In Love with the Prince (of Darkness, That Is)

If things had gone as planned, Dreama Margulis would not be standing naked in a tree, looking down at her girl friends in the quarry below.

"Come on, we don't have all day!"

Dreama laughed and spread her arms wide. "Here I come!" She leapt off the branch with a scream and plunged into the water. She surfaced to the sound of laughter, and joined in the splash fight that had broken out. Meredith, to her left, Gemini, across from her, and Rebecca, on her right, were all just as naked as she, and Meredith and Becky were very nearly plastered.

A male voice shouted to them as a pair of weak light-beams skipped across the surface of the water. "Hey! You down there! The park's closed after dusk!"

"Damn!" Gemini gasped as she dove under water.

Dreama laughed and tugged her raven-haired friend back above the surface. "Gem, they've seen us, love. You can't stay under water for the rest of your life."

The lights swept back across them, revealing that Gemini's white cheeks were stained with pink. "I'm going to perish from an agonizingly slow descent caused by embarrassment anyway," she mumbled. "Might as well get it over with."

"It's just a couple of rent-a-cops, Gem. We have to get out some time."

The four girls clambered up the ladder and onto the grass, laughing hysterically. Even Gemini couldn't hold back her giggle upon witnessing the circus act that was Meredith and Rebecca's attempt to walk.

The two light beams came jumping back to them, and they ducked to avoid it. "We'll be right up!" The four girls scrambled to dress in their shorts and tank tops.

"No!" Rebecca groaned, laughing. "I've lost my glasses!"

"Well hurry up," Dreama said as she buttoned her sleeveless blouse.

"Let's go, girls!"

"We're coming! She can't find her glasses!" Dreama shouted up the hill. "Just a second!"

"Do you want us to bring a light down?"

"No!" Dreama and Gemini chorused. "Meredith, for God sakes, put your effing pants on," Gemini hissed.

"Sorry."

"Found them!" Rebecca cried.

"Good." Meredith had succeeded in pulling on her shorts, and the four girls raced up the hill to the waiting security guards. They were both wearing amused smiles.

"Didn't you see the signs?"

"No, we must have missed those." Dreama struggled to speak around the laugh bubbling up in her throat.

"Well, let's go, we'll give you a ride to the entrance then."

"Thanks."

They clambered into the back of the jeep—helping Meredith and Rebecca to look sober—and huddled together as the engine turned over and the floorboards rumbled beneath them. They bounced across the path toward the lighted entrance, and the girls slid from the tailgate at the intersection.

"Not even a phone call to our parents?" Dreama asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Gemini elbowed her friend in the ribs. "Are you flirting with him?" she hissed in Dreama's ear.

"Of course not!" Dreama squealed, bending at the waist to avoid Gem's elbow.

But now that she caught a good look at them, the guards weren't all that hard on the eyes. They were both early or mid-twenties, with good features, and dark hair and eyes. Maybe flirting wouldn't do much harm, after all.

"Well, I'd need your phone number for that," the taller of the guards said.

"Only if you promise you'd be calling to talk to me." Dreama's tongue darted across her lips, and the guard stepped a little closer. Feeling impish, she twirled a curl around her finger.

"I guess I could agree to that."

"Well, then. Got a pen?"

The guard fumbled in his pocket, and Dreama scrawled a number across his palm. "I'm looking forward to it," she said. She slid the pen back into the pocket of his jeans, and then took Gemini by the arm and led her friends away, trailing a finger across the guard's chest as she went.

"Who do I ask for?" the guard shouted after her.

"Call me Dray," she tossed back over her shoulder, without stumbling. Then she pulled her friends into a run and they took off for the main road.

"What number did you give him?" Gemini giggled, collapsing, finally, into a seat on the vacant city bus. Dreama checked her watch casually, noting that she had an hour to get to her midnight-to-four shift at the club.

"Tommy's cell," she answered blithely.

"You fiend!"

She batted her eyelashes. "Who, me?" she asked with an innocent smile.