“Right.” She nods. “I had time with Labor Day weekend and all, so I figured it would be nice to come out here, get some sunshine, and see my dude.” She giggles on that last word, and I feel really flattered all of a sudden.
Her dude. I like the sound of that.
“I’m so glad you could come out here!” Chad says. “You would not believe how much we’ve heard about you. We could practically write a biography on you from how much he gushes about you.”
Gushes. It makes me get all shy because it’s totally true, even though I don’t want her to know it.
“When he first moved here, it was ‘oh, Lola would love that’ and ‘oh, I wish Lola was here so we could do this.’ He built you up like you were Beyoncé.”
She laughs hard and gives me a cute smile like she knows it’s true and she’s barely biting her tongue on making fun of me for it. I give her a playful smirk, and she doesn’t call me on it.
“I hope I live up to the hype,” she jokes.
“Well, you’re even prettier than he said, so you’ve already beat that expectation.” Alejandro smiles at her.
“Jeez, you guys are too kind,” she says, giggling. “I figured no one would even give me a second look at a party full of super-hot porn stars.”
“You’re fresh meat,” Chad teases. “Everybody here has had sex with everybody else here, so we’re all bored of each other.” Alejandro nods. “You’re new blood, and everybody’s probably eyeing you.”
She laughs hard, and I can see her cheeks start to turn pink.
We’re both hungry, so we grab a couple of the burgers Rick’s been grilling—veggie for her and regular for me—and we sit down with the guys. They keep revealing how much I talk about her and how I always tell them that my best friend is the coolest, the prettiest, the smartest—all that stuff. I’m so embarrassed because it’s all totally true. I do gush about her. I can’t help it. She’s my little angel, and I feel honored that she’s even friends with me, let alone best friends with me.
After a little while, we decide to walk around so she can meet some more people. I introduce her to a few of the girls I’ve worked with, including Amber Blaze, the super-hot redhead whose website gets more hits than any other girl in the biz. Amber’s really cool, a very free spirit kind of girl, and way more mature than her nineteen years. I like her a lot, and since I did a shoot with her a couple months ago, we’ve hung out and had lunch several times. She’s super nice to Lola—probably because she’s heard me go on and on about her too—and they seem to get on pretty well.
Lola’s getting a raspberry lemonade from the bar when we’re approached by Lexi and Tara Morgan. Frankly, I’m a little nervous about how this is going to go down.
“Hey, baby,” Tara says, grabbing me and kissing me on the mouth. “It’s good to see you.”
“We saw you over here lookin’ sexy and wondered why you hadn’t come over to say hello to us,” Lexi adds with a sultry purr.
Lola’s a little bit behind me, so I can’t get a read on her reaction.
Neither of them even say hello to her, which is kind of rude, so I make a point to introduce her. I can tell from her expression that she’s not exactly thrilled to meet them. They act just a little bit arrogant, and I know she doesn’t dig their attitude.
“You’re the high school girl, right?” Tara says in a vaguely condescending tone.
“College, actually. A university.” Lola smiles defiantly. Such a tough cookie, my girl.
“Oh,” Tara says like she’s a little surprised that Lola checked her. “And you’re the one that’s known him since you were kids?” she asks in a way that seems kind of like she’s talking down to her.
I want to step in, but Lola’s got this. I’ve seen her deal with this kind of girl rivalry bullshit before, and she’s no delicate flower when it comes to this stuff.
“Yes.” She nods. “James and I have been best friends since childhood. We grew up together. We’re practically family.”
“Closer than family.” I smile at her as I put my arm around her and give her a wink to acknowledge that I see how the girls are a little bit bitchy.
“I see,” Tara says, looking her over.
“That’s cute,” Lexi chimes in condescendingly.
“James has made lots of new friends out here.” Tara grins smugly. “Lots of very tight friends,” she says, thinking she’s making some kind of clever play on words.
Lola can’t hold back an eye roll, and Tara looks none too pleased to see it.
“Have you ever seen any of his work?” Lexi asks.
