Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
I rubbed my temples with my forefinger and thumb. He had to stop thinking and go.
“I told you he was wealthy and powerful. This comes with it. I am safe. We are safe. But you can’t be here because you won’t be.”
“I won’t be?” he asked. “Do you hear yourself? You are saying that I won’t be safe. That means you believe he will do something to me. That he isn’t stable. You need to let me help you. You don’t love him. I know that.”
Oh God, Hudson. Shut up and go.
I had brought him into this. Another thing to add to my list of fails.
“This isn’t about love. It’s about Stevie. He wants to get to know his daughter. Form a bond with her. You being here makes him feel threatened. Just go. Find someone new. Someone worthy of you. Be happy.”
Please, for the love of all that is holy, get out of here.
“I can’t find someone new and be happy, Branwen! I love you. I want you. You make me happy.”
How was it that I struggled to get rid of men who wanted me, yet the one I wanted thought of me as a hookup that wasn’t even worthy of polite conversation? This was Bastian all over again. Except I didn’t have a best friend for him to start dating. Although she had tried hard to reach out to me and rekindle our friendship after their divorce two years later.
“Hudson, please. I can’t do this with you. My life right now…it’s a lot, and emotionally, I can’t handle this.”
“Might want to try harder.”
Luther’s voice caused my head to snap up, and I stared at him as he sat down on the sectional.
“I love you. I will be there for you. Just let me, please, baby,” I heard him pleading as I stood silently, my gaze fixed on Luther.
Did he mean that Linc was on his way home? Shit. Shit. Shit.
“If you love me, then you will respect my decision and let me go,” I pressed, not taking my eyes off Luther.
If he was in here, then no one was outside, killing Hudson.
He stretched out both his arms and rested them on the back of the sofa, then propped his right foot up onto his left knee as he watched me. “He won’t kill him here. Too messy. But the dentist will go missing. No one will ever find him. It will be a tragedy that makes the Nashville news for weeks, until another big event happens.”
My eyes widened in horror as he spoke. He was serious. I swallowed the bile in my throat.
Hudson was swearing his undying devotion, and all I could do was picture him with a bullet in his head. All my fault.
No. No! I wasn’t going to let Hudson do this.
“Hudson,” I said firmly, shutting him up. “For the next year, I am focusing on Stevie and her needs. Letting her get to know her father. I have no time for this. If you still feel this way in a year, then we can reconnect, but right now, you need to go home. Nothing you say will change my mind.”
He was silent, and for a moment, I feared Luther was wrong. Maybe Linc had arrived and killed him. He could be sitting in his Mercedes, bleeding out or with a broken neck.
“Okay.” His tone sounded defeated. “But I wish you’d let me see you. Kiss you goodbye.”
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, and my shoulders sagged. “I can’t do that. It wouldn’t help this.”
“I’ll wait,” he said fiercely. “When this year is up, I will be waiting.”
I wished he wouldn’t. I had to believe he would get tired of this and change his mind.
“Goodbye, Hudson,” I replied, not going to feed into that at all.
“I love you, Branwen.”
I ended the call, praying he drove away.
“What naughty tricks do you have, sweetness?” Luther asked with a smirk.
I frowned at him, not sure what he meant. He picked up his phone and tapped something. The large theater-sized television screen came to life on their wall, and the front gate appeared. Hudson was still there. His car parked and him pacing back and forth, glaring toward the gate.
Dammit!
“That man is obsessed,” he said. “And as gorgeous as you might be, to have a man that fucked up in the head, you must have some euphoric witchery going on between your legs.”
I could assure him I didn’t. He could ask Linc all about it. This had nothing to do with sex. My sex life with Hudson hadn’t been that great. The other night had reminded me how much it had lacked.
Hudson finally jerked open his car door and climbed inside.
“Thank God,” I sighed, then held my breath, waiting for his car to back up.
“If he tries to crash through that gate, I’ll give you whatever you want to let me have a taste of that pussy,” Luther said, cutting his eyes to me and letting them ease their way up my body.