Page 26 of The First Deal

She’d be leaving after lunch. Bo was collecting her and driving her back to Dorset, and it would likely be a week before I saw her again. That realisation made my stomach drop and I released her. But before she could ask me what was wrong, I kissed her head and turned to leave.

“I’ll go make a start on lunch. Enjoy your shower, Cariño.”

Out in the kitchen, I busied myself preparing lunch, cutting vegetables for our salad and hunting down olives in the fridge. Fresh bread was baking in the oven. Everything was coming together.

There was a knock at the door just as I was pulling the trays of bread out of the oven, and then a familiar face appeared. Violet approached me with a seductive sway to her hips and a hungry look in her eyes.

“Knocking is a good start, Vi, but it’s pretty pointless when you let yourself in anyway,” I said, placing the tray on the side and tossing the warm tea towel over my shoulder.

Violet ignored me completely, staring at the food surrounding me in the kitchen. “Are you expecting someone?” she asked.

“I ha—”

“Or is this effort all for me? You should know by now that you don’t need to wine and dine me,” she went on. Although where she had got the idea that it was for her was beyond me. We hadn’t made plans to have lunch, in fact, we’d barely seen each other since our encounter on the roof.

I wasn’t avoiding her, but I was avoiding repeating what we had done. Vi hadn’t pushed me on it when we had gone for a drink a week later, and she’d only briefly mentioned it during a random Tuesday dinner, simply stating that she had enjoyed herself and thought about it a lot.

There had been a little more to it, a suggestion that she thought about it without any clothes on, but I had breezed past it, changing the subject to talk about her work week instead of admitting that I hadn’t been doing the same.

Vi was my oldest friend. She was one of the solids in my life that I didn’t want to lose. But I also didn’t want anything to change. Part of that was due to Hannah, but another part was because I just couldn’t look at Vi in that way.

On paper, we made sense. It should have worked. But when I had kissed her, touched her, fucked her, it hadn’t felt right. It just felt… like nothing. Like all of the women before. Less than that actually.

I couldn’t understand it. I didn’t want to either.

Vi had been talking for some time, but it was only when she ran her hands down my chest and began to unbuckle my belt that I tuned back into what was going on.

“What are you doing?” I asked, taking a step backwards.

She followed, hands still fumbling with my belt. “I told you, Hudson. I’m tired of waiting for you to make your move. I’ve given you space and time to get the girls out of your system, but it’s time to grow up and get on with our lives. Together.”

“What?” I stumbled back another step, and another, until my back was pressed against the oven. “No.”

Vi didn’t follow. Instead, she crossed her arms, raised a perfectly arched brow at me, and pursed her lips before she tutted. “No? What do you mean, no?”

“I mean…” I swallowed, buckled my belt back up, and twisted the tea towel around my fist, unsure if I’d be able to be completely honest with her. “I mean this isn’t going to happen, Violet. Not now, not in five years. Never.”

Her expression turned dark, but before she could scream at me, I heard the water shut off and panic filled my chest.

One day I’d want Hannah and Violet to meet, but not like this, not after Violet had tried to seduce me overourlunch and was likely to lose her ever-loving shit with me.

Tossing the tea towel, I grabbed her arm and quickly dragged her around the kitchen counter. She kept pace with me, her heels clattering loudly on the wood floor, and then I was shoving her out of my front door, following and quietly closing it behind us.

Out in the hall, I released Violet and started to rub my temples. “Please, Vi. Please don’t start.”

“Don’t start?” she shrieked, and I winced. “You’re fucking joking! Right? I’ve waited for you, I’ve put my whole fucking sex life on hold for you, and you’re telling me it’s never going to happen?”

“I never asked you to—”

“And then you drag me out here,” she went on, cutting over me. “Why the hell are we out here, Hudson? What are you hiding from me? Is it a girl? Did you bring home yet another twenty-something-year-old gold-digging slut?”

“No,” I snapped, but quickly closed my mouth, not wanting to poke the bear even more by telling her that I was hiding a girl who had become the centre of my goddamn universe from her.

Vi let out a bitter laugh. “Sorry, Hudson, my mistake, she must be yourothertype, a fame-thirsty musician. Either way, the slut you’ve hidden away in there is no good for you.”

“She’s…” I paused, closing my eyes and realising my mistake a word too late.

“She’s a whore, all of them are,” Violet sneered.

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