Starstruck - Book Three Read Online Free PDF Page A

slipped my sunglasses on, and made a
bee line for the checkout lane. Screw breakfast.
     
    I couldn’t get back out to the Range Rover fast enough. The
second I was safe behind its tinted windows, I tore the magazine open and
flipped to the article. There were pictures of Alec and I shopping, happily,
then pictures of Ava and her crew approaching us. Photos of Ava with her hands
on her hips talking to me followed by multiple shots of me running out of the
store in tears.
     
    Supposedly someone who was there gave the magazine the
inside scoop. How convenient of them to leave out the parts where I stood up to
her and put her in her place. It had to have been Ava that leaked the story. It
was the only thing that made sense.
     
    With tears streaming down my face, I headed back home. I was
in no condition to go grocery shopping. I would’ve died of embarrassment had
anyone recognized my face on those covers.
     
    I pulled into Hudson’s garage a few minutes later and
whipped the magazine out once more. A glutton for punishment, I re-read the
article. It was just as awful the second time as it was the first time. I
shoved the magazine into my bag and headed inside, trying to hide the fact that
I’d just been crying.
     
    “Do you need help carrying stuff in?” Hudson asked,
perplexed at my empty handedness as he stood in the kitchen.
     
    “I didn’t get anything,” I said.
     
    “Okay,” he drawled. “Want to go out instead?”
     
    “No,” I said. I leaned over the edge of the marble island. “I’m
not hungry anymore.”
     
    He spotted the corner of the magazine sticking out from my
purse and yanked it all the way out.  His eyes scanned the cover and
frustration spread over his face.
     
    “Why?” he asked as he slammed the magazine down on the
counter.
     
    I removed my sunglasses and stared up at him, afraid to
answer. I didn’t have a good reason. I saw it. I bought it. I read it.
     
    “I wanted to know what was said about me,” I replied. It was
the honest truth. “And it was all a bunch of lies that made Ava look great and
me look pathetic.”
     
    “I really wish you wouldn’t read those,” he said as she
shook his head. He was almost seething. “I thought we’d gone over this before.”
     
    “I know,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking. I just did it. I’m
sorry.”
     
    “Does it make you feel good?” he asked. “To read all those
lies about you? About us?”
     
    “No,” I shook my head. I couldn’t even look at him, he was
so angry.
     
    “Then stop, Brynn,” he yelled. “For the love of God. Stop!”
     
    He walked up to me and grabbed my arms with his hands. He’d
never touched me that way before.
     
    “I want this to work with us,” he said as he was mere inches
from my face. “It’s never going to work if you keep reading that stuff. You and
I exist separately from all of that.”
     
    He reached over and grabbed the magazine, ripped it in half
and threw it down on the ground.
     
    “I have to leave for a bit,” he fumed as he left through the
garage and slammed the door behind him.
     
    I heard his car start up and back out. He was gone. I’d made
him so upset that he had to get away from me.
     
    I crouched down and picked up the tattered, glossy pages of
the tabloid that were strewn across the floor at my feet. I crumpled them up
and threw them away. Hudson was right. I shouldn’t have read those things. I
should’ve walked on past, grabbed my groceries and come home. I should be
standing behind the stove right now making him breakfast. He should be kissing
my neck and rubbing his hands up and down my back. We should be laughing and
touching and playing. Instead, Hudson was gone and it was all because of me.
     
    “Flor?” I called out.
     
    No answer. Hudson must have given her the day off, just like
I suggested. I had the entire place to myself, and I just wanted to have a good
cry.
     
    Life with Hudson was a dream come true, but it came at a
price. Some