“Here’s what I’d like to know,” Pepper’s beautiful nemesis, Lexi Reynolds, said as she stepped forward in a way that was so aggressive and hostile, I worried about what might take place between them as their bodies drew too close for comfort. They were the same height, but because Lexi looked so physically intimidating, I feared that she might be savvier than Pepper when it came to striking back.
Which might happen, I feared as I watched them close the distance between them. Especially since it’s obvious that both of them are looking for a fight.
“What’s that, Lexi?” Pepper asked with amusement in her voice.
“Let’s start here, Pepper,” Lexi said. “Why do you call yourself Pepper Winters, when your father’s surname is Semenov?” She held up her hand before Pepper could answer. “Here’s what I think, hunty. You chose to lose your legit last name because who wants to be known as Pepper Semenov? I mean, come on! Semenov? Take off the last two letters, and it’s literally like you’ve been drenched in cum.”
“For someone who’s taken her share of that down her throat and up her ass over the years, I’m surprised that you have zero idea how to even spell the word ‘semen,’ Lexi,” Pepper said, while looking unfazed. “And here I thought you were brighter than that, despite the ax you want to grind due to your basement-level insecurities.”
“I know how to spell ‘semen,’ Pepper, but let’s get real here,” Lexi said. “Even if your name is spelled differently, it still sounds the same. I mean, if you were to go by your real name, consider the consequences on social media alone—particularly when it comes to your haters. ‘Pepper Cum,’ they’d call you. Or in one of your lame makeup videos, when you apply lotion to your face, I can hear someone saying in the comment section, ‘Go ahead, Pepper! Pepper your face with semen!’ That kind of thing. You and I both know it’s true. You decided to go with your mother’s last name for just that reason, and in the process, you’ve given your fans a false impression of you. But if you have the balls to come on this show? Trust me, I plan on telling the world exactly what your real last name is.”
“Do what you will, Lexi. My fans already know that my father is the billionaire Oleg Semenov. I mean, it’s far from a secret. Having said that, why don’t you just admit the real reason you’d like to poison my fans against me? Could it be that you’re jealous of how large my following is? I think we all know that’s the case, so here’s a takeaway for you, sweetie.” When Pepper leaned in close to Lexi, I saw Lexi flinch. “Your time as Queen Bitch will come to a crashing, thudding end if I become part of this show. So, watch your back, #formerbitch. Because if that happens, I’m going to run over all of you. And in the process, I’m going to step up this show’s game. Because as you all must know, even if only a portion of my followers tune in, that’s millions upon millions of additional viewers watching the show, which is a ratings win for the network. Mr. Steele knows it. I know it. And the six of you bitches know it.”
“Well,” Hunter said. “I think that’s about it when it comes to our meet and greet. Thank you, ladies.”
But Lexi wasn’t having it. Instead, she thrust her middle finger in Pepper’s face. “If they are foolish enough to hire you, Pepper, you need to know that I will cut a bitch if I need to.”
“Lexi,” Pepper sighed. “Why do you insist on talking ghetto when everyone knows you were born and raised on Fifth Avenue? Not that I want to help you out when it comes to giving you life advice, but when you behave like that, it takes you so far into a social basement you know nothing about, it’s laughable. But, please, keep it coming if you want. If you have the ovaries to come after me, I’m begging you to do so. Because if you do?” Pepper just smiled at Lexi when she said that. “Oh, darling, the things I’ll do to ruin you.”
“Time to go,” I said to Pepper as I wrapped my arm around her narrow waist. “We need to get something to eat, then we have our meeting with ABC.”
“Meeting with ABC?” the girls said in unison.
“I’m in high demand,” Pepper said. “Rotate on it, ladies. For your ratings alone, pray that I’m signed to do this show, and not another one.”
Hunter joined Pepper and me as we walked away from them. When he placed his hand on my arm as Pepper charged through the door, I looked at him and saw the urgency in his eyes.
“Please don’t sign anything with ABC before we have dinner tonight,” he said.
I hated being caught in Pepper’s blatant lie about any sort of meeting with ABC, but what else could I do now but push forward as if it weren’t the truth? Pepper had blindsided me, it was my job to land a major deal for her on this show, so I just looked at Hunter and said, “I’ll do my best—I promise.”
“Did you see the chemistry back there?” he asked me as Pepper walked down the stairs.
I can literally smell you, I thought as I looked at him. No cologne. Just you. And it’s amazing . . .
Focus!
“The chemistry?” I asked. “Or do you mean the nuclear bomb that just went off in front of us? You know, the one that would be a major part of your show if you come through with the right offer for Pepper? We both saw what happened back there, Hunter. Those girls hate each other. Together, they define the terrible teens in ways that could send the second season of your show into the stratosphere. Given the chance, Pepper would ignite the screen. What you need to know before we go any further is that you must bring me a serious offer tonight, one that accounts for the weight of Pepper’s social media following, which we all know has a high value attached to it. Since she’s agreed to document her time on the show on all of her social media platforms—with your approval, of course—that’s nothing but free advertising for the show. The network needs to understand that.”
