Page 41 of None Of Your Business

Green, unfocused eyes flutter open.

“Hey.” I lean closer. “Don’t move.”

Her gaze drifts, then finds me. “Hudson?”

“I’m here.”

She looks confused, then irritated. “Why?”

Even half-conscious, she’s difficult.

“You fainted.”

Her eyes close. “Didn’t.”

“You’re on the floor.”

“Could be unrelated.”

Jesus Christ. “You hit your head.”

That gets one eye open. “Bad?”

“Enough that I’d strongly recommend you stop talking.”

Her lips twitch. It’s tiny, but it’s enough.

“Still don’t like you,” she mutters.

“I know. You can keep not liking me. Just do it lying still.”

Her hand moves against the floor. At first I think she’s trying to push herself up. “Don’t move.”

Her fingers move again, searching blindly until they brush my wrist, then catch the cuff of my shirt.

I go completely still. Her fingers are cold, with a faint smear of charcoal along the side of her thumb.

I look at her hand, loosely wrapped around my cuff, and cover it with mine.

Her fingers tighten.

“I’m here,” I say again. “Let me see those eyes.”

I don’t care if everyone’s watching or if there are questions later. I just want her to keep holding my fucking sleeve.

Twelve

Rowan

“Keep your eyes open.”

Hudson’s voice cuts through the buzzing. There’s something underneath it that doesn’t belong.

Fear?

No.

That can’t be right. Hudson doesn’t get scared. He just watches other people do it.