Page 99 of Hollywood Undercover
He glared down at her. “So you throw on a pretty dress and a wig, bring me out into a patio full of people…in front of my friends? You make Alex into a whole other person in front of them, and lie about flying in from France? Who the hell was I spending time with…and are you asking me to lie for youtoo?”
Alexandra tried to be calm, but the time for calm was over. She didn’t know why, but she burst into tears. The moment was too emotionally charged. Tears slipped soundlessly down her face. They were her admission of guilt. She fully expected Bash to turn and walk away, but instead, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled herclose.
She leaned into him, burying her face in his chest. “It was never supposed to go this far,” she sobbed. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,Bash.”
“Before tonight, I would have believed you,” he whispered. “After that little restaurant game…I just don’t know you, Alexandra.” He walked her over to the couch and sat beside her. “What were youthinking?”
A burst of short, loud inhales broke her sob out of nowhere. She wiped her hand across her face, trying to compose herself. When she could speak again, she told him, “I don’t know if ‘thinking’ is a good word for what I was doing, to befrank.”
“You got that right,” hechuckled.
“Bash, how long have you known? You knew, didn’tyou?”
“Yes. Since the beginning.” He shook his head. “You don’t rememberme?”
She looked over at him. “What?”
“We went to high school together, Alexandra. I have lived here, right next door to you for most of your childhood. I recognized you the second I laid eyes on you when you got here asAlex.”
Alexandra snapped up to her feet. “Sorry,what?”
She stared at him curiously, rifling through dusty, faded memories of highschool.
“Maybe you bumped your head while you were out in Los Angeles, Alexandra. Don’t you remember anything at all about growing up with your neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan and their two sons, Samuel and Sebastian? You used to call us Sullivan one and two when you were little. My parents put us in private schools during the elementary school years, so I don’t hold it against you too much if you don’t remember that time, but we went to the same high school,Alexandra.”
A vague picture came to mind. “The boys nextdoor?”
She squinted, trying to connect her memory of the boys who lived next door with Bash. She had a hard time. Even the house was different. Flashes of images came back. “You can’t be that skinny guy…can you? Wait, you’re not serious…Hold on. Did your father have a model train set in thebasement?”
“It’s still downthere.”
She eyed him curiously, head tilted, eyes squinting as she tried to place him back into the frames of the past that were buried in hermind.
“No…really?”
“Yes.”
“We were all down there one Christmas. My parents brought me over to see that train. They hung out with your parents. I think they all had a toast with wine or something…and I crawled to the inside of the tracks to watch the train go around…with the Sullivanboys.”
Bash nodded. “I was probablyeleven.”
“Crap. I haven’t thought about that for a really long time.” She felt the tears welling up again and took a seat. “I don’t know how to explain it, Bash. There’s a lot that I blocked out from before my mother died…and after too. At one point, I didn’t want to remember at all. I didn’t want to feel anymore. All I let in after that was Dad and mymusic…”
He put an arm over her shoulder, but saidnothing.
She looked over at him again. “So, you alwaysknew?”
He nodded slowly and turned to her. Their eyes locked. Eva’s warnings about being careful were unwarranted. Alexandra had known this man almost all herlife.
She swept her tongue across suddenly dry lips, and became aware of every tingling nerve ending in her body. Heat rose up to her face as Bash gently wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of his index finger. She noticed each of his eyelashes when he leaned forward, eyelids half-opened. Her eyes fluttered and she took in the incredible sensation of his fingers gliding down her cheek, across her jawline, past her ear, around the back of her neck, and lacing through the hair at the back of herhead.
He leaned in more closely, close enough for Alexandra to feel his body heat radiate from his chest, close enough for her body to unravel from just his breath on her skin, close enough for her brain to completely shut down. Suddenly, being this close to Bash made her feel she had been caged up like an animal for all this time, and now he was about to set her free. She wanted his lips on hers, but before he kissed her he moved his lips to herear.
“Alexandra,” hewhispered.
“Yes,” she groaned, already shivering from his breath on herneck.
“This is the only name I will ever call you from nowon.”
