Page 17

chapter

sixteen

Gemini

S even had really quickly reminded us why we preferred him in a relationship. When he wasn’t fully immersing himself in the role he was currently reading for, he was bored. And when he was bored, he was a pain in our asses. Big time. All the time he usually dedicated to Clara Belle and her expensive tastes was now shifted onto antagonizing me and Ollie and we’d both had damn gutsful of it.

So when Ollie asked if I wanted to attend the Mesozoic wrap party, I jumped at the chance.

We didn’t bother inviting Sev… He was still desperately trying to salvage the Carriage Pictures deal and they required he basically live like Prince Charming twenty-four seven. He had to be squeaky fucking clean, and the Mesozoic cast parties were anything but.

Ollie had played the antagonist of the movie—his usual typecast role—and had made plenty of “friends” on set who all wanted to congratulate him on our arrival at the Malibu house where the party was held.

“No paps here?” I murmured curiously, sliding a pair of sunglasses over my eyes. It was early evening and the sunset over the ocean was bright enough to blind. “How’d they manage to keep it quiet this time?”

Ollie grinned, shrugging. “No one was given the address until a couple of hours ago. I’m sure press will catch wind of it sooner or later, but for now…” He peered back at the entryway we’d just come through like he was waiting for someone.

“Couple of hours ago? You asked me this morning.” Then again, this was Ollie I was talking to. The guy had his sneaky fucking fingers everywhere , so him knowing the party location in advance was really no great shock.

Again, he just grinned, then headed over to the fully stocked bar on the balcony. For the most part, the cast and crew of Mesozoic were okay. I only had to correct a handful of people that I was not my brother and surprisingly got into an enjoyable discussion with the stunt coordinator from the franchise. He’d had to choreograph people literally riding dinosaurs and kaiju, being tossed from the jaws of hundred-foot-tall beasts and some fight scenes of epic proportions.

That was the sort of work I wanted to get into—moving the chess pieces rather than being repeatedly shoved onto the front lines as a pawn. My body was going to break for real eventually, and then where would I be?

“Seven? What are you doing here?” a slightly slurred voice interrupted us. It was like nails on a fucking chalkboard honestly.

I sighed. “Clara, it’s Gem. What are you doing here? You’re not in this movie.” Then again, neither were dozens of other celebrities floating around the house. Once word got out, these parties tended to turn pretty wild—a literal magnet for all the loose units of Hollywood to get messy and have a good time. Or just to snag a salacious headline to revive a sinking career.

She was already way too drunk to process my words and draped her arms around my neck with a sloppy pout. “Seven, baby, you’re not still mad at me for breaking up with you, are you? It wasn’t personal, sugar, and I’d still totally let you fuck me upstairs if you need to blow off some steam. I saw a whole room set up with bondage stuff if you wanna do that thing?—”

“Clara!” I snapped, physically removing her arms from around my neck. “Go the fuck away. Seven isn’t here. But if he were, I can guarantee he would not take you up on that offer. Gross.”

Her face twisted in an ugly sneer, the realization finally sinking in. “Gem, what the fuck? Ew, stop pretending to be Seven. That’s so pathetic.”

I rolled my eyes, not caring enough to hide my disgust for my twin’s ex. Talk about a social-climbing bitch. Slick really had done Sev a huge favor by tossing a grenade on that relationship.

“You’re the one throwing yourself at your ex-boyfriend’s brother. If anyone is pathetic here, Clara Belle, it’s you.” I turned my back on her and searched the party for my best friend. It’d gotten a whole lot busier while I chatted with Dan—the stunt guy—and I winced when a vase broke somewhere nearby.

Surely by this stage the owners of these properties were decorating with Ikea. I couldn’t remember the last party I’d attended that hadn’t incurred heavy fees from damaged property by the end of the night. The thing about rich, famous celebrities? They had no respect for money. Or other people’s belongings. It was sickening.

It took a few minutes of searching the party before I found Ollie politely fending off the advances of an up-and-coming young actress. Way too young for him, which was probably why he was carefully holding her wrists to keep her at arm’s length.

“Bro, can I steal you for a sec?” I asked, tipping my head to indicate we step away.

