The Fixed Trilogy: Fixed on You(56)

“Really?” He knew it bothered me. I hadn’t covered well enough. “She’s the only person on earth, Alayna. I’ve known her my whole life. I didn’t even know her name was really Celia until I was almost ten.”

I crossed my legs, pleased when he glanced as I did so, and swung my foot with irritation. “If you are trying to convince people you care more about me than Celia, then you should have a nickname for me. It will establish endearment.” And I really wanted his endearment.

“Calling me ‘H’ shows endearment?”

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I lifted my hips so I could pull it out, and Hudson eyed me as I did so. “It does. I don’t go for the real lovey-dovey words like sweetie and honey. But Hudson is way too formal.”

“I like formal.”

“I like cherry-flavored blow pops. It doesn’t make them appropriate for every situation.”

“Blow pops?”

“Yeah…blow pops.” I planned to respond with a sexy comeback, but was distracted by reading the text on my phone. It was from Brian asking me to call him. I’d ignored all of the texts he’d sent over the last week, and wasn’t about to start answering now. I threw my phone into my lap, frustrated. He didn’t know I’d found a solution to my money issues and still expected me to give in to his terms. Not happening.

“You didn’t like ‘baby’?” Hudson’s question pulled me back to the car.

My answer held the tension I meant for Brian. “Not so much.” Only because it was unoriginal and insincere. It wasn’t a name Hudson had picked specifically for me.

“I’m sticking with Alayna.”

I turned to him and glared. “Come on. You could call me ‘precious’ every now and then in front of other people.”

“No way,” he murmured.

“Why? You call me that sometimes already.”

His voice rumbled low and quiet and serious. “That’s private.”

I shivered. Even if his tone hadn’t indicated the matter was settled, I would have dropped it. His answer was perfect—sensual and even a little romantic. Not like I was getting my hopes up romantic, just sort of sweet.

Hmm. Hudson never failed to surprise me. I shook my head. “It’s your turn.”

My phone buzzed again. Another text from Brian. This time saying he was coming to see me first thing the next day. And I wouldn’t be there. Guess the laugh was on him. I grinned as I turned off my phone and stuffed it back into my pocket.

When my focus returned to Hudson, he was eyeing me, his brow cocked. “Who keeps texting you?”

Something about his jealousy made me want to purr. “Is that your question?”

“It is.”

I considered making something up, something that would really provoke envy from the man, but the game was meant to be about honest answers. “My brother. He’s an *.”

“Like I’m an *?” he asked, recalling what I’d said to him minutes before.

“Worse. He’s an * who doesn’t know it.”

Hudson grinned. “And you’re ignoring Brian?”

He knew Brian’s name. It made me realize that he already knew I had a brother. I wondered what else Hudson knew about Brian. And my parents. My whole life.

Well, if he wanted to know anything more about Brian he’d have to wait until his turn. “You already asked your question. It’s my turn. I lost my virginity when I was sixteen.”

I meant it to be a shocker, still irritated about Brian’s constant texts and Hudson’s knowledge of things he shouldn’t know about me until I told him. “Sixteen? Fuck, Alayna. I don’t think I want to know that.”

“Sorry.” I smiled.

He shook his head, his eyes narrow. “I seriously doubt this is going to come up in conversation with my family.”

“You never know.”

“Who was the guy?”

His jealousy was seriously hot. “Is that your turn?”

“No.”

I cocked my head, questioning his sincerity.

He changed his mind. He couldn’t help himself. “Yes.”

I didn’t even try to hide my elation. “He was a random guy I met at a party. I thought that having sex would help me forget that my parents had died. It did not.”

“No, I suppose it wouldn’t.”

He sounded sympathetic and I was glad he didn’t press. It had been an awful time in my life. My parents’ fatal car accident had pushed me to behave in ways I wasn’t proud. Random sex, excessive drinking, drug experimentation. And then the addiction that had stuck—obsessive love, which shouldn’t be called love at all, but rather obsessive wanna-be-loved. If I was really with Hudson, I mean really his girlfriend, then he should know all the details, and I liked to think I’d tell him. But for a strange moment I was exceptionally glad that I wasn’t really with Hudson so I wouldn’t have to tell him.

Whoa. Did that mean that there were other moments when I wanted to be really with him? When had that started?

I shot a glance at Hudson who seemed to be heavy in his own thoughts. What would it take to get in there? I tried to guess what he could be so absorbed with. “What were you doing in Cincinnati?”

“Business.”