Lola shakes her head. “No, just heard his stories about it.”
“Well, he’s very good at what he does. Personally, he’s my favorite guy to work with. In fact, I’m planning to do another shoot with him very soon,” Tara says with a conceited smile. “He and I always have a lot of fun.”
“I’m sure you do,” Lola replies with the vaguest hint of a scoff.
“All of us just love James around here,” Lexi says, flashing me a flirty smile.
Lola nods, and she’s got the most perfect fake smile on her face. “I’m not surprised,” she says. “He’s easy to love.”
I can tell these girls are annoying her, but she doesn’t need me to step in. She’s tough as shit, even though she’s tiny and adorable, and chicks like this aren’t going to ruffle her feathers. Still, I put my hand on her shoulder, just to make that physical contact and show her that she’s the winner here. No matter how weirdly arrogant and possessive Tara or Lexi might be about me, I’d ditch both of them in an instant to hang out with Lola.
They exchange those fake pleasantries that girls give to each other when they secretly don’t like each other. I’ve never understood why girls don’t just say what they mean. Lola doesn’t like them. They have some kind of weird mean-girl cockiness toward her, and I don’t know why they’re even standing here trying to pretend to be polite to each other, but this is some kind of weird chick code where they’ll be nice to each other’s faces and then stab each other in the back the first chance they get. For as much experience as I have with girls, I will never understand some of the shit they do.
I make up some excuse about wanting to ask Rick something, and I take Lola’s hand as we walk away from them.
“Okay, what’s up with those two?” she asks when we get somewhere more private. “What’s their deal? They’re all bitchy and combative.”
“Who knows.” I shrug. “Maybe they’re jealous.” I don’t really want to get into why they’re jealous, since I know that’s a little bit my fault.
“Jealous of what?” she scoffs with a laugh.
“Because you’re prettier,” I say, kissing her forehead. “And sweeter,” I add as I kiss her right cheek. “And smarter.” I kiss her left. “And all-around cooler than they’ll ever be,” I conclude with a kiss on the tip of her nose.
“You’re such a charmer,” she says with a flattered giggle.
“But I’m also honest.” I grin at her.
As we’re walking back toward Chad and Alejandro, I see Ethan Dane—my rival, my nemesis, the Newman to my Jerry Seinfeld—walking toward us. He’s scoping Lola pretty hard, and I can feel my jaw clench as I step a little in front of her. It’s one of those possessive displays of canine dominance à la Cesar Millan, but it’s instinct for me at this point.
“Hey, man. How’s it going?” Ethan smiles at me.
I give him a nod. “Great, dude, and you?”
“Really great,” he says, cutting the greetings and looking at Lola. “Hi.” He smiles flirtatiously as he reaches out and shakes her hand. “I’m Ethan.”
“I’m Lola,” she says. “Nice to meet you, Ethan.”
I’ve told Lola about Ethan Dane, but not a ton about him. He and I are both the passion guys, the ones that have a growing female following. He’s only about five-foot nine, but he’s really buff and he’s got a tattoo on his shoulder of the lyrics from a Bob Dylan song, which somehow makes him deep, I guess.
We’re always in the running for the same movies, and we’ve had this professional rivalry since my second or third movie. We started out around the same time and both of us are getting pretty big, so we’re kind of competitive. Right now, it looks like he wants to compete over Lola. Little does he know, that shit ain’t gonna happen.
“Ethan works for Rick too,” I say, putting my arm around her waist and pulling her into my side.
“That’s right! I’ve heard of you.” She smiles at him and curls into me a little more. I can tell she’s cool with playing things up because she knows I’m annoyed and I want to tell Ethan to back off of her.
“Oh, yeah?” He grins, practically licking his chops at her. “Have you seen any of my movies?”
“I haven’t seen any porn movies,” she says, giggling. “Not even his.”
It’s true. She’s seen a couple of pics, but it was mostly me blurry in the background while the camera focused on the girl I was plowing. She told me she’s too scared to see my movies—which is too adorable!
