Once they entered the club, Simon’s attitude toward Jessica changed. He couldn’t flirt fast or hard enough, leaving Jessica to fend for herself, not that she needed any protection. Gemma could only dream of being as poised and confident as Jessica in a room full of pretty people like this one.
Ivo returned with her drink and a flash of white teeth.
Talk about your pretty people. All thoughts of Simon and Jessica vaporized when her fingers brushed Ivo’s as he handed her the frosty glass.
Ivo appreciated her, had fallen under her spell immediately. He’d come by Simon’s after Jessica dropped them off with promises of a night on the town, Gemma’s first, thanks to Simon’s weird mood. Ivo didn’t want to come along, didn’t want to intrude...until Gemma swept down the staircase, making a dramatic entrance in her towel, fresh from a bath.
She’d almost helped Ivo pick up his jaw from the floor, but when she’d done a complete assessment of the Teutonic Titan lounging in Simon’s living room, she let her towel slip a little instead. Simon had to spoil it all by yelling at her to get back upstairs. She complied, but not before she caught the gleam of admiration in Ivo’s blue eyes.
“Your brother is something else.” Ivo dipped his head, his blond curls brushing her cheek.
A small crowd clustered around Simon, who had one hand resting on the red-head’s bum and the other clutching a martini glass, as he held court. He could be the life of any party if he wanted, but half the time he faked it. He’d survived two years at that public school by being everyone’s favorite daredevil, sort of like the fat, jolly kid, only Simon was the poor, daring kid.
Ivo continued. “He really knows his way around the ladies.”
“I heard you don’t do too badly yourself.” She wrapped one of his curls around her finger. “You’re the one who left a girl at his place.”
“That was before you got here, Gemma.” Right answer. She tightened her hold on his lock of hair, and drew him closer, getting ready to land a strawberry kiss on his juicy lips.
“Ahem.”
Gemma un-puckered her lips and aimed her innocent gaze over Ivo’s shoulder. Jessica, arms crossed over the neckline that plunged to her navel, lifted her eyebrows.
Hardly resembled the stern schoolmistresses at Gemma’s boarding school, but she had the eyebrow thing down.
Those big, blue eyes didn’t fool Jessica for a minute.
Gemma knew her way around men, or at least big, lugs like Ivo. She tapped her watch. “Are you ready to go?” Gemma clutched Ivo’s arm, who still looked dazed that his imminent lip-lock with Gemma had been plucked from his grasp. “Do we have to?”
Yeah, they had to, and if that fake red-head tried to hitch a ride, Jessica would have to do something drastic like lock her in the ladies’ room. She smiled sweetly. “You don’t want to stay at one club too long, Gemma. It looks like you don’t have any place better to go.” Gemma nodded and narrowed her baby blues, looking like a seasoned clubber already.
Jessica narrowed her own eyes as she studied Simon with his hands all over Lexi’s ass, and calculated the best way to separate him from the airhead. Could she stoop low enough to use family? His hand rubbed the ass in question in a sinuously circular motion that caused Lexi to squirm and hook a finger in his belt loop.
Time to stoop. Jessica rolled her shoulders and sauntered across the room. Noticing her approach, Lexi twirled in front of Simon, blocking him from view. Jessica blew out a breath. She’d have to use a pickaxe to pry this one off...a pickaxe encased in velvet.
“Lexi, it’s so great to see you.” She placed a hand on the actress’s shoulder and spun her around, dropping airkisses on either side of her face. “You look fabulous, and I don’t think the boob job is overdone at all. I’m sure it landed you that part in Scream 7.”
“Why if it isn’t Jessica Doe.” Melanie pasted on a smile as fake as her bolt-ons and gritted her capped teeth. “I saw one of the women Jimmy was frolicking with in that hotel room at the other end of the bar. I’ll hold her down if you want to bitch-slap her.”
“Old news, but how sweet of you to offer.” At least Simon had his hands safely in his pockets now. “Simon, Gemma’s dying to move onto the next spot.”
