Unravelled (Revealed #2) (6 page)

BOOK: Unravelled (Revealed #2)
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As a blush seared my cheeks, it vaguely occurred to me how amusing Allie would find this when I told her. She knew I had a bit of a soft spot for Jack, but talk about random coincidences! First her getting snowed in with Sean Phillips, and now me getting practically slam dunked by Jack Felton. Two run-ins with Hollywood hunks in less than four months. Who would have placed money on that? Not me, that was for sure. What a small, crazy world.

Looking disbelievingly at him again while simultaneously registering his alarmingly warm brown eyes, I replayed my unladylike fall and subsequent panic attacks and internally cringed. Crap, crap, crap.

Ignoring my humiliated look he gave me a casual shrug. ‘Yeah, sorry to disappoint you. They were going to send George Clooney to knock you over, but instead you got me.’ Actually, if I was offered a choice between Jack Felton and George Clooney, I'd pick Jack every single time.

The way he brushed off my earlier nerves and was joking to put me at ease was incredibly sweet, but then he smiled up at me as he began to examine my cut and I found myself almost unable to breathe. God, that smile. My stomach performed an enormous flip just from the sight of it.

‘I’m surprised you recognised me with this monstrosity,’ he commented as he almost lovingly stroked his beard. Unaware of the impact his incredible smile had had on me, he flashed me another one and went back to tending to my arm as he continued to speak. ‘It’s for an episode of the show. Thankfully I can cut it off soon, bloody thing is so itchy.’

The presence of the beard had totally thrown me. His character in
Fire Lab
was always clean shaven, so I’d never seen him with one before. I wasn’t usually a fan of beards, but I had to say, this one looked pretty good. Or perhaps that was just down to my fondness for the man displaying it …

‘Well, it's your lucky day. I'm wearing new trainers today so have these with me in case of blisters,’ he explained as he pulled two plasters from his shorts pocket with another of those heart-stopping half smiles that he was evidently rather good at.

This was so strange on so many levels. For one thing, he was famous, but instead of being on a television he was standing in front of me large as life. Secondly, he was touching me. Not only was I allowing it, but it wasn’t freaking me out, and finally my body was reacting to a man in ways that I hadn’t experienced for a long time. A very,
very
long time.

Talk about messing with my head.

Trying to shake off the peculiar feelings swirling in my stomach, I swallowed and dragged up my usual sensible side with significant difficulty. ‘Ah, always prepared? You must have been in the Scouts,’ I quipped lightly, relieved that I at least sounded calmer than my thundering heart and churning stomach indicated.

‘Actually, Scouts was on the same night as drama club and I chose to go to the latter … much to the disappointment of my father,’ Jack commented casually before glancing up at me. ‘My dad was quite old-fashioned. He believed that Scouts was for boys and drama was for girls, and thought that by choosing drama club I was attempting to discreetly tell him I was gay.’

Jack upped his half smile to a grin, and in response I became slightly light-headed. Wow … when it was turned up to full power, his smile really was something else. Like a 4D, surround sound, all-singing, all-dancing, out-of-body experience. I'd seen it enough times on television, but in the flesh it really was quite breath-taking.

I knew he was still talking to me, but I was finding myself rather distracted by his smile and the way the corners of his eyes crinkled so appealingly.

‘I’m not, by the way,’ Jack added as he carefully peeled the paper back from the plaster. I didn’t understand, and started to panic that maybe he had said something important I had completely missed while I was lost in my ridiculous swoon. Pocketing the papers from the plaster, he glanced up with his captivating eyes again.

‘Gay. I’m not gay,’ he clarified with another grin. Actually, the reason I chose drama club was because I fancied Miss Bright something rotten … now that woman had
great
legs …’ He grinned wickedly at me, and I was horrified to feel my heart react by attempting to kick its way out of my rib cage like a wild kangaroo. ‘That plus my interest in acting, of course,’ he added with a charming quirk of his eyebrows.

Struggling not to sigh out loud like a pathetic teenager, it suddenly occurred to me that Jack might be mildly flirting with me. The warm glances, smiles, and attention seemed to imply so, or perhaps he was always this friendly and charming with everyone he met (and collided with) while running in the park.

