Saving Alexander (14 page)

“Fine. Just me then.” Alex grinned impishly. “I liked jumping your bones so you’d better be ready for more of the same.”

Sage smiled. “Ditto. As long as you do it often. I’m very needy. Although perhaps next time we can manage it somewhere a little more comfortable and I certainly hope it takes longer.”

They were outside on the pavement now, Sage locking the door behind them. “I’ll walk you home and then get home myself,” he said quietly.

Alex opened his mouth to protest and Sage shook his head firmly. “No argument. With everything that’s happened to Dianne, I want to see you safely home first. Safety in numbers.”

Alex considered, nodded then tucked his arm in Sage’s. Sage marvelled at the transformation in him. Alex seemed a different person. His face was more relaxed, his walk more chipper and his overall demeanour seemed much brighter.

If Sage could do that for him in just one night, surely over time he could wean the man off Eric for good? Sage knew he had a challenge to face. He also knew they had a lot more to talk about. Alex’s admissions of the evening had raised more questions for him than answers. He wanted to get to know Alex more and perhaps even get to see his whole body in the light. He’d no idea whether he was up to the task. But he’d give it a damned good try and if all else failed he could always say “Tallulah” no matter how much it broke his heart.

Chapter 14

The following morning Alex arrived at the studio early and made himself a pot of coffee. He’d slept better last night than he could ever remember doing. When he looked at the couch in the corner, he grinned in memory of what had happened there last night with Sage. He’d been incredible, really strong and sexy, and he could feel his groin tingle just thinking about him. He hummed to himself as he powered up his computer, taking his coffee over to the window and looking out into the street below. He turned when he heard a polite cough at the door to see Luke standing there, an apologetic smile on his face.

“Alex? Good morning. I wondered whether you’d had a chance to make those writing changes for me yet for today’s schedule?”

Alex nodded, setting his coffee cup down on the desk. “I have them here. Let me print them you for you.” As he sat down to print the documents he saw Sage at the door. Luke stepped into the room to make way for Sage.

Sage smiled at him. “Good morning,” he said softly. “Morning, Luke. I’m glad to see you’re cracking the whip so early. You have to keep the staff on their toes.” He winked at Alex behind Luke’s back and Alex’s stomach lurched at the tender expression in Sage’s eyes.

Luke frowned, a comical expression on his face as he reached down to pick up something wedged under the couch. “Well, what have we here?” he asked slyly as he held up the silk boxers Alex had been wearing the night before.

Alex’s jaw dropped. He’d looked around for them last night. He’d made a mental note to look again. Then after he’d dressed, he’d forgotten. He glanced at Sage, whose face was currently pink and going pinker by the minute.

Hastily Alex stood up and deftly removed the offending item from Luke’s fingers. He didn’t know what to say and Sage wasn’t helping.

Luke looked at him, then at Sage’s blushing face. He’d got it all figured out.

Luke held up his hands in a gesture of pretended ignorance, all the time with a wide grin on his face. “I suppose they must have dropped out of your laundry basket, Alex,” he said, nodding wisely. “You really should be more careful with your delicates.” He picked up the papers from the printer, holding them aloft, and he sauntered out of the office.

Sage looked at Alex with horror. “Jesus Christ! I don’t believe it. It’ll be all over the studio grapevine in about a minute. Luke’s terrible with gossip. That man’s got the busiest mouth I know.”

Alex spluttered in laughter as Sage looked at him in annoyance. “Alex, this is
not
funny. The whole bloody world is going to know you and I slept together in this office last night.”

Alex chuckled. “Sage, it’s your blushing that gave it all away in the first place. I might have been able to blag it out had it not been for that. But won’t it be better than keeping it secret and sneaking around?”

He stopped as a thought occurred to him and he looked at Sage. “Are you saying you’re ashamed of it? Is it something you don’t want out in the open for that reason?”

Sage looked at him. “Don’t be silly. I want to shout it from the bloody rooftops. I’m more worried about the fact that it will get out to the newspapers. The papers will spare no effort at finding out everything they can about any relationship in my experience, which might mean looking at you and your background. I know you must already have considered that when you decided to become a author and then got famous. But this will add another facet to the press’s insatiable desire to drill down into all the sordid details no matter how it hurts. Is that something you want?”

