Page 27 of Viral Affair

“She’s someone I’ve known for a while, but I trust her, and I knew you’d like her. Here, take a look,” I said, sounding indifferent. I handed her my phone and she put glasses on, then started watching the video. Her facial expression didn’t really give much away until she looked at me.

“Veronica Micelli. Hmm … interesting. She seems natural, but I’m afraid she might crack under pressure,” Katharina said, but she did make a note of her handle on the paper before handing me the phone back.

Thoughts about Veronica were slowly taking over my life, but nothing was going to happen between us until she quit working as an escort, and if I could help her secure this deal, then this whole transition could happen much quicker.

“Maybe get her here for an informal interview. You never know, you might be surprised,” I said, not hinting anymore because I’d already said enough.

She smiled at me, staring intensely. “This girl is beautiful, and I can see that you’re interested in her. Tell me, Rupert, what is your deal?”

I stroked my chin. Katharina was always following the latest celebrity gossip, and a few times the media had called me one of the most eligible bachelors in the UK. My PR person made sure that all the stories about me in the press were quickly shut down, and I paid a lot of money to keep my life private.

Katharina was very perceptive, and from now on she’d ask questions, but that was all right as long as she didn’t mention to Veronica that we’d had this conversation today.

“She’s one of my employees, and that’s our story. There is nothing going on between us,” I assured her.

She laughed.

“Nothing going on yet,” she corrected me when I got up and buttoned my jacket.

Maybe I was making a mistake, and maybe this was going to bite me in the arse later, but at this point I didn’t care. My obsession with the red-haired devil of a woman needed to end. I said my goodbyes, then left the building with a hard cock and an image of Veronica becoming brand ambassador for Katharina’s new beauty products.

When I got to my Porsche, my phone rang. It was an unknown number, which was strange, but I picked it up anyway.

“We have a problem,” a familiar voice said on the other end of the line.

“I’m all ears. What seems to be the issue?”

Chapter Fifteen

Veronica

The next week in the club went a bit more smoothly than last week’s nightmare with clients. I was sure Rupert was still somehow messing with my whole schedule because all of a sudden, none of my usual clients wanted sex. Rowan kept denying it, but it was my intuition that kept telling me otherwise. Something definitely felt off.

I didn’t really care as long as they were paying me, but I had a big date coming up with this multibillionaire from Abu Dhabi. This made me a little nervous because I had no idea what to expect. The guy was properly intense, and I wasn’t sure how Rupert would feel about all this. I just had to hope he wasn’t going to be causing me any more trouble, especially after the last weekend in Paris.

He’d been pretty cold toward me this weekend. He’d barely said a few words to me when I’d seen him in the club this week.I didn’t know what his deal was and why he was acting so strangely. He’d practically thrown me out of his house on Wednesday night after I’d asked him about that photo I’d found in his bedroom. The photo seemed innocent, and I figured that maybe Rupert had been ill or maybe something had happened that he’d had to shave his head. Either way, I didn’t want to come across as too nosy, so I decided to give him his space. That man was so hot and cold all the time.

“Now I know why you set me up on that blind date on Friday night,” Laura said to me when I accepted the call from her on Monday morning.

My roommate was such a sweet girl, and she liked her new boss. Apparently, he’d made her come with his fingers in that club during the night when I’d seen Rupert. She’d finally confessed this to me a while back, and I’d squeaked with excitement. I hadn’t seen Laura much since she’d started her new job, and since the PM had asked her to move in, I was only able to catch up with her on the weekends when I wasn’t working.

That previous weekend when she was home, I’d made her go on a date I’d set up for her, thinking she needed to have some fun. She’d mentioned that Spencer was driving her crazy, and I thought she could make him a little jealous. She didn’t really want to go, but I’d told awhite lie about him being stood up by someone else, so she’d agreed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but tell me what happened. Didn’t you have a great time with that guy? You texted me to say he was very handsome. You know I wouldn’t have set you up with some random man,” I asked her, concerned. The truth was that I was dying to know what had happened, but since I was out most of Saturday, this was the only time I could catch up with Laura. She’d texted me on Sunday saying she was staying with her parents for the night.

“No, Veronica, everything was going well until Spencer showed up and told me he needed me because of some sort of emergency with Maja. I was so embarrassed and, of course, Lucian introduced himself to him,” she explained.

I gasped, not believing that Spencer had actually decided to ruin Laura’s date. This was totally not expected.

“Wow,” I said. “So what was he doing there?”

“He was also on a date,” Laura said. “But apparently he cancelled the whole thing when he saw me coming in with Lucian, then made this shit up about needing me and walked me out of the restaurant. By the way, Lucian was really sweet. He’s obviously interested in me, even though I’ve no idea what to do about that yet.”

Silence stretched out on the other side of the phone while I tried to figure out if my friend Marrisa knew that Spencer was going to be in the same restaurant as Laura. To me this whole thing almost seemed like a setup, but I didn’t want to worry my roommate. She already had a lot on her plate.

“Listen, we both know that you want each other, so he probably saw you, got jealous, and ruined your date. Men can be total children sometimes, and it doesn’t matter how much power they have. So what happened after that?”

More silence from Laura. Maybe I was getting a bit ahead of myself, but the truth was that they both were going to lose their minds for each other. Spencer had probably lost his marbles when he’d seen Laura on a date with another guy. The man was infuriating, just like his brother, and I didn’t even know him that well.

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