Page 98 of Heartbreaker

“Darn it!” I burst into tears all over again. “This is my fault. Oh my God, I’m so sorry!”

“Hey, it’s okay. Jade…baby.” Royal does that thing I love, where he grabs my chin between two fingers and forces me to look at him. “It’s not the end of the world, okay? We’ll get this taken care of. I promise.”

“How? It’s not like it’s fake!” I shudder against him. “I’m so sorry…”

“Tell us what happened,” Atlas says in his scary-but-I’m-not-scared-of-him voice. The murderous glare has actually softened. Just a tiny bit. Softer for Atlas anyway.

“I remember that night,” Royal ponders thoughtfully. “We wound up making love in the middle of working on the song—I guess we left the recording on?”

“We did.” I nod miserably, my face still incredibly hot. I can’t remember the last time I blushed as much as I have since meeting Royal. “I didn’t realize it at the time but then later, when I found it, I decided to keep it.” My face might be competing for the surface of the sun in temperature. So, so hot. I can’t even look at Atlas, but even if I wanted to ask him to leave the room, what would that accomplish? He’s obviously already heard everything.

And he’s trying to help.

Not that you can put a genie back in the bottle.

This is out in the world.

My millions of fans have heard me?—

Nope.

I can’t even think about all the little girls out there who adore me, listening to me having a very loud, boisterous orgasm.

“How come?” Royal’s voice is soft, his eyes boring into mine, breaking into my haze of self-flagellation.

“Because I’m falling in love with you and I love your voice when we…” I let myself trail because Atlas doesn’t need to hear any more detail than that and?—

Royal presses his forehead to mine.

“I like it too,” he whispers. “And I’m sorry this happened. Do you know how it got out? Did you share it with someone?”

I nod, still miserable.

“Not intentionally but I’m pretty sure I know when it happened. When Rico came over. I was so excited to play ‘Midnight Snow’ for him. I must’ve sent him the wrong file—you and I made so many recordings that weekend.” I pull out my phone and start scrolling through our texts. “Yup. Right there.” I sigh and close my eyes. “I’m so, so sorry. I can’t blame anyone but myself. How could I be so stupid?”

“Look, if it was just me, I’d be laughing my ass off right now,” Royal says firmly. “Seriously, babe. If you’re worried aboutmyreputation, please don’t apologize. All I care about is how embarrassed you are. People can think whatever the fuck they want about me. And frankly, I’m never going to apologize for hot, consensual sex with a beautiful woman. There’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing on that tape.”

Atlas has somehow managed to make himself as unobtrusive as possible, surreptitiously handing me a couple of tissues.

“Thank you.” I blow my nose and dab at my eyes.

God, I must be a mess.

“My legal team is on it, and once we coordinate with yours, this will go away.” Fierce, scary Atlas is back, but he’s the last person I’m afraid of right now.

“I’m going to text Maddie,” Royal says, pulling out his phone.

I don’t have the energy or mental bandwidth to do anything but stare off at nothing.

How could I have done something so stupid? Reckless?

Old Rico, the Rico I thought I knew, would have laughed his ass off and immediately deleted it, telling me to be more careful. Reminding me that there are a lot of crazies in the music industry.

That Rico doesn’t exist, though.

ThatRico was friends with a Jade who hadn’t won Song of the Year.

Award-winning Jade apparently doesn’t have any friends.

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