“Simon told me there’s room in the limo. Can I join you?”S he gazed past Lexi’s thirty-four double D’s, and Simon shrugged. She couldn’t let Simon see her petty, jealous side. She’d bet cold, hard cash he didn’t like clingers.
“Of course you can,” she purred. She took Lexi’s hand and squeezed it. “Care to accompany me to the ladies’
room to freshen up? Simon, you round up Gemma and Ivo and meet us at the front door.”
Lexi drew back, but Jessica pulled her forward and whispered in her ear, nearly choking on her heavy perfume.
“You want to be ready for those photographers who follow Simon everywhere, don’t you?”
Lexi’s eyes widened as she ran her tongue along her teeth. She turned back to Simon. “I’ll be right back.” Jessica nudged Lexi in front of her as they cut through the crowd. They reached the ladies’ room, and Jessica frowned at the swinging door with no handle and no lock.
That won’t work.
They had the bathroom to themselves except for a woman in one of the stalls.
They bellied up to the vanity, and Lexi adjusted the straps of her skimpy dress and cupped her breasts. “Simon is a total hottie. I can’t wait to see him in the buff.” You’re going to have a long wait for that, honey.
Jessica leaned in and reapplied her lipstick, her gaze darting around the counter top and resting on a basket of matches. Bingo.
“Yeah, Simon’s a great-looking guy, has women all over him all the time.”
“I can imagine.” Lexi teased and tousled her hair with her fingers. “Did your dad get you the job as his gopher?” Shit. Even bimbo starlets had her number. She glanced at the ceiling above the occupied stall and grinned. The stars were in alignment. “Ah, not really. You might want to pee before we leave since we’re heading downtown.” The woman banged out of the stall and smiled at them before washing her hands.
“Yeah, I have the world’s smallest bladder.” Lexi patted her abdomen.
As the other woman walked out of the bathroom, Jessica claimed the stall on the right, grabbing a book of matches on her way. She held her breath as Lexi rustled in the next stall, and Jessica ducked down to get a clear view of the floor. When she saw Lexi’s panties slip around her ankles, Jessica kicked off her shoes, hung them around her wrist, and stepped onto the toilet seat.
“Isn’t Jake Landis in Scream 7 with you? What’s he like?”
“Oh my God, he’s totally stuck up. He eats all his meals in his trailer. Total dick.”
While Lexi babbled on about her co-star, Jessica struck a match and leaned over the top of the stall to hold the flame to the sprinkler head. If Lexi chose that moment to look up, Jessica would be toast, soggy toast. With a click and a sputter, the sprinkler started to spray water.
Jessica jumped off the toilet seat and ran out of the bathroom, which echoed with Lexi’s screams. She slid back into her shoes and moseyed to the bar. Placing her hands on the sticky surface, she hunched forward. “The sprinklers went off in the ladies’ room.” The bartender rushed around the end of the bar with Jessica in hot pursuit. He shoved open the bathroom door.
The door banged against Lexi’s head, and she howled from her position on her hands and knees on the wet tile floor. The bartender hooked an arm under her armpit, hauling her to her feet. He helped her stagger out of the bathroom, her hair plastered around her face and her make-up running down her cheeks in black rivulets. She stumbled forward, her panties still twisted around her ankles, and landed against a bar stool. Her shrieks and curses attracted a crowd of people.
“I’m going to fucking sue you. I’m going to close this fucking place down.”
Simon, Gemma, and Ivo crowded in next to Jessica.
Gemma giggled, and Simon shot her a dark look
. He said,
“Is Lexi all right? Is she hurt?”
“She’s okay. The sprinklers went off in the ladies’ room while we were in there.”
“You seemed to have escaped.” Gemma’s eyes narrowed, her lips curving into a knowing smile.
“I was near the door.” Jessica brushed off a few droplets of water clinging to her hair. She approached the wildly gesticulating Lexi and grabbed a handful of napkins from the bar.
“I guess you can’t come with us after all.” She smeared Lexi’s face with a napkin.
“You’re lucky you were in the other stall.” Lexi snatched the napkins from Jessica’s hand.
