The Redhead Revealed (Redhead #2)(11)
Author: Alice Clayton

“Hell yes, ya goofball! I didn’t spend all my savings on a house just to sell it again! I mean, I don’t know how long I’ll be out here, and I love New York, but when this is over? I’ll be back home, for sure.” I laughed, pulling him tightly against me again.

“What about you?” I asked, my face pressed into his shirt.

“What about me?” he asked, his breath warm and sweet in my hair.

“I mean, where are you going to live when all this is over? Will you go back to London after the premiere, or are you planning on staying in L.A.?” I asked, a little afraid to hear the answer.

“Well, I don’t know, to be honest. That was the plan—London is my home, that’s for sure—but there’s a film we’re in negotiations with that would be filming in L.A. in January.”

“Wait, so you’re thinking about moving back to London?” I asked, surprised.

“That’s where I live, Grace. Who knows what’s going to happen after this movie comes out. This could be my swan song. I could peak at twenty-four.”

“Oh, please. The world is going to need some more Joshua,” I said. Just thinking about Super Sexy Scientist Guy made me giggle, even in the arms of Jack Fucking Hamilton.

London?

Shhh.

“Hmm, we’ll see. Maybe no one’ll come and see it. Maybe they’ll think it’s rubbish,” he muttered.

“George, please. It will be amazing. And if nothing else, you’re so pretty, they’ll pay just to see you romping around half-naked in your period clothing,” I teased, striking a chord with this one. I knew how much Jack wanted to be taken seriously as an actor, and I was forever telling him how pretty he was, just to mess with him.

“And I’m sure the men who will be coming to see your show will only be coming to see your acting chops, not your fantastic tits,” he teased back, earning him a very grown-up tongue stick-out.

“Oh, love, if you’re going to show me your tongue, I may have to give you something to lick,” he continued nastily, wiggling his eyebrows like a villain in an old-timey movie.

“You’re sick, Hamilton. Truly sick.” I laughed, pulling away from him.

“So, we’re going to see a movie, yes?” he asked, tooling around my apartment.

“Yes, there’s a theater about six blocks from here. I’ll check and see what’s playing. Then we can grab something after that, sound good?” I pulled my laptop from my bag and settled in on the couch.

“Oh, I’ll be grabbing something after the movie, that’s for certain,” he said, sticking his head back around the corner and winking at me.

“Dirty bird,” I muttered as he disappeared down the hall toward the bedroom.

“You love it,” he shouted over his shoulder.

I laughed quietly to myself and signed on. My TMZ homepage came up immediately because I was a sucker for all things celebrity gossip. I could hear Jack putzing in the bedroom, so I figured I could indulge in a few minutes of celeb surfing. Guilty pleasure. I scrolled through the pictures of the latest buzz: An actor checking into rehab, another actor leaving rehab. A singer who’d been threatening to retire for twenty years heading back out on tour. I skipped ahead—not a lot of celebrity news. I was about to zip over to the movie times site when an interesting snippet caught my eye:

Jack Hamilton seen out on the town with actress Marcia Veracruz. Are these two on again?

Wait a minute. Back up.

What?

Once Time comes out, maybe he can afford to buy a new car! The two were spotted having lunch in Venice a few days ago before climbing into Jack’s old, beat-up MG.

I felt sick.

Breathe, just breathe.

Ever since he was cast as Joshua, women everywhere have been wondering whether this Brit Boy is single. Well, ladies, it appears this time-traveler is spoken for! Just two nights ago, Jack Hamilton was spotted driving away from an L.A. nightclub with his latest gal pal, actress Marcia Veracruz. The two were previously in a confirmed relationship, and although they took a break, it appears things are still hot and heavy between them.

I really felt sick. I tried to close the laptop, but I couldn’t make my hands move. They were clenched too tightly into fists.

Ask him. Don’t flip out. Ask him.

Oh, hell yes, I was gonna ask him.

I stared at the pictures, really looking at the two of them together. I examined his face: smiling, ball cap pulled securely down over curly hair. I forced myself to look at her, really look at her. She was smiling too, her face inclined toward his as they left some club in L.A. together.

She was pretty.

She was really pretty.

Not good…

I heard Jack coming down the hallway, and although part of me wanted to clear the screen, pull up Mr. Movie Phone, and shove this whole Marcia thing in my famous mental drawer—The Drawer where everything unpleasant goes to be avoided—but we were past that. We were way past that. And if I’d been honest with myself, not such a chickenshit, we would’ve dealt with this months ago when I saw her text that night in the dark.

Of course, true to form, I’d refused to deal, letting this build to the point of full meltdown before acknowledging it. Why? A battle raged constantly between the cool, tough Grace exterior and the sad, frightened, still-sees-herself-as-the-fat-girl Grace on the inside. Jack had taken a tiny peek or two at Inside Grace, but he had yet to experience the mess that was actually in there. Come on, why deal with things expediently when they can fester and become an emotional storm of epic proportions? I never claimed to be the mature one in this relationship, that’s for sure.

I second that.

“Hey, Gracie, I think we should skip the movie and just stay in and have a shag, what do you say?” he deadpanned, stopping in the archway to the living room. His hands were pressed to either side of the archway, his hair raked back and crazy, his lower lip sucked in between his teeth, and his eyes blazing deep green. He smirked at me, taking my lack of speech as proof that his seduction was working.

He sauntered closer, coming up behind me on the couch and leaning over my shoulder. “What do you say we close this thing and talk more about this while I take these pesky clothes off of you…” he started. Then he saw the pictures on the computer.

He froze.

“Explain this, please,” I said in a low voice. When I was mad, I was dangerously quiet.

“Shit, Grace, I was going to tell you about this. I know how bad it looks, but really, it’s nothing,” he said.