As I gazed down at him, I felt that peculiar feeling niggling at my stomach again; a heavy, warm sensation, making me suddenly acutely aware of a growing dampness between my legs. A flush bloomed on my already heated cheeks as I just about died from embarrassment. Bloody hell, I was actually aroused – and all he was doing was touching my arm.

What the heck was going on? I’d shut myself down so strictly since Greg that I literally couldn’t remember the last time I had felt properly sexually attracted to anyone, but long-forgotten emotions were now flooding my system and making it abundantly clear that that was definitely what I felt.

Shaking my head, I blinked wildly. I’d never reacted to a man like this, not even with Greg at the start when he’d been a total charmer and seemingly lovely. As Jack continued to clean my elbow with a tissue, I made a huge effort to shake it off, and instead of focusing on the chemical reaction happening in my body I drew in several long breaths and stared intently at the beautiful park until my composure began to settle again.

Finally feeling in control enough to risk a glance at Jack, I looked down at the top of his head where he was still tending to my arm. I was standing there like an idiot staring at the parting in his hair when Jack glanced up and caught me looking at him. Guiltily, I flushed immediately, but Jack merely flashed me another stupendous grin, winked at me, and then continued with his task.

A wink? Raising my eyebrows in surprise I sucked in a shocked breath … surely
that
counted as flirtatious? I thought I’d been imagining it earlier, but after that, I was becoming more and more certain that the glances Jack had been giving me over the last five minutes were, in fact, appreciative ones. The odd thing was, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. History had taught me to run as soon as a man showed even the remotest interest in me, and I usually did, and yet here I was allowing this virtual stranger to flirt with me.

There was no way someone like Jack would be interested in me. I knew I was pretty – my friends always told me so, anyway – but I had some serious issues, some of which he had witnessed first-hand, so really the chances of him looking at me that way were slim.

I very nearly laughed out loud at the wandering direction of my thoughts. How ironic that I avoided even considering romantic attachments to men and yet here I was, openly weighing up the possibility that he might find me attractive. Smiling wryly, I decided that even if I was in the market for a boyfriend – which I most definitely wasn’t – then I wouldn’t even be in Jack’s league. In fact, I was probably so many rungs
below
his league that I almost snorted out a dry laugh, putting his glances down to nothing more than him being friendly.

Even with my dismissal of his attention, I couldn’t help but notice that the sensuous, curling heat was still settled in my stomach. But before I could consider it further, my thoughts were distracted as Jack finished tending to my elbow and stood up.

With a satisfied nod, he smoothed the plaster down carefully with warm fingers, sending a shudder of pleasure running through my body that I desperately tried to disguise as a stretch. God, I was pathetic.

My unprecedented reaction was leaving me floundering and making a mockery out of my supposed self-security and the rigid defences I’d built up over the years. I had no idea how I could be so ridiculously attracted to a man I had literally only met five minutes ago, but that certainly appeared to be the case.

Jack’s fingers seemed to linger on my elbow for a touch longer than was necessary as his eyes observed me intently and a thick silence fell between us, making me feel incredibly exposed. His silent, curious gaze was unnerving, but when it dropped to my lips and remained there I very nearly whimpered.

Actually, it was worse than a whimper, because I suddenly realised to my horror that I was panting so hard that I was wheezing. Quite audibly, actually. Which was incredibly embarrassing, but hopefully could be passed off as a side-effect of my fall. Jerking my arm away, I raised my eyes to his and was immediately hit with his penetrating gaze again.

Before my poor confused brain could make too much of it, Jack’s expression cleared as he ran a hand rakishly through his ruffled hair, a gesture which proved to be totally pointless because no sooner had he lowered his arm that his brown mop of hair tumbled haphazardly across his forehead again.

‘Not bad, eh?’ he said, tipping his fur-covered chin towards my elbow and smiling proudly at his first aid skills. I nodded weakly as I tried to recover a grip on my shredded composure and decided that now was an ideal chance to make a swift exit.

‘I can’t run now that I’ve cooled down. I’d probably pull a muscle,’ Jack joked. ‘Shall we walk together for a while?’ His voice sounded pleasant and light but I could have sworn that he looked just a tiny bit hopeful.

