Turning It on (Red Hot Russians) (28 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hannah heard Eric say something, but his words scarcely registered. She acknowledged him with a nod as she rushed forward into Vlad’s arms.

The moment she saw him her emotions had careered from ecstasy to agony. Yet seeing him again was worth the pain of having to say goodbye once more. Crushed against him in an embrace she never wanted to leave, she squeezed back tears and forced herself to remember every precious detail. He murmured softly in Russian, and though she couldn’t understand the words, the emotion behind them touched her soul.

“I didn’t expect to see you again,” she said.

A low chuckle rumbled inside him. “Is that good thing, or bad thing?”

“Seeing you again is a very good thing.” She looked up into his handsome face, and then noticed the blue-black puffiness around his right cheekbone. “Oh my God!” He winced when she touched his swollen flesh. “Did that hurt? What happened?”

“I’m okay. And you’ll find out what happened when you see the episode.”

She laughed sadly. “I may not have had the best time in Rincon, but it looks like yours was worse.”

“It’s over now. You and Heathcliff did not have fun?”

“It was okay. We didn’t go through with the last fling, but that was my decision. I felt like it was the right one.”

“Tammy and I didn’t either, and I also felt it was the right thing.” Vlad shook his head. “I don’t know what the video will show, though. Probably something much different.”

“So no prize money?”

“I think it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll go back to Miami, decide what’s next.” He lifted her hand. “You’re not wearing your ring.”

“Not yet. Maybe after all this is over.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, and nestled against his chest, already aching from loss. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“I know,” he said softly, stroking her hair. “But it’s best I do.”

Tell him! Tell him you love him!
She held him, as her heart and mind fought a war. Though she ached to say the words, what would be the point? It would change nothing and only make things more difficult. More painful, when it was already painful enough. For ten weeks,
Last Fling
had offered an illusion of life, which in some ways was better than the real thing. But illusions couldn’t last. Vlad was going back to his life and she was going back to hers. Heart-wrenching confessions would only prolong the hurt. She took a deep breath and took a step back, away from him. “Send me your book as soon as it’s done.”

“I will.” His eyes looked unnaturally bright and shiny.

“And...”
Clean break, clean break, Hannah. No reminders.
She reached into the pocket of her skirt. “I found this.”

Vlad drew in a breath as she placed his lost necklace in his hand. He stared down at the crucifix, blinking rapidly. When he looked up, his grateful eyes made up for the sadness of losing her only tangible reminder of him. “I thought it was gone for good. Where..?”

“On my balcony. It must have fallen off when you climbed up there.” She closed his fist over the necklace, but didn’t move her hand away. Her shoulders trembled and she bit down hard on her lip, fighting back tears.

Once more, Vlad brought her close and she clung to him, as the van idled at the curb, waiting to take him away. “Thank you,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “For everything.”

She nodded, then willed her arms to let go, knowing it was the last time. “Goodbye, Vlad. I’ll never forget you.”

She stayed as he boarded the van, and watched as it traveled up the driveway and disappeared through the main gate. Then she sank onto a nearby bench and pressed her hands to her face.

In her wildest dreams, could she have ever imagined this?

They could not have been more different. He had a dicey past, an uncertain future and lived two thousand miles away, in a city where she would never fit in. He couldn’t have been more wrong for her.

Despite everything, she’d fallen in love with him.

Though they had both recognized nothing could come of the relationship, the sense of loss was overwhelming. Their next contact would be through his manuscript and even that wasn’t definite. How many times had she expressed interest in an aspiring author’s work, only to never hear from them again? Too many to count.

She cried on the bench, until a carload of show staffers returning to the resort made her sit up and wipe her eyes. Team Blue’s final shoot was in less than two hours. Her reality awaited. Thrusting her hands into her now-empty pockets, she returned to her second-floor room and found Jack waiting outside her door.

His face looked drawn and tense under his tan. “Can we talk?”

Hannah took a deep breath, and shook off the sadness as much as possible. “Sure.”

