Page 42 of Behind the Scenes

Hunter turned to look at her and then looked away at the sidewalk in front of them. “I guess he and I have different styles. I can protect you better being at your side instead of trailing behind you.”

Everything about this man said control, something Alexis had never liked much. Paul continually tried to exert control over her, whether it was what parts she chose or what events she attended. Her ex-husband had been a big fan of control, deciding on everything from what clothes she would wear to how long she should keep her hair.

And with both of them, she rebelled every chance she got.

Now that she had yet another man in her world who seemed so determined to have control, she wondered if maybe she had been wrong about that touchy subject. Maybe that’s why Jackson had left her for an even younger woman after just a few years of marriage. Maybe if she’d been more amenable to taking direction from him off the set as much as on the set, he wouldn’t have cheated on her.

Oh no. To hell with that.

Nobody—not Paul, not Jackson, and not Hunter—was going to control her ever again, and she’d never torture herself with the idea that if only she let them have what they wanted that maybe she could make them happy. Now, she wanted to be happy.

Just before she took off into a sprint across the intersection, she glanced over at Hunter and smiled. “Well, let’s see if you can keep up then.”

Long legs and a lean body that had always lent itself to running had made Alexis a natural sprinter, so within a block, she’d left Hunter and Lauren behind her. She knew this technically broke her promise not to leave without having him right there with her, but she didn’t care. For the first time since she moved to New York, she felt independent. Even the trip to Atlantic City hadn’t given her that.

She reveled in how great she felt running in the nearly sixty degree temperatures while the light breeze hit her face and the sun warmed her cheeks. As she rushed by the trees planted along the sidewalk, she saw the leaves had changed to show their vibrant reds and oranges for autumn, something she hadn’t gotten to enjoy in years. For a moment, Alexis wondered if New York wouldn’t be that terrible after all.

Just then, she heard Lauren cry out behind her, “I’ve got a Charlie horse! Cramp! Cramp!”

Alexis stopped and turned around to see her assistant about a block away hopping around on one foot in front of a brownstone and nearly falling into the shrubbery that lined the sidewalk. Hunter waved her back to help poor Lauren, who looked like she was in agony.

She ran up to her and put her arms around her shoulders to hold her up. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Wincing in pain, she kept her right foot suspended in the air and groaned, “I think I overdosed on fudge and my body’s rebelling. I don’t think I can run any further. I’m sorry.”

She suspected Lauren’s cramp, while it may have existed, likely didn’t rate all this trouble. She’d never liked running, but since she’d already gotten in trouble for helping with the jailbreak earlier that morning, Alexis felt like she deserved sympathy.

They could walk the rest of the way.

“It’s okay. We’ll get there. We can walk instead.”

Lauren stood up straight and shook her head. “No, you don’t have to stop on my account. You two go on ahead. You guys love running, and you aren’t injured, so you should. Get your run in. I’ll get there. Just a little slower.”

Alexis looked over at Hunter and saw he was waiting for her to make a decision. But she couldn’t just leave Lauren there to walk the rest of the way alone, no matter how much she wanted to challenge Hunter to another sprint race.

“I’m not going to abandon you. We’ll stay with you.”

As they made their way toward the first gym, she said to Hunter, “I guess we should have brought Kyle after all.”

He grimaced at her comment and nodded. “I guess.”

“Well, all the better for you since I was going to challenge you to a race. You should be happy Kyle isn’t here,” she teased.

Hunter flashed her that sexy grin she’d seen a few times that day already. “You’d probably win. Even though I’m at least four inches taller than you, I think you have the longest legs I’ve ever seen on a woman. That gives you an advantage. Plus, my friend likes to tease me that I don’t do enough to stay healthy, so that’s another thing you have going for you.”

His use of the word friend made her curious, and even though she didn’t understand why, it bothered her. Was this friend a male or female? It had never occurred to her that Hunter could be with someone. Who was she? How did she feel about him staying at her apartment while he worked to solve who was stalking her?

Even more, Alexis wondered why she suddenly cared if Hunter was single or not.

Lost in thought, she tripped over her own feet and careened into him. He caught her as she fell, his muscular arms steadying her, and she had to admit she liked how they felt against her body.

But she didn’t know if she should let herself think about him in that way. If he was taken, she had no business being anything other than respectful. Stepping away from him, she smiled politely.

“Thanks. I guess I need to pay more attention to where I’m going.”

He smiled like he wanted to say something, but Alexis quickly looked away to focus on Lauren. “Let’s keep going. At this rate, we’ll be lucky if we get to any gyms at all today.”

Grabbing her assistant’s arm, she hurried her down the sidewalk, leaving Hunter behind. When they got far enough away that she didn’t think he could hear her voice, she whispered to Lauren, “Pretend like we’re talking about something funny.”

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