He stepped toward me, his impassivity replaced with vehemence. “Alayna, you have so much potential!”
“Stop it! You sound like my brother. Don’t decide that I’m wasting my potential. I’m building up to it at my own speed. I’m not ready to run a club, Hudson.” My hands flew expressively as I spoke—pointing at him, then at myself, then flinging madly at my sides.
Hudson chortled. “You’re going to have to be ready. Otherwise someone else will have to step into that role when David’s gone.”
“Then this isn’t about me at all! It is about David. You can’t fire him. You can’t!”
“It’s about you, Alayna. No one but you.” The calm exterior he’d adopted after the Paul Kresh situation was completely abandoned now. “I told you I don’t share. I won’t share you. Not with him. Not with anyone. I will bend over backwards to give you everything you need and want, but this is the one thing I have to have in return. Fidelity.”
“I am faithful. I’ve never been anything but faithful. I have no desire to cheat on you with David or anyone. I’m yours, like you said.”
“Yes. You are. Mine. And I should have gotten rid of him the minute I suspected there had been anything between you.”
The truth of what he was saying hit me in the gut. “In other words, you don’t trust me.”
“I don’t trust him!”
“It doesn’t matter if you trust him as long as you trust me!”
His face transformed into a bitter expression I’d never seen before. “Today I discovered you kept both your relationship with David and your recent interaction with Paul Kresh from me and you’re talking about trust? Good timing, Alayna.”
Ouch. But I deserved that. David, however, did not. “I told you why I didn’t tell you about Paul. And this is why I didn’t tell you about David. Because I was afraid you’d overreact, and wow, here you are trying to fire the best employee The Sky Launch has!”
“You’re the best employee The Sky Launch has.”
Under different circumstances, his faith in me would be flattering. “I beg to differ. I wouldn’t be worth shit without David, and I don’t want his job.”
Hudson leaned forward, his eyes dark. “It’s not an option. You want to work at the club, you’ll work in the position that I choose.”
Rage boiled through me. “Then I quit! Because I can’t work for someone who’s so obviously jealous and controlling. And you’re seriously making me reconsider my living situation as well.”
“Don’t!” He stepped forward, his face in mine. “Don’t throw our relationship on the line because of a good business decision.”
I wanted to push him back, push him away. At the same time, I wanted to pull him in and kiss away all the jealousy and angst between us, wanted to end the awful tension. I’d threatened our relationship, but I didn’t mean it. I wouldn’t throw it away. I’d do whatever I had to in order to keep him mine.
But I wasn’t letting my cards show yet. I didn’t touch him at all. I stayed rigid as I spoke. “You aren’t making this decision because it’s good business. You’re trying to punish me.”
His eyes widened. “I’m punishing you by giving you a promotion?”
“A promotion I don’t want!”
He spun away from me, as though he were too afraid of what he’d do if he stayed in such close proximity. When he’d taken a few steps, he turned back to face me. “You want me to take everything from you, but you won’t take from me? How am I supposed to feel about that?”
“This isn’t the same.” He was twisting my words, taking something I’d said in a time of beauty and bringing it into a war zone. It hurt. Deep, in my bones. I wanted it to stop. “I don’t want this, Hudson. I don’t want it!”
I turned to run away. Where, I didn’t know. Just away from him and the terrible situation he was putting me in.
But I’d only made it a few steps when he came after me, his arms circling around my waist from behind.
I squirmed, kicking and hitting at him. “Let go of me!”
“No. I’ll never let you go.” He must not have meant physically, because he did let me go. He threw me on the couch and began undoing his pants.
Immediately my sex felt on fire. The thought of him fucking me with all that rage and passion was a big turn-on. And, honestly, we probably needed the contact—to reconnect before we grew too far apart.
But I was headstrong, not willing to give in. I slipped under him to the floor, crawling toward the elevators as fast as I could.