Magic Mansion by Jordan Price (best fiction books to read .txt) 📕

Faye and Ken. From what little John knew of Chip—and he hadn’t known his fellow Red Team member long—he didn’t seem like the type to go overboard on tightening one of his fellow magicians into a straitjacket. The Final Four’s acts held the least direct competition for his Elvis impersonator comedy show, and he hadn’t been around the Mansion long enough to build up any alliances or make any enemies among the rest of the talent.

Faye and Jia had some animosity between them, so it was possible that if John picked Chip, Jia would go with Ken to avoid getting Faye—and as far as John knew, Ricardo and Faye had always gotten along well. He glanced up at Ken Barron, and thought back to the incident in the garden, right before Ken’s trimmers caught him in the cheek. Ken had been lamenting the way the show was making him out to be a fool. In all likelihood, anyone he strapped into a straitjacket had zero chance of getting out again. Not on his watch.

But John didn’t think Jia knew that. He looked past Ricardo at Jia and tried to decide if she would be willing to be risk taking on the show’s only escape artist to avoid dealing with Faye—but her face was a stony mask.

And ultimately, John wasn’t willing to bet that Jia was too stubborn to put aside her differences with Faye to risk being trussed up so tightly she’d never get out again.

If John chose Faye, Jia would choose Chip, and Ricardo would be stuck with Ken. If John chose Chip, he had no idea what Jia would do…but the chance of Ricardo ending up with Ken was a risk John just wasn’t willing to take.

“Well, Professor,” Monty said, “what’s it going to be?”

“Since I enjoy a challenge,” John said, lying through his teeth, “I’d like to go with Ken Barron.”

Ricardo made a scoffy sound of disbelief. Ken gave the camera a grim smile. Jia looked around Ricardo at John and mouthed the word what? Kevin murmured, “Ooh, now you just showin’ off.” Monty looked baffled, but he recovered quickly. “Interesting choice—and given the competitive level at which you’ve been playing, I have no doubt you’re up to the challenge. And how about you, Jia? As the third place winner, will you go with Chip Challenge or Amazing Faye?”

Jia said, now a bit uncertainly, “I’m picking Chip Challenge.”

“And last, but most certainly not least, that leaves Ricardo the Magnificent being set up for his final competition by his old teammate, Amazing Faye.” Ricardo did a little “yay” clap and Amazing Faye gave him a sultry flutter of her false eyelashes in return.

“Aaand, we’re done,” Iain called out. “Bev, Chip, Ken, Faye and Sue, no chatting with your buddies—you’ll have time to catch up after we wrap. All of you step outside and join Marlene in the yard. Final Four, head out by the fountain, I want to grab a quick video journal from each of you while second unit gets some establishing shots of the last stunt. Kevin, let’s start with you.”

John, Jia and Ricardo left Kevin and Iain in the dining room and headed for the fountain. Out in the hall, once they could no longer hear Kevin spouting off about how great he was, Ricardo grabbed John by the sleeve and said, “What the hell did you just do?”

“He took the words right out of my mouth,” Jia said.

John turned to Ricardo and looked into his eyes—the same storm-blue eyes he’d been gazing into every night, and every morning, and every moment he could steal from the show in between. “It will all work out. Trust me.”

“You just fell on a land mine for me. Didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jia said, “that’s about the size of it.”

“We can’t say that for sure,” John insisted. “If there’s anything we can count on, it’s a twist. For all we know, the straitjacket will be irrelevant.”

“Oh, come on.” Ricardo took John’s vest by the lapels and tugged them in annoyance. “When straitjackets are involved, it’s a pretty good bet that the objective will be to get out of them. Did you assume I can’t handle Ken? Is that it?”

Handhelds might have been hovering around somewhere, but John was past the point of caring. He took Ricardo’s face between his hands, tilted it up toward his, and kissed him. Ricardo’s lips were pressed together at first, but after a moment of resistance they parted gently, with a sigh. He let go of John’s lapels and pressed his palms against John’s chest instead. John managed a bit of restraint and kept his tongue to himself, but even so, as he lingered over Ricardo’s sweet mouth, the kiss felt anything but chaste. It might have been a cowardly move to avoid an argument by plying Ricardo with attentions he couldn’t resist—and, yes, John had grown quite aware of the inexplicable effect he had on his new man. But it wasn’t just distraction he was trying to achieve. It was connection.

Because it wasn’t so much that John thought Ricardo couldn’t handle being bound by Ken Barron, while he himself could. Undoubtedly, neither of them would come through it well. And it was easier to face his own imminent failure than to watch Ricardo, with his whole career ahead of him, lose Magic Mansion’s most important challenge.

Jia cleared her throat and whispered, “Douchebag at ten o’clock,” and John stepped away from Ricardo just before Iain bore down upon them.

“C’mon, Professor, you and your boy toy can compare tonsils later,” he said, “and believe me, we’ll all be eager to watch the confetti fly and call it a night.” He steered John over to the grand staircase with a handheld trailing behind them, and positioned him in front of a drab landscape in an overwrought gold frame. “Can you make it look like you just happen to be leaning on that banister?”

How natural. John placed a hand on the woodwork and did his best not to