Chapter 4 #2
“Yeah, we did. And yeah, it’s crazy.” He leaned across the table again, his voice pitched low and sexy.
“But tell me you don’t feel like you’ve known me forever.
Tell me it’s not just about sex. You feel it, I know you do.
This is more than just amazing sexual attraction. There’s a connection here, angel.”
“How can that be? How do you know?”
“I don’t know how I know. I just do. If people knew how this shit worked, someone would have written a formula for it by now so everybody got a piece of the good life.”
“Oh my God.” My fingers trembled as I reached up to push my hair off my face.
“We stumbled onto something special, Autumn. We would be fools to turn our backs on it when other folks aren’t so lucky.”
“You don’t know anything about me.” I continued to deny him.
“Then tell me. I told you about my family. Tell me about yours.”
The fact was, after hearing about his family, I wasn’t so sure about telling him about mine. Although part of me was looking for an excuse to break the inexplicable bond between us, the other part of me was afraid that if I told him about my upbringing he might decide we were too different.
And how messed-up was that?
He’d turned my emotions into a war unto themselves.
“Autumn?”
I glanced out of the window toward the town he’d grown up in. “I’m from Glasgow. I have a big brother, Killian. He’s my half-brother, really—we had different dads—but that’s just a technicality. He’s my brother.”
“Had?” Hudson picked up on the past tense immediately.
I looked back at him, and found his gaze curious.
There was a small crease line between his brows that hinted at concern.
“His dad is still alive but he wasn’t his dad.
He’s Killian’s father and there’s a difference.
He’s been in and out of prison most of Killian’s life.
Mum met my dad when Killian was little and my dad adopted him, so he was really our dad.
But they uh… when I was six and Killian was eleven we were on holiday with Mum and Dad and…
our parents died in a helicopter accident. ”
Suddenly Hudson reached across the table and threaded his fingers through mine. “Shit, I’m sorry.”
I melted at the warmth in his expression. It was mixed with a sympathetic pain and I knew, deep down, that his emotion for me was genuine. It boggled my mind but it was true. Hudson hurt when I hurt. How strange but beautiful was that?
“I’m okay. It was a long time ago. But it meant that Killian and I were raised by his biological father’s brother and James Byrne is not the nicest of men.
He sued the events company, and their insurance company, and he won a lot of money for us.
He’s very smart and has the golden touch when it comes to finances.
He took that money and invested it for us in some high risk ventures that paid off.
We each got our share when we turned eighteen.
A lot of mine is still in investment and stock funds and it means I can live well.
Hence the suite. But I’ll have to find a job sooner or later.
It’s not the kind of money that will last a lifetime. And I want a job.
“My uncle didn’t think it was necessary for me to have one.
He’s delusional enough to think that me not having a job proved to the rest of the world that he was wealthy enough for his niece to live like a socialite.
When I was younger he ‘indulged me’—his words, not mine—and paid for me to continue my ballet lessons in the hope that any future success as a ballerina would give him social standing.
But when I was thirteen I auditioned for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which is one of the world’s top five schools of performing arts and extremely competitive.
I didn’t get in. My uncle refused to pay for any further ballet lessons if he couldn’t parade me out to all his friends as if my ballet achievements were owed all to him. ”
“And is that all he cared about?” Hudson squeezed my hand. “Money and what you could do for his reputation?”
I nodded. “Our uncle gave us nothing but material offerings. No affection. No family. Killian stepped in and became my parent and he was just a child himself. He loved and protected me with a fierceness that meant I had what I needed growing up. It wasn’t a mum and dad but he tried his damn best. I guess because I had Killian, my uncle’s lack of affection didn’t hurt as much.
But Killian didn’t have that same paternal support and so he grew up trying to win it from our uncle.
He even took a job at my uncle’s record label.
I hated watching him trying to prove himself to a man who didn’t deserve the attempt. ”
“Your brother still work for him?”
I shook my head and smiled. “He met someone. You may have heard of her actually. Skylar Finch?”
He frowned. “The name is familiar but I don’t know why.”
“She’s been all over the news lately. She used to be the frontwoman for the band Tellurian. Her parents were murdered. She fell off the face of the earth a few years ago and just showed up again recently.”
Hudson nodded as recognition lit his eyes. “I do remember catching glimpses of that in the news.”
“Well, she was living in Glasgow. It’s a long story.” I shrugged. “But the result was that Killian fell in love with her. She’s changed him for the better. Now he’s starting up his own record company and our uncle is out of our lives for good. We don’t need his toxic personality around us anyway.”
In answer, Hudson rubbed his thumb over the top of my hand and I fought a shiver. “First your uncle and then all those assholes you told me about. Fuck, Autumn, you deserve so much more than that.”
“What if that’s not true?” I whispered because the words were hard to say. “What if I’m not who you want me to be and this is a giant mistake?”
“I get it. I get why you’re questioning this because it feels unreal that two people could connect like this so quickly.
You ever ask why I’m not questioning it?
It’s because I know that this kind of connection exists and it’s real.
I know that because I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by love.
I’m more open to it. I get it now why you’re not.
Between those guys and everything you’ve lost, I get it in a way that I really wish I didn’t.
Because I’ve known you only a few days and I would give anything to give you back your parents.
That’s why you don’t want to believe this is true.
Because good things rarely happen, right? ”
“That makes me sound ungrateful. I’ve lived a privileged life.”
“No. You have money. There’s a difference and you know it. You know it better than anyone.”
I gripped his hand tight, feeling tears burn my eyes. “I’d give it back in a heartbeat.”
“I know, angel,” he murmured, taking hold of my other hand.
Suddenly my chest constricted as a wave of feelings toward him crashed into me. “I’m scared.”
“Don’t be. I promise you there’s nothing to be scared of from me. This is the real fucking deal and I’m going to protect it with everything I have. Just say you’re with me.”
“I live in Glasgow,” I reiterated, hanging on by a thread.
“Forget that. Forget everything but you and me and right now. I don’t care if that’s reckless or stupid… I just… Just give yourself over to this with me and I honestly believe it will all work itself out. Will you do that? Will you just hold on with me?”
I stared into his face, a face that felt so strangely familiar to me now. My fears rode me but I knew as the warmth and excitement and thrill and peace exploded through me in opposing harmony that he was going to win over my fears.
I nodded, my hands tightening in his. “I’ll hold on.”