Read Starstruck - Book Four for Free Online Page B

ceiling
windows showcased her breathtaking ocean views.
     
    Hudson and I sunk down into her plush, overstuffed white
sofa that was covered in a gazillion pillows with a gazillion patterns in
multiple shades of flax, ivory, and cobalt blue.
     
    I couldn’t stop looking around at her place. It was a work
of art, truly, second only to Hudson’s. I wondered if they shared a decorator.
     
    “Hudson,” Ava said as she walked towards us from the bottom
of the stairs. Her hair was pulled back, revealing her ridiculously high
cheekbones, and her lithe frame was wrapped in a pale peach silk robe. She
hoisted one hand on her boney hip while her other hand held up a dirty martini.
It felt like a scene from a movie, but I supposed most movie stars were
naturally dramatic.
     
    One thing was for certain, Ava Fox knew how to make an
entrance.
     
    “Hi, Ava,” I said in an attempt to acknowledge the fact that
she’d blatantly ignored me.
     
    “Hi, Brynn,” she said in the fakest voice I’d ever heard.
“How are you doing today, sweetie?”
     
    She couldn’t have been more condescending in her tone, but I
vowed not to let it bother me.
     
    Ava took a few steps closer to us, towards an overstuffed
chair, and she nearly tripped over the sisal rug that covered the hand scraped
walnut floors. She was clearly drunk, but she didn’t seem embarrassed.
     
    “What can we help you with, Ava?” Hudson asked. I loved that
he was including me.
     
    Ava stood up from her chair, the one she’d barely kept warm
for more than three seconds, and sauntered over to Hudson, sitting extra close
to him on the opposite end of the sofa.
     
    She hooked a lanky arm around his shoulders and rested her
head on him as she nursed her martini. She was acting a complete fool, and part
of me was livid that Hudson was tolerating her behavior.
     
    “You know what I want,” she said in the drunkest voice ever.
“Silly.”
     
    Hudson and I exchanged glances. This was Ava Fox, unfiltered
and undone.
     
    “I need you, Boo-Boo,” she cooed. She took another sip of
her drink, slurping it loudly. She had to have been going on more than a few
drinks already.
     
    Hudson sat rigid, his hands resting on his knees. He looked
at me as if he were helpless. The man who pursued me back home in Iowa, the man
who dominated my mind and my body when we were alone, was helpless when it came
to Ava Fox. His kind heart, the most amazing thing about him, was also his
biggest downfall.
     
    “Ava, you need help,” he said, avoiding eye contact with
her.
     
    “No, I don’t,” she pouted. “I don’t need help, Hudson, I
need you. You know that. We talked about it. Don’t you remember?”
     
    I squirmed in my seat, hating that I was dying to know what
they’d talked about. And when. My body felt hot as a wave of jealousy rushed
over me, but I quickly pushed it away.
     
    Hudson was a good man, I reminded myself. Ava was just
trying to get inside my head.
     
    “Ava, you really do need help,” I said. I couldn’t hold my
tongue any longer. If Hudson wasn’t going to stand up to her, I had to.
     
    Ava moved her head up from Hudson’s shoulder and stared me
squarely in the face.
     
    “You know nothing,” she growled in the creepiest voice I’d
ever heard. I’d never had anyone look at me with so much hatred in their eyes
before. It chilled me to the core.
     
    “I know that Hudson wants to be with me,” I said, attempting
to hold my ground with her. “And I want to be with him. There’s no room for you
in our life.”
     
    Her breathing grew labored as she shot daggers my way, and
suddenly, without warning, her face softened. She glanced up at Hudson with
more love and affection than I’d have liked to have seen.
     
    “I know you still love me, baby,” she cooed as she nuzzled
her nose into the crook of his neck. “You said you did last night, remember?”
     
    “Ava,” Hudson sighed. He had to do some damage control and
quick. “I said a lot