by Emma Vikes
The Raving Love
An Enemies To Lovers Romance (The Hudson Brothers Standalone Series - Story of Julian Hudson)
Emma Vikes
© Copyright 2020 - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination. Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18.
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Contents
My VIP Romance Reader Group
Prologue
1. Julian
2. Audrey
3. Julian
4. Audrey
5. Julian
6. Audrey
7. Julian
8. Audrey
9. Julian
10. Audrey
11. Julian
12. Audrey
13. Julian
14. Audrey
15. Julian
16. Audrey
17. Julian
18. Audrey
19. Julian
20. Audrey
21. Julian
22. Julian
23. Audrey
24. Julian
25. Audrey
26. Audrey
Epilogue
A Note From The Author
Also by Emma Vikes
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About the Author
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Description
I would hate Julian Hudson till my last breath. And guess what, the hatred was mutual.
I didn't care how good looking he was, how good of a body he had, how good he used to sing & perform in our college fest, I just couldn't stand that womanizer.
Because, he was the reason why my best friend, Amber tried to commit suicide, after he broke her heart, while we were in college.
5 years later, I am now the soon-to-be CEO of Finch Records. It is my dream to take the music label company started by my father to new heights as the CEO.
But I get a shock in the board meeting, when the Board Of Directors decide that I am too young to be the CEO of my father's company.
There's only one way I can win their votes. They want me to do a task. And I have 30 days to accomplish it.
The task is to have one of the leading Music Bands to sign a contract with Finch Records.
Born From The Ashes - The Band that has taken the country by storm in the last 2 years, led by none other than Julian Hudson, the lead vocalist.
I cannot believe my fate... The person I vowed to hate till death will now have to be my savior!!!
Oh Gosh... But how am I going to make Julian sign the contract, when he too hates me like anything?
Get on in a roller coaster ride of hatred, conflicts, emotion and passion with the Casanova hunk Julian Hudson and the dignified Audrey Finch, as they unfold their attraction towards each other in a style from enemies to lovers.
Prologue
Julian
The soft thud of my backpack seemed to echo in the empty music room and I let out a long, deep sigh as I ran a hand through my curls, sinking on the ground as I stared at the letter in my hands. When I was in high school and heard about Leo dropping out of college, I was shocked beyond belief. I immediately called him, the older brother that I looked up to the most and he told me something that stayed with me forever. He said that college wasn’t meant for people like us, that the passion that burned in our veins weren’t meant to be kept in hallowed halls that would only lead us into an office job. When you figured out that there was something in the world that you loved doing most, be fearless in the pursuit of your dreams.
If it was up to me, I wouldn’t even have enrolled in college. Just like Leo, I had a passion for something and that something was my music. There was nothing in the world that set my soul on fire than the sound of music filling my ears. But Milo had convinced me to enrol and get a degree because unlike Leo, I didn’t catch my lucky break. At least, not yet.
I’d been persistent with my efforts but in the end, the letter in my hand was simply another rejection. They didn’t like the demo that we sent. It was still a no-go with Finch Records and I wasn’t sure how I was meant to even bear the news to my bandmates. I didn’t get it. We were so sure. I was so sure. The instrumental was amazing and I made sure that we sent the song that I wrote about Mom and Dad, the one that always sent girls in a frenzy when they heard it.
But it was still a no.
Maybe it would always be a no.
God, maybe it was time to give up.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and as I pulled it out, squinting at the harsh brightness of the screen until I could brighten it down to see who was calling me. Amber Shaw. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Amber. She was amazing and wild in bed but she was a groupie and as much as I liked screwing around with girls who appreciated my music, it wasn’t as if I liked the idea of dating a fan.
Hell, I didn’t even like the idea of dating at all. Besides, Amber and I had ended months ago. I couldn’t even remember when I stopped seeing her but it had been so long and although she would still frequently call, I just really wished that she would get the message.
I set the phone on the hardwood floor and let the vibrations echo all over the room, closing my eyes and letting my mind wander to words that would hopefully form phrases and phrases that would evidently lead me to a song.
And that was when I heard it.
At first it seemed like a soft melody, melancholic notes coming from the guitar that must’ve been kept on the other side of the wall, where most of the instruments were. I stayed still and strained my ear to listen to the soft music coming from the other side, allowing the notes to calm down my frenzied mind and letting it tame my wild heart.
