Chapter Four

 

I wake up, but before my eyes even open, my arm spreads wide to confirm I’ll find an empty space beside me.

I don’t find an empty bed.

I find Ally.

And smile.

When I open my eyes, sunshine floods the room and I find sea green staring at me. “You’re here?”

I don’t know what I’m really asking, but she replies, “Not you’re awake?” A giggle comes. “Just diving straight into the shock of you’re still here?” The tips of her fingers run along the scruff of my jaw, her smile dipping into a straight line before her lips part. “So now that you’ve seen me in the morning, what do you think?”

“I think the makeup that was left when we arrived here is blurred under your eyes and there’s no lipstick left—”

“It’s on you.” She rubs lightly over the corner of my mouth.

“Your hair is even more a mess than we are.”

“Why does sex hair only look good on men?”

I gently bite the tip of her thumb and then kiss it while catching her wrist. “You have signs of being ravaged by an animal in the sack and hickeys on your neck.

She laughs. “I look that good, huh?”

I don’t laugh. “You look breathtaking, the most beautiful I’ve ever seen you.” I kiss the palm of her hand and lower onto her wrist. “Tell me what to say to keep you here. I’ll say anything you want me to if I can wake up to you looking this gorgeous every morning.”

“There’s nothing you can say, Hutton. It doesn’t matter what I want. I have obligations—”

“It changed from complications to obligations?”

She sits up, holding her knees to her chest. When she rests her cheek on her knee, she keeps her eyes on me and a smile appears. “You’re very good looking, Everest.” Why is it so hot when she calls me by my last name? “Maybe even more in the morning.”

“What do you see when you look at me?”

“I’ve paid good money to have that perfect chestnut color hair before.”

I laugh. Chestnut? Then I remember how I called hers the right shade of cappuccino and laugh at myself. “What else?”

“Your eyes are intense, the brown is inviting, warm instead of dangerous. Welcoming though I know you like to think you’re more cocky than comforting. I like how tall you are and when we’re watching the band, your body curves around me like you did last night. I feel safe and protected when you feel possessive or just horny.”

This time I chuckle. “I do feel possessive over you. I feel protective and I want you to always feel safe with me. But how can I protect you when I don’t know what I’m protecting you from?”

“You’re the fairy-tale ending I wish I could have.”

“I don’t understand why you can’t.”

Resting back on her elbows, she says, “I want to tell you everything, but once I do, we’ll never be the same. So, I have a favor to ask though I know I have no right to ask it.”

I tuck a section of her hair behind her ear. “You have more rights with me than you know.”

“Can we not talk about the world outside this hotel room?”

“Once you’re gone, will I ever hear from you again?”

Her head hits the pillow and she turns on her side to face me. The palm of her hand covers my heart. Just as she’s about to answer, I press two fingers to her lips. “Don’t answer that. Surprise me.”

I don’t get the smile I wanted revealing the real answer instead. When I slowly pull my hand back, she closes her eyes and moves closer. “Hold me, Hutton.”

I do. I hold her until we fall asleep again.

* * *

The bright light of the day rouses me awake. Again. I don’t want to open my eyes this time. I know she’s gone without the verification. The air has staled while I slept, her scent fading too fast, the warmth she brought gone, leaving the room cold.

I pull the covers up and finally face reality.

Ally Edwards is gone, and I stupidly never even knew what Ally was short for. Staring at the ceiling it’s clear what I want. I just wish last night could have changed our fate.

I want a redo so I can ask her all the questions we avoided the first time around. I want a redo to prove that I can be something good in her life, something that helps her untangle the mess we made.

My phone buzzes on the nightstand and I reach over and grab it. Maybe she came back . . .

Ethan: Get your ass out of bed and down to La Casa del Fuego.

Me: Be there in fifteen.

My brother is short on time but I need a shower, so I cram in a quick one before hurrying down to meet him at the food stand. This place is a tradition. He’s already ordered my food when I arrive. We lean on a railing and eat our tacos. He senses my mood, but in pure Ethan style, he won’t let me be. “What happened?”

“She left.”

“For good?”

I drag a chip through the salsa, my appetite waning. “Seems that way.”

“Sorry.”

“I knew it was coming. I just didn’t want to deal with the facts.”

He nods. “We talk about girls, but we’ve never really talked about the women in our lives, the ones we spend more time with. I like Ally. She was more your match than your girlfriends in the past.”

“I can’t argue that.”

“So there’s no changing the outcome?”

I chuckle. “She’s s a woman not a business deal.”

“Max might argue otherwise.”

“And you?” I ask.

“I’m still trying to get used to you being grown up enough to talk about love. That’s what we’re talking about, right?”

“I think so.”

“If you love her, Hut, you should tell her. If you’ve told her and she still left, then maybe it’s not meant to be.”

Sirens startle me and I look back over my shoulder just as a cavalcade of black SUVs with a police escort stops at the corner. One of the doors fly open and Ally hops out. “Hutton?”

