From His Ex-Wife to the World's Most Sought-After Restorer (Jade and Hudson) novel Chapter 269

Chapter 269 The Intruder in the Dark

The perfectly straight rows of white magnolias.

The new buds, the heavy blossoms.

It felt like a sign of new life.

Click.

Jade was so focused she didn’t hear the door open.

She only realized she wasn’t alone when she felt her hair being gathered up. She froze and looked back.

Bastian was there, a dry towel in his hands, gently drying her hair.

He didn’t stop when she looked at him, his voice low and soothing.

“You’ll get a headache if you leave it wet.”

Jade snapped out of her daze and tried to stand. Bastian’s hand rested gently on her shoulder, pinning her in place.

“Just a minute. It’s almost done.”

After the towel, he picked up a blow dryer. His fingers moved through her hair with practiced ease, drying it/section by section.

Jade was stunned. Bastian… he was surprisingly good at this.

“This is actually the first time I’ve ever dried a woman’s hair,” Bastian said. “If I pull too hard, tell me.”

Jade felt a strange, unnameable flutter in her chest.

She looked down, feeling the warmth of the dryer and his touch.

“I can do it myself.”

“It’s no trouble.” Bastian spoke as if this were a daily ritual, as if they’d lived together for years.

The atmosphere was peaceful. Jade opened her mouth to ask about Joshua Boswell.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

The phone interrupted her.

The question died in her throat. She checked the screen; it was one of her assistants at the studio.

She answered, and the girl excitedly told her about the explosion of new orders.

The studio had been surrounded by guards during the crisis, and the staff wanted to know if they could

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back in to start the paperwork.

Bastian, who was listening in, spoke up.

“Those were my men. I pulled them back once the studio was locked down. It’s clear now. They can go in.”

Jade nodded, relaying the message. They agreed to reopen formally in two days.

But she was the owner. She couldn’t just leave them to handle the surge alone. She needed to be there.

She hung up and looked at Bastian. He ran his fingers through her hair one last time, checking for dampness. He clicked the dryer off and met her eyes, a hand resting on the crown of her head.

“I know. I’ll take you back.”

Metamorphosis Studio.

Hudson didn’t know how long he’d been leaning against the wall.

His head was heavy, his body felt stiff and cold, and his forehead was burning with fever.

Despite the haze, he heard the engine from the street. He used the wall for support and dragged himself to the window.

Jade was back.

He pulled the curtain back just a crack. It was her.

She’d just stepped out of a car, but she wasn’t alone. She was talking to someone inside.

It seemed like a quick goodbye, but as she turned to walk toward the studio, the driver’s door opened.

A tall, broad-shouldered man hurried to her side and draped a white shawl over her shoulders.

Hudson couldn’t see the man’s face, but the protective tenderness in the gesture was unmistakable.

His fingers gripped the windowsill so hard they bled. He took several deep breaths, the scent of iron filling his lungs.

His eyes were bloodshot, his body trembling with suppressed fury.

And then, the image in front of him made the blood in his throat turn to fire.

Jade looked up, the man looked down, and they stood so close their shadows merged into one.

From his angle, they were kissing.

Cough-

The taste of copper filled his mouth.

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Hudson wiped the blood from his lip, grabbed a heavy porcelain flower pot from the balcony, and hurled

He didn’t care about the fallout.

That was his wife. His legal, wedded wife.

How dare anyone touch her? What right did they have?

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