Damage Control

by Jae

  Alex threw her head back, baring her throat to Linda’s kisses.

  When she couldn’t stand to have any kind of barrier between them anymore, Linda reached around her and expertly unhooked the bra with one hand while the other slid down Alex’s belly and unbuttoned her jeans. With two of her fingers, she reached into Alex’s open pants and dipped beneath a sexy pair of panties. A groan wrenched from her lips. “God. You’re so wet.”

  Christ, so am I. Startled by the realization, Grace closed the laptop and put it aside. Her whole body felt as if she were running a fever, burning up, but it wasn’t a fever making her sweat. It’s totally normal. Just a physical reaction to a well-written love scene. Anyone—gay or straight—would react like that, right? After all, not all of the people who read and wrote these stories could be lesbians. So if the love scene between women affected her, it just proved that she still had a healthy sex drive, even if she hadn’t seen much proof of it for the last year or two.

  Deep in thought, she slid one hand under the waistband of her sweatpants. Her eyes fluttered shut at the wetness she found—and then popped open when the phone started to ring.

  She jerked her hand out of her pants and pressed it against her thumping heart. With the trembling fingers of her other hand, she reached for the phone and groaned when she saw the name on the display. Why did Lauren of all people have to call now? “Hi, Lauren,” she said into the phone, trying to sound normal.

  “Hi,” Lauren said. “Is everything all right? You sound a little…strange.”

  A flush swept up Grace’s neck, adding to the heat coursing through her body. She slid one foot onto the floor to ease the pressure between her legs. “I’m fine.” You just caught me with my hand down my pants; that’s all.

  “Are you sure? The set medic checked for a concussion, didn’t he?”

  “I’m one hundred percent positive,” Grace said. “I don’t have a concussion.” She did feel a little dizzy, though, her mind still spinning with the powerful effect the love scene had had on her.

  “Good.”

  “So, what can I do for you?”

  “I’m just calling to see how your eye is doing,” Lauren said.

  Amanda’s words reverberated through Grace’s mind. Clearly, Lauren wasn’t just concerned for professional reasons. Oh, come on. Why did suddenly everything Lauren did and said have to be suspicious, just because Amanda thought she might be attracted to Grace? She was a friend, period. Belatedly, she cleared her throat. “The eye is just fine.”

  “Glad to hear that. Uh, listen, there’s something else…”

  Grace held her breath. “Yes?”

  “I don’t want to risk another confrontation with your mother, but…could you please tell her to stop clogging my in-box?”

  “My mother is sending you e-mail? Why? She didn’t mention it when she was here earlier.”

  Lauren sighed. “She keeps sending me these links to Central Precinct fan fiction sites, telling me that they’re harming your reputation and demanding that I do something about them.”

  Grace groaned and covered her face with her free hand, then quickly pulled her hand away when she caught a whiff of her own musky scent. “I’m sorry. I thought I’d convinced her they’re harmless.”

  “Oh, so she brought them to your attention.”

  Oh, yes, the stories had caught her attention all right. “Yes. She came over with a couple of these lesbian porn stories.”

  Lauren laughed. “They’re hardly porn stories.”

  “So you read them?” Grace asked before she could stop herself. Her cheeks flamed. She didn’t want to think about her new friend reading these NC-17-rated stories.

  “Well, I needed to take your mother’s concerns seriously, didn’t I? I read just enough to make sure the stories are not harming your reputation—quite the opposite,” Lauren added with a laugh.

  Grace didn’t know what to say to that.

  “These stories…do they bother you?” Lauren asked when Grace kept silent.

  “Why would they? They’re not stories about me.”

  “A few of them actually are,” Lauren said.

  Grace frowned. “Really? I didn’t see any of those.”

  There was a short pause. “Oh, so you took a look at the stories too?”

  “Well, I needed to take my mother’s concerns seriously, didn’t I?” Grace repeated Lauren’s words.

  “Right.”

  Did Lauren’s voice sound a little husky?

  It was probably just her imagination. Because of Amanda’s implications that Lauren might be attracted to her and that damn fan fiction story, she was now overly aware of Lauren’s sexual orientation. “So, there are actually stories about me? Not just about me as Alexandra Eadington?”

  “Just a handful. They’re called real-person fics.”

  “Wow. You certainly know a lot about these things.” Grace immediately wondered why. Did Lauren read these lesbian stories in her spare time?

  “I had to deal with a lot of upset Hollywood divas over the years, calling me to complain about all of these sex stories about them circulating the Internet.”

  Was that how Lauren saw her? As just one more Hollywood diva she had to deal with? The thought hurt. Grace shook her head. If Lauren did, she wouldn’t talk so openly. “So what do you think we should do about these real-person stories?”

  “Nothing,” Lauren said. “As long as they’re not becoming rampant, it’s best to just ignore them.”

  “Because trying to get them pulled off the web would be like saying ‘no comment’?” Grace asked.

  “Something like that. It would just call attention to these stories. Plus lashing out at your fans is considered bad form.”