The young actress shifted her glassy eyes my way, then gasped. “Ohmigod, Seven Harrison . I’m such a huge fan,” she gushed, her eyes wide and her cheeks rosy. Fucking hell, she couldn’t be more than eighteen…if that. She was making her big break in the newly popular “sexy thriller” genre.

I gave her a tight smile, not caring to correct her. “Thanks so much. Tina, right?”

She pressed her hand to her chest. “You know my name?” Her voice had gone all squeaky and breathless. “Ohmigod, Seven Harrison knows my name!”

Holding back my laugh, I clapped a hand on Ollie’s shoulder. “You don’t mind if I borrow my friend here, do you? I’ll bring him right back, I promise.” We didn’t wait for her reply before walking away, chuckling quietly under our breath.

“Dude, she’s going to be telling all her friends about how she met Seven Harrison tomorrow,” Ollie snickered, shaking his head. “Poor thing looked like she was going to faint when you said her name.”

I huffed a laugh. “She’s so high right now, I’ll be shocked if she even remembers in the morning. Clara is here, by the way, and she’s wasted. I might head out…unless you wanna stay longer?” Seeing as we’d driven my car from Beverly Hills, we had to stick together.

Ollie shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. Let’s get out before this turns into a fuck-fest like the last after-party for Mesozoic .” He shuddered. “I’ll never get the image of Henry Duvalle’s saggy balls slapping against a sound engineer’s ass out of my mind, I swear to fuck.”

I gagged a little because Henry was at least seventy and not in good shape. He was a hell of a director, though. “I’m so glad I didn’t attend that one.” Then I paused as we approached the front entry. Distinctive flashes of cameras alerted us to the fact that at least some paparazzi must have been tipped off. “Should we duck out the back?”

Ollie quirked a brow at me in suspicion. “You don’t wanna see if your girl is working out there?”

I glowered. “She’s not my girl.” His grin turned… pleased . Motherfucker. “Bro…you can’t seriously be thinking of tracking her down for yourself. She’s not interested in dating an actor. That much was abundantly clear with how she left our house the other day.”

Ollie just shrugged. “She’s not your girl, Gem.” Like that was all the permission he needed to do whatever the fuck he wanted. “But yeah, we can dodge the paps if you wanna be a pussy about it. I’ll get the car sent around to the side gate.”

I sighed, handing him our claim check and he moved over to speak with one of the security at the door to arrange for our car to be moved around the block to the service gate.

It took another twenty minutes or so for us to actually escape, and even then we discovered we weren’t the only ones with the same plan. Basically anyone who’d attended the wrap party but didn’t want to be known as attending the after-party was using the service gate to avoid press.

Except, of course, some sneaky photographer had worked it out and a camera flash lit up the night in an almost strobe-light effect as Jennifer Crosse and her porn star boyfriend headed out ahead of us.

“Oh, you’re sneaky!” Jennifer called out to the photographer with a laugh. “I love it. Here’s one just for you.”

Ollie and I slipped out of the ivy-covered gate just in time to witness Jennifer tongue-fucking her man’s face while he dipped her dramatically. The camera flashed again, and I instinctively ducked my face to avoid looking directly at the lens. I hadn’t thought to grab my usual baseball cap out of the car earlier and now regretted that decision.

“Give us a smile, Gemini!” the photographer called out after Jennifer and Johnny slid into their waiting SUV, and my head jerked up in the direction of the camera. “You look prettier when you smile!”

Ollie laughed, his hands in his pockets as he swaggered across the road to where the woman of my dreams sat on the trunk of a classic car with her camera in hand. She’d parked in someone’s sloped driveway, giving her a fantastic viewpoint of the service gate, and I tried to pretend I wasn’t thrilled to see her.

Slick … Fucking hell, my fantasies weren’t doing her justice at all. She was sexier than I remembered, even as she sat there in what looked like an imitation valet uniform.

“So you took my advice after all,” Ollie drawled, boosting himself up to sit beside her on the trunk. “Did you get some good shots?”

My brows rose in shock. “You knew she was here?”

My best friend just smirked. “Of course. I sent her the address this morning and even marked the service gate on a map.”

“Thank you for that,” Slick responded, offering Ollie a soft smile. “I hope you don’t mind, I tipped off a colleague. Figured it’d incentivize people to sneak out the back if they knew the front was being smashed with paps.”

“You figured correctly,” I murmured. “When… Wait, how’d you send her the address?” I directed my question to Ollie with suspicion.

