Hot and Bothered by CRYSTAL GREEN Page B

known as his very own Rat Pack.
    Cherry’s brain had already started churning. Her heartbeat tapped at her, and she thought she heard it telling her that if she got into that room, her life would change forever.
    â€œTommy,” she said, “you know what this means.”
    â€œYeah. That I don’t want to get fired because you’re going to try to sneak into that room.”
    She pressed a hand to her chest. “Who me?”
    â€œYes, you.” Tommy slicked back his hair, clearly a little nervous about what Cherry might do. “God, you’re going to make real trouble for me one day. Why do I even listen to you?”
    â€œBecause you adore me.” Cherry batted her eyelashes at him.
    When he reluctantly smiled at her, power rushed her. Cherry’s father wasn’t the only man she’d wrapped around her little finger over the years, and she didn’t stop to think about the damage she did whenever she left one of her admirers behind.
    She began to slip off the bar stool. Places to go, Elvis to see. But the businessman who’d bought her a drink grumbled about how ungrateful she was after receiving the booze.
    She solved that by sliding the sloe gin fizz down the bar, returning it to him with a cheery Cherry smile. “Return to sender,” she said.
    He was too stunned to respond.
    â€œLet’s split,” she said to Tommy, not for the first or last time, pulling at his hand.
    They didn’t get far from the bar before he said, “Cherry, I didn’t tell you everything. Elvis and his friends aren’t the only ones in that room.”
    â€œYou mean they have other girls in there? Like . . . hookers?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen random chicks they found by the pool or something? Are they having a big party? That’s fine with me.”
    â€œThere’s a girl, all right, but not just any girl.”
    Cherry halted in her tracks. Men and women wearing evening dresses and suits veered around them, and Tommy made to pull her out of the way.
    But Cherry didn’t move for anyone.
    â€œIs she in there?” she asked.
    Tommy nodded. “She’s been hanging out with the boys, along with Elvis.”
    Cherry seethed. “Does she ever leave him alone?”
    â€œI don’t think it’s a matter of him wanting to be left alone. We’re talking about . . .”
    â€œAnn-Margret.” She’d said it a little too loudly, and the people around her stared. Luckily, Cherry enjoyed the attention. Even so, she lowered her voice. “Always Ann-Margret.”
    Tommy finally succeeded in guiding her to the side, near a roulette wheel where people cheered as their numbers were hit.
    â€œThere’ll be other opportunities to further your career besides this,” Tommy said. “Better ways. And some opportunities in general might even be right in front of you, and you might not even know it. All you’ve got to do is look, Cherry.”
    But she didn’t look at Tommy deeply enough to see what he meant. She was busy thinking that her friend was right—there had to be a way besides meeting Elvis to get more screen time before the movie ended. Who wanted to be a mere flash on the silver screen, an extra who just walked past the big stars and would never be remembered after that?
    Besides, Cherry was never one to dwell on opportunities already missed when there were a thousand more ahead of her . . .
    She smiled up at Tommy. “I know where the crew is staying, including a cameraman. Are you up for Plan B, my buddy, my pal?”
    She saw something fade in Tommy’s blue gaze, but she split before she thought too much about it.
    Tommy followed, just as he would for the next few years.

4
    The day couldn’t have gone better.
    Rochelle flopped into a chair by the edge of the mansion’s lighted pool, its water seemingly running off the ledge and into the dusky desert valley below,