My mind is still trying to connect the dots that Ally just ran from a parade of vehicles that look like the president is in town. But the flags flying on the front aren’t American. I don’t recognize the flag or what country it represents. I only know the woman running toward me looks very different from the one I’ve spent many nights with.

Her hair is slick with a slight wave in the front and around the bottom edges. It’s pulled back on one side by something sparkly and even though she’s moving quickly, not a hair is out of place.

Ally’s lips are a softer shade of wine and those incredible green eyes are made up much heavier than I’m used to seeing. I’ve never seen her look so prim or proper. My mind goes wild with thoughts of the dirty role-play we can reenact after today until I remember last night was our end.

When she reaches me, she grabs my arms in a panic. “Hutton, I’m so sorry. Just remember I love you.”

“You love me?”

She nods enthusiastically. “I do. I love you.”

“I love you too.” I take her by the face ready to kiss her, but she stops me, and my mind has time to catch up with her words. “Wait. Why do I have to remember that?”

Backing away, she slips out of my reach, and says, “I have to go, but I had to tell you. You were the best person I’ve ever known. Thank you for treating me so well.”

“Were?”

“Goodbye, Hutton.”

When she turns to leave, I notice two men in suits standing nearby. They move apart to let her walk between them back to a waiting SUV. “Stop.” She turns back and looks at me with questioning eyes. I pause but my brother shoves me from behind. “Last chance, Hut.”

He’s right. I rush forward because there’s no way I’m letting her go without a fight. I didn’t count on these two guys stopping me. Their hands land hard against my chest, both taking one of my arms and tugging back. “What the fuck?”

Ally gasps, her hands covering her mouth.

The one on my right tells me to stand down as he twists my arm back.

I’m not in pain, but one wrong move and I’m starting to think they wouldn’t mind snapping my arms back until I am. Ethan is there. Pushing the guy on the left off me, he says, “Get the fuck off him.”

The guy warns, “He needs to stand down and you need to step back.”

Ally comes back and demands, “Release him.”

His hands are gone in an instant. My gaze darts to those little flags again, memorizing the lion and hawk on the orange and red diagonal striped background, before I look to her for answers. I rush forward again, this time grabbing hold of her arms so she can’t run away. “What’s going on, Ally?”

I hate seeing her on the verge of tears. It makes no sense since she just confessed that she loves me. But she’s still leaving me? Why?

She replies, “I just—”

My kiss cut her words off. I could let her explain but it won’t change a damn thing, so I leave her the memory of my lips on hers, caressing her, loving her.

The bigger of the two guys has the nerve to fucking touch her. “We need to leave, Princess All—”

Knocking his hand away, I say, “Don’t fucking touch her.” He crosses his arms over his chest, annoyed as he stares at us. Turning back to her, one word takes front and center attention from everything else. “Princess?”

She lifts up and kisses me once again. “Have a good life, Hutton.”

This time she turns and dashes into the SUV. The door shuts behind her and the beefheads get in the other SUV before it pulls away, the procession of vehicles continuing on their way.

“Did that just happen?”

My brother comes up behind me, his shoulder bumping into mine. “Did they call her princess?”

* * *

Princess Alexia Allison Edwards Kempstrofia also known as Ally Edwards.

It didn’t take long to discover Ally wasn’t hiding her real identity from just me. She managed to get her master’s degree right under the noses of everyone else here in Austin, and practically everyone in the world.

She was right about leaving. The last time I saw her was the last time she stood on American soil. She landed in her home country that day and two days later, her engagement to a duke was announced sending the media into a royal wedding frenzy.

I stared at the photo of the two of them for days before I closed the tab and decided to forget my heart and those messy feelings, to try to forget the time I spent with a woman named Ally, and embrace the future I’ve been given instead of thinking about the one I’ll never have.

The day she kissed me goodbye, my brother told me to look at my relationship with Ally for what it was—just a moment in time, a blip on my dating radar.

He’s right. I can’t waste my life pining over a woman I barely knew. There are plenty of pretty women looking to hook up with me. It’s time to move on.

Picking up the phone, I call Ethan. When he answers, I ask, “You still have that job for me?”

“When can you be in New York?”

Nothing’s keeping me in Texas. No one’s holding me here anymore. “Tomorrow.”

“This is good, Hut. Come to New York for a fresh start.”

“I think a fresh start is just what I need.”

Thank you so much for reading this brief moment in time of Hutton Everest’s life. He’s had a lot of great relationships over the years, but he’ll always remember his stolen interludes with Ally as something special.

Until Hutton’s fresh start begins, make sure to read the bestselling romantic suspense billionaire second chance romance of Ethan Everest in Everest. LIVE on Amazon. Click here:

Meet The Crow Brothers (the band in the story) in their own series, starting with the bestselling Spark, a single dad second chance rock star romance, by clicking here:

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