Hollyweird

“I … I … you’re right.” Aly frowned. “I’ll check on Missy and then we’ll go find Des.”

  I peered around. Everything seemed copacetic. For the moment.

  “It’s all right. I didn’t mean to panic you. Just tell me what happened. I don’t understand … ” I cupped her shoulders and pulled her back just a little so I could look in her face. “Aly, I’ve been with him all day, and he was on his best behavior.”

  “Apparently he can work his black magic from afar, because we’ve already had Gluttony and Sloth thrown at us.”

  I pressed my forehead against hers. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know how—but you look okay. Are you?”

  She nodded and her nose bumped against mine. Suddenly I became very aware that our lips were just a breath apart.

  “I am now,” she whispered, then licked her bottom lip.

  I wanted to kiss her so badly I ached with the need.

  But I couldn’t …

  I pressed closer until our lips just barely touched, the scarcest tickling contact. Breath held, I skimmed my lips once, twice, three times across hers. Never taking her mouth with mine, but tormenting myself with what could never be.

  Surely God couldn’t count that as a kiss.

  With regret and longing, I pulled away and cleared my throat. “We better get the girls.”

  “Um.” Aly lifted trembling fingers to her lips and I looked away. “Des is walking up behind you.”

  I turned to see Des a short distance away with two thirty-two-ounce lemonade slushies. It didn’t look like she’d seen our non-kiss.

  “Are we glad to see you,” she said by way of greeting as she handed Aly her drink. “Did she tell you what we’ve been through?”

  “She was just getting to it,” I murmured.

  “Speaking of getting to it, shouldn’t Missy be out by now?” Des asked. “She’s taking longer than I did to get the drinks.”

  Aly straightened. “I’ll go check—”

  “Naw,” Des said, and then took a slurpy sip of her drink. “I’ll go and you fill Jameson in.”

  Aly bit her lip, but nodded.

  Once Des left I thought about apologizing, but damned if I felt sorry. That moment, that sweet torment, might be all I’d ever share with her. “Tell me,” I said instead.

  She hung her head. “It’s really embarrassing. I acted so terrible.”

  I lifted her chin and gave her an encouraging smile. “Just remember, the devil made you do it.”

  She smiled then and filled me in on maxing out on chocolate and becoming “abysmally demanding” while she gave new meaning to American Idle.

  “You beat them, Aly. Gluttony is considered the hardest sin to avoid. People are always giving into pleasures of the palate, but when it came down to it, your true nature kicked in and your virtues—Temperance and Diligence—defeated the sins he served you. ”

  “I’m just shocked at how easy it was to get caught up. Speaking of … Des should be back here with Missy now.” She grabbed my hand. “Come on.”

  She went into the bathrooms and checked the stalls while I stood in the doorway watching for some lobster-reddened lady to come along and call me a perv.

  “They’re not in here,” Aly said, chewing on her straw.

  We walked out of the bathroom and rounded the corner to the outside showers. “You want to check?” I asked.

  “Okay,” she said skeptically, “but I’m sure they’re not showering.”

  I stood a few feet back, just in case. That whole perv thing again.

  Aly immediately came scurrying back, her face stoplight red. “He’s here,” she whispered.

  “Dakota?”

  She nodded and I swear her cheeks grew even hotter. “He’s, um, well he’s … ” She plucked her T-shirt away from her body and flapped it to cool herself down.

  Realization smacked me. “He’s showering.”

  I walked over to the stalls and found Missy and Des peering over the shower walls at a sudsy Dakota with his six-pack abs and tight ass. The dude was built and beautiful and he knew it. This time he was the sin, and the two girls were thoroughly ensnared in Lust. Their gaze tracked every move and watched every cascading droplet that licked down his physique. It was just a matter of time before he lured them away from their voyeurism and into the steam. I had to get them out of there.

  Thinking quick, I stripped off my shirt.

  “What’re you doing?” Aly hissed, but I noticed she gave me an appreciative look. I might not be the Adonis Dakota was, but I don’t think I’m bad.