I heard her voice and it was as if someone had suddenly pressed paused and the world was on standstill. I’d heard so many voices in my life before that gave me goose bumps but there was something different about her voice. Something that seemed to tug at my heartstrings, making my entire soul vibrate with each note that she sang of an unfamiliar song to accompany the music she created with the guitar.
Tell me, brave heart
Can you chase after the wind,
Even when sunlight burns your skin?
Do you have the courage,
To pursue even if it breaks your heart
Continuously,
Over and over and over again?
I stood there, rooted in my spot as I listened to her voice croon the lyrics that seemed to stab right through my heart. I wasn’t sure if I could even take another step and go in the other room to see who was singing even though I badly wanted to see her, to see who the voice that seemed to have put my entire world on standstill belonged to.
Just when I found the courage to do so, my phone vibrated in my hand again and the sudden vibration took me by surprise, making me drop it on the ground and cuss. “Fucking hell.”
And just like that too, the music stopped, the singing stopped and it took me a moment to register the silence that suddenly seemed to swallow me whole. Ignoring my
phone, I rushed to the other side. “Wait!”
But she wasn’t there anymore and I stood in the empty dimly lit room, as if no one had occupied it moments before. I ran a hand through my curls and let out a long sigh and the guitar caught my attention. It was put back crookedly in its spot. I moved closer to it, pressing a hand on the neck and then gently plucking the strings, remembering the first time that I’d ever touched a guitar in my whole life.
Leo’s passion for photography was ignited by Dad, when he first found a camera stashed in the attic. Mine was triggered by my grandfather. Being the youngest in our family, they used to leave me to Nana and Pop’s care. Pop’s used to have an old guitar that he had often used to pursue Nana back in the days but after they got married and life had taken its toll on them, he had stashed it in the garage and forgot about its existence.
Until, I found it and developed my love for it. Pop’s relieved his glory days by teaching me.
Music was what Pops left me with when he left the world and it was something that had always and only been mine to treasure and I’d made a promise to his grave that I would make it big in this world bringing my music for everyone to hear. But it seemed like the world didn’t want to listen because all I’d been getting were rejections after rejections.
“Jules? Julian?! Are you here?” José’s voice seemed to echo all over the room and it snapped me out of the trance that the voice had put me in.
“I’m here!” I called out, moving out of the room and then glancing back for a moment, at the backdoor that was right there, wondering if I chased out the girl that had been singing, would I still find her?
José came in the room, brown eyes looking frantic as he approached me, my phone in his hand. “We’ve been trying to call you for the past ten minutes! It’s about Amber!”
At the mention of Amber, I cringed. My friends were aware of how I treated every girl as a hook-up and then bid them farewell when I get tired. I got tired of Amber. My friends knew that. José knew that but here he was now, out of breath and looking at me with wide, frantic eyes. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and then head casually to the drums that were in the corner, picking up the sticks and then tapping it lightly on the surface of the drums.
“How many times have I told you guys in the past months that I’m done with Amber? It’s been three months. If she’s been pestering you, just block her on your phone.” Maybe I should’ve taken that advice for myself because she had been calling me incessantly but then again, I liked having the idea of a booty-call.
José glared at me with death stare, which took me by surprise. None of my friends really minded how I treated girls but the intensity of José’s glare was enough to make me think otherwise. “She tried to kill herself, Julian.”
She tried to kill herself, Julian.
I blinked, dropping the drumsticks. “What did you just say?”
Amber always seemed so happy and vibrant which was why I had been drawn to her in the first place. She always seemed to be the life of every party and it was one of the many reasons that I liked bringing her as a date to parties, even when I had no intention in taking those dates a step further. If the step further meant heading to bed and fucking, then that was my kind of game and Amber didn’t seem to mind. She stuck along with me and to be honest, it felt as if she had been waiting for me to change my mind, that maybe she could change my heart.
She never could. But I could never imagine her trying to kill herself.
“Her roommate found her drowning in their bathtub, both of her wrists were slit open and she has lost a lot of blood.”
I almost fell off the stool that I’d been on. “Is she…?”
I couldn’t really bring myself to say it. I’d always been aware of the effect that I had on women. Leo and I call it the Hudson charm and have always used that charm to such an extent wherein we broke hearts cold-bloodedly as it may seem, and we didn’t really give a damn. Heartbreak was a part of life and maybe we were meant to pass by those women’s lives to break their hearts to lead them to the one meant for them. Well, at least that was what I’d made myself believe to relieve myself of the guilt that sometimes stuck with me.