“Yeah, lucky.”
***
“Come on, it was such a laugh.” After stops at two more clubs, Gemma couldn’t stop giggling in the darkened limo. “That horrible see-through dress clinging to her, knickers down around her ankles, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.”
“Yeah, she looked a right mess.” Simon caught his lower lip between his teeth. “But it’s not funny to laugh at someone’s misfortune.”
Simon had a kind heart. What would he think if he knew she’d staged that little mishap for Lexi? And why did she stage that little mishap for Lexi? That tartlet was just the type to land Simon in lots of hot water—diva attitude, foul mouth, publicity hound. She smoothed her dress over her thighs. She had other plans for Simon, and they didn’t include Lexi Barone and her man-eating appetite.
“Gemma, have you seen the Hollywood sign yet?”
“I just caught a glimpse of it, but Simon wouldn’t stop to take my picture with the sign in the background.”
“We were too far away. You’d need a magnifying glass to see the sign if I took a picture.”
“How’d you like to see it up close and personal?” Jessica reached over and pressed the intercom button for the driver and gave him directions.
“Really?” Gemma’s eyes glowed in the dim light. “We can do that?”
“It’s illegal to hike near the sign.” The leather squeaked as Ivo shifted in his seat, his eyes darting to Simon. “I heard there are gates and security cameras all around.”
“Ha! Are we going to let a few gates and cameras stop us?” Jessica snapped her fingers. “I have some inside knowledge about circumventing that gate.”
“W-what about the cameras?” Ivo’s voice wavered, but whether from nerves or Gemma bouncing on the seat next to him, Jessica couldn’t tell.
“What’s the fun of doing anything if it’s not recorded for posterity?” She shot a sideways glance at Simon and issued her challenge. “Are we going to do this or wimp out?”
“I’m in.” Simon folded his hands behind his head and rested his ankle on his knee, as relaxed as if she’d just suggested a good book and a pipe in the library.
“Me too, me too.” Gemma bounced higher. “Come on, Ivo. This will be so much better than just getting some stupid picture with an itty bitty sign in the background.” Ivo shrugged. “Who am I to stand in the way of posterity?”
Several minutes later, the limo cruised to a stop along a dirt access road on the top of Mt. Lee. The driver backed up, and then turned around, so that the car pointed downhill.
Jessica tumbled out of the car with her co-conspirators, Gemma’s camera dangling from her wrist. Jessica crouched by the window to whisper a few words in the driver’s ear.
She and Gemma kicked off their heels in the limo and now carefully picked their way along the dark, rocky surface.
Ivo swept Gemma off her feet and tossed her over his shoulder while she squealed.
Simon gestured toward them. “Do you want me to do the same?”
“That’s quite all right. You already hauled me up a flight of stairs.”
“Light as a feather.”
She snorted.
“Have you done this before?” He tipped his chin at the chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
“Once or twice.” Actually just once when she’d tagged along with Jimmy and Lot 49 as they went on a mission to alter the sign with black sheets to read “La La Land,” the title of their CD. It didn’t work with the Santa Ana winds howling that night and snatching the sheets from their hands, ripping them off the few letters they’d managed to cover. They didn’t get caught that night, but she planned to remedy that tonight.
“This way.” She led the others toward a gaping hole in the gate, the result of an enthusiastic wire-cutting session.
Simon crawled through first and they followed. For the next fifteen minutes, they took pictures and acted like kids set loose in a schoolyard with no adults. Ivo hoisted Simon up into the O.
“Hey, we could turn this into a soccer ball,” he called down from his perch.
Then for the second time since landing on American soil, Simon stood in the glow of a white spotlight from a police car.
The voice from the loudspeaker echoed down Mt. Lee.
“You, in the O, you’re trespassing on private property.” Simon laughed, and then hollered to Ivo, “Get them out of here. I’ll handle this.”
Jessica had no intention of letting Simon take the hit on his own, but Ivo’s firm grip and the little rocks biting into her bare feet gave her no chance to stand by her man.