  “If you can’t beat him, join him,” I said with a flirty wink.

  I’d actually worn my swim trunks, not knowing if the girls would want to go into the surf. Noticing a knot at the back of Aly’s neck, I asked, “Did you wear your suit too?”

  She nodded.

  “Take your shirt off and follow my lead.”

  I scooped up some sand and scrubbed it down my legs and across my chest. Her eyes widened, but I just walked away.

  “There you are. Were you looking for me?” I said to the girls as if they weren’t drooling and mesmerized. “Aly, they’re over here,” I called needlessly. “Give me a sec to rinse off and then we’ll go hit the carousel like I promised.”

  I stepped into the shower and startled to a stop. “Whoop, sorry. Thought it was empty,” I said and began backing up. “Dakota?” I acted all surprised, but kept my gaze away from any of his kibbles and bits. “I didn’t know you were coming here.”

  “Jameson,” Dakota said as he shut off his water and grabbed a minuscule towel to wrap low on his hips.

  I glanced back and saw Aly leading the girls away to shake off the last vestiges of their spell.

  “I didn’t know you were coming here either,” Dakota said.

  “Yeah,” I said as I turned on the water and ducked my head under the stream. “After you gave me the day off, Aly called. She wanted me to meet them down here since they hadn’t seen the beach. I’m just rinsing off before we go up to the pier.”

  I shut off the water and shook my head. “So, where’s the friend you were meeting?”

  “She had to leave,” Dakota said as he headed out of the stall.

  I followed him and found all three girls standing by the men’s bathroom door. Their gazes drifted to the itsy-bitsy towel Dakota was holding on with his fingers because there was too little material to tuck in. He gave them all a knowing smirk and then sent a smoldering, seductive stare Missy’s way. She surged forward to go after him, but Aly grabbed her arm and yanked back while Des dropped her gaze to the pile of crushed ice in the sand where she’d dropped her slushie. Dakota’s hot gaze then zoomed in on Aly, who looked amazing in her bikini top and denim shorts, sparkling crystals of sand clinging to her golden legs and sprinkled across her flat tummy. I couldn’t blame Dakota for noticing her, but I fisted my hands at my side as he gave her a slow once-over.

  “Hey, Aly,” he said in his most sexy, gravelly voice. I expected her to get all hot and bothered like every other female he used that trick on, but she just gave a squeaky little “hi!” back and then took a long, slurpy sip of her lemonade slushie.

  Dakota looked baffled and then intrigued by her reaction, while I silently cheered inside.

  “Gorgeous, don’t you think?” he asked with blatant vanity.

  “Yes,” she said and triumph flashed in his eyes until she added, “The beach is definitely gorgeous. I’m so glad we got a chance to see it.”

  “Um, yeah. Ooo-kay. See ya,” he said and gave Aly one more curious look. Then he spun away, giving a dismissive wave over his shoulder as he headed into the bathroom to get dressed.

  Ten pounds of tension left my body in a sigh-whoosh and I herded the girls away before anything else could go wrong.

  “He wants me,” Missy said to Des, who in turn rolled her eyes and said, “Does nothing penetrate your bleach-soaked brain?”

  Aly and I walked ten steps behind them. “Do you think he’ll try anything els
e tonight?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said, and then chuckled. “I think you bruised his ego and I didn’t think that could be done.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I gave her a sidelong look. “You didn’t fall for him. You weren’t even bedeviled. How’d you do that?”

  She didn’t say anything for a long moment, just kept walking. And then, “Easy. I’d already fallen for another.”

  ALY

  The road to hell is supposedly paved with good intentions, and I’m uncomfortably close to hell these days, so I figured it was best to act straightforward with Jameson.

  I’m not sure which of the two of us seemed most shocked by my confession.

  “Aly, I … ” he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to a stop.

  Looking into his gorgeous green eyes, memorizing the cute spray of freckles across his cheeks and nose, I said, “You don’t have to say anything, Jameson.” I wanted him to, but I also feared he didn’t feel the same way.

