Page 5 of Wicked Fortune

I take a sip of coffee, hoping my brain will kick into gear and what she just said will magically make sense.

Nope. “Opportunity for what?” I ask.

“Hardline’s Talent Relations department throws those parties for aspiring actors,” Bree explains. “I guess the parties are meant to be a kind of pre-audition. Which is why she went to everyone she could.” She shrugs. “That’s how Jenny explained it to me, anyway. And then Matthew pretty much said the same thing.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Slow down.” I shift on the couch to see her better, one foot tucked under me. “Matthew Holt? The Matthew Holt? He told you that? Why would he tell you that?”

Holt is the CEO of Hardline Entertainment—the company that sponsors the meet-and-greets. He also has the starring role in my various nighttime fantasies.

Or he did until Jenny died. Now, he’s got a big, red, Jenny-sized question mark above his head.

Which is why he is very, very firmly in my crosshairs.

“I know him,” Bree says, and I remind myself of the circles she now travels in. “You’ve met him, too, remember? At that party at the Starks’ house?”

Bree used to work as a nanny for Damien Stark—a billionaire force of nature—and his wife Nikki. Now she’s married to Damien’s son, Ashton. So she’s been to a lot of parties at the Starks’ Malibu estate. I, however, have only been to a few. Usually as Bree’s plus-one.

“I’m sure I introduced you,” she adds. “You were waiting for a drink.”

I shrug, totally nonchalant. “I barely remember him.” I’m trying to sound casual. The truth is, I remember only too well.

The party had been a celebration because Nikki’s best friend, Jamie, and her husband, Ryan, had a new baby. I’d said my congrats, then got in the drink line.

That’s when I caught the familiar scent of his cologne. I turned to look behind me, then almost melted from the force of pure, animal pleasure.

I’d seen his picture before, but the camera didn’t do him justice. He seemed more god than man, with that chiseled face and perfect body. And his smile … that smile was like the glow of a full moon. Bright. Sensual. But somehow full of secrets.

Bree had been passing by, and she paused to introduce us. He met my eyes, and my insides had melted away. It was as if I was looking at myself from some other dimension, and I saw my whole life spread out in the warmth of his embrace.

The moment had been wonderful and terrifying and very, very strange.

The second Bree moved away, I made up some excuse to get out of line, abandoning my desperate need for a drink. Then I scurried to the far side of the pool and avoided looking at him until I finally had to just leave the party.

But I looked back once before I slipped through the gate. And there he was, his eyes on mine. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been watching me ever since the bar.

That should have been the end of it, but he’d lingered in my thoughts. And starred in some very, very vivid fantasies.

With a hard mental shove, I force myself back on track and turn my focus back to Bree. “Why was Holt talking to you about Jenny’s parties?”

“Oh, he wasn’t. I was kind of eavesdropping.”

I grin. “Do tell.”

She glares. “I’m trying to.”

I mime zipping my lips. She smirks but continues. “This was about a year ago. I wasn’t living at the Starks’ place anymore, but I’d come over to babysit. The kids wanted to swim, and I didn’t realize that Holt and Damien were having cigars on the patio when I agreed to the pool.”

I’ve never been jealous of Bree’s job as Damien and Nikki Stark’s nanny, but for a while, she actually lived in the guest house at Stark Mansion, which was almost the same as living like a billionaire in Malibu. Now that she’s married to Ash, she hangs out at the mansion all the time.

Nope. Not jealous at all.

Then again, if she hadn’t taken the nanny job, she never would have been kidnapped or blackmailed. So … yeah … not jealous at all.

She tilts her head, her mouth curved into a frown, as if she knows exactly what I’m thinking. Considering this is Bree—who knows me better than anyone—she probably does.

“Sorry,” I say, then clear my throat. “Mind wandering. Please continue.”

She does a massive eye roll but complies. “Matthew and Damien were talking business, so I was only half-listening. But then they mentioned those parties. Jenny had been to one or two back then, so I listened.”