Page 40 of Between the Lines

“I don’t know,” he says. “You’d have to ask Maurice about that. He’s on the Board for the event.”

“Why are you donating such a large amount, then?”

His mouth tightens again. But then he shrugs, and his voice is all charm. “For the same reason the Board hired you.”

“Good PR.”

“The very same,” he says.

I hesitate only a second before I ask the next thing. “Does it feel like you’ve been doing damage control since you took over the company? And do you think it’ll ever end?”

“That,” he says sharply, “belongs to the list of things we are not discussing.”

CHAPTER 15

CHARLOTTE

“Here,” I challenge. Again.

“Yes, fine.Here,” he mutters and looks over his shoulder. A group of people are approaching us.

Approaching him.

His shoulders relax, and his mouth softens. The furrow between his eyebrows smooths out, but his gaze sharpens.

He looks powerful and casual all at once.

The all-American CEO, with his thick hair and square jaw.

And I realize that I don’t know where to place him. It’s easy, when I’m sparring with him and his eyes on mine, to forget that he is the one who runs the company that produces exploitative reality TV.

That Titan Media made millions, and I had my life ruined.

But he isn’t innocent. He runs the company andmayhave known about his father’s fraudulence, if what I read in some of the articles is true.

He’s also my ticket to a year-long contract with my editor to write a non-fiction book of my own. So really, Aiden could be good or bad.

Doesn’t matter.

Even if I can’t figure out why he agreed to the memoir if he’s going to hinder its progress. There’s being hesitant, even nervous, and then there’s being obstinate. And Aiden is falling into the latter camp.

I follow at Aiden’s side for the next half an hour. People talk to him, ask him questions, exchange business cards. He navigates all of it with the casual ease of someone who has done it many times before.

No one else asks about his father or his family.

And there are definitely some individuals who don’t approach him. I notice a group of them, standing off to the side, looking out of the corners of their eyes.

I want to take notes.

But if there’s one thing that would be out of place in this fancy place, it’s that. Whipping out a notebook and a pen would be quite indiscreet. But I know I won’t forget this.Not everyone has accepted Aiden after what his father did.

After all, in the circles of the rich and truly wealthy, is there a more hated crime than defrauding shareholders? His father had taken a sledgehammer to people’s fortunes, and people aren’t quick to forget the dents.

There’s the sound of a bell ringing, like we’re about to enter an opera or a theater. Aiden’s hand lands on my lower back again. It’s the second time he has put it there, and I hate how aware I am of the faint touch.

“If you’ll excuse us,” he says smoothly to the couple we’re talking to.

He leads us toward the front row of chairs by the stage.

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