  Even fans who wrote dirty stories about her. It rankled Grace a little, but she knew Lauren was right. “Okay. I’ll tell my mother to stop bothering you about it.”

  “Thanks. So, I’ll see you next week, then.”

  “Uh, next week?” Had she forgotten an appointment?

  Lauren chuckled. “Yeah. You, me, and about a dozen other people flying to the city of fish and chips?”

  “So it’s decided now? You’ll accompany me and the rest of the cast on our promo tour through Europe?”

  “Yes. The studio will send two people from their PR department too, but they didn’t seem to mind letting me handle all of your publicity.”

  “Great.” Grace much preferred working with Lauren to working with two PR consultants she didn’t know. “No fish and chips for me, though. It’s also considered bad form if my dress bursts while I’m walking down the red carpet.”

  Lauren snorted. “Like that would happen. Okay, I’d better get back to work now.”

  And this call wasn’t work? Grace wondered.

  When they’d said good-bye, she sat there for a moment and stared at the laptop, tempted to open it back up and continue reading. With a decisive shake of her head, she got up and marched over to the exercise room for a vigorous workout. She needed to burn off some calories—and some sexual frustration.

  CHAPTER 19

  “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” Jill mumbled as she gripped the armrest of her seat with one hand and Grace’s fingers with the other.

  The plush leather beneath Grace vibrated as the eighteen-passenger corporate jet accelerated down the runway and then lifted off. The pressure on her hand increased. “Ouch, Jill. Ease up a little. I might need my hand again, you know?”

  “You have two,” Jill answered, unimpressed.

  “Why are you so afraid of flying? You must have done it a thousand times.”

  Still keeping Grace’s hand in a death-grip, Jill said, “I’m not afraid of flying. Just of crashing. Statistically, most airplane crashes occur during takeoffs and landin
gs.”

  Grace peered at the two publicists who sat on the other side of the gleaming mahogany table. One seemed to be sleeping already while the other was engrossed in a file folder. Neither paid them any attention.

  “Have you ever heard of fan fiction?” Grace asked, partly to distract her but mainly because she was curious. She hadn’t visited that Central Precinct fan fiction archive again, but her mind was still processing the stories she’d found.

  Her lips tightly pressed together, Jill nodded.

  Finally, the small plane leveled off and Jill let go of Grace’s hand.

  Both of them heaved a sigh of relief as they settled in for the long flight to London.

  “Of course I’ve heard of fan fics,” Jill said, now her usual chipper self. “I used to read a lot of them when I first figured out my sexual orientation. I loved reading romances that I could enjoy without having to mentally replace the male part of the couple with a woman.”

  Hmm. Interesting. Grace didn’t think she’d done that. She hadn’t replaced one of the women with a man while reading the fan fiction. Well, she hadn’t really pictured a woman looking like Amanda making love to her own lookalike either. In her imagination, the second woman had been taller, with darker hair—probably because she and Amanda looked too much alike. Having a bit of a contrast was more attractive.

  “Why do you ask?” Jill regarded her with a curious expression.

  “My mother somehow discovered a few stories about Alexandra, the character I play on Central Precinct, online.”

  Nodding, Jill stretched out in her upholstered seat.

  “Lesbian stories,” Grace added, pitching her voice low so the studio publicists across from them and their fellow cast members behind them wouldn’t hear.

  “Ooh.” Jill laughed and slapped her thighs. She peered across the aisle to where Grace’s mother sat on a comfortable couch, chatting off the ear of their poor director. “I bet she was not amused.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year,” Grace muttered.

  “How about you?” Jill asked. “What did you think of the stories?”

  To her annoyance, Grace felt her cheeks heat.

  Jill nudged her and pulled up the armrest between them to lean closer. “Ooh! You read some of them!” She nudged her again. “Come on. Admit it.”

  “Stop poking me. I read one, okay? Just one of them.”

  “Aaaand?” Jill drawled.

  “And it was a well-written story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. At least that’s what I assume, since I didn’t finish it.”

  “Not your cup of tea. I understand.” Jill stopped poking her.

  Grace considered leaving it at that. But after everything she and Jill had been through together, she didn’t want to lie to her friend, not even by omission. “That’s not it. I did enjoy the story.” Mom would have a heart attack if she knew how much. Okay, maybe she would omit that bit of information after all. Jill would jump to all the wrong conclusions if she told her about the way her body had reacted. “I just had to stop reading because Lauren called.”

  “I packed my laptop.” Jill pointed to the laptop case she’d stowed under her seat. “If you want, you can continue reading.”

  No way in hell would she read that story while Jill was looking over her shoulder. “Uh, no, thanks. I’ll just try to sleep in a little while. We won’t get much sleep for the next seven days.”

  Jill nodded and picked up a magazine from the table in front of her.

  Grace rotated her neck, reached up to massage one stiff shoulder, and looked around the luxurious cabin. Her gaze found Lauren, who sat in a single seat toward the front of the plane. Her expression was tense, with a deep line forming between her brows. For a moment, Grace thought Lauren might be afraid of flying, but then she realized that her co-star, Russ, was sitting across from Lauren on the other side of a small table, chatting her up.

