In the wake of Ivory's departure, Alejandro remained on the lounge chair with his eyes closed. A photographer was snapping his last few shots on the way out, his camera clicking continuously as he took a final pass by the lounge. Suddenly, he swung around and took a picture of me, catching me with an embarrassed look of surprise.
This was bad. I was trying to be anonymous here, but now he had my picture. I quickly turned away, but the photographer was curious. "Who are you, honey?" He looked at me hard, trying to figure out if I was worth another shot.
I needed to become uninteresting, so I stooped over and snorted, then I worked my jaw for a few seconds and sniffled. "I'm with the guitar shop," I snorted again. "Just delivering this to Alejandro." I nodded to the guitar, then turned away to chew on a fingernail in as unappealing a way as possible. With any luck, he'd deem both me and my picture mundane enough to ignore. The photographer frowned for a few seconds, then shrugged and walked away.
When the last of them had gone, George walked up to Alejandro and kicked his lounge. "Get up, idiot. Interview's over and your next appointment is here."
Alejandro raised a hand in the universal fuck-you signal. "Go away, dammit. I've done enough performing today." He let his hand collapse against his side, and he rolled away from us.
George kicked the lounge again, stirring Alejandro. "What the hell, George?" He rolled back to us and squinted, one hand shading his eyes.
"That guitar I told you about-the Stratocaster-it's here. Check it out. And try to act your age for once." With a shake of his head, he muttered, "Jerk."
Alejandro slowly sat up and turned to look at me. When he initially spotted me, his half-closed eyes and lethargic movements made him seem exhausted. But as soon as his eyes found me, they widened, and he sat up straighter. He stared at me for a second, his mouth open as if he was about to say something. Suddenly, he dropped his gaze over to his phone. "Hang on a sec."
He snatched the phone from the table and spoke into it. "What, Karen?" As he listened to his personal assistant, he stood up and started to pace, his eyes darting back to me occasionally. I even caught him doing a full-body sweep, after which his gaze intensified and he stared even more. I watched him too, trying but failing to ignore his hungry leer.
Talk about hot! Alejandro's eyes were all over me, stripping me bare. I felt prickly heat run all over my body from his infrared intensity. No wonder people called him seductive. I'd worried that he'd be hard to resist, but I never imagined he'd be this provocative. Did he do this to all women? Not that I minded-I was enjoying the view myself. Who could resist that dark, sculpted face, those luscious lips, that spectacular physique?