Ivo shoved her through the hole in the fence, pulled Gemma along after, and herded them both toward the idling limo. They barely closed the door when the limo shot down the hill, churning up dirt and gravel in its wake.
Jessica peered out the tinted back window at the Hollywood sign bathed in red and blue revolving lights and a single figure trapped in the first O.
She’d just launched the first step in her plan to stick it to Evan and her father. Where was the satisfaction? Where was the elation?
And why did her heart just twist in her chest?
Chapter Nine
“I don’t care how you do it, Chase. Just do it. I told you, my daughter wants to hold onto that job. If you can’t capitalize on that, you’re not the businessman I expected you to be.”
“I warned her once, Roger. She didn’t take it to heart.”
“Threaten her with the loss of her job. She’ll come to heel.”
“I already did that. I don’t think she...”
“Just do it, and that’s no ad campaign. I mean that sincerely.”
Brett ended the call before he could. Evan hated that.
He ground his teeth and snapped his cell phone shut.
Roger Brett had the nerve to ride his ass because Brett’s daughter screwed up...again. Wasn’t she Brett’s responsibility? He and his supermodel wife-with-one-name had spoiled her rotten, and now expected him to tame her.
Brett had challenged him to do the impossible—keep his daughter employed and somehow force her to beat Simon Bosford into submission.
That would be a tall order even if Jessica Jones were a typical employee, trembling in her Payless shoes, in fear of losing her job with CSM. It was a gargantuan order for Jessica Brett, sports empire heiress, kicking up her Manolos in fear of...nothing.
Brett didn’t know his daughter. He’d assured Evan that Jessica would work hard to keep this job, insisting she possessed some crazy notion about proving herself and standing on her own. Apparently, she’d had a change of heart.E van rolled onto his stomach, tossed the cell phone on the floor, and hunched over the laptop, digging his elbows into the soft hotel mattress. An image from the online version of The Daily Fix glared back at him—perpetual party girl and sometime actress, Lexi Barone, her soaking wet dress leaving nothing to the imagination and putting to rest once and for all the idea that Lexi was a natural redhead. Rumor had it that she and Simon hooked up in the ladies’ room at Club 58, and the session got so hot they set off the sprinklers.
He scrolled down to the next picture—Simon Bosford grinning and flashing a peace sign while leaving the police station in Hollywood after being arrested and released for trespassing on private property—clambering on top of the Hollywood sign, no less.
It started with the Hollywood sign incident, and had been spiraling out of control all week.
How could he strong-arm Jessica? Brett had miscalculated. She didn’t care if she lost this job or not. The Waves had to stop tip-toeing around their superstar. If the Waves management, including Roger Brett, really expected The Boss to play soccer instead of playing with starlets, they had to read him the riot act.
Of course, it would be better for him and CSM if The Boss continued under contract with the Waves...but it wasn’t essential. Evan could make money out of The Boss even if the guy never kicked another soccer ball in his life.
But he didn’t want to piss off Roger Brett.
“I’m going to toss that laptop out the window. We’re supposed to be on vacation.” The bathroom door framed his wife, buck-naked and scowling.
“C’mon over here and give me a massage, hot stuff.” He shoved the laptop to the edge of the bed to make room for sexy wife number two, his trophy for working hard and making lots of dough.
As Gina trailed her fingers over his tense shoulders, he screwed his eyes shut. He had to cut this vacation short and take charge of Jessica Brett.
***
Jessica Jones was one skittish woman. She played hard to get, as if she’d forgotten he’d already gotten her.
Simon wanted her back in his arms and back in his bed, but she ran hot and cold, sweet and sour, light and dark.
She wanted him too. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t mask that fact. Her bottle-green eyes simmered when he drew her near, crinkled at the corners when the two of them shared a private joke, and flashed green sparks when he got too close to a hot woman.
She pretended she didn’t want him, but she didn’t want him with anyone else either. Every woman he hooked up with during the course of an evening mysteriously disappeared at quitting time. The second time it happened, he figured out Jessica had engineered the whole episode with Lexi in the loo at Club 58.
Kick It Up Page 13