  He watched to make sure Des and Missy were far enough away not to hear, but not so far they were in any danger.

  “I’ve fallen for you too,” he said, and my heart soared. “But it’s against—”

  “The angel code,” I finished sadly. It made sense, of course, but that didn’t stop the way I felt. I’d finally found a boy I could give my heart to and loving each other was forbidden. Figures.

  He let go of my arm and rubbed his thumb across my bottom lip. A shiver rippled through me.

  “The virtue that counteracts Lust is Chastity, right?” I whispered.

  He nodded.

  “I’m feeling anything but chaste right now,” I confessed.

  When he spoke, his husky voice made me warm and tingly, unlike Dakota’s.

  “There is nothing,” Jameson stressed, “that I want more than to kiss you. Believe me when I say I’m living in the hell of my own temptations.”

  I smiled, parted my lips, and softly bit his thumb. What did it say about me that I wanted to tempt this angel right out of his halo?

  Ashamed, I stepped back, letting his hand drop away. “We need to come up with a plan to take Dakota down.”

  The fierce spark in Jameson’s eyes told me he agreed. “I just can’t figure out what he’s up to,” he said, his brow puckered in frustration as we started to walk up the beach after Des and Missy. “I’ve been tracking his every move for months. I’ve got nada.”

  I sensed Jameson’s anger not only with Dakota, but also with himself. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t beat yourself up,” I assured him.

  “Can’t help it. I’m missing something.” His fingers interlaced with mine and squeezed. “First thing first—I’ve gotta protect you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Dakota proved he can get to you even when I’m stalking his every move. I think I better stay with you.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I said, delighted with the idea.

  “Yeah,” he agreed with a smile. “Hopefully I can put the kibosh on any more sins he swings your way.”

  “That’d be nice,” I said with a frown. “We’ve been snookered three times. Never even saw them coming.”

  Jameson stopped a runaway soccer ball with his foot and kicked it back to the two boys playing with it. “Hopefully I will.”

  “I just don’t get why he’s doing this,” I said. Three girls from Centennial, Colorado, shouldn’t be such a novelty. Yeah, Missy’s hunger for fame caught Dakota’s attention, but what about these additional attacks? If he just wanted a diversion, small-town innocents arrived in L.A. hourly by the busload. Why us?

  Jameson shrugged. “For his own sick amusement. Why else?”

  I shook my head. It had to be more than that. “The whole thing doesn’t make sense. For one, it’s not like he could see how we reacted, except for this last temptation. Any good prankster wants to see the results of his trick.”

  Jameson’s brows raised. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  I nibbled at the edge of my straw. “I just have this hinky feeling that there’s something more going on.”

  “Like what?”

  “Liiike … ” I thought about it for a minute. “Maybe he’s diverting our attention.”

  “You mean the sins are a distraction so we don’t see what he’s really up to?”

  “Yeah.” My gut clutched in agreement. “Yeah, that’s exactly what he’s doing. We’re looking left while he’s doing something right.”

  “But what?”

  I shook my head. “That’s what we have to figure out, but I’d bet reinstating your halo that it has to do with your assignment.”

  Jameson kicked the sand in a wide spray. “I need to stop him.”

  “We need to stop him,” I said as I pitched my cup at a metal trash can. “Let’s go back to the hotel and go over everything you know. Talk this through.”

  “But that’s just it,” he groaned in frustration. “I don’t know anything.”

  “You’ve been looking for a big ”—I bumped my hip against his for emphasis—“aha discovery, but maybe what you need to know is in the small, seemingly unrelated details.”

  He shrugged. “Could be. I’ll defer to you.”

  “And Des. She’s great at puzzles. We’ll just start at the beginning and go from there.”

  He twisted his lips to the side before asking, “And what’re we going to tell Missy?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Aly.” He stopped and took my other hand in his. “I know you’re protecting her, but how are you and Des going to Nancy Drew this out without her knowing? Or explain why I’m staying with you?”

  I swung our joined hands, but avoided his eyes. “I don’t know … ”

  He lowered his head to catch my gaze. “Don’t you think she’s already a bit suspicious of all the weirdness?”