He just shrugged. Mysterious fucker. I rolled my eyes, knowing he wouldn’t fess up when he was in that sort of mood. Besides, Slick was right here and I couldn’t let a third chance slip through my fingers.

“Are you doing anything right now? Can I take you for coffee maybe?” As soon as the suggestion left my lips, I winced. It was nine at night, not exactly coffee time.

Her lips quirked like she was fighting a smile as she stared at me. The angle of her car and her position on the trunk put her nearly at eye level with me, and my hands twitched with the need to touch her. It’d be so easy to just step forward and wrap my hands around her, for her legs to slip around my waist and?—

Fuck .

I was so hooked on this woman and I didn’t even know her name.

“Am I doing anything right now?” she repeated, clearly amused as she raised her camera. “Yes, Gem. I’m working.”

I frowned. That…yes, okay she was working. But I couldn’t miss this opportunity to get her name at very least. “You’re working… You just need one great photo right? One image that is exclusive and can be sold for five figures?”

Her brows rose. “Uh…yeah. But so far nothing will get me more than a couple hundred bucks.”

I nodded, glancing at Ollie. “Want me to punch Ollie? I’m sure the tabloids would have a field day making up a bullshit story to accompany that image.”

“Hey, whoa, time-out,” Ollie protested, making a T with his hands. “Ollie does not consent to being punched.”

Meanwhile, Slick looked thoughtful. She was considering it. Yes, this was good; we were getting somewhere here.

“Bro, wipe that look off your face,” Ollie growled. “We’ve got that premiere next week and I do not need a fucking black eye to cover up.”

Okay, that was a valid point. Still… “How about it, Slick? I get you a five-figure photo and you come for a burger with us?”

Her lips pursed and her dark lashes narrowed around her eyes. “A burger? I thought you were offering coffee?”

Yes. She wanted to say yes. We were making progress. “Slick, baby, I’ll give you anything you want at this stage. Burger, coffee, my last name…you name it, it’s yours. Deal?”

I put my hand out for her to shake on the deal, and she glanced at Ollie beside her. What was that all about? He just met her gaze with his own dark, mysterious look and the corners of his mouth kicked up. “Sounds like a good deal to me,” he murmured, “so long as I don’t get punched.”

Slick sighed, then slapped her hand into mine. “Deal. But I don’t know what sort of photo you think will fit the bill…”

I already had the perfect idea and grinned. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.” I walked backwards, finding it hard to pull my eyes away from her. “Get your camera ready, Slick. I’m hungry!”

Bubbling with nervous energy, I made my way back into the party and anxiously hunted out the perfect pawn to play into this scene.

“Clara, baby, there you are!” I purred, wrapping my arm around my twin’s wasted ex-girlfriend. “Gem told me you were looking for me.”

“Seven?” she whimpered, blinking up at me with somewhat unfocused eyes. “Baby, I knew you couldn’t stay mad forever.” She reached up to wrap her thin arms around my neck, and I had to turn my face to dodge her sloppy kiss.

“Come with me,” I urged her, tugging her away from her friends and heading for the exit. “I wanna talk to you alone.”

Her throaty chuckle said exactly what she thought I wanted to do alone , and my skin crawled at the mental image. How the fuck had Seven dated this irritating woman for so long? Both Ollie and I had made our feelings about her clear years ago, so Sev hardly ever brought her to the house.

As wasted as she was, it was easy to steer her out of the house and down the short path to the service gate. Then right as we were about to pass through the gate, I leaned down to whisper in her ear.

“Clara, I wouldn’t put my dick in you again if you were the last woman on earth. You fucked around and chose your own fame over our four-year-long relationship and there’s no going back from that. Did you know I was going to propose to you at the Hidden Daggers premiere? Now I’ll be attending with my new girlfriend after signing the Carriage Pictures deal, and you? You’re nothing but my ex . Washed up, has-been, aging ?—”

Oop, that did it. Her slap was harder than I’d thought she was capable of and it rocked me back a step as my ear rang. She started to shriek an insult but the flashes from Slick’s camera sent her scurrying back through the gate faster than a rat into its hole.

That was…surprisingly satisfying. Seven was going to be pissed, but oh well. Some things needed to be said, and the fact she thought he was saying them? Perfection.