“Long time to be carrying a torch. Why don't you contact her? You know, reconnect? The film is the perfect excuse to start a dialogue.”
“I'm not carrying a torch,” he lied, scowling at Z. He just hadn't realized how hot it still burned until he'd gotten here. “How would you like it if your ex was plastered all over Vegas while you were trying to work?”
She lifted a shoulder, her gaze going distant. “Mmm, don't know. I've never been that much in love.”
“Well, take it from me, no one needs that kind of heartache more than once in a lifetime. Besides, she wouldn't recognize me if we passed on the street. I'm a completely different person now-inside and out.”
“Really.” Z crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes with a sassy smile, lightening the mood a little. “I was under the impression you were born a bad boy.”
“Bad, yes. But I was white-trash bad. Not bad-ass bad. And our worlds are light years apart now.” He gestured out the window. “Look at her, splashed across the fucking Mirage, for God's sake.” He shook his head and smiled despite the stab of loss. “Man. She really made it.”
“So have you,” Z said with a little scolding in her voice. “Not too many people can say they've got stupid-ass selfies with just about every Hollywood blockbuster star. Or that their phone numbers are programmed into the speed dial of every big producer in Hollywood in case of a freak problem with rigging on a set. You're equally as famous, just in a lower-profile way.”
Troy laughed. “There's an oxymoron for you.”
“You're not that different,” she insisted, serious again. “You're both in entertainment. You're both here. You're both involved in the same movie.” She tipped her head with a devilish glint in her eye and lowered her voice. “Don't you wish she could see who and what you've become?”
Only every fucking day.
“Nope. Like I said, rejection isn't my thing.” He sought out Becca and Casey and found them watching his conversation with Z. With a single nod, they sauntered toward him. And even the sight of two twelves on a scale of one to ten coming at his beck and call left him lukewarm. “That is my thing now.”
“Oh. My. God.” Z's hazel eyes rolled. “You really are so bad.”
He shot Z a grin. “With absolutely no plans of ever changing. I believe the present is the best way to keep one's mind off the past. And these two lovely ladies,” he said, smiling at each as they slid into position on either side of him beneath his outstretched arms, “fit my current needs to absolute perfection. Catch you tomorrow, Z.”
Troy guided the women toward the door of the suite, forcing his thoughts off Giselle, off the pain eating at his gut like acid, and redirecting his mind toward the thought of relief through sexual oblivion.
By the time he reached the street with Becca and Casey, the alcohol had softened a few of his rough edges, and the women's attentions temporarily numbed the hurt he'd been living with from his very first sighting of Giselle's photo.
The cool, dry June night air layered a thin film of comfort over him after a very long day working in the caves out in Red Rock Canyon west of town. He didn't even look up at her image as they passed the Mirage, headed toward Troy's favorite sex club in Vegas-an elite, members-only place, offering top-shelf pleasure. He'd scored the membership when his boss and former mega Hollywood star, Jax Chamberlin, had gone and fallen in love. A few tugs on a couple of powerful strings had arranged a transfer of Jax's membership to Troy. He would never have been able to meet the who's-who qualification oth
erwise.
Tonight was free-sex Friday, which meant the main salon would host live sex on-stage. How that differed from the live sex happening everywhere else in the club he didn't know. But it didn't matter because he was way more interested in the whips and chains residing in the Dungeon anyway. Beyond drinking away his angst over Giselle, Troy couldn't think of any other immediate fix for this desolate ache than fucking it away in the roughest manner imaginable. Booze would hinder his performance on set tomorrow. Sex wouldn't. And, lucky for him, the women at his sides had some hard-core predilections for domination and pain with their pleasure. Or so they'd said. Tonight, he'd see for himself.
They slowed as a limo crept along a driveway leading from the back of the Mirage to the street, cutting off the sidewalk path as it waited to turn onto Las Vegas Boulevard.
“Who do you think's in there?” Casey asked.
Becca glanced up to the top of the Mirage. “Ooo, maybe it's Giselle Diamond. She's headlining here.”
“Troy,” Casey said, her tone hushing as if someone might hear them. “Go knock on the window and ask for an autograph.”
He barely resisted rolling his eyes. “You two are around movie stars all goddamned day, and you still need autographs?”
“She's not a movie star, she's a musician. A singer. My favorite singer.” Becca turned her pleading brown eyes up to his. “Please.”
“She won't open the window for another woman,” Casey said, “but she'd open it for a sexy thing like you. Just tell her you're working on the set-”
“No.” He didn't mean to bark. He was just so goddamned sick of the way Giselle had been haunting him every goddamned minute of every goddamned day. She was plastered everywhere-billboards, buses, taxis, elevators. She was always in his head, she crept into his dreams…
One of the limo's rear windows slid down. Casey and Becca gasped in stereo, and Troy's gut burned with apprehension.
The rowdy shriek of several women from inside the car pierced Troy's bubble of unease. Three of the limo's occupants popped their heads out the sunroof, one of whom held a champagne flute and wore a plastic tiara adorned with fake jewels.
“Hey, handsome,” one of the beauties called from the roof. “We've got a bachelorette party going on here. Want to be the beautiful bride's last hoorah?”
Laughter bubbled from the limo, and Troy's mouth curved. To his surprise, his mood lightened. Maybe a night hanging with a bunch of happy, drunk, celebrating chicks was more what he needed after all. He wasn't lecherous enough to touch the bride-to-be, but there were a handful of other hotties in there.