“And you didn’t tell me to bring a suit?”
“You didn’t need one,” he smiled.
Thirty-One
LAUREN
I was mostly teasing him, of course. With Brody and Corey on either side of me I felt comfortable being topless, even in Mason’s presence. He was funny and charming, and it quickly became obvious he was more than just the guys’ best friend. As story followed story and the beer flowed down our throats, I could see he was more like a brother to them.
I learned more about his time in California, and how his career wasn’t panning out the way he’d hoped. Some of it was dumb luck, I knew that. Great actors could get discovered overnight, rising from obscurity simply because they were in the right place at the right time.
Luck aside however, any career in the public eye had to be worked at — and no one knew that better than me. After just a few minutes of conversation, I could tell he wasn’t well-represented. That Mason’s agent was doing him a grave disservice, and that he’d probably do well to sign with another one.
He had looks for sure… God did he have looks! He was exceptionally tall and well-built — a great combo to start — but there was also a unique twist on his handsomeness that made him appear both devious and stunning.
“You ever play the villain?” I asked casually.
Mason tipped his bottle back and shook his head. “Not really, no.”
“You should,” I told him. “You’ve got a certain look to you. One that would melt a girl’s heart and make a guy hate you, all at once.”
“Hey, that’s how I feel about him!” joked Brody.
But Mason could tell I was serious. He was staring back at me with interest now, thinking about what I’d said.
“Your agent needs to be looking for bad guy parts,” I said. “Not the sappy crappy handsome hero stuff you’ve been doing. I mean, look at the arch of your eyebrows. The little underbite in the squareness of your jaw. You have gr
eat sardonic expressions. You can very easily look devilish.”
“Great sardonic expressions?” Corey repeated incredulously. “What the—”
“You should be trying out for the role of the antagonist,” I went on. “Also, your social media pages haven’t been updated in weeks, some of them in months. I checked them on the way out here. And I don’t know who your photographer is, but you could also use more flattering photos. Most of them don’t come anywhere near showing how handsome and unique-looking you really are.”
Two hands slid around my waist, and suddenly I was being pulled backwards. I ended up in Brody’s lap, his hands resting between my thighs. Beneath the soothing, bubbling waters no one could see his fingers brushing lightly against the fabric of my tiny thong.
“You might be right about some of that,” said Mason, still in deep thought. “I never really looked at things that way.”
We exchanged a smile and then his eyes fell lower, to where my breasts were mostly out of the water now. Sitting in Brody’s lap had exposed them down to the nipples.
For some reason, I made no move to cover up.
“Maybe you should come out to Hollywood for a few days,” Mason suggested. “Set me on the right path.”
Corey had slid close enough to start touching me too. His own hand began wandering up my other leg, just as Brody began pulling my thong aside…
“You trying to steal our girlfriend, bro?” he laughed.
“Not trying to steal her,” Mason shot back. “Maybe just borrow her for a little while.”
The double-meaning wasn’t lost on any of us. I tried to keep my composure, even as a pair of fingers slid hotly inside me.
“Someone who looks like you shouldn’t have girl trouble,” I said. “I’ll bet you meet plenty of women in Hollywood, both groupies and starlets.”
Mason made a face. “There’s a difference between meeting women and meeting good women.”
One of the fingers inside me curled upward, directly into my G-spot. My eyes closed halfway.
“Maybe I need someone from back home,” said Mason. “A New York woman. Someone real and not plastic. Someone who…”