Page 105 of The Rebel King

“Exactly when would I have had time to tell you, Maxim?” I ask,pitching my voice too low for the guard to hear. “You started growling and fucking as soon as you entered the room last night.”

He closes his eyes and grips the back of his neck. “Itoldyou he was into you.”

“I missed it. I’m sorry.” I stuff the torn panties deeper into my pockets. “I need to go catch him.”

“Catch him?” He takes my elbow. “You don’t go anywhere near him, Lennix.”

“It’s my job, Doc. I can handle myself.”

“And that’s how this happened?” He lifts my wrist between us, showing the marks Glenn left. He stares at the bruises forming, pulling my wrist to his lips. “Dammit, Nix.”

“I’m okay.” I need to get this situation under control. “I’ll take Kimba with me, but I need to catch him before he leaves. I have to remind him he signed an NDA and is legally obligated to keep his damn mouth shut.”

“You’ll take him.” Maxim nods to the guard. “Call someone else up here. You go with her.”

I roll my eyes, call the elevator, and brace myself for the shitstorm ahead.

CHAPTER 46

LENNIX

“Maybe let me do most of the talking,” Kimba says as we’re standing outside Glenn’s hotel room. “This needs to be handled diplomatically and firmly.”

“And you don’t trust me to be diplomatic and firm?”

“Itrustedyou to keep this from ever happening.” There haven’t been many times when Kimba has been truly irritated with me over the years, but her displeasure is sketched on her keen features now. “If you couldn’t be celibate, I told you to be discreet. Leaving the candidate’s room with your bra in your hand and your panties in your pocket is not exactly discreet.”

I open my mouth to interject, but she holds up a hand, cutting me off.

“There’s no defense, Lenn. We don’t do this, and you know it. This Monica Lewinsky shit, not a good look.”

“Monica Le—”

“I know it’s not what it looks like. I know the truth about you and Maxim. I was in Amsterdam. I’ve seen it from the beginning.”

“Not from the beginning, no,” I tell her quietly. “You weren’t there when I was seventeen and the most amazing man on the planet dropped into a desert and put himself in danger for me. That man needed me last night. He’s hurting, Kimba. Doing this so soon after Owen… It’s a lot.”

“Yeah, well, doingyouis not helping,” she says with the first hint of a smile.

“I know.” I blow out a quick breath. “I should have handled it differently, and I’ll be more careful.”

“Yeah, you will, or you’ll be off this campaign.”

That sobers me. We’re equal partners, but I have no legs to stand on here. From the beginning, we agreed we’d never be sexually involved with our candidates. The fact that she’s made the concessions she already has is a miracle. And she’s right. It’s bad optics. Bad business, but it doesn’t feel fair. In hindsight, weathering the small storm a relationship between Owen’s brother and his campaign manager would have caused is nothing compared to the scandal of a campaign manager and the candidate being “caught” with their pants down.

“Let’s get this over with.” Kimba sighs and knocks.

Glenn pulls the door open, his smile smug and his posture relaxed. “Ladies, come in. I’ve been expecting you.”

We walk in, and he gestures to the sitting-room couch. “Please, sit. Let’s hear it.”

“Hear what?” Kimba lifts a neatly threaded brow. “Us reminding you about the NDA you signed along with your contract? You just heard it.”

“Oh, surely there’s more than that to sweeten this deal.” He sneers and rakes disdainful eyes over me. “Miss High and Mighty got caught fucking not just any candidate but Maxim Cade, the press darling. That’s a juicy story, and you know it.”

“One you don’t get to tell,” I say, my voice even but knife-edge sharp. “Per the NDA we keep having to bring up.”

“Oh, there are ways around an NDA,” Glenn says, deliberately eyeing my breasts and dragging his stare over the length of my body. “Offer me something,Nix.”

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