Page 72 of Perfect (mis)Match

I only had time for the one thought:Are you fucking kidding me?

She was lightning fast as she wrapped her arms around my neck and tried to pull me into a kiss. I stood up so abruptly she slipped off my lap and almost fell onto her ass.

“For fuck’s sake, Vincent!” Maya sputtered as she tried to right herself, grabbing onto the edge of the table. “Why are you acting like this? I know you still want me, it’ssoobvious!”

“I’m in a relationship, and you know it,” I said through gritted teeth.

Maya threw back her head and laughed. “You expect me to believe you’re actually serious about that little photographer? Please. You’re only with her to try to make me jealous. It’s not even real, is it? Admit it. You’re totally faking it.”

The pressure and stress that had been building within me exploded. I didn’t want to have this ridiculous conversation with her, but she’d left me no choice.

“You know what, you’re right,” I shouted back at her, not even caring how loud my voice was. “Itdidstart off as a fake relationship, and you were the reason! You refuse to leave me alone, so Piper and I agreed to play the part of a couple so you’dfinally get the message. Obviously, it didn’t work, because you’re acting as desperate as ever.”

“Desperate?” Maya shrieked back at me as her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Vincent, look at me! It’s physically impossible for a body like this to be desperate.”

“Well, why don’t you stop acting this way and stay the fuck away from me?” I barked back at her.

“And why don’t you stop giving me mixed messages?” she seethed. “Hiring me for the most important campaign in Summit history? That means something, don’t you dare try to deny it.”

“It wasbusiness!” I roared at her.

“Just like your fake relationship with your ‘creative director,’” she screamed back at me, making mocking air quotes as she said Piper’s title. “It’s all business, no heart, just like you.”

She sniffled as her eyes filled with fake tears.

“Maya, come on. Stop it,” I scolded her. “Don’t try that with me.”

“You leave me alone!” she cried out in an anguished but very fake voice. “You’ve broken my heartagain, Vincent Forde!”

She covered her face and ran out of the room sobbing. It was only then that I saw the figure lurking in the shadows.

“Hey, uh, sorry. Didn’t mean to overhear.”

The guy hastily shoved his camera in his pocket. He looked familiar, but then again, nearly everyone at the party was a boldface name.

Then it hit me.

The shifty looking guy in the corner was none other than TikTok blogger Jerry Reed, who was known for gossip and so-called blind items framed in such a way that made it incredibly obvious who they were about. He also liked to do “pranks” on celebrities that actually qualified as harassment. I could almost guarantee Maya had noticed him and dialed up the fake tears and so-called heartbreak to spin the story her way. She was that calculating.

“What you overheard was a private conversation,” I said tersely.

He smiled at me and shrugged. “In a public space. And it was kind of hard to ignore, with the yelling and all.”

I wanted to storm over and crack him in the jaw, but that would only make a bad situation worse. The best thing I could do was hide my fury and hope the public would decide the story wasn’t worthy of attention.

Fuck. Who was I kidding? Playboy CEO fakes a romance with an employee and makes his gorgeous supermodel ex cry at a major launch party? The story was going to be everywhere.

“Hey, great party. Later.” Jerry flashed a peace sign at me and walked back outside.

The muscles along my shoulders tensed as I weighed what the leak was going to do to the launch. There was no doubt that the good press aboutEvermorewas going to get lost in the coverage of what had just gone down in the empty ballroom.

I stormed back outside and nearly ran into Piper on her way in.

“Hey, I was looking for you,” she said. Her cheerful expression slid into a frown as she studied my face. “What’s wrong?”

“We need to talk. Now.”

I turned on my heel and headed through the ballroom to a more private meeting room down the hall.

---