Page 98 of Hollywood Undercover
“This should do it,” she said, testing out her lower, more masculinevoice.
“What in the hell are you doing? Who is that voice even for now?” Eva marched over to the hotel vanity and passed her a makeup removerwipe.
Alexandra looked in the mirror and flushed. “Crap. I missed a lot of that makeup, didn’tI?”
“Among other things…Lex, darling. You have to talk to him anyway. A proper conversation this time. Find out how long he’s known. Find out his intentions. Do that before you lose a decent guy. You need to be responsible about this. It’s not the same as when you were dating Wilkes and he two-timed you. There’s more atstake.”
“What are you talking about? Bash doesn’t care about money or recognition the way Wilkesdid.”
“I wasn’t talking about money this time, Lex. It’s about yourheart.”
* * *
Alexandra climbedout of Eva’s limousine after leaving Eva back at the hotel to relax. She sauntered up the walkway to Bash’s front door, bracing herself to knock before she remembered she had the spare key he had given her. She dug it out of her wallet and gazed at it. Having his key was such an intimate detail, something that was usually only exchanged between friends, orlovers.
Sebastian trustsme.
Well, he trustedme.
Sighing, she unlocked the door and walked in. All the nervous energy of the day descended around her. She shivered as she made her way through the quiet, dark house to the only source of light—the blue glow of the muted television. Sebastian was probably waiting in the livingroom.
She stood at the entrance and waited. She would tell him everything, answer whatever questions he had, and see where that would lead. After tonight, she was sure there was no chance Bash would want to remain friends, let alone anything else. Still, he deserved to hear her reasons, and she deserved any wrath that came in the aftermath of surprising him as LexxiRock.
She quietly slipped in the room, and noticed the small sticky note stuck to the TV screen. She walked up to the TV to get it. It read,‘Alexandra. Turn off the TV. Come up to myroom.’
She assumed he wanted her to come up to him because he had mentioned his knee was bothering him again since the fire at Dad’s house. In all honesty, she had no idea why. Finding the remote, she turned off the TV and headed up to his bedroom on the third floor. She hadn’t been up there before. There were only two doors on the landing. One was ajar, and there was barely audible country music coming frominside.
She tapped gently on the door. “Bash? Are you stillup?”
“Yes. Comein.”
She took a step inside and looked around the large room. It was dark. The only light came in from the street light outside. It poured in through the half-opened horizontal blinds of two bay windows. From what she made out, there was a king-size bed to her left. Two doors were to her right, which she assumed were his walk-in closet and bathroom. In the middle of the room at the farthest wall was a sofa, two ottomans, a coffee table and a flat screen television mounted on thewall.
Bash looked back at her from his spot on the sofa. “I’m glad to see you made it back safely,” he said with a tired half-smile.
Alexandra cleared her throat, deepening her voice. “Can wetalk?”
“Alexandra…” Hepaused.
“Yes?” She waited for him to speak. A sense of dread tingled down herspine.
Everything will be different after I explain myreasons.
“Just tell me…and cut the crap with that voice.” Sebastian forcefully shoved himself up from the couch and crossed the room to her. “You went about this all wrong, Alexandra,” he whisperedheatedly.
Bash cupped her face between his palms, looked her in the eyes and gave her a gentleshake.
“W-what?” shestammered.
She pulled away from him, stepping back to put some distance between them, but Bash didn’t let her retreat. He took a step toward her and gripped her faceagain.
“Just tell me!” his deep voice boomedout.
“All right! Okay! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was Lexxi Rock,” Alexandra all but screamedout.
The panic in her chest became a tight squeeze, and she clenched her eyes shut to avoid his glare. He seemed so angry. This was exactly what she had feared. The intensity of the moment was larger than life because she knew what she had to say, and what he wanted to hear. She thought she could tell him on her own terms, but this wasn’t goingwell.
She slowly opened her eyes and waited for him to say something in response. He said nothing, so she went with, “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know who totrust.”
