Flee (The Aurora Lockette Series, Book 1) (6 page)

He placed his hand on mine. “You okay?”

I smiled and glanced at our two hands
touching on the table. “I am now.”

The food, as promised, was excellent. By the
end of the dinner, I was stuffed and a little tipsy. He paid the
tab over my spirited objection and we walked out into the balmy
night. As soon as we moved outside, his face changed. He put his
arm over my shoulder and pulled me close to him. “Walk fast.
Sorry.”

“What’s wrong?” I followed his gaze to the
cluster of photographers across the street. “Oh.”

“You’re not upset?”

“They’ll crop me out of the picture
anyways.”

He laughed louder and rubbed my shoulder as
we walked to the car. “I was planning on taking you to a wine bar,
but do you mind if we go back to my hotel and hang out?”

“Not at all.” I pushed back the stream of
dirty thoughts popping into my head at the prospect of being alone
with him in a hotel room.

He flashed me his bright smile as we got in
the car. He peeled out of the parking lot and whizzed down a couple
of side streets before making his way back to the highway. He
pulled in the front of a ritzy hotel downtown. A valet appeared and
took the car while Gavyn ushered me inside. The bronze elevator
doors slid open as we approached. He pushed the button for the
twenty-sixth floor. I waggled my eyebrows at him. “Oohh. The
penthouse.”

I was joking, but of course, it turned out to
be the penthouse suite. There was a distinct living room with a
couch, recliner, and a huge flat screen. The king-size bed was on a
raised platform off to the side. I peeked in the bathroom. It had a
large Jacuzzi and a separate walk-in shower. “Wow. Penthouse was
right on the mark. Nice!”

“Yeah, it’s included in my contract.” He
waived his hand at the T.V. “You want to watch a movie?”

“Sounds nice.”

We settled on a thriller. I sat down on the
couch a couple of feet from him as the movie started. He chuckled
and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to him until I was
sitting on his lap. “What are you doing all the way over
there?”

I settled in next to him and leaned my head
against his broad shoulder. He wrapped his arms around me.

I woke up in the dark. The movie credits were
scrolling down the screen as a heavy metal song played in the
background.

I was still on the couch with Gavyn. He was
asleep. I gave myself a minute to admire his handsome features. It
was late, and I had to be up in a few hours. I had no idea what
time he needed to be up.

I shut off the giant T.V. then pushed his
legs further on to the couch. I pulled a blanket off the top of the
bed and returned to the couch to spread it over him.

I called the front desk. By the time I made
it downstairs, a cab was waiting for me. I spent the cab ride
trying to count backwards from twenty to control my body, but my
mind always returned to Gavyn. As the car turned onto my street and
drove past the forest, I didn’t feel any fear, nor a sensation of
being watched. It was a normal, quiet forest, and for the moment, I
was a normal girl.

I yawned my way through my early morning
class. I was tired, and worse, I was bored because Bree hadn’t
showed up. Finally, the professor released us from his never-ending
drone.

A little envelope on my phone alerted me to a
voice mail. My heart jumped at the little spark of hope it was
him.

“Hey, Aurora. It’s me. I just thought I would
test your number. I was very disappointed to wake up without you,
but I’m glad we hung out last night. I’m guessing you’re in class.
I just got my call sheet and I will be out of pocket for the next
couple of days with filming. I didn’t want you to think I was
ignoring you. I’ll be thinking of you. Okay. Bye.”

I hung up and sunk into one of the chairs in
the courtyard. Images of tall, dark, and handsome filled my
head.

“How could you not tell me?” I looked up. All
five feet one inches of Bree were standing in front of me. Her
hands were on her hips, and she looked pissed. Really pissed.

“What?”

“I can’t believe you! You didn’t tell me you
were dating Gavyn Dhaval! How could you leave that out?” She
slammed her purse down before dropping into one of the chairs at
the table. “Seriously, how could not tell me?”

“Dude, lower your voice. How did you find
out?”

“Not from you for damn sure.” She leaned
forward in her chair. “I saw it on the internet. There’s a picture
of you two on one of the blogs I read.”

