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  “You don’t have to be scared.”

  Her head whipped around. “I’m not scared.”

  “You are.” I smoothed my hands down the lapels of my suit coat.

  “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know lots.” I smiled at her, getting under her skin for once. “I know the sounds you make when you come on my face—”

  She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “That was a momentary lapse in judgment.”

  I nodded as if I were entertaining her words. “Okay, so what about the cock sucking?”

  Her back stiffened. “Also a lapse.”

  “I think you enjoyed every minute of it, and only got scared when you realized that meant you were opening up to me.”

  She smirked. “You call that thinking?”

  “This is just like Aliens Versus Vampires II. Commander Reptilian meets and falls in love with an enemy in the vampire fleet, but she pushes him away because of her dark past as an alien hunter. Fangia was the one who captured his father and turned him over to the vampire overlords for his eventual execution. So, of course, she was afraid the Commander would find out and not want her anymore. But you know what he did when he found out?”

  She rolled her eyes. “This is the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life, but sure, continue.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed about liking the series.” I patted her knee. “You’ll be watching them all with me soon enough.”

  She guffawed, but I continued, “He was angry at first. Like shoot-your-laser-gun-into-space-while-screaming-at-the-stars angry. But once he realized Fangia wasn’t that person anymore, he forgave her, and they joined forces to rid the galaxy of the alien and vampire conflict.”

  Her nose wrinkled. “So, if they joined forces and ended the conflict, why are there what, three more movies in the series?”

  “Five.” I coughed into my hand. “And the series had to continue because…well…Fangia died in the final battle of the second movie.”

  She gaped at me, her mouth slightly open. “Did you just tell me a story where the character that is presumably me dies at the end?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t really think that one all the way through.” I glanced out at the lights of Park Avenue as we approached the Four Seasons.

  A smile flirted with the corner of her lips. “For the record, I didn’t kill your father, and my name’s not Fangia.”

  “Also, on a positive note, you’re not dead, either.”

  Her amusement faded, draining from her eyes.

  I moved closer. “What is it?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Is it Pauly?”

  She shook her head. “I wish you didn’t know about that.”

  “Too late. Have you thought about maybe going to the police?”

  Her crossed arms tightened, and she turned away from me. “Not an option.”

  “Maybe I could—”

  “Leave it.” She had shut down, the musical tone of her voice dulled.

  I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her she could trust me, but her body language was clear. Pushing wouldn’t get me where I wanted to go.

  “I’m sorry I brought it up again.”

  “It’s all right.” She still didn’t look at me.

  We pulled up in a line with the same red-carpet treatment as the prior weekend. People crowded the sidewalk under the glass awning of the hotel, and stars and socialites walked down the row waving and smiling.

  I couldn’t let it drop. “I just wish you’d let me help you.”

  Her tone softened. “You can’t save me, Willis. It doesn’t work that way. So, you might as well stop trying. Let’s just get through tonight, okay? Help me shine for you.”

  Fuck. She was more focused on making my career a success than I was.

  “You don’t need me for you to shine.”

  She smiled but turned to look out the window, hiding it from me. “Well, I do need you to help me with any questions that involve a talking penis.”

  “I’ll be all over it.”

  Her shoulders shook with quiet laughter, and I re-thought over what I just said.

  “I meant that I’m all over the question, not all over the talking penis.”

  “Of course.” Her voice cracked with a giggle.

  I leaned closer to her and pressed my lips against her ear, her delicious vanilla perfume begging me to take a bite. “Do you recall the spanking we discussed?”

  “No.” Her voice turned silky. “Haven’t a clue what you’re referring to.”

  “I’ll remind you.” We stopped at the red carpet, and her door opened, but I grabbed her elbow before she could escape me. “Soon.”

  16

  Scarlet

  He’d rattled me in the car, trying to get me to trust him and show him all my ugly inner workings. But it wasn’t going to happen. Not a part of the plan. He kept to my elbow as we smiled our way into the luxurious hotel.

