Page 32 of Flirt Away

“Perhaps not, but since you didn’t think to tell me when I was your girlfriend, didn’t mention that you were in love with Erik and let me find you in bed with the bouncer of Club Allure, she deserves to know. I mean, it was bad enough I knew the place was evil, but I imagined you fucking some bimbo, not a guy.”

“Erik?” Dixie stared at him with her big green eyes. “The guy who did my interview? That’s the man you were in love with?”

Zane blinked. “How do you know I was in love with a man?”

“Not important. You should have told me.”

“I know. I planned on it before we got interrupted by my mom’s phone call to come here,” Zane said, letting out a long breath. He rubbed his hands up and down Dixie’s arms. “Besides, he’s married. And I’m not in love with him. I love you.”

“I know that.” Dixie shook her head. “I don’t care that you were with a man. Or that you loved him in the past. You should know me better than that. My issue is that you cheated on her.” She pointed toward Rebecca. “That’s not cool.”

He let his gaze drop to his feet. No matter how many times he’d defended himself, it always came down to the story Rebecca told. And not the truth. “It’s not exactly as it seems.”

Dixie poked him in the chest. “You better not ever cheat on me.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Rebecca said under her breath. “You two deserve each other.” She turned but quickly snapped her focus back to Dixie. “You look familiar, “Rebecca said. “I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

“I doubt it.” Dixie curled her fingers around Zane’s biceps. “I need to use the little girls’ room.”

“Holy shit. You’re the chick who writes theCreate the Dewblog.” Rebecca shook her head. “Un-fucking-believable.”

“I’m not following,” Zane said. “What’sCreate the Dew?”

“No way. You don’t know?” Rebecca asked. “Oh, Dixie. Big mistake.”

“Just like Erik wasn’t your story to tell, neither is this,” Dixie said.

“Yeah, but Zane doesn’t like his sex life being plastered on the net for the entire world to read about, and that’s exactly what you’re doing on your blog. You might not have used his name like I did, but once people see you with him, they’ll know about your sexual exploits. Like hand jobs in public places or multiple orgasms.” Rebecca smiled triumphantly. “I think my work here is done.” She turned on her heel and practically skipped down the hallway.

Zane’s heart lurched and rose to the back of his throat. He took a step back. “What is she talking about?”

“Something I archived this morning. The thing I was going to tell you about before we found out about—”

“So it’s true? You wrote about us having sex and published it on the internet?”

“I took down the two explicit—”

“I don’t want to hear it.” He raised his hands. “I can’t believe you did that to me. To us. To what we had together. Is that all I was to you? Fodder for an article? Is that why you came to the club in the first place? Why you’d rather do that instead of date me when Crystal wanted to fix us up?”

“Will you let me explain?”

“No.” He shook his head. “You know how I feel about having my trust betrayed.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re going to lecture me about trust? You do realize that yourstorydoesn’t jibe.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You told me that you broke up becauseshebetrayed your trust. When in reality,youcheated on her with your ex-boyfriend.”

Zane’s jaw dropped open.

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

“Rebecca plastered what shethoughtwas my indiscretion all overPage Six. She nearly ruined Erik’s relationship with his now-husband. She didn’t understand that for Erik and me, that last night was our way of saying goodbye to each other. And she has no idea what she really saw. What Rebecca did was make a man feel ugly for being gay.”

“Because you didn’t inform her of your need to be with Erik and have one last bang before he tied the knot with someone else.”

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