  Now it was her turn to nudge Jill. “Do you see that?” She pointed. “Russ is trying to flirt with Lauren.”

  Jill glanced up from the magazine she was flipping through. “Can’t blame him. She’s an attractive woman. If I didn’t have MS, I’d ask her out.”

  Something about that statement sparked Grace’s ire. “Why do you keep saying that?”

  “Saying what? You wouldn’t want me to ask her out?”

  “No, that’s not it.” Although, truth be told, thinking of Lauren and Jill dating was weird. “Why do you keep acting as if you don’t have the right to date anyone, just because you have MS?”

  Jill threw the magazine back onto the table. She regarded Grace with an uncharacteristically serious expression. “Because I don’t. Not when my future is so insecure.”

  “No one knows what their future holds.”

  “That’s not the same, and you know it. Who knows if I would be able to hold up my end of the relationship in a year or five or ten?” Jill shook her head, her eyes clouded over. “I refuse to be a burden to the person I love.”

  “So if you met a woman and fell in love, you’d just ignore your feelings?”

  Jill lifted one shoulder into a half-shrug. “Probably.”

  “Even if you could have many happy years together? Even though you have so many other things to offer in a relationship? Any woman would be lucky to have you.”

  A slow smile spread over Jill’s face. “Is that your way of saying you’d do me if you were gay?”

  Grace poked her in the ribs. “It’s my way of saying I don’t want you to give up on love.”

  “Anything to drink?” A flight attendant stood in the aisle next to them.

  They both ordered glasses of Diet Coke, which were promptly delivered.

  When the flight attendant was gone, Jill leaned over and asked in a near whisper that only Grace could hear, “How about you? Have you given up on love after the Nick debacle?”

  “I haven’t even told you the newest development in that department,” Grace answered, her voice pitched just as low. “Nick will be a father soon.”

  Jill nearly spat out a sip of Diet Coke. She pressed a napkin to her mouth and eyed Grace’s belly.

  “Don’t look at me like that.” Grace gave her a playful little shove. “I’m not the mother. Shailene, his girlfriend, is.”

  “Christ. What was he thinking? Once the media finds out…”

  “Yeah, I wasn’t exactly happy about it either. But it’s the way it is, and now we’ll have to deal with it.”

  Jill looked at her with a slight shake of her head. “Sometimes, I think you’re way too Zen for your age.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  Someone coughed softly next to them.

  When Grace looked up, Lauren stood next to her seat, holding out a bag of chocolate-covered peanuts. “Nuts?”

  “Is that an offer or a statement?” Grace asked.

  Lauren laughed and glanced over her shoulder to where Russ was still sitting. “After having to sit next to your co-star, I’m actually not sure.”

  “Russ isn’t that bad,” Grace said.

  “If he knows you’re married or gay,” Jill added. “If you’re single and straight, all bets are off. Just tell him you’re a lesbian and he’ll stop chatting you up.”

  “I tried that.” Lauren made a face. “He seems to think it’s sexy.”

  “Hmm. He stopped flirting with me after I came out. Must be the MS, then. I bet he doesn’t think that’s sexy.”

  “What an asshole,” Lauren said.

  Jill reached out and patted her arm. “See?” she said to Grace. “She’s not so Zen. Good for you, Lauren.”

  Lauren looked back and forth between them with a furrowed brow but didn’t ask.

  “Want to switch seats?” Jill asked.

 
Was she trying to avoid any further conversation about her reluctance to get romantically involved with anyone? Grace wasn’t sure.

  Lauren’s eyes lit up, but she hesitated. “Are you sure?”

  “Why not? He’ll leave me alone, and I plan on sleeping all the way to London anyway.”

  “All right. Let me just get my laptop.” Lauren darted down the aisle as if afraid that Jill would change her mind.

  Chuckling, Grace watched her go.

  “The two of you have gotten pretty friendly, haven’t you?” Jill said.

  Grace’s head jerked around. “What do you mean?” She hoped this wasn’t another attempt to warn her of Lauren’s less-than-platonic intentions. One of her friends lecturing her about it had been more than enough.

  “She offered you her snack. And I have rarely seen you so playful with anyone else.”

  “Can’t I just be in a good mood?”

  Jill lifted both hands. “Hey, no reason to get defensive. It’s all good. I like knowing you have a friend beside me.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to take your head off. It’s just…”

  Lauren’s return prevented her from having to explain.

  Jill picked up her soda and the magazine.

  With one hand, Lauren held on to Jill’s elbow as she stood and accompanied her to her seat, carrying Jill’s laptop case.

  “I’m not a helpless old woman, you know?” Jill’s complaint trailed back to Grace.

  “I’m just carrying your laptop to make sure you stay in your new seat and don’t want mine back,” Lauren answered. A minute later, she returned and settled into the aisle seat next to Grace. She fished the bag of chocolate-covered nuts out of her pocket and slid them onto the table in front of Grace. “I come bearing gifts.”