Falling Into You (26 page)

“You left her with Sophia Pearce?”
The
disgust is clearly evident in her
response
. “
That girl is toxic, Chris. You know she is.
”

Diana’s right.
What the hell was I thinking?
“I’m meeting her at Sam’s.”

“You better get your ass over there, then.”
She swats at me. “No promises for what I might say to the new girlfriend. I’ll do my best to keep her away from you, if she’s as perfect as you seem to think. I feel like it’s m
y duty
.”

I flip her off as I grab my phone from the
counter. “Nice, D. Very nice.”

“Just looking out for the female species.”

***

After my conve
rsation with Diana, I hightail
it to Sam’s
.
I’ve been
here
for almost
two hours
and there’s still no sign of her
.
I’ve texted her no less than ten times, feeling like a possessive asshole,
but she hasn’t responded. I’m imagining Sophia tying her up and torturing her, and just as I’m able to jum
p in a cab to head to Sophia’s on a rescue mission
,
m
y phone buzze
s
.

Sorry. Be there in a few.
Sophia
forced her makeover skills on me. Prepare yourself for whoredom.

I text back a quick reply.
Whoredom?

What kind of game was
Sophia
playing?

When
Sophia
and
Hallie
walk
in the door a minute later,
I almost fall over.
Hallie
’s wearing a red dress that leaves nothing to the imagination. It’s cut to mid-thigh and reveals the tops of
her
cream-colored breasts
,
a far cry from her party attire on the first night
.

Sam’s immediately rushes over to the pair of them
, taking
their
coats
and whispering something that makes Hallie laugh
. She smiles at him as she turns around and peels off her jacket, and the dress dips dangerously low in the back,
showing
more skin. Her dark hair lies in glossy curls over her shoulders and the strappy red heels that she’s wearing make her
legs
appear
impossibly long
.

No one is ever goin
g to think that she’s the
coat girl
and the only way that she looks like the girl next door is if the girl next door is a porn star. She and
Sophia
are almost instantly surrounded by a crowd of admirers, and she’s peeking over the tops of heads,
searching the crowd
for me.

When
her eyes meet mine, she mouths,
“
Whoredom
.
”
Her eyes are bright,
and I can’t help but laugh at her. I’m moving towards them when the thought hits me.

Sophia
Pearce. S
he’s thinking three steps ahead of me, as always
.
She must have gotten it out of
Hallie
that we haven’t slept together yet, which is obviously not a part of my usual pattern. That also means that she probably figured out that I’m
trying desperately not to screw this whole thing up by dragging
Hallie
into my bed.
And that is going to be basically impossible, since she is
practically oozing sex in that dress
.

“Thanks for th
e safe delivery,” I say to
Sophia
,
a hint of menace in my voice. S
he gives me a sweet smile
in return.

Hallie
’s eyes are bright with too much alcohol. Probably Part 2 of
Sophia
’s plan.
I wrap
my arm
around
Hallie
. “I’ll probably be monopolizing her for a few days.” My intention is crystal clear. She is mine and there is nothing
Sophia
can do about it.
Sophia
’s eyes flash with anger.

“
Not so fast
,” she sings in a
high-pitched
voice. She whispers something into
Hallie
’s ear and grabs her arm.

Hallie
looks at me plaintively
as
Sophia
pulls her
away from me
. “I look like a whore,
”
she whispers.

“You do not look lik
e a whore.”
It’s not entirely true.

“I can’t even walk in this dress.
And there were shots. She’s trying to kill me. With shots.
”

“
Hallie
. We must dance.
”
Sophia’s
words are slightly slurred.

Hallie
pleads me with her eyes
,
but
I
just
laugh at her. “Go. Dance. She’ll never leave you alone.”

“I like dancing.” Her eyes brighten. “I’ll be right back.”

Sophia
shoots me a long, measured look. D
espite the slurred words, she’s still calculating in her head
.

“I’ll be right here.
” I whisper
it
into
Hallie
’s ear
, kissing her cheek
as she flits away from me
.

“Hey!”
Sophia
cries, clearing a space in the middle of a group of people. “We’re dancing here.”

The crowd parts and someone turns the music up, and
Sophia
slides her body around
Hallie
seductively. She crooks her finger at a couple of guys in the crowd, and they flock to her
.

Sam appears at my shoulder, an extra drink in hand. He
gives
to me and I take it gratefully. It’s going to be a long night.

“Who’s that girl with
Sophia
?
She’s totally hot.”
Hallie
’s standing
in the middle of the circle
,
frowning at the music
.

I hold up a finger in warning. “Hands off, dude.”

“Making a claim on all the pretty girls at the party, Jensen?”

