Fame ***

I flipped my bangs out of my face, staring at my beautiful reflection in the mirror in front of me in the women’s restroom at one of the most upscale reception halls in L.A. Somehow, my agent had scored me an invite to the PETA convention, even though I didn’t give a single shit about any kind of animal, and I was getting major publicity.

The only downside of getting so many pictures taken of me was that I had to make sure that my makeup looked perfect. One little streak, a smudge, a speck of lipstick on my teeth, and the whole photo op would be ruined. Instead of focusing on how gorgeous I looked, how much I cared about the grimy little beasts, or what a rising star I was, they’d focus on my imperfections. And there was no way I was creating any of those.

After swiping on another bit of dark pink lipstick so my lips shone and sparkled in the light, I tossed my hair behind my shoulder, grinned at my reflection, and exited the restroom, not bothering to tip the attendant.

Celebrities of all statuses were crowded around the main function room, chatting with the PETA administrators and volunteers, petting the animals, cooing over how adorable they were.

Trying not to grimace, I made my way across the floor to find a couple of girls that I was friendly with: Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. Taylor was exactly the status I wanted to be, getting so much attention recently for her ultra-successful Red album. Even I was a fan of it, and I hated most things done by people who had scored more magazine covers than me.

“Hey, Lilah,” Taylor greeted sweetly, her bright red lips pulled back in a tight smile. “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

I grinned at her widely, trying to ignore the fact that she sounded less than thrilled to be speaking with me. Tucking a lock of my bottle-blonde hair behind my ear, I shrugged and said, “My agent called me and said they were desperate to have me show my face here, so I thought I’d give them a break. Plus, who wants to turn down a chance to support animals?”

Demi gave me a confused look, and I hoped that she hadn’t heard the story that had printed in People about me kicking that Pomeranian that got in my way on Hollywood Boulevard. Technically, I hadn’t kicked the thing hard, and it was not my fault that it wanted to pee all over my expensive Louboutin boots.

But instead of bringing it up, she cocked her head to the side, letting her dip-dyed platinum hair spill in front of her shoulder, and said, “I never really took you as an animal person. It’s great that you are.”

“Do you want to come see the abused puppies with me?” Taylor questioned, taking a step back, her Manolo high heels clacking against the tiled floor.

“I’ve actually seen them already!” I lied in a forced-happy voice. “I’m just mingling right now. But I might see them again later, since they’re just so adorable.”

The look in Demi’s dark eyes let me know that she was absolutely onto me, but again, she had the class and common sense to keep her mouth shut. “Maybe we’ll catch you later then. See you later, Lilah.”

I waved dramatically, mostly trying to show off my flawless manicure to the cameras I knew were stationed behind me before catching the eye of someone on the other side of the room.

Harry Styles.

His hair was a perfect mess of curls on top of his head, and he was wearing a wonderfully elegant suit to clothe his long, lean body. One of his hands was tucked into his dress pants’ pocket, making him look incredibly casually cool.

And he was staring at me like a little schoolboy with a crush. The difference was that unlike Mike Short, who had panted after me all through elementary school, Harry didn’t turn away when I caught his gaze.

I knew he could boost my status. I knew that getting photographed with him would start rumors, make the internet explode, and would get our pictures in all the magazines. I needed to be seen with the teenage heartthrob. It would send me absolutely skyrocketing.

But I couldn’t just walk over to him and strike up a conversation. It was quite possible that he was spacing out, though I highly doubted it, and I needed to lure him my way. Hard to get, while immature, was always the way to go with manwhores like I’d heard Harry was.

I reached out immediately to touch the arm of the nearest guy, who just happened to be an up-and-coming actor from a teen drama show on some low-key network. He was attractive, for sure, but he was definitely not someone I should talk to for long. I needed Harry to intervene so I wasn’t working on boosting another person’s status.

And soon, I got my wish. I felt a warm, gentle touch on my bare upper arm, a touch I identified as Harry’s without hesitation. So when I turned around to see those beautiful green eyes and full lips, I knew I was in business.

“I hope I’m not interrupting something,” he expressed in his deep British accent, a smirk pulling on the corner of his beautiful mouth.

“Of course not,” the actor replied. I couldn’t remember his name for the life of me, not that it really mattered. Once he starred in a major blockbuster or successful movie series, then maybe we could spend more time together. But until then, he wasn’t getting anything out of me. “I was just heading over to the reptiles.”

“Have fun. And say hello to Sally for me,” Harry replied jokingly, letting his smirk evolve into a full-blown smile.

Once the loser was gone, I turned to Harry, narrowing my eyes just enough that I was smoldering him, but not so narrow that it looked like I was glaring or trying too hard. “Hi there. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m-”

“Lilah Monroe,” he finished for me without getting the least bit embarrassed. “You were in that new movie with George Clooney and Rob Lowe, right? They played your gay dads?”

I nodded politely, pasting on a grin. “Yeah, I was. Did you see it?”

“I loved it. And I thought your acting was incredible in it. Not to mention…” His eyes scanned over my body slowly, taking in all the curves that my high-end Marchesa dress accentuated with great care, “you looked absolutely beautiful.”

“Thank you,” I responded, reaching up to make my hair spill over one of my shoulders. “I loved your newest single, too. Kiss You, right?”

“Yeah,” he responded. “Thank you. Do you go on Tumblr at all?”

The question seemed pretty random to me, but I shook my head anyway. In truth, I sometimes snooped to see what people were posting and saying about me, but it was pretty much half positive and half negative all the time, so I didn’t have time to keep up with the indifferent popular opinion. “Why?”

“Oh, I was just wondering. There’s some remix of it on there, like a rap version? And it’s massively hysterical. Niall and I sat there, listening to it on repeat and laughing for hours.”

Okay, he was boring me. I didn’t want to talk with him. I wanted to be seen leaving with him. So, biting my lip really subtly, I said, “You know, this party’s getting really dead.”

He instantly understood what I meant, the subtlest of pink blushes creeping into the apples of his cheeks. “Yeah, I totally agree. Do you want to…um, get out of here?”

He was nowhere near as smooth as I’d expected he’d be, but it didn’t matter. “Sure. Do you have a car waiting?”

He shook his head. “Do you?”

“Of course.” The side of my sweet lips pulled up into a sort of sexy half-smile as I started toward the door, typing madly on my iPhone to get my driver to pull up in the front to wait for us. Although I wanted to get photographed with Harry, I definitely didn’t want to make it obvious. I was pretty sure he was the kind of guy that liked to be low-key with his relationships and privacy, so I had to act like I was the same away.

And as an actress, that wouldn’t be so hard to do.