  A greeter welcomed us and waved us up the stairs and to the right toward a dining room bedecked with models, Vogue covers, and the New York elite. My eyes instinctually went to all the glorious baubles that I could snag with ease, and the men with models on their arms, gray on their heads, and fat wallets in their pockets.

  “You look like a champion eater that just walked into a buffet.” Willis stayed close to me as we melded into the glittering crowd.

  “Now that you mention it, I’m pretty hungry.” I passed up what would have been an easy take on a Tiffany’s bracelet. Then a wallet peeked at me from the inside of a portly man’s coat. It was as if all the plunder were mocking me, daring me to break my agreement with Willis.

  “Willis!” We both looked up to find Jason coming toward us through the crowd. “Scarlet, I didn’t know you two would be here.”

  He hugged me, then pulled Willis into a hyper-masculine back-slapping bear hug. I got a flash of the two of them naked, wrangling for supremacy. Hot.

  When Jason finally released Willis, he asked, “Y’all been to the bar yet?”

  “I definitely need a drink.” I watched as a bangle bracelet passed by, the gemstones sparkling under the lights high overhead.

  We followed Jason to the bar and took our drinks while staring out at the milling groups of beautiful people.

  “I’m so over these things, but the chick I’m with wanted to come. Linda says rubbing elbows with these people will get me better parts, too.”

  “Better than Aliens Versus Vampires?” Willis scoffed and took a swig from his beer bottle.

  “Yeah, man. They said Scorsese is doing a reboot of The Godfather. They’re looking at me for Sonny.”

  Willis’s eyes widened. “They hit us—”

  “So we hit ‘em back!” Jason and Willis finished in unison.

  I sipped my wine and eyed them.

  Willis fist bumped Jason, then turned to me. “The Godfather, remember that line?”

  “Never seen it.”

  Jason clutched his chest. “You’re kidding.”

  “No.” I shrugged. “Watching old mobster movies isn’t exactly at the top of my bucket list.”

  “This is untenable.” Willis shook his head. “It cannot stand.” He took another swig of his beer, his index finger looped around the top of the bottle in that oddly masculine way.

  “It’s just a movie.”

  Jason and Willis both gaped at me.

  “We have to fix this.” Jason downed his beer and ordered another. “Tell you what. Once this party is over, we’re heading to my place.”

  “Eighty-five inches.” Willis’s eyes glossed over.

  “Yeah, man. Eighty-five inches of Godfather.”

  “You two stopped speaking English.” I sipped my wine.

  “It’s the size of his—”

  “Todd.” I forced a smile as Todd approached, just as eager as ever to talk to me.

  “I was hoping you’d be here.” He sidled up to me.

  Jason and Willis shared a dark look.r />
  “We were just going to check out the hors d’oeuvre table.” I stepped away from him, but his voice stopped me.

  “Actually, I had a question for the famous Scarlet Rocket. About relationships.”

  Willis snorted. “I can answer it for you. No, Todd, you can’t suck your own dick and call your mouth a serious girlfriend.”

  Jason laughed, a full-throated roar that silenced the bystanders. We’d only been here for fifteen minutes and had already veered into “making a scene” territory. Seemed to be a common occurrence when we got together at fancy parties.

  Todd looked like he’d swallowed something sour. “Very funny.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be here all week.” Willis wrapped his arm around my waist for emphasis.

  “My question for Scarlet was, how does an attractive, young, and hardworking guy get a date with a beautiful redhead?”

  Before Willis could respond with an answer that I suspected might end in a fistfight, I said, “The quickest way to get a woman’s attention is to be fluent in the things she cares about.” I mentally ticked off that bullet point from the list Willis had given me.

  “So, what do you care about?” Todd asked.

  Willis remained silent, and all three men looked at me expectantly.

