I recognized a lot of the people here, either from serving them at parties or by their faces on magazines. One of them, Khalid, the dude who’d tried to bet on me, seemed to be walking toward me until he abruptly changed directions.

I settled deeper against the rock, counting time by the change of electro-pop songs.

Why even bring me along if my only job was to become one with the rock?

“So you’re not from around here.”

I didn’t know he was talking to me until he touched my shoulder.

I looked up into the greenest eyes I’d ever seen.

Holy shit.

I knew this guy—everyone knew this guy. His movies always hit number one at the box office.

I swallowed a cough. “How did you know?”

He shrugged. “Everyone kind of knows everyone here.”

“Oh…”

“So.” He leaned forward, smiling. “Where did you come from, new girl?”

I glanced at Gray, who’d been flirting with Lottie for the past hour. Don’t talk to anyone, he’d said…but a fucking movie star was talking to me. I’d seen actors and actresses at Crowne parties, at Crowne Point, even, but always from a distance. They never looked at me. Never smiled at me.

“Around,” I said.

I was breaking Grayson’s rules. I wasn’t sure if the thrill racing up my spine came from that knowledge or the fact that a movie star just laughed at what I said.

“All right. Around. Never seen you here, though.”

“I don’t know anything about this place,” I admitted.

“It’s Unknown. It’s only open for one week out of the year, so for this week, everyone who’s anyone is dancing on the stages built into the rock or swimming in the water that surrounds the DJ…or fucking in the rooms built into the rock,” he added with a low voice.

I snapped my eyes to the floor.

Did he really just say that to me?

“But the coolest part of Unknown is actually unknown, though,” he continued easily. “Want to see?”

I glanced at Grayson. Flirting with Lottie. Kissing her cheek. I could stay here, heart aching. Or…I could go flirt with the guy who had just sold out theaters everywhere.

I smiled at him. “Sure.”

GRAY

When I found Lottie, she was sitting with her feet in the grotto. The water glowed with LED lights, shades of fuchsia and violet and all colors of the rainbow.

“Here you are,” I said, taking a seat next to her.

Lottie lifted her head at my voice, smiling. “This is my first time at Unknown since Rosey. It hasn’t changed much.”

I rubbed the back of my neck, eyes wandering again to the wall. Khalid headed for Snitch. I caught his eye with a glare. He raised his hands, walking backward, a coughing laugh I could hear in my fucking head.

Fucking shit, these places were incestuous.