José shook his head and my shoulders sagged in relief. “Her roommate found her just in time and immediately called 911. On her way to the hospital, the paramedics managed to save her.”
I swallowed. “Is it because of me?”
José looked at me with pity but shook his head to a no, “I’m not sure, Jules. I know how head over heels Amber was for you but I didn’t think that she would take her own life because you broke up with her. Look, I don’t know much about what happened. I just heard this from Carlos because his girlfriend is in the same sorority as Amber.”
I let out a shaky breath, as guilt soon engulfed me. I remembered all the warnings that Milo and Everett gave me when I was younger; of how to be cautious when finding girls to have flings with. The fragility of the human heart was never really clear to me and it never occurred to me how heartbreak could be damaging to such an extent.
“I need to see her,” I said, my words coming out in a rush as I stood up. José stopped me with a hand on my shoulder, his brown eyes seemed concerned.
“We’re not sure if she committed suicide because of you, Jules. She might have a series of issues that had been troubling her.”
I remembered my phone vibrating a few minutes earlier, from a call that Amber had made and I had ignored. What if she was calling me and wanting me to stop her from trying to kill herself? What if it was my chance to save her but I chose to be an ass and sulk over the rejection that I had received and ignored her?
God.
“José…”
José understood why I looked like I’d been drowned at sea so he sighed and nodded his head. “I’ll call Carlos and we’ll head to whatever hospital they brought her into but you need to keep your crap together. When we know she’s fine, we’ll leave. Understand?”
Numb, I nodded my head because I wasn’t sure how or what I was meant to do. My mind kept spinning in circles and I couldn’t help but think that Amber tried to kill herself because of me. If she did, I wasn’t even sure if I could forgive myself knowing the pain that I’d caused her. At some point, José nudged me out of my thoughts. He told me that he knew where Amber was and I just followed him, dazed and confused at the sequence of these events.
A few moments ago, I was sulking about another rejection and then I heard the most beautiful voice ever, before I found out that my ex-fling almost tried to kill herself. It was all too much to take in a span of an hour and I had to resist the urge to call any one of my brothers because the last thing that I needed was for them to lecture me about being a jerk.
There was a swarm of students outside the hospital and most of them were already holding out vigil candles. They must’ve been students from Amber’s classes. After all, Amber was a spunky girl who shone like sunshine, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she had many friends who were already praying for her recovery. José turned to me and then removed the hoodie he was wearing and shoved it in my hands.
“Wear that and put the hood on. We still don’t know why Amber killed herself but the speculations about you being the reason would go around too. The last thing I need is for something to break out here at the sight of you.”
I understood José’s point and understood that he was just being cautious but it made me feel even worse. I quietly put on the hoodie and pulled the hood to hide my face. José led me to the other entrance of the hospital and then called Carlos to ask which floor Amber was on while I continued to follow him, my heart was racing in fear and worry and my hands grew clammy as my nerves continued to act up.
José led me to the third floor and when I got there, Amber’s closest friends were all in the waiting room and most of them were facing one door that had ‘intensive care unit’ written on the top. I suddenly felt myself blackout, my eyes closed as I staggered, grabbing the rail along the wall to steady myself.
José turned to me and helped me stand still.
“Jules, you okay?” His voice sounded so calm and steady and broke the silence that everyone was trapped in. In an instant, I felt eyes on me and José cringed, realizing what he had just done. He turned to face everyone and I could feel the glares of each person in the room in full force. “Hi.”
“Why are you here?” The voice was cool and steady, almost as steady as José had been. “Julian, why are you here?”
I turned to look at the girl who was talking to me. She was short, probably about 5’5 and had dazzling brown eyes. Her brown hair was falling out from the ponytail that she had tied them in and she was glaring at me in anger. I knew her. Amber always talked about her and I recalled having hung out with her once.
The only difference was, Amber was being revived. “I wanted to know if she’s okay.”
She scoffed and I could clearly hear the anger in her words as she spoke. “God, you want to know if she’s okay? She’s in there because of you!”
Someone moved next to her. A guy. Tall and lean built and he placed his hands on her shoulders, as if trying to calm her down. “Aud, please. We’re not even sure if Amber did it because of him.”
But she was relentless as she stared me down. “Oh no, I’m certain that he’s the reason behind everything. You have no idea how many nights she had cried because he refused to answer her calls and how hopeful she was that she could change him.”