She unlocked the door and stepped inside, shutting the door behind them. Jack stood in the middle of the room, staring at the balcony, his hands tucked under his arms. Hannah waited. Then he turned and looked her in the eye. “I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

Hannah let go a harsh laugh. “Yes, Jack, I would agree with that. You made at least one.”

“I never meant for this to go as far as it did. I thought it would be fun, and I got caught up in it. Eric and Cody kept pushing me toward Robynne, but Robynne turned out to be completely different from who I thought she was. And then when you got involved with that slimeball stripper...”

“Don’t you dare call him that,” she said, fighting to keep her voice steady. “He was here for me when you weren’t.”

“I know. The fact you fell for someone like that made me realize how badly I’d hurt you. I never wanted to lose you, Hannah. Please tell me I haven’t.”

She remembered Vlad’s words.
He’s caught up in the show and this other girl, but he’s not going to throw away something so good.
His prediction seemed to be coming true, yet she felt hollow inside. And there were still so many questions. She decided to start with the biggest one. “I want you to tell me something first, and don’t try to lie your way out of it, because they’ll show it on TV. Did you and Robynne have sex in Rincon?”

His shoulders dropped and he bobbed his head in a brisk nod. “We did. The prize money will mean a lot for Robynne and her family. But it was only once, and only because I thought you and that stripper...but the whole time I was with Robynne in Rincon, I kept thinking about you.”

She held up her hand, not wanting to hear any more. “Don’t, Jack. Just don’t.”

“Hannah, please. I came here to beg for mercy, not give you more reason to hate me.” He came forward and took her hands. “I know I made mistakes. I swear I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you. If you want me to get down on my knees, I’ll do it.” He dropped down onto the carpet.

She stared, stunned and a bit uncomfortable with this drastic change. “Get up, Jack. I’m not interested in dramatic apologies. I can’t just forget everything that happened and go back to the way things were, where I gave everything because I was afraid of losing you. If you want to make it up to me, you’ll have to prove it.”

“What do you want? Say the word, and we’ll do it.”

The question took her a little by surprise. It wasn’t as if she’d prepared a negotiation list. She thought a moment. “Children, Jack. I never thought it was a big deal for you, but apparently, it is. I don’t know if I want kids. We’ve never talked about it in those terms. But it’s my reality.”

“I know, Hannah. I’m cool with that. It was Robynne and the families putting all that in my head. We don’t have to decide now. We’ll figure it out once we’re away from here and back to our lives.”

Their lives. Their families. Actually, that was another thing. Neither moving to the suburbs nor staying in Park Slope was very appealing. She had always wanted to live in the East Village. Maybe Jack would be willing. “Park Slope’s nice, but it’s not where I want to be at this point in my life. And I’m definitely not ready to move back to Port Pleasant. What would you think about a place in the East Village?”

His eager expression faltered, and she could almost hear his thoughts.
Where all your weird friends are?
Then he recovered and flashed a smile. “If you want to move, we’ll move. Hey, if we’re going to pull up stakes anyway, let’s really go for it and move to LA. They have publishers there, right? They must. Maybe you could freelance.”

Moving to LA was more about Jack’s needs than hers, but supporting his dream was important. She hadn’t expected he would go back crawling back to Windsor and St. Clair, nor did she want him to. If a Hollywood career was what he truly wanted, he should have it. In his tense yet hopeful expression were shades of the person she had loved half her life; a somewhat lost little boy who desperately wanted love, and knew where he would find it.

“Please tell me we can start over again. I love you, Hannah, and I don’t want to lose you.”

She gazed into his eyes and let the words sink in. It was exactly what she had longed to hear him say, she only wished she felt happier. But that would come. These past few days, her heart had been turned inside out, and healing took time. With her emotions so raw, she craved the comfort of the stable life she knew before. A life that once made her happy. She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “Okay.”

Jack’s face brightened with unabashed relief. “I’ll go tell Eric right now. I have a feeling it’s going to make a difference with the shoot tonight.”

Hannah nodded.

“Oh, and one more thing.” Jack went to the bureau, where her engagement ring lay in a porcelain dish beside the mirror. He brought the ring and slipped it onto the third finger of her left hand.

