She sucked in a breath and dialed Rosa’s number. She left a message when no one answered. Minutes later, they arrived at the hospital. Sebastian stayed downstairs in the emergency room waiting area, while Alexandra went to find Max. A few minutes later, Nate phoned to tell him the water and fire damage was fairly substantial. The structure was fine, and that meant the house would not be condemned. With a few weeks of gutting and renovations, Max and Alexandra could be back in their home.
“Thanks, Nate.” He stretched his legs out after sitting in the uncomfortable waiting room chair. “This one hit close to home for me.”
“No doubt,” he agreed. “Is your friend okay? He looked pretty shook up.”
“Yeah, he’s mostly worried about his uncle. The poor old guy was already sick before this all happened, so we’re hoping he can bounce back. I haven’t heard any news yet.”
“I hope so, man. You know, we sure could’ve used you in there.”
“I know what you mean, buddy. I’m still not there yet. The knee’s killing me, and all I did was help the neighbor get out, carry an oxygen tank, and climb two flights of stairs. The leg feels like crap. Well, I’m glad it was our team that responded. Give me a few weeks. I’ll be back.”
“Looking forward to it, dude. Oh, Chief says get in touch with him when you get the chance. He said there’s something he wants to talk to you about.”
He groaned, wondering what the chief wanted. “Tell him I will. Later, Nate.”
After he hung up, he sat forward and eyed the clock, wondering when Alexandra would be back out…and what would happen next.
Chapter 27
ALEXANDRA’s fingers went numb around the guardrail of the hospital bed. The beeps coming from the medical equipment seemed to get louder around her. Her father inhaled and exhaled long, deep breaths from the oxygen mask. It was a bad case of déjà vu. This could not be happening again.
The doctor walked in during her slow-burn panic attack. He smiled softly when he saw her. She braced herself. She did not want to fall apart now.
“Ah, Mr. Roberts,” he said pleasantly. “It’s good to see you again, although I wish it were under different circumstances. Have a seat. We can go over your uncle’s radiographs so you can see what we’re up against.” He settled on a round stool and gestured to the chair at his side.
She took a seat. She was slightly embarrassed. She looked like a kid, the way she was dressed. Sebastian’s things hung off her small frame. She felt like a kid too. She was out of her element. There was no one here to tell her what to do—no manager, no entourage, no image team or the label busybodies who did the grunt work. Rosa was not here either. If she were here as Lexxi Rock, she could probably breeze into the hospital in a designer pantsuit looking like she could buy the building, and would have her ‘people’ take care of everything. As Lexxi, no one would think twice if she broke down and had a bona fide crying spell, given everything that had happened.
She was not here as Lexxi. She was Alex. It would go over well if she cried. Not only did she have a role to play to protect her father’s privacy, she had an obligation to stay in character. She needed to step up and take charge of this disaster, and see what could be done to salvage this mess. It was her job to take care of Dad. The house caught on fire right under her nose. As much as she told herself bad things happened sometimes, she felt guilty about all of it.
She sat up straight, and lowered the tenor of her voice. “How bad is it, doctor?”
She took a breath and braced for the worst. The doctor snapped two x-rays up on a little white screen and pointed to some hazy, splotchy areas on the film.
“The smoke inhalation has caused some inflammation. That will affect his already strained respiratory system.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means your uncle needs to be re-admitted. We’ll keep him here for some time to monitor his condition. His pneumonia could worsen, or it may not. There’s no way to tell at this point. Mr. Storme is a fighter. He’s already shown us that. The important thing is to keep him here, where he can stabilize and get the medical attention he needs. The house isn’t habitable, correct?”
“That’s right, I think. I don’t really know what happened.” She dropped her head. “I was there. I slept right through it, but his neighbor is a firefighter. He saw the smoke. He saved us.”
“You may have a guardian angel looking out for you. Thank goodness it didn’t reach his oxygen tank.”
She thought of Bash, and then her mom. A tearful smile wavered on her lips. “Yes.”
“His condition could have been much worse if he hadn’t gotten out when he did. The duration of his exposure to smoke was short. That gives us hope. He’s in good hands here, son.”
Alexandra nodded gratefully. “Thank you, doctor. I appreciate it. Do you have any idea on how long he’ll have to stay this time?”
“At the very least, I’d say a few days. Probably a week. They’ll have a private room ready for him within the hour.”
“Thank you.”
“You’ve both been through a lot. You should get some rest. Your uncle will be sleeping a while with the medication I’ve prescribed. I’ve also had the nurse administer a cough suppressant to relax his lungs. If you need to make arrangements for yourself, you might want to go ahead and take care of that now. ”
“I will.”
“If you’d like, leave a phone number with the nurse. We’ll contact you when he’s moved to his room.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
The doctor left shortly afterward. The prognosis was not as dire as she feared. Soon, her pounding heart calmed down.
“Once again, you beat the odds, Dad,” she whispered to him.
This scene was too familiar. He looked exactly the way he did when she first came in from LA to see him. She stroked his hand.
“I can’t leave now, not with you back in here. Is it a sign? Maybe I’m not meant to go back to LA.”
