huge renovation and I admit, the place doesn’t feel the same. It’s no longer my father’s dirty hotel. The place where he did God-knows-what to women and cheated on my mother. Now it’s our hotel. And my brothers live there with their wives. Tristan just had a baby. It’s...” He felt himself breaking down.
“Keep going, Gray,” his sponsor said softly.
“It’s home now. And I hate myself for leaving. I hate myself for not helping them out. I hate myself for wanting this fucking acting thing so much. That I’m willing to scare the crap out of my family because my pride got trampled.” He wiped away a hot wash of tears.
“It’s okay, Gray. Let it out. That’s what I’m here for.”
He swallowed hard and picked up a napkin to dry his eyes.
His brothers had great women to spill their shit to. All he had was a guy who’d killed four people in a DWI car accident ten years ago. Gray didn’t mean to judge, and Mark had always been there, on the phone, texts, and meetings like that.
But Gray wanted something else.
A few booths away, that shock of red hair peeked out from the top of a backrest. His throat went tight. The feeling of something, someone closing in on him, rattled him.
“Fuck this.” He stood up and charged over, ready to yell at whoever the hell was following him.
If it were a fan, why not just say hello? Why drive him crazy? He was on the D-list for crying out loud, he could use one fan. Even if she were a stalker. He had no intention of dating or even sleeping with anyone.
As he got closer, his stinging eyes caught a folded-up wheelchair set against the other bench of the booth. He stopped dead in his tracks. The redhead on the treadmill, the same one walking along Rodeo Drive, and then slinking into the bodega near the thrift shop had been...walking.
He spun around and gasped, seeing his stalker out in the parking lot leaning against his semi-stolen Aston Martin.
Sabine
SABINE LEANED AGAINST the driver’s door of Grayson’s car, feeling the heated metal against the back of her upper thighs. More skin than she usually exposed thanks to her daisy duke shorts. She ruffled her hair, smelling her lime shampoo in all the waves she let free. Usually, she wore plain tee-shirts and jeans, her hair in a ponytail while doing surveillance. Now she wanted to be noticed. Short shorts, a floral mid-riff hanging off one shoulder, her long wavy red hair all over the place.
She knew how to turn a guy’s head.
And yup... Grayson saw her all right. She’d been through this before. The introduction. The terms. The negotiation. And then the score.
Easy peasy.
Her confidence crumbled, however, watching Grayson Hart strut up to her. Manly swagger in loose-fitting jeans and a tight button-down shirt. Stretched across his broad chest. That dark hair swinging in front of his eyes covered in cool gold-rimmed Hollywood shades.
Even here in L.A., she’d never seen a man so secure in his masculinity, his power. Everything around her went still. The clouds stopped moving. Dogs stopped barking and she was sure she stopped breathing.
Oh, dear lord.
All the weeks she’d been hiding in the shadows had not prepared her for the moment she’d get close enough to talk to him. Breathe him in and...touch him. Maybe? Please?
The closer he got, a rare sexual thrill melted her like butter. Utter panic set in. Up close, he was absolutely the most stunning man she ever laid eyes on. A herculean effort in Los Angeles.
In those brief moments before he reached her, Sabine wasn’t sure she’d put that man on a plane and send him back to New York, or go rogue with him and keep him all to herself.
CHAPTER FOUR
Grayson
“That’s my car, gorgeous,” Gray said, lowering gold-rimmed shades to get a long look at the redhead.
She stared right at him. His blood fired hot through his veins. Heating every corner of his body. Sex had been a take-it-or-leave-it activity lately. Heartbreak and humiliation often killed his boner every time.
This woman who’d been following him around, boldly leaning against his car made his tongue tingle and gave him a massive hard-on.
“Nah, it’s yer agent’s car,” the redhead finally spoke and moved the side mirror to check her hair. “And she’s looking for it.”
Grayson stopped cold, his libido stifled. Although, that accent licked him like a velvet tongue up and down his body, momentarily scrambling his good senses.