to do.
Her tongue swept against my lips and I opened for her. I couldn’t help the rock of my hips against her stomach when her fingers tightened in my hair.
“Are you here for a nooner?” she asked when she ended the kiss with a soft moan.
I chuckled, wishing I wasn’t there to potentially ruin her afternoon.
“While I’d give anything to sit you on the edge of your desk and eat you for lunch, we don’t have a ton of time and I need to talk to you.”
“Oh,” she said, plopping down into the closest chair. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
Instant mood killer, that’s me.
I sat down in the chair next to her and took a deep breath before I linked my fingers with hers, giving them a squeeze.
“What happened? Another article? I didn’t see anything. Not that I’m searching, because it’s too overwhelming to keep reading every lie. I just—I just need you to tell me. Is someone sick?”
“Evie. Breathe, baby,” I said when she finally paused.
She shook her head. “Sorry. Obviously, I’m freaking out.”
“You’re too far away,” I said, standing up.
“What? I’m right here.”
“Too far.” I tugged her up and sat down on the couch with her next to me. “Much better.”
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Not really. Josh found out who leaked your secret,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “Oh my god. Really? Who was it?”
“Josh doesn’t have an official office out here yet, so he rented space in another agency’s building. The idiot had a copy of the paternity results on his desk and one of the interns in the office snuck in and found it.”
“Are you serious?” she asked.
“He said she tried to make a move on him and he turned her down and she retaliated by rifling through his desk when he stepped out of the office.”
“So all of this happened because some stupid intern was rebuffed by Josh?” she asked, pain in her eyes.
I wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry, Evie. It’s such a stupid and random thing and I wish to hell that he’d shredded that test result as soon as he got it.”
She let out a sardonic laugh.
“Are you okay? We ripped into him about it. He’s not usually so careless. He said whatever you need, just let him know.”
“I thought someone who didn’t like me found out, and I wondered what secret enemies I may have made. Hell, I thought maybe Dustin had leaked it, but that intern didn’t even know me.”
“I know. Josh was very apologetic, more than I’ve ever seen him. He wanted to text you or come by to apologize, but I wanted to be the one to tell you first.” I rubbed my thumb over the back of her hand in a sad attempt to soothe her.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now.” She shrugged.
“Look at me,” I said, putting my finger under her chin and tilting her face up to mine.
She sounded like it was no big deal, but I knew she was dwelling again. The tears in her eyes confirmed it.
“It’s not like we can do anything about it. Was the intern let go?” she asked.
“Of course, but I wish I could do more for you.”
She turned her face into my palm and took in a deep breath. “I don’t know what we can do at this point. It’s one thing after another,” she said.
“It’s going to calm down, I promise.”
“How can you promise that?” she asked, her fingers back to fidgeting in her lap.
“Because stories like this always lose their luster when there’s no other drama to keep feeding it. We aren’t dramatic. We’re just us, and it’s going to bore them eventually and then they’ll pick on someone else.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“Because I have to. This is who I am. The fame is going to be there as long as we are still making music. I need you to understand that. It’s just noise. What matters is you and me and James. Nothing else.”
She sighed and finally gave me a smile.
“Jax would be hurt to hear that he wasn’t included in your list.”
I grinned and leaned down, giving her a quick kiss.
“Jax will get over it. But, seriously, I mean it, Evie. The rest is nonsense. You and me? We’re real, and we’ll get through this because I trust you and you trust me. Love conquers all, right?”
“You’re such a sentimental sap. It’s really adorable,” she said, and then she moved to straddle my lap.
My cock jumped at