With a long sigh, she kissed him good night and told him she would be back soon. Bash was waiting for her when she returned to the waiting room.
“You probably think I have got the worst luck in the world,” she said when she joined him.
He looked up at her with a smile and retracted his long legs, sitting up in the chair. She plopped down next to him.
“Or the best luck in the world,” he replied. “Everything happens for a reason. I’m glad you and your uncle made it out of there.”
He suggested they were destined to meet each other. The very idea was scary and exciting at the same time. Bash had been there for her in the past few weeks. He had kept her company, and kept her from going insane with worry about her father. Alexandra showed up in Tucson intent on escaping her crazy yet lonely LA life, and had a perfect friendship placed right in her lap.
The appreciation rushed over her as she looked into his handsome face, the chiseled slant of his jaw, the glint of gold in his hair, and his dark eyes searching hers. Appreciation…and desire that she needed to get a handle on right now. Butterflies crowded her stomach. She got ready to say what needed to be said.
“Bash, there’s something I have to tell you,” she blurted out.
She had to do it. She would tell him now. He needed to know who she was. She was so tired of keeping him at arm’s length with her disguise. If he hated her forever after this, at least she would know she didn’t lie to him. There was always the possibility she was wrong about him. Maybe he was not…
Bash quietly slipped his fingers around hers and rubbed his thumb along her inner palm. Those butterflies inside her turned into a hurricane. He leaned towards her like they were the only people in the waiting room. They might as well have been. Everything else was a fuzzy haze. He had her completely undone.
“Yes?” he whispered.
His lips were so close, and all she wanted to do was taste them. She shifted in her chair. Bash was once again coming on to ‘Alex’, the guy. She squeezed her eyes shut, and lost
her resolve. She eased her hand away from him and sat back.
“I need a place to say,” she told him instead.
Where the hell did that come from?
“I can’t afford a hotel,” she lied. “My wallet, ID and credit cards were in the house.”
That part was not a lie. She could not check into a hotel. All that would do was leave an obvious trail to Lexxi Rock. It was the reason she did not rent a car when she first got here. The paparazzi were often tipped off by hotel and car rental staff, no matter how discreet the institution claimed to be. An idea was taking shape. This was her chance to find out if Bash was really into her, not Alex. With only maybe another week or two with him, she could take her time to make the reveal. After that, she would make good on her promise to Rick and fly back to Los Angeles.
“Did you just say you want to stay at my place?” Bash asked, with a shocked expression on his face.
“I know. It’s a big ask, bro, but I don’t have a lot of alternatives right now. It’s only a few days, maybe a couple weeks at most. It will take a week or so to get my cards and ID replaced. I can’t fly back home until I’m sure my uncle will be fine. If I can crash on your couch, or wherever, it would help a lot. I won’t be a bother. I’ll be here at the hospital most of the time.”
She started to question her request before he answered. Bash had been the source of several heated dreams. She fantasized about the man enough already.
Can I handle living in the same place with Bash, even for a couple of weeks?
Am I asking too much of him? Of myself?
She remembered she did not have a choice. Rosa lived in a tiny one-bedroom condo on the other side of town. If she checked into a hotel after her cards were replaced, it would be as Lexxi, and that would be it. Cover blown, paparazzo invasion inevitable.
“Hey. It’s fine. I don’t mind, Alex,” he said. “There’s lots of room.”
Bash tapped on her shoulder to cut into her jumbled thoughts. “Hey. Don’t look so worried. It’s just a few days, right? A week or two?”
“Yes,” she said softly.
A few days…sleeping in the same house…with Bash.
God help me.
Book Two - Reveal
Chapter 1
ALEXANDRA was not sure if she really heard Bash.
“You’re going about this all wrong,” he whispered.
“All wrong?” she mumbled groggily.
Half-awake at the sound of Sebastian’s voice, she shifted her head in her sleep. The tangled sheets were wet with sweat, clinging to her naked body as she turned and discovered she was not the only one in the guestroom bed. His hot mouth glided over her shoulder to her collarbone, and from his lips an incoherent growl of arousal stirred the air and registered in her ear.
He flicked his hot tongue against her earlobe, and pleasure transformed her face. Alexandra squeezed her eyes shut, relaxed her jaw, and arched her neck in anticipation. She moved her hands slowly over the covers to meet the wicked throbbing between her legs, stopping in confusion about what was going on here. For Alexandra, this was out of character, particularly in front of Bash.
Wait, this cannot be happening…
None of the details around the room came into focus. To her senses, they might as well have been floating weightlessly in a black void. All she could see, hear, smell, and taste was Sebastian Sullivan. He was more than enough to make the rest of the world disappear, yet it still did not make sense. With thoughts too hazy to understand the sensual onslaught of his touch, she was past any awareness of whether she was dreaming or seriously in need of a jolt to wake up before her secret was exposed.
Slick and slippery, his body ground down on her, getting closer despite the covers that separated them. Alexandra’s head was spinning. The room was so damn hot, but his lips were even hotter.
Oh my freaking god—this can’t be real.
