatos for Alec and Mia in hand. I’d really enjoyed working with
him, and meeting new people was so much fun it hardly felt like a job.

Before I had time to ring the doorbell, the front door flew
open and Mia Sterling stood before me, giant smile plastered across her face.

“Hey!” she said. The way her face lit up at the sight of me
made my entire day.

“Hi, Mia,” I said as I handed her one of the drinks. “Alec
said you like these, so I got you one.”

“Oh, you’re too sweet. You didn’t have to do that!” she said
as she graciously took it out of my hand. “Thank you!”