“Oh, crap.” I hid my face in my hands. “I
don’t want that kind of attention, and I don’t think he does
either.”

She pulled down one of my hands so she could
see my face. “Hey, relax. It’s on a blog, not a tabloid.” She
smiled. “They called you the mystery woman.”

I sunk my head on the table and groaned. “No,
no, no. Not good. Please kill me now.”

She laughed. “Oh, stop. It’s freaking awesome
you’re dating a movie star. You have a lot of surprises, don’t
you?” She patted my arm. “I knew you had a big secret.” She shook
her head. “I knew it.”

“Well, shit. Cat’s out of the bag,” I
said.

“Don’t worry too much. I doubt very many
people read that particular blog.”

But we glanced around us to find the eyes of
several of my classmates resting definitively on me. Their whispers
filled the air.

“Or I could be wrong,” Bree added.

“Great.” I grabbed my backpack. “I’m going to
go to the gym.”

“Stay here with me. I want to hear more about
him.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t deal with this right now.
Thanks for the offer though.”

As soon as I rounded the corner of the
administrative building, a cold, hard feeling nestled at the base
of my spine.

It was here. I could feel it.

I picked up my pace as I passed the tree
grove. It was a bright, nearly cloudless day, but there were lots
of shadows, way more than the trees would create.

They were out there.

Reaction flowed through me and before I could
stop it, my feet were off the ground a few inches.

“Crap!”

I sank back down to the ground and looked
around. Thankfully nobody was around to see my freak show, but I
had more pressing problems. A dark figure had emerged from the
trees.

I ran until my backpack ripped and my books
went flying all over the place. I stopped to pick them up. I was
far away from the tree grove and I didn’t see any shadows. Students
gave me funny looks as I cried and shoved my books into my broken
backpack.

When I finally had my books contained, I sat
on the nearest bench, far from any tree groves. Young undergrads
were milling around a nearby coffee stand with their lattes, no
doubt worried about first dates, English 101, and their
roommates.

I pondered the only two possibilities I could
think of. The first one, and the most likely, was me losing my
mind.

Second, and far more dangerous, is what I saw
was real.

My cell phone buzzed in my pocket.

“Hello?”

“We need to talk.”

“Mom, now is not really a good time,” I
said.

“What are you doing carrying on with a movie
star? Are you crazy?” She continued as if I hadn’t said a word. “My
friend forwarded me some celebrity gossip blog, and behold there
you were in a recent paparazzi photograph with Gavyn Dhaval.”

“Mom, I—”

“A Hollywood actor? Do you realize how many
fans he’s probably had sex with?”

“It’s really not like that.”

“Sure. They all seem nice at first, but don’t
be naïve. All men are like that.”

“Mom, really?” I shoved my broken backpack on
the ground. “I’m an adult, and we are not having this conversation
right now.”

“Oh, yes we are. He’s famous. If it happens
in front of him...”

“I’m the one who can fly here, okay? I’m
painfully aware of the risk. End of discussion.”

“Ah.” She was quiet on the other end of the
line for a while. “I knew this would happen someday. I knew you
would fall in love, and this would come up.”

“Whoa, whoa whoa. There’s no L word being
thrown around here.”

“I know my own child. I should be happy for
you, but I’m just too worried.”

“I’ll be very careful around him, okay?”

“If you truly fall in love with a man, it’s
going to be very difficult to keep any part of yourself from
him.”

I picked up my mangled backpack. “We’re not
there yet. I’m definitely not there yet and I’m not getting into
this right now with you. I need to go.”

“Fine, just tell me one thing.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Are you on the pill?”

“Mom, oh my God! We are not talking about
this, okay?”

“If you are sexually active you should—”

“Yes, okay? Stop, now. For the love of all
that is holy.”

After I hung up the phone, I cried. When I
was done, I walked out to my car and drove home.

***

I stayed home for two days on a claim of
sickness. Gavyn didn’t call, but I knew he wouldn’t with his
schedule.

After a couple of afternoons of daytime T.V.,
I was bored enough to go back to school. Bree was happy to see me,
and I must admit, it was nice to return to some sort of
normalcy.