  “I care about, um. Well…” I hadn’t cared about much lately except my sister and getting out of trouble. Until I met Willis, and then I started caring about something far more dangerous than even Pauly. I tapped my fingers on my wine glass. “The two most important things in life, jewelry and travel.”

  Willis scowled, the lie obvious to him.

  Todd, on the other hand, grinned big. “You a Tiffany’s girl?”

  “Of course.” I drained my glass and reached for another.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  A woman elbowed her way through the crowd and perched at the edge of our circle, her eyes on me.

  I took the opportunity to pass the spotlight. “Hi, I’m Scarlet.”

  “I know.” She stepped closer. “I was hoping you could give me some advice?”

  “Sure.” I turned away from Todd and focused on the woman. She was mid-fifties, dark hair, and big blue eyes—like the 1980s Liz Taylor. Not in Scarlet’s demographic, but I was game for anything if it took the heat off me. “What can I help with?”

  “I was reviewing your website last week. There was a question and answer of particular interest to me.” Her voice had a brittle edge to it, and wariness crept up my spine.

  “All right. Which post was it?”

  “The question was by SquirtingSarah.”

  Some quiet laughter erupted around us, and Willis’s arm slid from my back.

  “I’m sorry, but I get so many questions. Could you give me a little more to go on?”

  “Sure. Sarah wrote in and asked your advice on whether she should tell her boyfriend’s wife about the affair. She described the handsome, gallant, wonderful, married man she met at work.” Venom dripped from her words as she continued. “Then went into some explicit detail about how he’d given her the ‘SquirtingSarah’ nickname. Her goal was to split up the marriage and get the man for herself, so she figured telling the wife was the quickest way to make that happen.”

  I was at a complete loss, and Willis had edged away as the woman was talking. “I, well that sounds like—”

  “My question is, where do you get off advising someone to continue having a relationship with a married man?”

  My phone vibrated and began to ring in my bag. “Excuse me.” I pulled my phone out and saw Sparky’s name. “It’s my babysitter. Two seconds.”

  “Hi, Connie?” I answered the phone and darted away. “Oh my god, help me,” I hissed.

  Willis’s voice barely came through. “Tell her – didn’t mean – the squirting – husband – with squirt—”

  “I can’t hear you.”

  “Squirting – time…husband. Got it?”

  “No, no I don’t got it!” I whisper-shouted into the phone. Glancing over my shoulder, I found the woman giving me an angry glare. Crap crap crap triple crap! I ended the call and returned to the hot seat, still with no answer. And worse, Jina was standing to the right, her eyes firmly fixed on me as her fingers tapped away on her phone. When did she get here? Quadruple crap.

  “Well?” The woman stared down her nose at me.

  “I think that…” I felt Willis move in behind me, though his palm at my lower back wasn’t quite as comforting as usual. “Um, advising Sarah to blow up his marriage by telling the wife wouldn’t have been a good idea. And it wasn’t her place. It’s up to the husband to tell the wife, and for them to part ways or work it out.” I piled the bullshit deeper. “So, when I advised Sarah, if I remember correctly—” I didn’t remember a damn thing, and Willis’s fingertips digging into me didn’t inspire confidence. “I didn’t exactly say for her to keep the affair going. I simply said that it wasn’t her place to let the wife know about the affair, especially when Sarah’s stated goal was to blow the marriage to bits.”

  “She didn’t tell me, but I found out all the same.” She smirked, and what appeared to be actual mirth sparkled in her eyes. “And SquirtingSarah’s post will be a great exhibit to use at our divorce negotiation. Half is for suckers. I want seventy-five percent.”

  I swallowed hard. “Okay?”

  “So, really, now that I think about it, I should thank you.” She grabbed a glass of champagne off a passing tray, then raised it. “To Scarlet Rocket.”

  “I’ll drink to that.” Willis raised his bottle and clinked it with the woman’s.

  Jason did the same, and the chatter around us began again, the entertainment of the moment fading as she moved away through the crowd.

