Free Smoke and Mirrors - Hollywood Knights One by L.B. Clark Page A

you this, though: you don’t have to wait
for her.”
    Parker took a deep drag, the fiery end of the
cigarette illuminating his face for a second, and then he dropped
his hands loosely between his splayed knees. He looked down, like
he found the ground between his feet fascinating. “Yeah, well…maybe
I want to. For a while.”
    “Well, maybe you shouldn’t just sit around in the
meantime. You’re a good-looking guy. Smart. Funny. Sexy as
hell.”
    Parker looked up through the fringe of hair that
brushed his brows and gave me a little grin. “Sexy as hell,
huh?”
    “Especially when you do that.”
    He sat up a little and brushed his hair back from
his face.
    “And don’t even think about trying to use me to make
Lori jealous,” I warned him.
    “What about that whole casual dating thing?” he
asked, grinning.
    “That depends. Are you talking about casual dating
to have fun? Or casual dating to make Lori jealous? Or maybe casual
dating to try to get into my pants?”
    He gave my pajama bottoms a pointed look. “I think I
could fit in those with you.”
    I sat forward and flicked my cigarette ashes at him.
“Jackass.”
    “But I’m so good at it.” He took a last drag of his
cigarette and crushed it out in the ashtray sitting by my chair.
“Speaking of your pants, I think you should take them off.”
    That surprised a laugh out of me. “What?”
    “There’s a perfectly good heated pool right down
there,” he said with a vague gesture. “Come swimming with me.”
    “You’re nuts,” I said, still laughing.
    “And?”
    I was actually contemplating skinny-dipping with
Parker when Elizabeth stepped out onto the back deck.
    “Hola, pretty lady,” Parker said. He dragged
Elizabeth down onto his lap, and she made a face and covered her
nose. “Sorry,” he said. “Jenny’s a bad influence.”
    Elizabeth dropped her hand and turned to smile at
me. “Always.”
    “She was just trying to convince me to go
skinny-dipping in Seth’s pool.”
    “Was she?” Elizabeth asked with a grin.
    “You should come with us.”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “Can’t. I feel like ass.
And you guys might not want to, either. The boys are talking about
heading to the studio.”
    “Studio?” I asked.
    “Seth’s studio,” Elizabeth said. At my blank stare,
she added, “In the pool house.”
    “Oh. That’s what’s in there. Huh.”
    Sure enough, the guys began spilling out of the
house a moment later, headed for the pool house. London stopped to
check on Elizabeth, and she told him she was going to go rest for a
while.
    “Brian’s getting Dylan settled in upstairs,” London
said.
    Elizabeth nodded, kissed him, and went back into the
house. London watched her go, then turned to me and offered his
hand.
    “Come hang out,” he said.
    I didn’t see any reason to turn down the offer, so I
let him help me up and followed him to the studio. The guys brought
the party with them, including beer and Seth’s Scotch. Brian,
London, and Teddy ignored the hooch, but the rest of the guys—and
Lori— split their attention between the booze and the music.
    After half an hour or more of them discussing Seth’s
gear and fiddling around with bits of it, they managed to put
together a jam band. It was interesting to me, watching them all
switch up from their usual positions. London, who played drums for
DPS, took up the bass. Seth took lead guitar, ceding his usual
rhythm guitar duties to Parker. Brian, who lived to play guitar,
plopped down behind the drums, while JT, Tangled Web’s lead
guitarist, cozied up with a keyboard. Teddy, like me, played his
usual role of spectator, and Lori was part spectator and part Seth
Webber groupie.
    This setup lasted for all of two songs before Seth
said, “Someone hand Jenny a microphone.”
    I tried to decline the offer, but London chimed in
with, “What? Are you scared?” his eyes sparkling with mischief.
    Swallowing the sudden burst of lust-fueled
adrenaline that his smile sparked