“Isaac wasn’t a monster,” she clarified, “but I have known a few in my time.”
“Ooh, really? I want names—” The show’s psychic vampire danced past me in her ballet flats and pixie cut wig, and just then, I saw the house lights flash. It was almost time for the show. “We should get to our seats!”
Krysta nodded and, again with that firm hand on my elbow, guided me past someone putting extra tousle into our lead vampire’s bronze-colored wig and a clump of ensemble performers in letter jackets and backpacks making sure their werewolf costumes were ready to go in the wings. We made it into the house and found our seats just as the lights began to dim.
Krysta sat down and stared doubtfully down at the blue-tinted eyeglasses she’d been handed as we’d come into the auditorium.
“It’s necessary to the emotional journey of the play,” I informed her. And then I twisted in my seat to look around. “I wonder if Bailey made it. I texted her that the show’s debut was tonight, and all I got in response was a selfie of her covered in mud at the spa. I wasn’t sure how to interpret that.”
Meanwhile, Krysta had put on her glasses. She swiveled her head to look at me with a frigid expression, the brief thaw from the dressing room clearly over. But it was very hard to take her displeasure seriously when she had giant blue glasses on.
“You’re right,” I said. “She’s probably taking a lil’ mud nap. Oh oh oh!”
The curtain was lifting, and I hurriedly put my own glasses on. Instantly the stage and everything on it turned a moody, dreamy blue, and I watched as our slender human came ontothe stage, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear as her mustached father showed her around his house.
“Juliet is amazing,” I whispered about our lead actress. Without looking over at me, Krysta pressed a finger to my mouth so I’d be quiet. The gesture was as arousing as it was bossy, and I mentally chantedshe doesn’t like you, she very much hates youto myself so I wouldn’t be tempted to nip at her finger and see what she did in response.
She dropped her finger, but I still felt the warm shape of it against my lips, the tingling skin she’d left behind. I hadn’t—well, it had been a while since I’d,you know...Not that it mattered, really, it was just that it was natural to have a reaction like this after going so long without slaking my thirst. To borrow a vampire metaphor.
I really needed to arrange for a hookup the minute we docked back in Long Beach. If a single finger press was making it so I could barely sing along with thewhoa-hoa-hoa-hoas with the rest of the audience, that was probably not a good sign.
But I couldn’t stop darting my tongue over my lower lip, like I was trying to chase away the lingering warmth. Or keep it there longer. And despite the high camp, acrobatic choreography, and frankly moving cesarean sequence, I also couldn’t stop stealing glances over at my bodyguard. At what she looked like through the blue filter of my glasses, at the slope of her nose and the angle of her chin. At the long stretch of her throat before it reached the notch of her collarbone and the placket of her white button-down, unbuttoned only one professional button.
I wondered why she took this job. I wondered if she’d found me irritating from the start. I wondered if she had someone back home, and if not, if she wanted there to be asomeone.
I wondered what she would do if I pressed my finger against her mouth instead.
And suddenly, it was the end of the show. The auditorium erupted in applause, cheers, whistles, chants for more, and the cast was glowing under their glitter as they came up to take their bows. I slid my glasses off and turned so I could take in the auditorium behind me. Beaming faces, laughter, joy. Most importantly, phones out and flashing.
Satisfaction rolled through me like a sweet, cool wave, that tasty feeling of validation, rewarded optimism, and shared glee with the people around me. It had worked—The Lion and the Lambwas off to a terrific start, which meant that Lemon Tree Cruises was off to a terrific start, which meant that the plan was working. And a plan working was my own personal brand of heroin.
Elated, I spun to Krysta and decided to hug her because I needed to hug somebody, and as I was grabbing for her, I decided to lift to my toes and kiss her on the cheek too, because this wasn’t a hug-only moment, this wascelebration.
Except right as I was about to stamp a kiss onto her cheek, she turned her head, and my lips made contact with her mouth instead.
She went still—so still—and now I had frozen too, my arms around her and my lips against her soft, moldable ones. They were unimaginably warm, unimaginably giving under pressure, and for a minute, I forgot that this was an accident, a mistake, a breach of etiquette and consent and God knew what else.
And maybe Krysta forgot for a moment too, because her lips parted, ever so slightly, like she was about to sneak a taste—
“Thank you! Thank you!” Mack’s voice boomed over a microphone. Krysta and I leapt apart at the same time, and I was rambling an apology, and she was trying to take the glasses off her face, and then Mack was calling me up to the stage, and then I was giving an impromptu speech to the crowd.
And then it was time for dinner and an ad hoc cocktail party with the cast to celebrate their triumph, and Krysta said not a word to me the whole time, not even on the way back to our suite, when it was only us.
When I got into my room, vaguely horny and regretful, I saw a new arrangement of flowers on the table next to my bed. Tulipsandcarnations—ick.
There was a note wedged into a little plastic holder among the flowers, and I slid it free to see who was responsible for this bulbiferous monstrosity.
Two days. I’ll give you more instructions soon.
And this time don’t bring your muscle... or I’ll do somethingrash.
Chapter Six
“Does that sign say ‘daily foam parties’?” Bailey asked our private beach club concierge.
“Foam party wasn’t on the vision board,” I said under my breath, and to my surprise, Krysta didn’t frown. In fact, I would daresay, she nearly smirked.
Bailey looked at me with pleading eyes, and I shooed her toward the concierge and the huge resort-style infinity pool.
