his driver had bailed on him at the last minute. He was trying to find another and for me to sit tight.
I fired back a reply, assuring him that I would catch a cab and slid my phone away.
“You lost?”
I jerked my head up to find Ozzy standing in front of me, wearing a dark tee, molding to every decadent ripple and ridge of his muscle-honed chest and abs. The well-worn jeans slung low on his hips and hugging his powerful legs, nearly stole my breath.
He cringed and sucked in a hiss as he started to reach toward my cheek. “Does it still hurt?”
“No. Just a little tender.”
“What are you doing out here?”
“Waiting on a ride.”
“You need a lift? I’ve got a limo on the way to take me to the airport. I can drop you wherever… You said you had a house, right?”
“I do.”
“Great. I’ve got plenty of time to kill before my flight. Let me take you home.”
“I’m fine.”
“It’s no trouble. Where do you live?”
“Mesa.”
“Arizona?” When I nodded, Ozzy gaped. “You’ve been living right next door to me all this time?”
“Not right next door. I can’t afford a house like yours. Not yet, anyway.”
“No. I mean, you didn’t move away after…”
Mercy, this was awkward as hell.
“No. I like the desert. After…” I sucked in a deep breath. “I rented an apartment for a while and finally bought a house a couple months ago.”
“I see. So, what time is your flight?”
“I don’t have one. I’m driving.”
“To Mesa? Alone?”
“I’m a big girl. I think I proved I can take care of myself last night.”
He glanced at his crotch and smirked. “Not so much when it comes to drug addicts, but you can handle yourself with the common man.”
“There’s nothing common about you, and you know it.”
“Is that so?” His voice was void of anger and resentment. It was as if I was talking to the old Ozzy…the one who still owned a piece of my heart. “I’d like to hear what you find so uncommon about me, but first I want to know why you’re driving back to Arizona.”
“When Nigel and Electra got caught, I packed my things and rented a U-Haul so I could move my stuff back to Mesa to live there full-time now.”
“You need any help?”
It was my turn to gape. Was he serious?
“You’re actually offering to help move my stuff from my boyfriend’s house and drive back to Arizona with me?”
“Nigel was never your boyfriend.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because you’re a smart girl, Mia. You wouldn’t have stayed with a guy who was fucking someone on the side, not all those years. You would have kneed him in the balls until he sang falsetto the rest of his life.” I couldn’t refute him. Ozzy was right. He knew me…knew my limits. “What the hell were you doing? Why were you two pretending to be a couple?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
“You’re trying to tell me the last seven years of your life don’t matter?”
“Of course they do.”
“But Nigel doesn’t. You’re not the least bit brokenhearted that he was cheating on you. Did you know about him and Electra from the start?”
“Yeah,” I murmured.
“Then why the hell were you with him?”
I didn’t see the harm in telling Ozzy the truth. I knew he wouldn’t run to the tabloids and spill all the gory details. He hated the vipers with a passion.
“I was his cover.”
“His what?”
“His beard, his…alibi. I pretended to be his girlfriend so no one would suspect he and Electra were having an affair.”
“So, you and Nigel were never a couple? Not at all?” I shook my head. “You’re both hella good actors. You not only fooled the entire world but me, as well. Is that why Gerry Huber released you?”
“No. I asked to be let out of my contract.”
“Why?”
That was one secret I wasn’t about to share.
“It was time to move on,” I lied. “I’d heard a lot of good things about Quinn, so I contacted him, and…well, the rest is history.”
Ozzy’s probing stare made me feel guilty as hell for not telling him the truth. It also made my nipples draw up so tight and hard they stabbed my bra. His rugged body was blowing off heat like a furnace, and his masculine scent was making me dizzy. Short of tumbling back into the fountain, I couldn’t escape his command over my body or the rush of desire spilling into my panties. It was stupid and dangerous for me to be alone with him like