“I’ll call them,” he said. “I’ll lay it out for them. I want Pepper on my show, Julia. I’ll do my best to make that happen.”
“You’re going to have to bring us seven figures,” I said to him.
“Seven figures?” he said with surprise. “Julia, nobody here earns anywhere close to that.”
“That’s because you don’t have a Pepper Winters,” I said.
At that, he just swallowed—and hard.
“Hunter, you’re the showrunner,” I said. “You already know what Pepper would bring to this show. And since you also produce the show—and if you want to earn Kardashian kind of money, which you have to want—then you know you’re going to have to pay for that kind of talent. Because when your ratings spike due to Pepper’s presence on the show, I think we both know that you and your network will have invested wisely in her.”
His hand brushed over my arm before I left, and when it did, I couldn’t help but feel my clear and dangerous attraction to him.
“See you at eight,” I said. “In the meantime, make this happen. You and I have to do what we need to do to make everyone happy. Those are the jobs we’ve been dealt. But I think that after what we just witnessed when it comes to the hostility between those girls, you’d regret if you didn’t pull Pepper in. Talk to the network. Tell them what just went down. Make it happen. And if you do, we’ll be working with one another.”
He smiled at me when I said that.
“I think I’d rather like working with you,” he said.
“As would I,” I said, as he undressed me with his eyes.
“See you at eight?”
Don’t you dare undress him with your eyes! “Eight it is,” I said with a smile—and then I got the hell out of there before I had the chance to do so.
CHAPTER FIVE
Later, when I returned home, I called my best friend, Sienna Jones. She was not only my rock, but also one of Harper’s clients, and last year—for a whole host of bizarre reasons—she’d become a full-on star, especially after she’d won the Academy Award for Best Actress just this past March for her celebrated role in Lion.
Now, Sienna was in Vancouver, wrapping up the final week of filming for the movie she was doing with Martin Scorsese. After that? She
and her fiancé/security guard, Austin Black, would return to New York, where Sienna would shoot her third film, this time with none other than Steven Spielberg. She’d been gone so long, I couldn’t wait to see her again.
Lucky for me, she answered on the second ring.
“Hey, you!” she said.
“We totally need to talk,” I said as I paced around my living room. “Are you free?”
“I’ve got two hours before my next scene,” she said. “I know I don’t need to tell you this, but movies really are all about sitting around until the next scene is properly blocked and lit. But that’s beside the point. What’s going on?” she asked. “You sound rattled.”
I told her everything.
“Oh, my God,” she said. “Finally, Harper has done the right thing and promoted you to assistant agent! Congratulations! This has been a long time coming, and it’s so well deserved, I can’t even tell you. Now, listen to me for a moment. You were just talking so fast, I think I missed some important bits about this new client of yours.”
I reminded her about my day with Pepper.
“There’s a television show called The Terrible Teens?” she asked.
“There is.”
“People will watch anything,” she sighed. “But for that market, Pepper seems to have it all, doesn’t she? And from what you told me, it sounds as if she nailed her audition. I think you’re going to get the deal you want, and on the first day of your new job at CAA. I’m so proud of you!”
And then I told her about Hunter Steele.
“He’s that hot?” she asked.
“Sienna, like you before Austin, I haven’t paid attention to a man in years—and now isn’t the time to start because I need to focus on my work at CAA. But to answer your question, yes, he’s that hot.”
“What was it like when you first saw him?”
“Like my eyes had been set on fire. I know you felt the same when you met Austin. What is it about these men?”
“Who knows?” she said. “But that spark I first felt when I met Austin wasn’t just any spark, I can tell you that. That man laid me bare.” She paused for a moment. “And now that’s happened to you—and you’re concerned about it, aren’t you?”
“I am.”
“I get it. You don’t think that you can handle any distractions right now, right?”
“Exactly. Harper told me that I needed to prove myself to CAA within a year. She also said that if I proved myself sooner rather than later, she thought she might be able to shorten the time before I was taken on as a full-time agent. But those are just words until I bring in the big bucks and impress the brass.”
“You said that you’re having dinner with Hunter tonight?”
“As in a matter of hours.”
“What do you want from this dinner?”
“A seven-figure deal.”
She paused.
“Is that it?”
“That’s totally it,” I said.
“You know what, sweetie?”
Busted!
“What’s that?”
“You’d be a shit actress, Jules.”
“Why do you know me so well?” I asked.
“Because we’ve been best friends for years?”
“Fine. It’s been so long since I’ve had sex, maybe a part of me also wants that python I saw swinging in his jeans—”
“It was swinging?”
“Oh, honey, it was so swinging. That man was totally going commando today, and that shit was obscene.”
But in the best of ways . . .
“Maybe it was a tactic!” she said. “Maybe he knows what he’s packing, and he’s trying to distract you so he can get Pepper for less!”
“Well, that would be rather nefarious of him,” I said. “Are you suggesting that he was trying to hypnotize me?”
“Sounds to me like he might have.”
“Sienna, I need to nail down this deal tonight.”
“Then, how about if you turn the tables on him?” she asked.
“Meaning?”
