Fool's Gold Collection Part 2. Susan Mallery

twenty grand. More than enough to finance his move to L.A.

      Lani spread out several sheets of paper onto the bedspread. A few were new, but some of the pages looked old, with stains, tears and creases from being folded and unfolded again and again.

      “I want to be a household name by the time I’m twenty-two,” Lani said, her dark brown eyes bright with conviction. “Movies would be great, but TV feels like more of a sure thing. I flew to L.A. last year for pilot casting season.” She paused and looked at him.

      Sasha nodded. He knew enough about how the media worked to be familiar with pilot season.

      Every year the networks and cable stations produced pilots for potential television series. Then the executives at the various stations decided which shows got a chance to be seen and which were dumped before they’d even begun. Casting was a big part of making a pilot, and unknowns were welcome to try.

      Getting onto a pilot was huge, but once cast, there were no guarantees. Even if the show got picked up—a one in a million shot—your part could get recast with someone else. It was an actor’s version of the lottery.

      “How did you do?” he asked.

      She sighed. “I got on two pilots. Neither went anywhere.”

      She raised her arms above her head and stretched. As she moved, her T-shirt pulled across her boobs.

      Sasha watched, mostly out of habit. Lani was beautiful. Her features were exotic, and he would bet she would photograph great.

      “What about modeling?” he asked.

      “I’m too short,” she told him. “Five-five. It’s not going to happen. I’ve done some swimsuit stuff back home. Catalogues, that kind of thing. Of course I’ve had tons of offers to do nude shots, but there’s no way. I wouldn’t want those pictures to come back and haunt me when I’m up for an Oscar.”

      He wanted to get out of Alaska and be famous and very rich. Being a star was a way to make that happen. But Lani wanted it all. A serious acting career, awards and scores of paparazzi following her every move.

      “We need to nail down our plan,” she said, shuffling the papers. Her long, dark, wavy hair tumbled over her shoulders.

      He supposed he should want to have sex with her or something. If she took off her clothes and offered, he wouldn’t say no. But he wasn’t really interested in her that way. Lani was the first person he’d met who wanted the same thing he did, only more. He understood that if they worked together, they would have a better chance of getting it all.

      “You know, if we win, we’ll each get a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars,” he said, leaning back against the pillows. “Plus the twenty. I want to rent a house in Malibu.”

      “Don’t be an idiot,” she told him. “That’s before taxes. We’ll be lucky to walk away with seventy thousand. And that has to last. I’m getting an apartment in the San Fernando Valley. Somewhere near the studios in Burbank, and an easy drive over the hills. That way I can be in Century City or Hollywood pretty fast. I know if I don’t get picked up right away, I’ll need to get a job.” She looked at him. “Do you have your dream list of agents?”

      Agents? “Ah, not really.”

      “I do. Once this show starts to air, I’m going to be making calls, asking their assistants to watch me. There’s no way I’ll get to the agent I want, but assistants love to take calls. They’re looking for the next big thing. They want to find him or her and take that potential client to their boss.”

      Sasha stared at her. He and Lani might be about the same age, but he suddenly felt like a kid at the grown-ups’ table. How did she know all this?

      His questions must have shown because she grinned. “Don’t look so surprised. I’ve been working the program since I was thirteen.”

      “I guess that should make me feel better.”

      She shook her head. “You’ll catch on. It’s not that hard. Everything is about capturing attention. Getting your fifteen minutes of fame and making it an hour. I’ve been thinking that we need a story line.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Regular dating isn’t interesting. Who wants to watch that? What, we’ll be sitting there talking?” She shook her head. “We need something better. We need a better reason for viewers to want us to win.”

      He leaned toward her. “Okay. Like what? Something from a movie?”

      “I thought one of the classic love stories,” she admitted. “But I’m not sure that’s the way to go. Too many people will be familiar with the plot. Plus, it’s not enough. It’s not like we can have people kidnap us, although that would be fabulous.”

      She pulled out one of the pieces of paper and waved it at him. “I watched soaps. Some of the story lines are really great. When you think about it, people watch soaps because something is always happening. That and they care about the characters. So we have to get people to care about us and we have to give them something interesting to watch.” She looked at him. “Sex sells.”

      “I can do sex,” he said with a grin.

      Lani rolled her eyes. “I already told you, no porn. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do romantic and passionate. People love that. I’m thinking we could have one of those great relationships where we’re always falling in love and fighting and then breaking up and then getting back together. The camera loves drama. The camera loves action. If we give the director something interesting to film, we’ll get the most TV time. And that’s what we want.”

      “I can do action,” Sasha said, still a little stunned by Lani’s determination and willingness to do anything to get what she wanted. The most he’d done was walk away from college and his brother. At the time, that had seemed huge. Now he wasn’t so sure.

      “We’ll be the couple everyone is talking about,” she said eagerly.

      “Absolutely. So what’s the plan?”

      Lani grinned. “I’m not sure.” The grin widened. “Are you afraid of fire?”

      THERE WAS A LOT MORE to filming a television show than Dakota had realized. With ten couples, nearly as many locations and what seemed to her to be a very small crew, chaos reigned. Each couple was going to get a local date, and a few of them would get travel dates. It seemed to her that getting a travel date the first week made it a lot easier to stay on the show.

      She’d always been a huge fan of shows like Project Runway and Top Chef. But she’d had no idea of all the work that went into forty-five minutes of air time. Today two couples were getting to know each other while they walked around Fool’s Gold. A very nice first date in reality, but from what she could see on the monitors, it didn’t make for exciting television.

      She checked her clipboard to see how long the “date” was supposed to last. As she glanced back at the couple, she saw a tall, yummy-looking man walking toward her.

      She hadn’t seen Finn for nearly two days. Not since he’d been at her place and they’d engaged in acts that had the potential to send her to a higher plane. A quality she could really grow to like in a man.

      As she wondered if she would be embarrassed or feel awkward around him, her body began a quivering dance of anticipation. As if her whole being had been invaded by sex-starved DNA.

      “Morning,” he said as he approached.

      “Hi.”

      She stared into his blue eyes and found herself smiling. No bad feelings for her, she thought, relieved. The quivering got even better when he smiled back.

      “How’s it going?” she asked.

      “Better,” he told her. “I’ve been dealing with a few work-related crises back home, I flew some cargo to Eugene, Oregon, then spent most of yesterday trying to talk the twins