Read Starstruck - Book Two for Free Online Page B

clothes and
makeup into the house, where Hudson was vegged out on the sofa watching some
sports game on his giant T.V.
     
    “You’re home,” he said as he popped up. He flipped the light
on in the kitchen. “Let me get a good look at you.”
     
    I smiled sheepishly and prayed that he was okay with my new
look.
     
    “You look stunning,” he said as he drank me in. “You were
gorgeous before and now you’re just stunning.”
     
    “Thank you,” I said. I studied his face for sincerity and
found it in his eyes. He meant what he said, and he liked how I looked either
way.
     
    “But more importantly, how do you like it? How do you feel?”
he asked.
     
    “I feel like a new woman,” I said. “I feel like I might not
stick out like a sore thumb anymore.”
     
    He laughed as he put his arm around me.
     
    “Your feet must be killing you,” he said. “All that time
spent shopping today.”
     
    Now that he’d mentioned it, they were pretty achy. I
followed him over to one of the sofas in the family room where he sat me down
and pulled my flats off my feet. One by one, he began to rub them.
     
    “Thanks,” I said to him. “Thanks for everything today.
Seriously. You have no idea how much fun I had and how much this all meant to
me.”
     
    He looked pleased. “I just want you to be happy, Brynn.”
     
    I leaned back onto an oversized throw pillow and shut my
eyes as his firm hands worked out every kink and ache in my poor feet. I
could’ve passed out right then and there.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 9
 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I stood on the scale that morning not knowing what to
expect. It had been two weeks since my makeover, thirteen days since I began
taking advantage of Hudson’s amazing home gym, and ten days since I’d read
about a maple syrup/cayenne pepper/lemonade cleanse that all the celebrities were
doing to shed serious weight.
     
    The numbers of the scale bounced back and forth, high and
low, before settling on a number I hadn’t seen in a long time. I was down twelve
pounds in two weeks. No wonder my clothes had been hanging off me a bit lately.
     
    I squealed silently and clapped my hands together as I did a
happy dance. Those trolls are never going to call me fat ever again, I told
myself.
     
    I hopped into the shower and lathered up under the hot
water. My fingers traced my ribs, and I could even feel a few bulging out. Iowa
Brynn wouldn’t have been happy about that, but California Brynn was elated.
Almost three weeks in L.A. and I was already evolving into someone I barely
recognized, inside and out.
     
    I emerged from the shower and wiped the steam off the mirror
with a towel. My face was looking a little gaunt, but it was nothing that some
smart highlighting and contouring couldn’t fix. My eyes looked a little sunken
in, but it only made them look even bigger.
     
    “Good morning,” Hudson said to me as I sauntered out to the
breakfast table with a little extra pep in my step. “You going to actually eat
something today?”
     
    I’d been using tons of excuses lately not to eat much around
him, but I knew I was running out of them. Sometimes I’d eat a piece of toast
at breakfast and then mentally calculate how many minute I needed to log on the
treadmill or how many laps I needed to swim in his pool.
     
    “Sure,” I said as I grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl. I
wondered if Hudson was admiring my new frame or my outfit, but I couldn’t bring
myself to ask. I almost didn’t want to know.
     
    “Listen,” he said. “I’ve got a press tour coming up this
weekend. I have to fly to New York.”
     
    “Oh, yeah,” I said. “You did mention that the other day.”
     
    “Then I’ve got one more week here with you before I have to
start shooting again,” he said. He still hadn’t brought up the fact that he was
shooting a movie with Ava Fox, and I still hadn’t mentioned that I knew
anything about it.
     
    “Do you want to come with me to