“Sweetie, you’re hot,” she said. “You’re one of the most beautiful women I know. You’re a total catch. So? Show up looking hotter than you’ve ever looked. Distract him with your own good looks. Use your superpowers to become Harper tonight. You know, a super sexy lipstick lesbian! Put your hormones on hiatus, and think with your head instead of your horny whatnots. Because if you do that, maybe you’ll be the one distracting him.”
“A tactic!” I said.
“You’ve got this, lady!”
“When am I going to see you?” I asked.
“The movie wraps in a couple of days. We’ll be back in the city next week.”
“You’ve been gone so long, I’ve missed you.”
“You and I will be having dinner before we know it,” she said. “Now, just keep your legs closed in the meantime, seal this deal, make Harper proud, and Austin and I will take you out to dinner when we get back. How does that sound?”
“Like a dream. I’ve got to do this, Sienna.”
“Then do it, because Harper knows that you can, and so do I. Once the ink is dry on the agreement, you can deal with Hunter then, if he decides to pursue you.”
“I don’t want him to pursue me.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Fine. If I didn’t have to focus on work, I’d welcome it, because he’s beyond my type. I mean, everything about him screams ‘fuck me!’ But I can’t risk any kind of distractions right now. I’ve waited too long for this chance at CAA—and no man is going to derail me from my dreams.”
“Just keep saying that over and over again to yourself, OK?”
“I’ll try my best, but if that man felt what I felt today, it’s not going to be easy.”
“I hear you. But my best advice when it comes to tonight? Look like a siren. Stay focused and keep your mind out of the gutter. Get your money, honey. Because in this world? Pythons are a dime a dozen.”
“Actually, they kind of aren’t, especially when they’re attached to men who look like Hunter Steele . . .”
“Seriously, Julia? I mean, come on! You just haven’t found the right dildo yet.”
“You did not just say that.”
“Yes, I did. And I’ll end with this—if you’re going to stay on point tonight and for the next frigging year, it’s time for you to be riding a bigger rabbit!”
* * *
At eight o’clock, when I arrived by cab at db bistro moderne, a high-end restaurant owned by the renowned chef Daniel Boulud at Fifty-Five West Forty-Fourth Street, I took a deep breath and tried my best to collect myself.
I closed my eyes. I counted to ten. I got my shit together. And when I opened my eyes and caught the driver looking weirdly at me in the rearview, I paid him, stepped out of the cab and into the warm spring air—and I knew at that moment that I’d nailed it when it came to my look.
Because when I stepped out onto that sidewalk? Several male pedestrians hurrying by slowed to turn my way, their gazes lingering over me and my body before they smiled and carried on.
I’d chosen to wear one of my favorite dresses—a black Tom Ford round neck illusion-yoke silk cocktail dress. It was formfitting, it had long sleeves, a sheer neckline that exposed a trace of cleavage, and it fell just below the knee in a way that was professional and also sexy. On my feet were a pair of Miu Miu jeweled glitter evening shoes with a four-inch heel and glimmering strap bands that were open to the toe.
It wasn’t often that I dressed up like this—for years, I’d just been Harper’s personal assistant sitting behind an iMac in a proper business suit or a pretty day dress. But earlier, in my apartment, I had to admit that it had felt liberating to blow out my hair, paint my face, and get my glam on—even if what I was wearing had been given to me by Sienna during her modeling days. On my salary, I never could have afforded this outfit. But after tonight? If I could somehow get Hunter Steele to step up to the plate and sign the preliminary agreement Harper had
given me? I wouldn’t only be able to afford clothes like this—I’d actually be able to pay off some of the serious debts I had, such as my ridiculous student loans. Those had long been a killer for me to deal with on a monthly basis—but right now? If I could make this deal happen?
I finally might be able to kill them.
* * *
db bistro moderne was as small as it was sublime. I’d only been here once before, when Harper took me for my birthday. According to her, “You need to understand why this is my favorite restaurant. I mean, the things you’ll eat tonight gave up their lives for good reason! You’ll see why!”
And I did see . . .
Now, as I stepped into the packed restaurant, a stunning, beautifully dressed woman in a fitted yellow suit came toward me. She had gorgeous dark hair held up in a chignon, and eyes that were so dark, they were lovely pools of mahogany.
“Good evening,” she said to me with a smile.
“Hello,” I said. “I’m here to meet Hunter Steele. Do you know whether he’s arrived yet?”
“In fact, he has.” She turned and looked over her shoulder. “Mr. Steele is right over there.” She paused. “But I don’t think I’ll be the one seating you tonight, because it appears that he’s coming over here to collect you himself. In the meantime, would you like me to get you a cocktail?”
I was so nervous about tonight, I longed for a martini. But since I needed to see if Hunter was going to play it straight and not drink so he could remain sharp, I decided it was best to decline. After I told the hostess that I was fine, I turned and looked at Hunter as he strode toward us. And when I did? I was a goner.
Because Hunter also had brought his A game.
He was wearing an expensive black suit with a matching black tie. His coal-black hair was slicked through with gel in ways that accentuated his square jawline. I nodded at him as he approached me with an extended hand.
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