A frantic realization registered just then. Her skeptical brain protested, but the voice of reason was drowned out by her thundering heartbeat and the blood rush of excited awareness. She opened her startled eyes and stared into what she was sure was Bash’s face.
He left a ticklish kiss in the center of her forehead between her eyebrows, making her eyes drift shut, now blind to reality but open to the possibilities. This could be real. Sebastian swept distracting feather-light kisses down along the slant of her cheek in a silky trail to her lips. He moved her hand away from her mound and pinned her wrists over her head.
“Stop trying to do everything yourself,” he groaned into her open mouth. A heated moan burst free as he nibbled at her lips, as though the sound of her pleasure tasted good to him.
Bash hovered over her with his palms flat on the bed. His pelvis pressed rhythmically between her parted thighs, battering the shores of her body with just the sheet to break the waves. It only heightened the tease of his slow, circular movements on her hips. She could still feel the nudging probe of his steely erection pushing harder and harder by degrees against the fabric, like he might have eventually torn through. She wanted him to get past the barrier, but then he would know.
Writhing beneath him, feeling his hard shaft stroke against her swollen clit, she murmured deliriously, “God, Bash. You don’t know how badly I want this.”
That’s not what I should be saying.
She fumbled in vain for the right words to tell him she was not who he thought she was before things went any further and he found out on his own. Instead, another feverish exclamation of desire spilled free.
“No…wait. Mmmm…God, Bash…wait…I have to…I need to tell you something,” she stammered.
Bash needed to know Alex Roberts did not really exist.
I’m Lexxi Rock.
No, I’m Alexandra Storme.
Alexandra could not think straight with Bash’s hands sparking fires all down her body. The erotic play sent the sheet lower, with friction dragging it over her quivering stomach and down her slender thighs until there was nothing left to shield her.
He paused above her, waiting for whatever profound announcement she stopped him to make, but Alexandra sharply whimpered dissent at the interruption. Her hips bucked in response to the intimate skin to skin contact when the rest of the sheet slithered away, and her legs wrapped around his waist to hold him prisoner when he tried to get up.
“Don’t go,” she pleaded feverishly.
“Just tell me!” Bash commanded in a fierce whisper. He put his forehead against hers, cupped her face in his hands, and stared directly into her eyes, waiting.
Alexandra turned away from his challenge. Her fingernails dug anxiously into his muscular shoulders. She somehow knew everything would change if she confessed. He ran his fingers through her short black hair and gently tugged her head back, forcing her to look at him again. His gaze dropped to the exposed curve of her neck. Emitting a lusty growl, Bash planted his fiery mouth along the ridge and sucked at her throbbing pulse. His nibbling teeth, his heated lips, nipping and kissing their way down to her chest.
He breathed raggedly into her cleavage. “Why can’t you just be honest with me?”
Alexandra bit back a guilty sob, tossing her head from side to side in confusion at her inability to do exactly that. His hands sensually kneaded and caressed the small globes of her breasts and toyed with her hardened, sensitive nipples in a way that erupted a swarm of sensations below Alexandra’s pelvis. His straight, white teeth painlessly held hostage a nipple as he flicked his hot, wet tongue against the tip.
“Bash!” she gasped. Her back arched, allowing her breast to press more deeply into his mouth.
Bash’s free hand coasted down to her mound, dipping his fingers into her needy center and tickling the soft skin between her legs. Briefly again, realization tried to push past her blissful ignorance.
If he’s touching me like this, then he knows, right?
Her epiphany flitted away as quickly as it had arrived, and her thighs spilled open wider to revel in his penetrating t
ouch. Whimpering with need, she clasped the back of his head while he excitably ran his expert tongue from one nipple to the next, causing her body to instinctively move up and down his thrusting fingers. The most exquisite ecstasy accompanied each stroke. The building tension expanded and filled her up to where combustible pleasure was ready to ignite. Faster and faster, he beckoned for her to come. She cried out, ready to release.
“All you have to do,” he groaned against her chest, “is let yourself be free.”
There was no holding back. It was now or never.
“Bash, I’m not who you think—”
An explosion of euphoric pleasure snatched the admission from her lips. The rest of the words never made it out. Her body erupted in vivid gold and violet flames of rapture, and the fire instantly engulfed all of her in an explosive orgasm.
“Fuck, yes!” she cried out, amazed after the fact that it was probably loud enough to wake the dead.
Alexandra’s eyelids popped open and she jerked awake in a panic. Praying she did not actually scream out loud in the midst of the erotic dream that had the covers kicked to the floor and her body dripping with sweat, she sat up and looked around. No one came running, and that was a damned good sign in her books.
She hurriedly patted down her chest, confirming she was still wearing the dark blue pajamas she had on when she went to bed. Looking over at the full length mirror at the corner of the room, she saw her reflection. Her face was flushed with embarrassment at what just happened.
“What am I, back to living like a teenager?” she muttered.
She quietly climbed out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom. A cold shower was definitely in order.
The water hit the tiles of the shower with a soothing whisper as she undressed. After double checking to make sure the door was locked, she slipped beneath the spray.
HERO (The Complete Series) Page 46
