Found in You(57)

Her forehead creased. “Uh, yeah. Of course.”

“So Hudson could have slept with her after he’d started therapy and then it wouldn’t have been such a big deal for him to keep her employed.”

Celia nodded. “I get you. But I still don’t think so. Here’s the thing. Norma’s always been after him. From way before he ever had therapy. And I can’t tell you how many functions I went to where I watched her try to seduce him, hence the reason I refer to her as the slut. Yet despite all her attempts, he never made any move to play her.”

“Which makes it all more likely that he’d go to her after therapy. Trust me, I know.” It made perfect sense. The people I’d dated since therapy had been the safe ones, the men I didn’t feel intensely about. If Hudson had never been interested in playing Norma, then she was similarly safe.

On the other hand, Hudson had told me more than once that he’d never wanted to play me either. Did he refrain from playing Norma for similar reasons? Because he felt something for her?

The idea made me sick with jealousy.

And it didn’t give me any answers as to whether or not she was special to him now or in the past. If I really wanted to know, I’d have to look closer at Norma. I made a mental note to do a Google search in my free time.

Then I deleted the mental note.

What the hell was I thinking? Internet-stalking was for the old Alayna Withers. I would not stoop to that level. Hudson wanted me with him. Always. What other proof did I need to know I was the important woman in his life?

We halted the conversation to let the waitress serve us. When we were alone again, I started up as if we’d never stopped. “You’re probably right. I don’t know why I’m worrying about it, really. I’m the one he asked to move in with him, not her.”

“Exactly.” Her smile vanished. “Wait, what? He asked you to move in? That’s awesome!”

It was awesome. Utterly awesome, and for the first time, I let myself truly feel the awesomeness of it rather than just the fear. I played it casually though, shrugging it off as no big deal. “I don’t know. It’s too soon. Isn’t it too soon?”


“Whatever. Are there rules about these things?” Celia talked around a forkful of salad. “When Hudson knows what he wants, he doesn’t hesitate.”

I tried not to let it bother me that Celia knew Hudson cold. “He told me pretty much the same thing.” I swallowed. “When I told him no.”

“You didn’t!” She gasped and her expression matched her surprised exclamation.

“I did. Well, I said I’d think about it.”

Celia was beyond excited. “And now you’ve thought about it and you’re going to say yes. You have to say yes. How can you not say yes? This is Hudson Pierce!”

“I don’t love him for that reason.” Not because he was world-renowned billionaire business mogul Hudson Pierce, anyway. But because he was who he was—unique and special in so many ways.

“All the more reason you have to say yes. And that’s exactly why you’re the one he wants. You aren’t caught up in the show that surrounds him. You can’t imagine how few people are.” She pulled her loose blonde hair to one side of her head. “Jesus, Alayna, you’re perfect for him. You have to move in. You’ll break his heart if you don’t. He so obviously loves you.”

Was it really that obvious? “He still hasn’t said it.”

“But didn’t he? Asking you to move in with him…that seems like saying it to me. In the only way Hudson can.”