Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,39

in the building.”

It was odd how hurt I felt at his calling this situation a lie, which was weird because his response was exactly the same response I had. But it wasn’t a lie. And by calling it a lie, it made what we were doing seem sordid and wrong.

“Do you think they’ll believe it”

He shrugged. “You know how they are. They’ll tell a story for as long as it sells.” He looked at me and I could see in his eyes he was trying to figure out a way to tell me that we needed to end this thing.

I decided to make it easy for him because of course, he was right. “We need to stop seeing each other.”

He let out a relieved breath. “Yes. I'm sorry, Mad-”

“No, I get it. And I agree. We both can’t afford to have this sort of publicity. We want to be taken serious in our careers.”

He looked down for a moment, and when he looked up, he said, “I hate this. I understand that it’s one of the prices I have to pay to do what I love to do, but I fucking hate that they can dictate my life.”

Strangely, my heart warmed at his words. It suggested that our time together meant something to him. Not that it was love, but still that it meant something to him and he was disappointed to have to let it go.

“I feel the same way.”

He looked at me like he was about to be sick. “I need to warn you about something.”

My stomach clenched as I tried to anticipate what he was about to tell me. Did they have footage of us in the elevator?

“To offset the story, I’m going to have to go out a couple nights this week.” He looked at me expectantly, like I was supposed to decipher what that meant.

Of course I knew exactly what he meant. He was telling me that he was going out to be seen with other women. My heart sank, but I mustered up a smile and nodded. “I understand.”

“It might help if you did the same.”

I shook my head. “I’m not really the partying type. Plus, it might look a little obvious if both of us went out and started carousing.”

Again, he had a sigh of relief like he was glad I wasn’t going to be out with other men. It was a reminder of the double standard and misogyny that existed in a world primarily led and dictated by men.

“I don’t have very much on my schedule this week in terms of filming, so maybe when I'm done, I'll just go up and stay with my grandparents for a little while.”

He nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

For a moment, we just stood there, looking at each other. His gaze drifted down to my lips like he had the urge to kiss me. I definitely had the urge to kiss him.

Instead, his gaze lifted back up to my eyes. “I should go.”

“Yes, of course.”

He turned, opened the door, and with a sheepish smile and a wave, he walked out. The door closed behind Theo Wolfe, and with it, it closed on my heart.

Eye on the Prize

Theo

I’d done some hard things in my life such as standing up and defying my father or investing all my money and reputation into a production company. But for reasons I didn’t understand, walking out on Madeline felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done.

It was ridiculous how relieved I felt when she said she wouldn’t be going out with other men. It was a signal that I was getting too attached to her. And so as much as I hated the story coming out, I had to wonder if maybe it wasn't a good thing. She was an enjoyable distraction but a distraction that I couldn’t afford. I needed to focus on this movie and on my production company. I couldn’t have all my hard work dismissed because people thought I was just a celebrity playboy.

We only had six to eight weeks more of filming, and there weren’t very many more days that Madeline and I would film together. That meant it should be easier for us to stay apart. I rubbed my hand over my chest at the twinge of pain I felt at that idea.

I hated it even more that I was going to have to go out and pretend to womanize just to get this story out of the tabloids. For one, it didn’t sound fun