“Just that one
.” My phone’s buzzing. W
hile I don’t want to let
Hallie
out of my sight, I fi
gure that it’s probably Marcus and
I have to tell him about the disastrous audition at some point. “Seriously, Sam. Hands off.”

He lifts his hands in mock surrender. “All right, man.”

“I’ll find you later, ok?” I take one last look at
Hallie
, who’s
apparently
still trying to figure out if she actually wants to dance or not.

“Yeah.”

I duck into the hallway before picking up the phone.
Marcus i
s screaming on the other line and h
e’s pissed.

“Chris fucking Jensen! Always answering his fucking phone.”

“Marcus.”

“I would ask how it went, but I have Alan on the other line. W
hy didn’t you fucking tell me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“They w
ant to get the deal done. Now.”

I’m still confused. “Marcus, what are you tal
king about? I’m at this party…”

“I’m talking about James fuc
king Ross, moron. They want you to be James fucking Ross. Alan called me a few hours ago, and we’re been trying to work through the details ever since. But a phone call
from you
would have been nice. You know, a nice little, ‘I fucking killed my audition’ and Alan’s about to call you with an eight-figure offer for the first three films
. I got blindsided, man
.”

What? I’m stunned into silence
.
I blew the audition. I don’t eve
n know what he’s talking about.

Marcus cuts back in. “It’s a good thing, Jensen. Celebrate. Get some champagne. An outrageous hotel suite. Find a couple of girls to fuck. It’s what James Ross would do. I’m flying to New York tomorrow. I’ll need your pretty face to
come to dinner to charm Alan into paying you a decent wage
.”

I manage an incoherent grunt, and Marcus chuckles.

“Welcome to the big time.” Click.

James Ross. I stare
back down at the phone
for a long minute. This is what I want, I tell myself. I
want to be James fucking Ross.
I’m taking deep breaths in the hallway and I feel like a total maniac until I remember about the party and
Hallie
.
She’s going to be thrilled.

The music’s pumping
louder
than before and there’s a crowd of people standing in
a circle
in the middle of the room.
I’m hoping
she’s
standing at the fringes so that I can pull her away.
And then I see her,
and she’s certainly not standing in the fringes. Oh, shit.

She’s shimmying seductively
and moving her body impossibly fast to the hip hop beat. There are other dancers around the edges of the crowd, but they’ve moved back to give her space to move. She’s perfectly in time with the music and the red dress rides up on her thighs. Sam’s probably the best dancer in the room, and he’s moved into the circle an
d offered her his hand. Jackass
.

Envy takes over my body, but it’s almost worth it
to see them together. He’s behind her and
she’s moving low to the ground, and then he twirls her around and they’re moving together in perfect rhythm.

It’s obvious that they
’ve both had
a lot of
training and they’re playing off each other like they’ve been dancing as a pair for years. Hallie’s movements are effortless and free as Sam dips her, his hand skimming the small of her back. Her cheeks are flushed with excitement and she’s practically shimmering with happiness as the song changes and her body moves to the new tempo.

Every pair of eyes in the room is glued to
the pair of them.
Even
Sophia
seems impressed. She moves out of the circle and comes to stand by me as
Hallie
and Sam continue
their display.
Sam
twists dips her deeply
again
and she’s laughing and shaking her head at him, backing off and wagging a finger.

I’m never going to make it out of here alive.

I grab
Sophia
’s arm and she smirks at me.

“She’s good,”
Sophia
says.
It’s a massive understatement.

“She is.”

“She’s also my friend that I brought here for me. Not
for
you.”
Sophia
’s pouting
and all of the pretense from earlier has been dropped.
She’s like a kid who’s been told that they
can’t play with their new toy.

“I’m not sure if you even know what a friend is.” It’s our old game, insults and teasing and hurt. Lust used to be all mixed up in there, too. But I don’t want her anymore and the lack of interest on my part must be readily apparent, because
she’s discovered it and changed her tactics
.

“
I’m not sure if you even know who she is.”
Sophia
nudges her head back to the dance flo
or, and I’m staring at her and Sam in the center of the circle. “She doesn’t look like a littl
e innocent girl now, does she?”

“She
never claimed to be innocent.”

“Ah, but didn’t you
assume that she was
?”
Sophia
’s smiling up at me.
“
Hallie
, the perfect innocent schoolgirl. Every little boy’s wet dream, really.”

I hate to admit it, but
Sophia
’s right.

The captivating creature in the red dress is all too much like my usual fare and nothing like the
Hallie
I’ve come to know.
This
Hallie
shows no signs of klutziness. She’s
entirely self-assured, beautiful and laughing and practically floating around the dance floor. And then her eyes find me and she smiles and I feel the tiny knot of insecurity and doubt release.