Page 57 of Lords of Misrule
“Fuck.” He tosses the burger down on the table. “I meant to have this conversation once we got back. With her there.”
“I don’t think I like where this is headed.” I glance at Finn, and he looks like he might spontaneously combust.
“Did you touch her?” His voice is low and lethal.
“I kissed her.” Finn’s jaw flexes and Hudson shifts. “I had to! We were faking it for people that we were a couple. Would have been fucking weird if we didn’t.”
“I guess...”
“That’s not everything.”
I feel a deep pit in the center of my stomach. For all her rough edges, Charlotte would be better off with someone like Hudson. Her problems are mostly the result of people around her and not choices she’s made for herself—her brother… us. If there is someone with the ability to make that all go away, she could finally have peace. Settle down in a loft downtown, spend her days writing a dissertation on art and her evenings attending the ballet or whatever the fuck fancy people do.
Some part of me has fantasized about giving it to her. That she and Finn and I could make that happen after all this is over. But if she has Hudson, she has zero need for us. The only thing she might miss is the rough sex, and Hudson could be trained. As evidenced by the fact he was a perfectly good guy before he fell in with us and now, he’s a spy, a thief, and a racketeer.
“What’s everything?”
“I kissed her again in the hotel room. Told her how much I wanted her.”
“And?” Finn asks. I can see the tension radiating off him. He’s thinking the same thing I am.
“She’s loyal to the two of you. But she let me shower with her.”
“Shower with her?” I look at him skeptically.
“I might have watched her get herself off.” He shrugs, smirking a little, and I’m ready to jump over this table and wipe it off his face. Permanently. But I stay rooted in place.
Finn doesn’t say anything. Just stares at Hudson like he might tear him limb from limb if he moves the wrong way. Hudson looks up, and we must both look as lethal as I feel.
“What? I’ve watched before. You’ve let me watch. Encouraged me, frankly, to watch you all fuck. What’s the difference?”
“Was that all? Or is there more?” Finn presses.
“That was all. But I want more. I’m tired of being on the outside of this. I’m every bit a part of this—just as much as you are. I care about her just as much. Fuck sometimes I think I might be in love with her.”
“I thought you had a fucking girlfriend.”
“They broke up. He told us that.” Finn raises a brow at me.
“Did you tell Charlotte all this?”
“Yes.”
“And?” I ask impatiently. I want to know if he did, and then I want to know what she said.
“Like I said before, she’s loyal to the two of you. Said that we’d have to talk to you. Encouraged me to find other girls to fuck it out with first.”
“Have you thought about it? She’s not a fucking rebound.” Finn’s brows are furrowed.
“I wanted her before this ended. I wanted her before you two fucked her. She was supposed to come to my room that night. Except someone had to fucking intervene.” Hudson turns on me, his eyes darkening.
“I didn’t have her do anything she didn’t already want to. She’d been after Finn since the first night.”
“I could have at least had a shot,” Hudson argues.
“To cheat on your girlfriend? Just what every woman wants. To be the side piece.” Finn shakes his head, calm enough now that he takes another bite of his food.
He must be satisfied that she swore fealty to us. Assume that’s enough. But I don’t feel that same kind of comfort. I’m still seeing a world where Hudson is everything she wants, and we get left behind.
