Page 64 of Behind the Scenes

“Not to worry. I can outdrive anyone.”

She relaxed and slowly let her arm come back down to her side. “I’m not worried. I trust you, Hunter.”

Looking over at her, he smiled, and her stomach did that flipping thing she loved.

Chapter Twenty-One

After five hoursof driving, Hunter pulled up to the guard shack at the entrance to the Blackmore Estate and rolled down the window. Freddie, the man on duty, made some small talk about it being nice to see him again and how the weather had been nice in the past few days. Then he leaned down out of his shack and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw Alexis.

“Is that…are you Alexis Marchand?”

Before she could answer, he started rattling off every movie of hers he’d ever seen and telling her which of them was his all-time favorite. Hunter wondered if he was the only man on the planet who hadn’t seen even a second of any of her movies.

As he tried to explain to Freddie that they needed to get onto the estate for official Project Artemis business, she leaned over and rested her head on Hunter’s shoulder.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m so happy you enjoy my films. You’ve made my day, Freddie.”

The guard beamed his happiness, but still he continued to hold them at the estate entrance. Pointing toward the road in front of him, Hunter said, “We really need to get in there, so if you could just open the gate, we’ll be on our way.”

Alexis nudged his arm, and he turned to see her scowling at him. “We really need to get going. I’m sure we could have the Alexis Fan Club meeting some other time,” he whispered.

“You really don’t get how this whole movie star thing works, do you?” she asked with a smile.

Just then, the gate opened and Hunter quickly pulled the car through. “I guess I just don’t see you that way, so when something like that happens, I don’t really understand it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure you’d deal with that as well as you did.”

She nudged him again and moved back over onto her seat. “I don’t know. I just did what I always used to do. I didn’t even think about it.”

“See what a little time away will do for you?” Hunter asked with a grin as he drove toward the guest house at the back of the property.

Alexis stared out the window at the main house in the distance, saying very little and obviously impressed with Persephone and Nick’s place. He had to admit the estate was pretty damn nice.

Certainly better than everywhere else he’d ever lived.

“How many of you live here?” she asked.

“Seven of us. Well, six of us since Roman and Kate moved out of the house I’m taking you to. And then there’s the other staff and Persephone and Nick.”

“Wow! This place is stunning. The grounds are so beautiful. I wish I could have moved to somewhere like this instead of a penthouse apartment in Manhattan.”

Hunter heard sadness in her voice and turned to see it all over her face. Hoping to cheer her up, he joked, “Trust me. If you asked any of the guys here, they’d probably take your place over living here any day. Once you leave the estate, there isn’t much to do, unless you want to go into DC.”

“I’d love it here. It’s so peaceful and beautiful,” she said in a faraway voice. “It sort of reminds me of my house in LA, except mine wasn’t even half the size of this.”

He stopped the car at the rear of the guest house that until about a month before had been the home of Roman and Kate until they bought a place a few miles away. Hunter knew Persephone wouldn’t be happy that he’d brought Alexis to the estate, but he hoped she didn’t make a big deal out of it.

If he knew her, she’d be all sweetness and light to Alexis, but he’d pay for his decision after the case ended. It was all worth it if Alexis got to relax for a few days, though.

The guest house on Blackmore Estate would technically be called a cottage, but as Hunter escorted her inside, he thought about how many of his homes had been even smaller than this place. Calling it a cottage made the three bedroom, eight room house sound quaint, but in truth, most people lived in more modest places than this one.

Alexis turned around in awe as he set her bag down on the coffee table in the living room. Obviously happy, she smiled like he’d never seen her do before.

“This is so nice, Hunter! I love this house! If the main house is anything like this one, I can’t believe anyone would want to ever move away from here.”

“Living with six other men and a bunch of other people isn’t as great as it sounds. I would think you’d know that.”

She spread her arms and twirled around in the middle of the room. “But it’s so wide open and charming. It’s nothing like the penthouse where all the rooms are like little boxes.”

“Well, imagine it with Lauren, Carla, and the bodyguards and it doesn’t sound so charming anymore.”

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