“You should check them out.” Ethan smiles. “You might like what you see.”
“Maybe she’ll watch a couple of mine this weekend,” I say, unconsciously amping up the sex appeal. “She could see how a pro does it.”
She giggles and looks into my eyes with this really sultry look that takes me by surprise. Lola can be so seductive without even realizing it.
“How long are you in town?” Ethan asks her, licking his lips.
Dude licks his lips while he’s making eyes at my girl! What the fuck, man?
“Just the weekend,” she replies. “Just a little visit out here to be with him,” she says, putting her hand on my stomach in a flirty gesture of her own.
“Nice. Are you going to come down to a shoot?”
“I don’t know if I could handle that.” She blushes, probably imagining something totally lewd and nasty.
“It’s not so bad. In fact, I hear it can be a very memorable experience,” he replies, sneaking a glance at her cleavage.
“I don’t doubt that!” she says through a big laugh.
“I have a shoot tomorrow,” he says flirtatiously. “You should swing by.”
“I’m taking her out tomorrow,” I interrupt with a little more bass in my voice. “She’s visiting me, and I’m planning to spend every waking minute with her.”
The expression on Lola’s face is a cross between a blush, a flattered smile, and a very amused smirk. But she rolls with it, and she doesn’t even flinch when I slide my hand down to her hip and tug her closer to me.
Ethan seems to take the hint, and he keeps the flirtation to an acceptable level for the rest of the brief conversation.
“So that’s the infamous Ethan Dane?” she says with a chuckle once he’s out of earshot. “The rival. The great adversary.”
“Yep.” I nod. “The challenger to the throne.”
She snickers loudly and rolls her eyes. “Not much of a challenge, babe.”
I pause and smile broadly at her before I reply, “You are the coolest girl in the world, I swear.”
“Hey, just like you, I’m honest.” She winks, referencing my comment from earlier.
I grab her face and kiss her forehead as she laughs.
We go back over to Chad and Alejandro, and we hang with them for a while and talk shit. Lola and Chad both love shitty reality shows, and they compare notes about the best bad movies or the worst music videos. They’re pop-culture heads, and they’re practically best friends by the end of the day. I knew she’d get along great with these guys. They’re good dudes.
When we leave the party, we decide to go see a movie and then go back home to chill out. I want to take Lola to the beach tomorrow—and not just because I want to see her in a bikini. I think she’ll like relaxing in the sun, and I’ll like relaxing with her while she’s in a bikini. It’s more of an added bonus than a straight-up goal.
She seems to be getting less self-conscious by the minute, and she comes out in just a towel after her shower. There are still little beads of water on her shoulders, and I love that she’s all wet and sexy. I’m in the room when she goes over to her suitcase to get pajamas. I pretend to look away, but I totally check out her ass as she pulls off the towel and changes into some boy-shorts and a jersey knit nightie. Hot.
We crawl under the covers together, and I rest my arm over her waist as she lies on her back. She turns her head to look at me and gives me a sweet, shy smile.
“James,” she says, “thanks for sticking by me at the party…you know, especially with those girls and stuff. I think I would have been a lot more nervous if you weren’t right by my side the whole time like that.”
“I’ll always stick by you, Lo. I got your back.” I give her a little squeeze.
She doesn’t reply. She just brushes her fingers down my shoulder and then leans in to kiss my cheek. It’s gentle and loving, that kind of sweet kiss that makes your heart flutter like some shit out of a cartoon. I close my eyes and absorb the feeling as she plants little, soft kisses across my cheeks, up the bridge of my nose, across my forehead, and along my jaw. The tenderness of it is what gets me, and I feel all warm and cozy.
“Goodnight, James,” she whispers, kissing my cheek one more time and then curling into me.
“Goodnight, babe,” I softly reply.
What an awesome way to fall asleep.
Chapter 24
Lola
JAMES HOLDS MY HAND as we shuffle toward the marina. He’s arranged something today, and the only thing he would tell me was that it involved a boat—or yacht, I guess. I know absolutely nothing about boats, but most of these look pretty expensive. We head down a dock to a large yacht with dark wood paneling and gold railings. The writing sprawled across the back in gold cursive says “Dirty Oar.”