Alex felt ill, realising Sage’s words were true. He’d overlooked that part in his amusement at being caught shagging the sexy film star in the studio. He looked worriedly out at the corridor.

Sage sighed. “It’s too late. It’ll be viral by now. Get ready for the hoo-hah when you go out of this room. They won’t let us live it down.” He took Alex’s hands and held them. “This is just something we’ll have to watch. I can only take the ‘no comment’ thing so far if I’m collared. You need to be prepared for it too.” He beckoned to Alex. “Come on. I need to get to makeup. We may as well go out and face whatever’s coming together.”

Alex followed him into the corridor, walking away behind him. Already he saw the sly glances and thumbs-up he was getting from a lot of the crew. Bloody hell, Luke had only a five-minute head start. Sage had the same attention, people walking past him, slapping him on the shoulders as if he’d just completed something extremely important rather than diddled the in-residence writer in his office. Sage waved them off good naturedly and Alex marvelled at his ability to simply take it in his stride.

Alex saw Sage stop suddenly as Sarah Brose stepped in front of him. The woman stood regarding him for a moment with a sneer on her face. She said something to him and he stepped back, almost as if she’d threatened him. Sage replied but Alex was too far away to make out what was being said. Finally Sarah moved out of his path and Sage walked on, whilst Sarah watched him, her eyes boring into his back. He disappeared into the makeup room.

Ally, one of the lighting crew, sauntered up to Alex with a grin. “Alex, you lucky man. I’ve heard all about your night of passion with our resident Mr. Dark and Sexy. I won’t be all nosy and ask how it was, because that would be rude.” She laughed. “But if you want to tell me, I’m all ears.” She leered at Alex. “We’ve all noticed the size of his feet and we’d appreciate knowing whether there’s any truth in the old urban legend.”

She chuckled, touching Alex lightly on his arm before moving on. Alex made it to the other side of the studio and sank down thankfully into a large easy chair whilst he settled in to watch the filming. A heavy hand fell on his shoulder. He looked up into the set face of Sarah.

“Sarah, can I help you with something?” Alex was puzzled by the look on the cleaning lady’s face. Her attitude and attention toward Sage were beginning to bother him.

“I just wanted you to know I’m here for you, that’s all. You know where I am if you need me.” Sarah turned and strode away, leaving Alex bemused.

What the hell was all that about?

Alex shrugged, watching as Carter West and Gillian Blake made love in front of the cameras, all the time wishing he was the one up there with Sage.

Alex had a session with Eric in a few days’ time. He gave a thought to cancelling and immediately felt a wave of distress. He knew he wasn’t ready to give it up yet. He’d need to take this new relationship one day at a time.

Chapter 15

Sage finished changing back into casual clothes, giving a sigh of relief. It had been a long day. Despite the fact that a few days had passed since Luke had outed him and Alex, everyone was still giving him sideways glances and pokes in the ribs every time they saw him. It was still apparently a hot topic of conversation amongst the film crew. It was getting annoying and he thought he might deck the next person who made any rude gestures or expressed their approval of his and Alex’s night of passion.

He wondered how Alex was managing all of it. Sage’s time had been very busy with filming and other promotional events and they’d only managed to make love again once since that night, in Alex’s office again. He was looking forward to perhaps convincing Alex to go out for a bite to eat tonight. He looked at his watch. Five p.m. It was a nice early finish to the day for a change. He went to find Alex but he was nowhere to be found. Sage frowned. It seemed a bit early for him to leave. Seeing Janine standing over by the coffee machine, he made his way over. “Janine? Have you seen Alex?”

“He left a little while ago. Said he had an appointment.”

Sage’s stomach dropped. “Did he say where?”

Janine shrugged and then winked. “Nope, sorry. You’ll have to give the hanky-panky a miss tonight, it looks like.”

Janine grinned at Sage’s ferocious expression, waving her finger in his face. “Sunshine! You can’t expect to do what you two did and not get the stick that goes with being caught. Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon unless someone finds some more underwear lying around.” She chuckled as Sage shook his head in exasperation and walked off.