I think I was officially delusional. I felt my forefinger begin to slide up my wrist and I gave one of the elastic bands a ping. I saw Jack’s eyes follow the movement with interest, his gaze narrowing briefly as he looked at my reddening skin.

With my nerve endings completely frazzled from Jack’s closeness, I tilted my head trying to commit the image of his handsome face to memory before I left, then shook my head with far more force than necessary.

‘Uhhh, actually, I think I’ll keep running.’ I had found that meeting Jack in the flesh had done nothing to cool my stupid crush on him. Quite the opposite, in fact, so in my nervous state I spoke hurriedly, knowing as the words left my tongue that they sounded abrupt and rude.

My confused emotions suddenly made me feel really defensive and irritable. Why was he flirting with me anyway? Was he so used to women literally throwing themselves at him that he didn’t care if they were sweaty and red as long as he stood a chance of getting laid? My lip curled in annoyance as flashes of Greg skimmed through my mind again.

Was Jack just as shallow and narrow-minded as Greg had been? Were all men completely obsessed with nothing but sex? I wasn’t experienced enough to know, but unfortunately my only encounters with the opposite sex so far had certainly suggested so.

Jack was famous and astonishingly good-looking – and clearly knew it. He probably had this effect on most women. Perhaps it was a game to him, fun to see how flustered he could make us. Tensing my jaw, I cursed myself, my finger pinging the elastic band almost relentlessly and making me wince. How could I have got so carried away? I never let my guard down around men. Least of all handsome ones. I felt hot annoyance coursing up through my veins at my own naïvety.

Definitely time to leave. Not to mention forget the crush I had on him and avoid all future urges to even think about him. Giving one last look toward Jack, I scowled at my own stupidity before spinning on my heels and walking away from him without another word.

Chapter Five

Allie

The tourist SIM cards were easy enough to locate – there was an entire rack of them just inside the door under the cool breeze from the shop’s air conditioner. Selecting the cheapest one that did what I needed (pay-as-you-go with unlimited international calls and texts) I darted across to the till, keen to get back to Sean and see exactly what naughtiness he had planned for us this afternoon.

As I stood in the queue daydreaming, I conjured up images involving me, him, lots of sweaty skin slapping, and a king-sized bed. A filthy grin spread on my lips, but whatever it was he had up his sleeve I knew that I would enjoy it because I would be with him.

As the queue shuffled forward, I was trying to work out which of the American notes and coins I needed when my eye caught the headline of a newspaper stacked to my right. Picking up a copy I read the headline again and my brain stalled, unable to digest the words no matter how many times I went over them. Quickly skimming the rest of the article I suddenly felt sick to my stomach, my blood turning cold in my veins and my head spinning as I tried to work out what I was seeing.

It couldn’t be true. Could it?

My brain was too caught up in the sudden confusion to notice that the cashier was now free. Someone behind me gave a cough, and then politely nudged me forward, where I blinked out of my trance and realised it was my turn to pay. Handing over a note to pay for both my items I didn’t even bother to wait for my change as I stepped away from the busy counter in a complete daze.

Tucking the paper under my arm with trembling fingers, I stumbled towards the exit, barely knowing what to do next. My head couldn’t process what I’d just read, but that didn’t stop me replaying the headline over and over in my mind.

What should I do? I could hardly stay hidden away in the shop all afternoon. Eventually Sean would send David in to check where I was and I’d look like a complete idiot. Working on autopilot I made my way towards the exit and back towards the waiting limo, barely noticing how my skin instantly dampened from the humid day.

Surely the headline was just a load of rubbish. People always said you should never believe what was printed in the papers, didn’t they? But my mind flicked back to Sean’s twitchy behaviour earlier and I felt concern settle heavily in my stomach. Did this explain why I was suddenly being placed in a hotel? I shook my spinning head, feeling utterly confused, because he’d been all over me in the car, and
inside
me, so it didn’t make any sense whatsoever.

By the time I had crossed the pavement David was holding open the car door for me and I slid in, automatically looking towards Sean as my heart seemed to cramp in my chest, with a pain so sharp that I almost had to reach up and rub at it.

BOOK: Unravelled (Revealed #2)
6.12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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