I sat with her in the courtyard after our
second class. She was filling me in on her latest date, and nobody
was staring at me.

That didn’t last long.

“Hi, ladies.” Gavyn appeared out of nowhere.
“Mind if I join you?” He sat down next to me, across from Bree.

As usual, he wore big sunglasses and a
baseball cap, but it was still obvious it was him. He extended a
hand to Bree. “You must be Bree. I’m Gavyn.”

She shook his hand without hesitation. “Very
nice to meet you,” she said, as if she met movie stars every
day.

Other people were not so calm. Students
stared openly. The courtyard filled up as more and more people
found a reason to come outside.

“Hey, babe.” He kissed my hand.

I saw several female classmates giving me
looks ranging from envy to admiration. I did my level best not to
look too smug.

Okay, maybe I didn’t try at all.

“Hey,” I said.

“I’m on a quick break. We’re filming at the
church on campus today, but do you want to have dinner tonight?” He
lowered his voice to a whisper. “Something low key. I guess our
little outing got picked up on the tabloid circuit. I’m very
sorry.”

“I’m sorry you were photographed with me.
It’s probably not good for your career.”

Bree chimed in. “Not true. You look super hot
in the photos.”

Gavyn smiled at her. “I agree with Ms. Bree
here. You looked amazing.” He returned his attention to me.
“Really. I didn’t want you to have to deal with this.”

“This is small potatoes. So, what time should
I come over tonight and what should I bring?”

“Whenever you get back from school. I’ll
order in some food for dinner. The only thing you need to bring is
yourself.” He smiled, but it wasn’t his normal smile. It looked a
little strained.

“Okay. Consider it done.”

He stood. “Awesome, I better go.” He glanced
around at the growing mass of students. “It’s getting a little
crowded here. Nice to meet you, Bree.”

And then he was gone, his bodyguards
surrounding him the second he stepped away from the table.

I dropped my head against the back of my
chair. “Oh, swoon!”

Bree giggled. “Oh, my God, he is positively
dreamy. And so nice and normal.”

“I know.”

“Have you guys done it yet?” she asked.

I lifted my head. “You and your dirty
mouth.”

“You need to use your dirty mouth on him.
That man is sexual perfection,” she said.

I agreed.

Three hours later, I was freshly showered,
clad in jeans and a low-cut fitted shirt that did nothing to hide
my bust, and standing outside the penthouse suite.

“Good. You’re here,” he said, giving me a
quick hug as he opened the door. “I just ordered some food. I had a
feeling you would get here around this time.”

I walked into his giant room. It appeared he
had done some tidying up since the last time I was here. He walked
up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. “How is it you make
jeans look sexy?”

“I’m glad you think so because I’m definitely
a t-shirt and jeans girl.

“One more thing to love about you,” he said.
My heart jumped at the word.

A white-capped service attendant delivered
the champagne, prime rib and steamed vegetables, set them on the
small two-top near the window, and left quickly.

“Have you ever had a serious relationship?”
he asked after our champagne toast.

I gulped it down. “Abrupt topic change
much?”

“Well?”

“Not really.”

“Really? You’re twenty-three and you’ve never
been in a serious relationship?”

“No.”

“May I ask, why not?” he asked with his super
sexy smile.

“Just haven’t met the right person, I
suppose.” I shrugged, hoping he couldn’t read the lie in my
eyes.

“Hmm. Aren’t you going to ask me the same
question?”

“No. It doesn’t have any relevance to today
and now.”

I pushed my plate away, walked over to him
and stood in front of him. He scooted his chair away from the
table, confused. He started to rise, but I put my hand down on his
chest, gently pushing him back in the chair.

I straddled him. He looked surprised, but
smiled as I leaned forward and kissed him.

His hands slid down my back and parked in my
back pockets. I ran my fingers through his thick and unruly hair.
When I did, he turned his face up to me. His mouth tasted sweet and
warm. His hands left my pockets as he brought them to my face, then
through my hair, finally moving them so he was cradling my
neck.

I took a deep breath and pulled away. He
leaned back in his chair and exhaled as his hands fell to his
sides. “Something wrong? Sorry if I—”