  “It’s always a show when I’m with you two.” Jason grinned and drained his beer.

  I leaned against Willis. “Holy shit.”

  He wrapped his arm around my middle and pressed his lips to my hair. “You did amazing.”

  “That was so fucking close,” I hissed. Glancing to my right, I saw Jina disappearing into the crowd. “And Jina was here again.”

  “I saw. Let’s hope your performance gets us a better review this time around.”

  “Whatever, just give me a drink.” I grabbed another glass of white from the bar and sucked half of it down.

  “We have to mingle. Linda said we need to build book buzz. We can only do that by talking.”

  “I can’t take another one of those.”

  “We won’t get another one of those. Surely the gods can’t be that cruel.”

  I wasn’t so sure. In my experience, they were pretty damn cruel.

  “Come on.” Willis took my arm and led me away from the bar.

  “Scarlet?” Todd followed me through the crowd.

  “Yeah?”

  “I was serious about the date. How about dinner sometime this week?”

  “She’s busy.” Willis gritted out.

  “You haven’t even checked her schedule.” Todd whipped around in front of us. “Give me a chance.”

  He was persistent, and I’d be happy to eat and drink on his dime, though he’d be sorely disappointed about the return on his investment. Todd didn’t have a chance with me. Still, I could add another wallet to my “Todd” collection. “I could do Wedn—”

  “Nothing,” Willis growled. “She can do nothing.”

  Todd stepped closer to Willis, the men almost nose to nose. “What’s your problem?”

  “No problem, Toothy. But Scarlet doesn’t have time for you.”

  “Maybe you should spend more time with your boyfriend and leave the women to me.”

  “Guys,” I hissed as I spotted Jina circling through the crowd like a snarky satellite. “Cut it out.”

  Todd turned his attention back to me. “Now, about that date. Wednesday would work great for me. I can get reservations at—”

  “She’s busy.” Willis wouldn’t give an inch.

  “Doing what?”
r />   “Sitting on my face.”

  “Willis!” I wasn’t a prude, but damn, Willis had just turned the heat up to boiling. Will Ferrell popped through my mind with a “that escalated quickly” meme.

  “You’re gay.” Todd frowned.

  “Am I?” Willis pulled me into his arms, bent me back, and kissed me.

  I pushed on his chest, but he didn’t release, only dipped me farther until I had no choice but to hang onto him.

  “That’s my man!” Jason’s voice cut through the murmurs around us, but I couldn’t concentrate on anything except Willis’s lips, his tongue, the feel of him against me. Our tongues tangled, and my eyes slipped closed as he left his mark on me in front of everyone.

  Just as soon as it began, it was over. He set me upright and dropped one more kiss on my lips. A smattering of applause erupted around us as Todd stormed away.

  I wanted to be angry and tell Willis I wasn’t a toy that he had to stake a claim on, but the heat between my thighs and the rapid beat of my heart short-circuited all of the berating that ricocheted around in my mind.

  He straightened his glasses and gave me a self-satisfied smirk.

  Asshole. I turned and moved through the partygoers until I reached the less-crowded lobby.

  “Hey, wait.” He kept up with me.

  “What was that?” I whirled on him. “What were you thinking?”

  “Todd’s a douche.” He shrugged as if that explained everything.

  “We were supposed to keep this professional!” I crossed my arms over my chest. His eyes went to my breasts, and I realized the move had pushed them up to near-nip-slip territory. I dropped my arms.

  “It is. But that guy—”

  “I can handle the Todds of the world!” I stamped my foot. “I’ve done it all my life. You aren’t my knight in shining armor. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  His eyebrows drew together. “Are you saying you didn’t enjoy it?”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “My enjoyment has nothing to do with it.”

  “So you liked it?”

  “That’s not the point.”

  The smirk reappeared. “Don’t get mad just because you got a thrill out of me manhandling you in front of the whole party.”