Page 63 of Worth Every Moment
Silence. “I’m a businessman first, a father last.”
I drop my head into my hand, the pounding in my temples ratcheting up tenfold.That heartless fucking bastard.
“You have four months,” Dad confirms. “Give me your word that you will marry Diana. If you don’t agree, I will release these photos. Tonight.”
Tonight?
I’ve seen charges like this take men down. Destroy lives. And I know he’d do it to get his way.Ruthless.
My mind spins, Erica’s name racing through it over and over. I can’t hold on to logic as the panic whirls in my system. Dad’s words from our meeting rush in, booming through my thoughts, crushing everything else, washing her name away, eroding it like the flow of a rampaging river over rock.
It’s not as if you’d be leaving anyone behind; I know you don’t give a shit about any of those women, and I doubt they care about you either. Not really. Not on any level that counts. Trust me, I know what that’s like. The hollow, empty feeling inside. Never really caring and wondering why not. At least this way,you’ll have a woman who’ll stick around for longer than a couple of weeks.
Maybe it’s true. Maybe no one will ever give a fuck about me. Not really. Not on any deep level. But Erica has just announced us as a couple on social media. If I say no to Dad, and he does release these images, Erica gets taken down by association. This will hurt her chances of achieving what she wants, and there’s no way that can happen.
If we stick to her time frame and end things by Nico and Kate’s wedding, then I’ll be clear for a month before this marriage to Diana is announced and Erica will be fine. She’ll have moved on. Not that there’s anything to move from. Ours will just be another flash in the pan celebrity relationship.Yesterday’s news. Searing pain rips through me at the thought, but I suppress the fuck out of that sensation.
“Fine. Fucking fine. I’ll do it. But back the fuck off and let me do whatever the hell I want for these final months.”
“And then you’ll marry Diana?”
“Yes. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
“Good boy. I knew you’d see sense.”
“You sick bastar—”
“Are you involved with that woman? In the photos? Erica Lefroy?” The interruption cuts off my flow.Erica has no place in this conversation.
“That’s none of your business.”
Dad’s slow breathing gusts down the line for a few rounds. “Fine. But don’t fall for her at the last hurdle. I’d hate to see you go down the aisle with a broken heart.”
21
ERICA
I’ve been screening Mum’s calls since our fight on Harley Street, but tonight, at the launch party for my cosmetics line and the Infinity fragrance, I’ll have to face her.
I take a seat at my dressing table and open up my phone—a brand new handset that Seb sent over as a gift, all set up and ready to use by his PA—and reread Mum’s last message. She sent it in response to my social media post of me and Seb at the photo shoot.
What were you thinking? You look like a whore.
When I didn’t reply, she sent another that said,He will destroy you.
That last one lingered in my mind, latching onto all my insecurities.
I can’t deny that Mum is partly right, but her focus is wrong. She thinks Seb will destroy my brand, but I know it’s my heart that’s at risk.
Maybe it’s always been my heart.
I hit delete on both her messages and force myself to take a few deep breaths to settle my nerves. The cosmetics launch is a hugeevent taking place at a venue just off Leicester Square. Mum wanted it floral and pretty and innocent, but I’ve completely sabotaged her arrangements and revamped the entire thing. It was intense, and I wasn’t the only one pulling all-nighters to get it done, but it was worth it to take control. She’s going to go nuts. Now, we’re using the images of me in my underwear, and Seb beneath me, looking like it’s the only place in the world he ever wants to be.
Heat pools between my legs at the recollection. Those photos arehot,and since I last saw Seb, I’ve spent almost all my time analysing them, choosing the best ones, and having all the publicity posters for the launch remade and distributed at short notice. I have been obsessing over Seb Hawkston, and every time I looked at those pictures, I felt all warm and bubbly inside.Giddymight be the word for it, if that also encompassed the feeling of low-key arousal that hummed in my veins at the same time.
If I’m a whore, I’m only a whore for Seb.
The problem is, he’s a fire that will burn me to ash if I get too close.
