Page 31

Thirty-One

Dash

Waking up with Willow nestled in the crook of my shoulder never gets old. In past sexual encounters, I rarely spent the night, but if I did, I never, ever did the whole cuddling thing.

Now I can’t seem to do anything else.

When I’m with Willow, all the rules of my life go right out the window.

Willow makes me want to break all my rules—and I fucking love it.

I love her .

I haven’t used those words in the way they’re meant to be used with a woman since… well, a long time. Maybe never. And I still haven’t.

But I don’t know how much longer I can hold back, or why I’d even want to.

She quickly has become my everything, so I can’t think of a single reason why I wouldn’t tell her how I feel. Let her know I’m in this for the long haul. She’s had so much uncertainty in her life, I want her to know she can count on me. Always.

“Why are you trying to suffocate me?” she whispers sleepily.

I startle, realize my grip on her has tightened exponentially, and I gentle it without letting go completely.

“Sorry, baby. I was just thinking about how much I love waking up with you… how much I…love you.”

“Do you?” There’s a catch in her voice and I grip her chin between my thumb and forefinger, urging her to look at me.

“I do. I think I fell a little in love with you the first time I saw you lying there in that hospital bed. I was a goner once I got to know you…and once I touched you? There was no doubt you were going to be mine.” I pause. “Unless you don’t want to be.”

To my surprise, she rolls over and pushes me to my back, straddling me.

“Being yours is the best thing I could possibly be,” she whispers, dropping her lips to mine, whispering, “In fact, it’s all I want to be right now because I love you too. So much I feel like I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure you—and what we have together—is real.”

“I’m real, baby. And what we have is very, very real.”

I slide my arms around her and kiss her as lovingly as I know how.

Our tongues twist and twirl, vying for dominance, and her gorgeous body molds to mine. Exactly as it should. Last night’s lovemaking was above and beyond anything we’ve done before and I’m looking forward to doing it again. And again.

Hopefully right now.

Except my phone is buzzing on my nightstand.

Once.

Twice.

Four times.

Talk about cock blocking.

“I may need to get that,” I whisper finally. “It’s a weekday morning—it might be work.”

She nods. “Of course. Do what you have to do.”

I grab my phone and frown.

ATLAS: Call me.

ATLAS: Are you sleeping? Fucking call me!

ATLAS: Dude, where the hell are you? I have news that can’t wait, and I’m about to get on a plane!

ATLAS: Jesus fucking Christ. Don’t make me come over there…

“Atlas apparently has news,” I say, dialing his number and putting it on speaker.

“About fucking time,” he rumbles by way of greeting.

“You’re on speaker,” I tell him. “Willow’s with me.”

“Perfect. Good morning, Willow.” He’s polite, if not curt. “ I have news that’s undoubtedly going to make your day.”

Our eyes lock for a minute before she says, “Okay. What’s going on?”

“Dylan has twenty-four hours to put your allowance for…” We can hear the rustle of papers.

“...the last eighteen months in the account of your choice or face contempt charges. Since I don’t know what your current banking situation is, I gave them one of my account numbers, but I’ll transfer the money to you as soon as you open a new account. Dash knows I’m good for it.”

“Oh, my God.” She seems frozen, and then she squeezes her eyes shut and tears slip out the sides.

“Baby…” I reach up to wipe them but she shakes her head, smiling.

“I’m fine. I just never thought we’d…win.”

“We’re also waiting for the warrant allowing the forensic accountant to go through your joint account with a fine tooth comb.

There will probably be a lot of money you’ll never get back, but there is also a very good chance he’ll have to explain and/or return a bunch of it as well.

Not to mention, from what we can tell, he used your money for the down payment on the house, so he’s going to have to either buy you out or sell it and give you half the profit.

The one bit of good news is that your name is on the deed.

That was a huge mistake on his part, and we’re going to take advantage of it. ”

Willow seems shell shocked, staring at the phone open-mouthed.

But she’s not crying anymore, which is good.

“I owe you one,” I say quietly.

“Nah. We’re good.” Atlas is rarely warm or sentimental, so his offhand comment is as emotional as he gets.

“Thank you,” Willow says after a moment. “I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

“We’re family,” Atlas says gruffly. “And this is what we do for family. You’re one of us now. Anyway, I’m on a plane, gotta run. Make sure you set up a bank account so I can get you your money.”

With that, he disconnects and I reach for her, putting my hand on the side of her face.

“You okay?”

“I’m more than okay.” She takes a long, deep breath and then slowly blows it out. “I’m going to have money again, Hudson. Do you have any idea how important that is?”

“I do.”

“And if I get money from the house too, I can buy something of my own.”

This seems like the perfect opening for something else I’ve been thinking about. “What if we bought something of our own… together ?”

She frowns a little. “You want to move in together? Officially, I mean? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Why not? I never want to wake up without you next to me unless one of us is working or there’s some kind of emergency. I love having you here with me. What do you think?”

Her eyes twinkle as she nods. “I think it’s an amazing idea—I love being here with you too.”

“Do you want to live here in my house or should we try to buy something new—a fresh start for both of us?”

“I guess it depends on money,” she says, her brows knitting together slightly. “I don’t know how much I’m going to have or what my earning power will be going forward. Let’s take some time to research what’s out there and then decide.”

“One day at a time,” I say gently. “Let’s let Atlas and Madeline work their magic and we’ll live here until we get a resolution.”

“Okay.” She nods thoughtfully, and I can tell by the look on her face she has a lot going on in her head.

“What are you thinking?” I ask.

“I feel like today is the first day of the rest of my life.”

“I like hearing that.”

“Would you be able to take me to open a bank account today? That feels like one of the first things I need to do so I can move forward.”

“Absolutely.”

“And then I’m going to start hunting for a new agent. I need to be able to go back to work at some point. If anyone is willing to take a chance on me.” Her face falls a little.

“They will be,” I assure her. “Kate is already working on all that bullshit Dylan put online. You’re going to have more work than you want.”

“What if I don’t? What if no one wants to work with me because they believe him?”

“As much as it pains me to say this in this particular context, the truth of the matter is, Hollywood loves a good scandal. No matter what you do or how badly you behave, they’re mostly willing to give you a chance just to see what’s going to happen.

Look at all the celebrities who do genuinely terrible things and then come back with a completely rebranded image?

They’re going to give you a chance solely so they can have a front row seat to watch you fail.

It’s fucked up, but it should also give you hope.

And once they see how amazing you are—and what a fucking liar Dylan is—you’re going to be Hollywood’s darling again before you know it. ”

“The only person’s darling I want to be is yours,” she whispers.

I reach up to run my fingers through her soft hair. “That’s a given,” I say softly.

Her eyes flutter closed and she breathes deeply again. “I really love hearing that. I love you, Hudson.”

“You have no idea how much I love hearing that.” I pull her down for another soul-bending kiss. “Now…where were we before we were so rudely interrupted?”

She straddles me again and before I realize what’s happening, she sinks down on my cock. “Right here, I think.”