The Fiery Boys (A Sample)

Kira and Jo were still caught up in the excitement of my victory, so they stopped Vaughan and plied him with questions about the Fiery Boys. Kira even came back over the weekend, ostensibly to see me, but primarily to talk to my bodyguard about his amazing rock-and-roll bosses. She was starstruck.

On Saturday morning, Vaughan took me outside, wrapped in a hoodie to hide my face. He'd been wandering among the paparazzi who had quickly gathered around my home, so he gave me a tour, pointing out where each of them was hiding. To put it mildly, I was shocked. All these people were here for me?

That afternoon, I tried out the fame game, just for fun. I went out to a grocery store without concealing my face, and the cameras flashed nonstop. Then I looked around the web and found the pictures, hideous photos that made me seem ugly and misshapen. It was as if they'd intentionally chosen the worst ones. Lesson one was simple: stay covered.

But even with my face hidden, the reporters shouted questions as I moved quickly to my car. Each question was more absurd than the last.

"What do you think of the theory that they projected all the pictures on a wall and threw a dart?" I thought the theory was great-it explained so much. Of course I didn't tell them that. Vaughan insisted that I resist the urge to talk to them.

Besides, the next question got fired at me before I could have answered the first. "Can you confirm that you've been River Sticks' secret lover for years?" Ahh, don't I wish.

Then came the question that stopped me for a few seconds, no doubt with a look of shock that the paparazzi loved to shoot. "Are you going to have sex with all four of them?"

Oh, come on! In my more reasonable moments, I knew that I wasn't going to have sex with any of them. But my life was suddenly steeped in nonsense, and I became less and less reasonable every day. I couldn't deny that I'd gladly jump River or even Buck-two gorgeous men who I hoped I'd be able to meet without losing total bodily control. Even Chuck was a fine-looking hunk of man who I'd never turn down. But all four of them in one week? Not happening.

With Vaughan at my place, protecting me, I was able to deal with another aspect of my newly skewed life: Palmer. As expected, he was majorly upset by all the attention I was getting and instantly became jealous that I was going on vacation with four famous, handsome, and desirable men. He was also envious that I was being talked about everywhere. And yes, he was even uncomfortable that I had a muscular bodyguard. I couldn't deny that he had plenty of reasons to be jealous.