  “Have you met my sister in all her blondness?”

  He didn’t laugh like I hoped he would. “I think you’re underestimating her. And we might need her help.”

  Was he right? Should I tell her? Secrets always had a way of biting you in the ass. Still, I didn’t want to destroy her dreams. “I’m not sure … ”

  “I get it,” he said. “You don’t want to shake up her world, but not knowing makes her more vulnerable.”

  I thought about that and decided he was right. Forewarned is forearmed, I said to myself. “Okay, we’ll tell her … something.”

  His lips quirked. “A version of the truth?”

  “Exactly.” I dropped one of his hands and started walking up the beach again. An impatient Missy had dropped to the sand to catch some rays. Des shaded her eyes with her hand and watched us closely. Guess I needed to tell her a thing or two.

  “All right,” Jameson said, “we’ll tell her Dakota is dangerous—that he’s up to something and she should watch her back.”

  “Uh huh.” I nodded. “But she won’t believe us without some kind of proof.”

  “Yet we’re going to skip—”

  “The whole son-of-Satan/preternaturals-exist thing.”

  “Okay.” He seemed to think about it a minute. “She’s into everything Hollywood, right?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Understatement. Gossip, fashion, fad diets.”

  “Psychic to the stars?”

  I gave him a puzzled look. “Yeah, she totally believes that stuff. Where are you going with this?”

  He grinned and twirled me in a quick circle. “I think I know a way to convince her Dakota’s bad and still be true-ish.”

  “Ish?” I asked with a giggle.

  He pointed to himself and gave a roguish smile. “She’s going to get an intuitive reading from Jameson Dagon, Dakota’s PA and very own psychic.”

  Jameson

  “You’re psychic,” Missy scoffed at me. “Riiiight. And I’m a homely nerd with low self-esteem and secondhand clothes.”

  “No, no, it’s true, Missy,” Aly argued. “Not you being a nerd—the psychic thing.” The fin
gers on her right hand were crossed and hidden in her lap. “Jameson’s ability is a closely guarded secret. That’s one of the reasons why Dakota hired him even though he’s so young.”

  We were sitting on a plush, coffee-colored throw rug around a squat glass coffee table in the girls’ new digs.

  Missy flipped her hair over her shoulder and squinted her eyes at me in challenge. “Prove it!”

  Exactly what we’d expected, but my palms started to sweat. I’d only used my power once or twice before, and never under pressure. I had to nail this for Aly.

  “And don’t tell me anything she’d know,” Missy said, pointing to her sister, “or it’ll just prove you’re a fake.”

  “I haven’t coached him, I swear,” Aly insisted, holding her hand up in pledge.

  “He’s totally legit,” Des said, and gave me an encouraging wink.

  Here goes.

  Give me your hand,” I instructed Missy, wiping my damp palms across my jeans.

  She looked from Aly to Des and then to me before rolling her eyes and plopping her hand face up on the table. I lifted her hand into my own and stared down at the fine lines threading across her skin. This little bit of “show” was the only advice Aly had given me. I didn’t actually read palms; I read minds.

  Lifting my gaze to Missy’s, I said, “Ask me a question.”

  “This is ridiculous,” she huffed and started to yank her hand from mine.

  I held tight. “What’s the harm in trying?”

  She pursed her lips and then closed her eyes for a second. “Okay. Am I going to get the part on Rich & Famous?”

  I closed my own eyes and concentrated, imagining my conscience traveling into her mind, pressing past her barriers and merging with her thoughts.

  They totally threw me when they gave me that new script, but I still think I nailed it.

  “I can’t tell you if you’ll get the part,” I said, and then held up my hand to stop her from calling me a phony. “But I can say you still killed the audition, even after they switched the script on you.”

  Watching her face go from “I knew it!” to “Holy crap!” cracked me up, though I didn’t show it. Eyes agog, mouth agape, she stared at me. “How did you—? I never told them that.” She turned her attention to the girls. “Did I?”