Page 47 of Say You Love Me

Bonnie laughs. It’s like a cackle down the line. “And, so?”

“She’s not happy a lot of the time and I’m worried about her. We’re all worried about her.”

“Who is this we?”

“Just my parents and me. My mother is the one who suggested I call you. I didn’t want to, knowing how you left things with Finity—”

“I didn’t leave anything with Finity.”

“I meant how things were between you and Finity before we left.”

“Which was how, exactly? How were things left?” She’s taunting me, I can tell.

“When you told her to leave you, just like her father did.”

“Well that girl is her father’s child. Let me ask you this. Has she been moody lately? Does she go from happy to sad in the blink of an eye? Is she selfish, controlling?”

“Well, no.”

“No?”

“No,” I say more firmly. My wife isn’t like that at all. She’s had some issues lately, but she can hardly be blamed for them. The doctors told me what pregnancy does to a woman’s body. It’s perfectly normal for her moods to fluctuate.

“Well, you just wait. She’s just like her father, that one.” Bonnie chuckles coldly. “There are things I’ve never told her, you know. She wouldn’t believe me even if I did. That girl idolized her father. Thought the man could freaking walk on water. He killed himself, did you know that?”

“Excuse me?” I say, stunned by her revelation.

“Yup, drowned himself in the tub on her birthday. Selfish fucking asshole. And I never told her. I never told her to protect her. I mean, what sort of a man does that to his child? Callan fucking Jones, that’s who. Look, I’ve tried to help her, tried to make as so she doesn’t end up like that man but it’s pointless. If you want my advice, I’d get out of there while you still can.”

She hangs up and I’m left with the phone pressed to my ear, trying to absorb the information Bonnie just landed on my lap. Finity told me how her mother had lied through the years. Told me of all the tales that come out of her while she’s drunk. But she didn’t sound drunk this time. Still, she had to be lying. Surely information like that couldn’t be hidden from Finity for all these years, could it?

That family was seriously fucked up. There will be no way I’ll be inviting that woman here. Not now, not when the baby is born. Not ever.

I press the button on the phone that gives the direct line to my assistant. “Mary, cancel any appointments for the day. I’m going home.”

chapter twenty-one

NOW

~

FINITY

It all feels like a dream. Hudson pulls me inside after paying the fare. I watch our joined hands, elation floating within me at the fact that he’s touching me again. Rylee follows behind. My body feels bruised and battered from their touch. I was shared between them on the dance floor, passed back and forth until I lost track of whose hands were whose and which mouth was pressed to my skin.

It felt like heaven, glorious rapture. I was worshipped and adored, placed on a throne with two men falling to their knees at my feet.

Hudson leads me into the living room. He turns on the lights but leaves them low, just enough glow to illuminate our bodies. My shoes are already off, Rylee having run his hands up and down my legs in the back of the car as my head lay in Hudson’s lap.

Hudson brings me to the center of the room and motions for me to stand there as he flops to the seat. Rylee stands to the side, a little more uncertain now that we’ve left the shadows of the club.

Whatever I swallowed has put a shine on the world. Rylee’s hair shimmers in the low light, hints of blue threaded among the black. His eyes are big and round, the dark of his pupils swallowing the irises. The freckles that dot his face appear to dance and I wonder what they taste like. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he swallows repeatedly, and his skin seems so pale it’s almost translucent. I want to reach out and touch him. I want to feel the smoothness of his skin, run my hands through the soft curls of his hair. He is everything pure and wholesome.But Hudson sits on the couch with a scowl pressed between his brows. The buttons of his shirt are open, revealing the bulk of his chest. His hair is in glorious disarray, part of it flopped over his eyes. Hudson has wonderful hair. It reminds me of melted chocolate. Thick and dark. His chin is covered in groomed scruff, enough for me to run my fingers through but not enough to cover the strong set of his jaw. His eyes are on me and his gaze burns. Everything about Hudson makes me want to sink to my knees and declare my love. He is my king and I would do anything to please him.

“Undress her.” Hudson’s voice is low and deep and commanding.

I wait, almost trembling in suspense as Rylee steps toward me. His eyes fall over my body as he circles slowly. It feels like torture to have both their eyes on me and none of their hands. My skin tingles. My core clenches in anticipation. Rylee’s hands come to rest on my hips, gripping the material of my dress between his fingers.

“Tell me you want this,” he breathes.