“Seriously?” I smirk at James.
“It’s dumb, but come on.” He smiles broadly as he leads me up some stairs and onto the deck.
A handsome older gentleman who looks a little like Sean Connery steps out and introduces himself as Captain Scott. “The others are already here,” he says, motioning for us to go inside.
We step into the cabin, and it’s tacky opulence everywhere. It looks like Louis XIV threw up in here: gold everything, white leather sofas, marbled wood paneling on the walls. I instantly know who the yacht belongs to, and I give James a look.
“Rick said I could use it.” He grins mischievously, nearly laughing at the way I’m holding back from commenting on the decor.
“Chad, honey, they’re here!” Alejandro says, emerging from an outside door.
“They are?” I hear Chad’s voice call from the main deck.
Alejandro gives James a hug before moving on to hug me. He’s so cut, and I can feel his bulging biceps around me. He looks totally hot in shorts and a black wifebeater that shows off his sleeve of beautiful sugar skulls and other Day of the Dead emblems. Chad comes in soon after in shorter shorts and no shirt, showing off his golden tan and making his blue eyes really pop. He walks his tall, lean frame over to me and gives me a big hug, kissing my cheek and telling me that the orange, cotton sundress I have on over my bikini looks gorgeous. With compliments flying like this, I could really get used to hanging out with these guys.
It seems that James and the boys called in a favor from Rick to take me out on his yacht today for some fun in the sun. I feel sappy for admitting it, but I find it so touching that the three of them put this together. James does nice stuff for me all the time, but it’s so sweet of Chad and Alejandro to come along too. I had so much fun with them at the barbecue, and it’s really cool to spend this time getting to know them better.
I want to put my purse down and change, so I start off to find the bedrooms—turns out there are three, including a master suite with a king bed. James follows on my heels and closes the door a little bit behind him when we arrive in a large room with a mirrored wall and black wood everything. It looks like every eighties shopping mall cramm
ed into one room. I’m guessing Rick bought this boat quite some time ago, probably late eighties or early nineties, which would coincide with when Sin Cinema first took off, according to what James told me.
I turn to him and snicker when I hit a switch that reveals recessed lighting around a big octagonal mirror on the ceiling.
“If the boat’s a rockin’…” he jokes.
“Yuck!” I laugh.
“I hope this is cool,” he whispers as he pulls his T-shirt shirt off and starts unbuttoning his jeans. “Chad sent me a text that said how much they loved meeting you, and I wanted to take you out here with me anyway, so I thought they could come too.”
“I’m psyched,” I reply. “I think this was a great idea.”
“Really?” He grins with pride.
“Really.” I nod and put my hands on his shoulders as I lean up to kiss his cheek. It makes him look adorably bashful, and I love it.
He slides his jeans down, and I blush a little bit, assuming I shouldn’t stand there and stare while he changes into his trunks. I turn away from him and pull my dress over my head, leaving me in a bikini and flip-flops. I take the hair tie from my wrist and start gathering my hair into a ponytail when I catch a quick glimpse of James in the reflection from one of the many mirrored surfaces. He’s totally naked, chiseled to absolute perfection, and he’s looking up and down my body as I attempt to tame my hair. He’s just so…sexy. It gives me a little shiver to think that such a beautiful guy is checking me out, but I shrug inwardly when I remember that the beautiful guy in question is my best friend, not some hottie boyfriend.
James and I emerge from the bedroom to find Chad and Alejandro on the back deck, Chad soaking up the sun at the patio table and Alejandro preparing the grill.
“Damn, girl!” Alejandro grins when he sees me. “You’ve got a body by Gucci!”
I laugh loudly and curve forward a little in an attempt to hide my huge boobs, which must be what he’s referring to. They’re way too big for my body, and I’ve been self-conscious about them for years, but Alejandro’s being playful, and it’s cute.
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