When Eric dropped by an hour later to congratulate her on her re-engagement, he told her that Team Blue’s final shoot wasn’t going to be in the studio, but down by the beach at The Smiling Shark. Hannah did her best to take it in stride. His rationale made sense. The Smiling Shark was a more picturesque, intimate space than the studio, and as the hidden cameras and microphones had proven, the acoustics were fine after all. Left unsaid was the silent message the new venue carried. Filming her reconciliation with Jack at the site of her no-longer-secret rendezvous made it clear where Hannah’s heart now belonged. Vlad the Bad was no more.

“It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do this,” Eric said gently. “And I’m sorry about what we did to you. It might be too late, but if there’s any way I can make things right, I want to.”

Hannah forced a smile and steeled her emotions for what lay ahead. One more night in front of the camera, and she and Jack would walk away from this. Stronger? Maybe. Time would tell. Right now, it was all she could do to get through the next two hours.

As expected, walking into The Smiling Shark was heart-wrenching, though it bore little resemblance to the cozy hideaway she and Vlad shared. On one side of the room was a giant TV screen. The rattan love seat sat before it, surrounded by lights, a boom microphone and stationary camera. Of all places in this room,
this
was where they would conduct her final interview. Hannah pressed her hand to her stomach, feeling ill.

“Hey.” A warm female voice came from behind, and Hannah turned to find Alison, wearing faded jeans and a flowing peasant blouse rather than her on-camera femme fatale clothes.

“You’re still here.” Hannah’s voice trembled at the sight of her friend. “I thought everyone else was gone.”

Alison wrapped her in a hug and patted her shoulder. “They are, but Eric and I have work to do on the new show. I thought I’d walk down for your shoot. Do you want me to stay?”

“Please,” Hannah whispered, as fresh tears welled in her eyes. Alison’s friendship, as well as Daphne’s and Cristal’s, was another unexpected treasure from her days on
Last Fling
. Would it last once they were home? “I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know what they’re going to show of him.”

Alison didn’t ask which
him
Hannah meant, but the actress gave a knowing nod. “I saw Team Red’s raw footage. Whatever they show you tonight, no matter how bad it looks, you can rest assured it didn’t go down that way. He would have made you proud.”

She nodded. “Thank you for telling me that.”

From across the room, Cody shouted at Alison. “The set is closed. You can’t be here.”

“Actually, I can. Eric approved it as
Last Fling’s
creator and producer.”

Alison’s cool manner held a shade of her old
Somerset High
character.

“No one else from Team Red is here. If you end up in a shot, it will throw off our continuity.”

Hannah lifted her chin, channeling a bit of Missy Goldsmith, who never took crap from anyone. “I’m sure you can edit your way around Alison, seeing as you’re no stranger to fabricating scenes.”

Beside the camera, Cynthia Bishop looked up from her clipboard and rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get this thing shot. We can cut in other footage, if we have to. Places.”

A PA directed Hannah to the love seat, and one of the vanities, an older woman she’d never seen before, rushed over and dabbed a tissue to her damp eyes. The woman groaned in exasperation. “Think you can hold back the waterworks until we actually need it?”

She would try. She sat up straight and let the woman pat her flushed face with powder.

Cynthia stepped forward. “Hannah, first we’re going to roll clips of Team Red to get your reaction, then Cody will ask a few questions. After that, we’ll bring Jack and your flings back in for the final scene. Ready?”

Hannah nodded and as the red indicator light on the camera flashed on. The PA snapped a clapboard. “Hannah final. Rolling on camera. Ready in three-two-one...”

The big screen flickered to life, with a shot of an unfamiliar bedroom.

Vlad stood beside the bed, watching as Tammy tugged her dress down to reveal a push-up bra. She smiled. “Like what you see, Vlad the Bad?”

Hannah winced as a tight shot on his face showed his cold, reptilian gaze. “No.”

Tammy’s eyes grew wide. “How can you say that?”

Vlad laughed harshly. “Are you so stupid that you believe any of this? If I were to lay you down on this bed and have sex with you, I would walk away a rich man. But BEEP the money. Some things aren’t worth $250,000.”