Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,255

little too much pep.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, making my heart sing. “How are you? Yeah, that tie is fine,” he said to someone else.

“You busy?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Only a little. The Trigger Happy premiere is tonight.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “I forgot.”

Trigger Happy was his biggest project to date. He’d mentioned the problems with it in passing. The co-stars hated each other, the director couldn’t control them, and the weather never cooperated. But tonight, all that would be put aside as the movie was finally released, and I knew Leo was ready to hopefully throw a successful launch and put the gossip in the rearview mirror.

“My car is here,” Leo said. “I’m going in the elevator so I might lose you. Did you need something?”

His tone wasn’t unkind, just distracted. I didn’t want to lose him, in the elevator or anywhere else. I had to see him and tell him the truth about everything before he found out from someone or somewhere else. Kait was surely right when she said it was only a matter of time before reporters found out who Leo’s mystery woman was. I couldn’t let him find out from anyone but me. I had to tell him the truth, and hope that he could somehow forgive me.

“I have to talk to you tonight,” I said. “Where is the premiere?”

“At Grauman’s Chinese on Hollywood Boulevard,” he said.

“Can I meet you there?” I asked.

“Sounds important,” he said. “Like I said, I’m leaving now. I’ll have Elaine email you a pass so you can get in. Good luck with parking, though. It’ll be a nightmare.”

I didn’t care about seeing the movie or where I’d park my car. I just had to get to Leo, and fast.

Of course, there’s nothing fast about driving through L.A. in the heat of rush hour traffic. The whole drive over I tried to stifle the voice in my head that told me I was crazy for everything I’d done since the day I arrived in the city. But I had to believe that there was something real with Leo. We hadn’t just been fooling around.

Things had changed, at least for me, and it was more than just physical. It was how I felt when I was around him—content, at ease, happy, blissful even. The way he looked at me had changed, too. When Leo looked at me, I felt like he was seeing inside of me, at the person I was and trying to be.

Of course, I hadn’t been truthful and it was an ugly side of me that I was now deeply ashamed over. The opportunity to be a journalist had brought out a weakness in me that I’d never known existed. I was sick with guilt over it, but tried to push it away as I finally exited the 101 Freeway at Highland and turned onto Hollywood Boulevard.

The scene was a madhouse. The road was partially closed, forcing me to turn onto another street. I couldn’t waste time searching for a parking spot that I was sure didn’t exist so I pulled up at a restaurant and tossed my keys to the valet. I heard him yell at me about only customers being allowed to valet there, but I was off and running toward the theater.

There were hundreds of people crowding the street in front of the historic theater. I took out my phone to text Leo to see where he was. Instead I found a text from Alexa.

Thought you’d want to know. Kait didn’t even need you to write the article. She’s been keeping your notes and emails all long and just assembled it for a Crush exclusive. ;)

I clicked on the link and it took me to the front page of the Crush web site.

Exclusive: Leo Armstrong’s Womanizing Ways Exposed

My heart raced as I scanned through the article, which was short and ended with the teaser, Read the full story in our next issue!

Instead of being written by my perspective—the reporter—Kait had switched it up a bit.

“Armstrong took Sophie as his carry-on as he flew up to Seattle for on-set movie trouble, and refused to even let her de-board the plane. She was relegated to being his in-flight entertainment...”

“…kept a short lease on our young Sophie, refusing to give her his phone number even after several dates—dates which were carefully planned to include only the restaurants where he was able to bribe the entire staff into silence of his evening with yet another young, trusting woman on his arm.”

“…uses his