Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I took a deep breath. “What am I supposed to do?”
“I’m leaving the studio now. Meet me at—”
“No, I can’t go to your house.”
“Then come to the studio. There’s a private park near the front gate. I’ll tell security to let you in. You know where to go, right?”
“I th-think so.”
“Good. I’ll see you in a few minutes. Lo?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s gonna be okay.”
I nodded, though he couldn’t see, my bottom lip trembling uncontrollably. I wanted to believe him, but I had a bad feeling nothing was going to be okay.
The imposing iron gates at Rourke Studios creaked open the moment I gave my name to the security guard manning the ivy-covered kiosk. I parked in some executive’s space and speed-walked toward the high hedges where Pierce paced with his phone glued to his ear. He ended his call and held his hand out, hugging me close before pulling me into the park.
We sat on a red bench near a rose garden and stared at each other. No doubt, I looked like the panicky mess I was while Pierce seemed more…resolved.
“Looks like we’ve been outed.”
I licked my lips nervously. “Yeah. What’s next?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must know,” I insisted. “This is normal for you.”
“Not really. Not like this,” he said in a low voice.
“You’re used to being in the news, I’m not. What’s interesting about me? Hashtag, breaking news…Lorenzo Ramos forgot to stir a new jar of organic peanut butter and refrigerate it and was left with drippy PB on his burnt toast this morning. A hundred likes on Insta if all of my friends weigh in…sure. But trending? No. Not me.” My voice cracked as I escalated. I released a jagged breath and attempted to calm the fuck down. “The only thing interesting about me is you. And now that I said that out loud, I hear how pathetic that sounds, but you know what I mean. I’m regular people, you’re not, so…tell me what to do.”
Pierce didn’t speak at first. He studied the roses for a moment.
“I don’t know what to do. I know what I want, but…”
“What do you want?” I prodded.
“You. Us. It’s just…very fucking selfish.”
I frowned. “No, it’s not. I want the same thing.”
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees the way he always did when he was deep in thought. His beautifully tailored suit gave him an air of importance I associated with high-flying stockbrokers, billionaires, or…Baxter.
Fuck. He was Baxter and I was…who?
“You could move into my house while I’m gone. Raul could drive you wherever you need to go and make sure you were safe. He could probably hang out in the store too…if that’s cool with you.”
Warning bells chimed in my ears. “So he’d be my bodyguard?”
“Yeah. He’s a great guy and he likes you, so—”
“I don’t want a bodyguard.”
“I want you to be safe. People are fucking nuts, and I’m leaving for Toronto in a couple of days. I have a great PR team, and these stories die down eventually, but…”
“Not overnight,” I finished.
“No.”
“So…will they follow me everywhere? Will they follow my friends? And what about innocent bystanders? I hadn’t seen Tony in two years. Is someone going to make up a story about him leaving his husband for me? He’s a cop, Pierce. That shit doesn’t fly in his department and I’m not heartless enough not to care that other people might get screwed over because they know me.”
“I get that.”
I set my hand on his shoulder as the full weight of his reality sank in. “I can’t believe you deal with this all the time. It’s scary.”
“Yeah. Sometimes it’s no big deal. But on slow news days, they don’t let up. They follow you everywhere, like locusts looking for something to feed on. They research your life, your friends, your exes, your pets…everything about you is free game. Something to buy and sell for profit. It’s a fucking circus.”
“Oh.”
“I’m used to it, but I’ve never had to worry about how this affects someone I care about till now. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
The bells were louder than ever.
“I’ll be okay.”
Pierce straightened, his gaze still locked forward. “I was thinking we could just continue like this…talk all the time, text all day, and that maybe you could come visit me in Toronto or Romania or Germany or wherever the fuck I am. I’d fly you first-class, put you up at the best hotels, and come visit you. That might not work now. But we could change the narrative, altogether.”
“How?”
“We could say you really are my assistant and that we got caught in a moment of madness. It would make waves, but it would fade if we were careful.”
“Or it could get worse.”
He sighed. “Definitely. I just found out that my brother hired a lawyer who’s talking to the studio’s lawyer in the hopes of avoiding a full-on Allen family brawl about an inheritance that doesn’t exist. So, yeah…that’ll be fun too.”