Sage took out his mobile, thinking perhaps Alex had left him a message. Sure enough, he saw a short text message from him and his face darkened when he read it.

Sage. 2nite is an E nite. wanted u 2 know. i’ll call u l8r A.

He shoved his phone back in his pocket savagely.

Christ, I don’t want to know about Alex’s plans for the night with bloody Eric! I especially don’t want to have to talk to him after he’s had another man inside him either. God, this is going to be hard. It’s only been a few days and I don’t know if I can do this.

He saw Sarah Brose on the other side of the studio and frowned.

That woman was
psycho.
She’d gotten in his face just after the news about he and Alex had been leaked and told him to leave Alex alone, that he was worth more than Sage’s attention. Sage had told her in no uncertain terms to fucking mind her own business and for a moment he’d thought she was going to hit him. She’d then trundled off and he’d not spoken to her since. She seemed to have a real problem with him and he had no idea why. What he did know was that he wanted her off the set. She was trouble, he could sense it. He made a mental note to speak to Luke about it later. He sat down on the easy chair in the studio and clasped his hands in front of him as he tried to control his thoughts about what Alex might be doing right now. There was a gentle hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see Dianne smiling down at him.

“Sweetheart. You look so glum! What’s the matter?” Dianne nudged him over and sat down on the chair arm next to him.

He smiled tiredly. “Just tired, I suppose. Having everyone think you’re the office Romeo hasn’t helped either. Dodging the puns has been bloody exhausting.”

She chuckled. “I for one am glad you two got it on. I always thought there was an attraction there and I’m glad to see my instinct wasn’t wrong. Alex is such a gem, a little self-contained perhaps, but he’s absolutely gorgeous and the two of you make a lovely couple.” She raised two immaculately plucked eyebrows. “You are a couple, aren’t you?”

Sage couldn’t really tell her they were a threesome. “It’s a little complicated. It’s still very early days so don’t go assuming too much yet.”

She patted his arm as she stood up. “You hang in there. Things will work out, you’ll see. I’m going out to dinner with Thomas. Do you want to join us?”

Sage shook his head. “Chinese takeaway and a night in, I think. I need to catch up on some ‘me’ time.”

Dianne ruffled his hair as she walked away. “Tell Alex I say hi.”

He grinned and stood up, ready to leave. His mobile rang as he did so and he answered it. “Chris Sage.”

The voice on the other side was matter-of-fact and terse. “Mr. Sage? This is Nurse Sarah White from Broomfield Hospital. I’ve been given your number as a contact for Mr. Miles Conway. I’m afraid he’s been in a car accident. He’s here at the hospital.”

The news caused Sage to sit back down in shock, feeling as if a pile driver had been driven through his chest. “How is he?” he managed to say.

“He’s holding his own. He’s in surgery at the moment,” the woman said quietly.

“I’ll be over as soon as I can. You have my number so will you call me if anything changes?”

“I don’t think anything will. But of course I will, Mr. Sage.”

“Thanks. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He put his phone back into his pocket with shaking hands.

Luke noticed him and came over. “Sage? You look terrible. Is everything all right?”

Sage shook his head blindly. “No. My godfather has just been rushed to hospital. He was in a car accident. I have to get to Broomfield Hospital. I have no car here, has anyone got one I can borrow?”

Luke nodded decisively. “You’re in no shape to drive, getting news like that. Come on, I’ll take you in. This seems to becoming a habit for us, driving people to hospitals.”

He ushered Sage out of the studio and into the underground car park. It took them nearly two hours to get to Chelmsford to the hospital. The London traffic was a nightmare. Sage was almost eating his fingers after biting off his nails in his agitation to get to Miles.

Luke pulled up into the hospital and gestured to Sage to get out. “Go. I’ll find somewhere to park and I’ll find you.”

Sage needed no urging. He legged it out of the car and into the A&E department. The young receptionist took one look at him and gave him her full attention.

“Mr. Sage. I saw you on TV in
Dalton’s Hospital
. You were amazing, really. Are you here to see someone?”

“My godfather, Miles Conway, was admitted here earlier. He was in a car accident. I need to see him.”