Page 35 of Selling Innocence

It took a long time for my brain to work through his statement, but the moment it did, it sobered me right up.

I was an idiot. I’d let myself believe that tonight meant anything, that Vance had meant any of it. How could I have been that stupid?

My eyes burned but I couldn’t tear my gaze from his, from that damned half-smirk he wore, from the bright blue of his eyes. I blinked rapidly to clear away the sting, not wanting to let a single tear escape.

He leaned in closer.

I flattened my hands against his chest, pushing, but Vance had a hold of me too well. Before I could really resist, his warm lips pressed against mine.

It wasn’t a gentle kiss, a sweet one. He tilted his head and used his grip on my chin to angle my own the opposite way. Quickly, he deepened the kiss, his seeking tongue teasing the seam of my lips. I gasped in surprise, giving him access to delve deep, to stroke against my tongue.

The kiss told me a few things.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

I was entirely outmatched by him.

And lastly? I’d never forgive myself for falling for his tricks.

* * * *

Vance

“The news is everywhere.” Hayden clicked off the television as I walked into the living room.

“That’s what happens when there’s a juicy story,” I said. I’d grown so used to the stresses of living in the spotlight that I’d learned to use it to my advantage.

After getting followed around as a kid, I’d figured out trying to avoid the tabloids was pointless. They’d make up stories if they had nothing, which meant giving them something worked to my advantage.

By the time I’d reached my teenage years, I’d learned to play the game. I’d figured out that seeding stories worked out far better for me.

There were times I hated it, of course, but hating something didn’t change reality.

I glanced down at my gloved hand, then shook my head.

Can’t change reality, no matter how much I want to.

“Is Kenz okay?” Hayden asked, the sentimental bastard.

“She’s pissed, I’m sure, but she’ll get over it.”

The truth was, she hadn’t spoken a single word to me after the kiss. Sure, I’d laid a good on one her, but it shouldn’t have been that big a deal. She was probably angrier that I hadn’t told her the plan, that I’d sprung it on her.

But if I had told her, I doubted she could play the game for the cameras. She was too honest, and if she’d known the plan, she’d have acted anxious and awkward, assuming she agreed to play along at all.

“So how long until Lorien knows?” Char asked.

“He’ll know by morning at the latest,” I answered. “I expect that by the end of tomorrow, we’ll hear something from him.”

“Like what? You think he’ll just call you up and ask if he can buy the woman you bought from an auction? He’s way too careful for that,” Char said.

“Oh, sure, it won’t be that obvious, but he’ll reach out one way or another. He went to far too much effort for Kenz to throw it away now, especially at the idea that some rich playboy bought her out from underneath him.”

I could picture him raging right now, as he saw the news. From what I knew of Lorien, his ego ran his life. The mere thought that someone, in his eyes, so far beneath him taking something from him wouldn’t sit well.

And that would drive him to make choices he otherwise wouldn’t.

The padding of bare feet against hardwood floors made me look behind me a moment before a clearly angry and still rather liquored-up Kenz stormed into the living room. Her cheeks still held that red tint and her eyes had a glassy quality that showed she hadn’t sobered up despite the drive home and all the pacing she’d probably done in her room.

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