Page 109 of Insatiable Park Avenue Prince

“No. There’s more to life than looking good and drinking green juice. There’s finding someone who makes you laugh and smile, and your heart skip when he walks in a room. I won’t let my asshole ex-boyfriend ruin that, and I don’t care if that means I never walk another catwalk in my life.”

The room went dead silent, and I wasn’t sure how to feel in that moment. On one hand, I wanted to pick Donovan up and haul him back to the bedroom after everything he’d just said. But on the other, I could feel that twisted, gnawing feeling of guilt taking over. I’d known that if word got out about my job that there might be ramifications for Donovan. But I didn’t think it would be this bad.

The brands might drop him? It might ruin his career? I couldn’t let him do that for me.

“You know…” Donovan let out a sigh. “I think you should leave now.”

“But we—”

“Mira, I know. We need to clean it up. What do you think Harry is doing?” He gestured to the kitchen, where Harry was working over his laptop.

“Main articles are offline,” he said, not bothering to look up. “Just sourcing the original files to delete from the mainframe and we’ll be good.”

Damn. I still couldn’t believe they had a guy who could scrub the internet on call.

“Fine, I’m going.” Mira turned and stormed back up the hall, muttering, “Gonna have to smooth this over with the agency, anyone who saw this…” She stopped when she reached the foyer and looked back to us. “And you two—keep your asses covered from here on out.”

THIRTY-SIX

donovan

IF I’D THOUGHT Mira leaving would give me a chance to settle things back down with Kelly, I was dead wrong.

Even though I’d already kicked them out earlier, East and Travis somehow managed to slip inside my apartment before the door shut after Mira. The mischievous looks on their faces told me double trouble was back in action.

God help us all.

“I knew it was Atticus fuckface,” East said, his words at odds with the way he strolled into the room like he owned it.

Travis followed, his phone firmly clasped in hand, the glowing screen displaying the second post that had come through. “That shitbag needs to learn his lesson, since he obviously didn’t get the hint last time.”

“And let me guess. You’ve got a plan,” I said.

East arched a brow at Travis, smirks on both their faces. “Travis and I came up with a few ideas we’d get immense pleasure from.”

“I can’t wait to hear this,” West said, way too excited about the prospect of fucking over my ex, unlike Preston, who sat nearby running a hand over his face. Not that he wouldn’t be up for a little retaliation, but whenever the ideas came from Travis and East, shit was going to get ugly. And messy.

“Count me in for whatever you’re doing,” Kelly said.

East’s answering grin was downright sinister. “Abso-fuckin-lutely.”

I knew I had to look horrified, but there was no way I was letting Kelly get involved in whatever revenge plot my friends would concoct. He had enough going on.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No way. Leave Kelly out of this. He doesn’t know what he’d be getting himself into.”

Kelly crossed his arms, his tall, built body looking like a veritable fortress guarding the room. The muscle in his jaw clenched as he met my eyes. “Doesn’t fuckin’ matter.”

“You don’t think your man is going to defend your honor?” Travis scoffed. “Grow a pair, Van.”

“I’ve got a pair, or did you somehow miss that when you were ogling all the hell over our scene?” I replied.

“Do I need to remove those too?” Harry’s voice was small compared to the rest of the loudmouths in the room, and I’d almost forgotten he was even there. When we all turned our attention his way, he swallowed and pushed his glasses up his nose. “The, uh, masked ones. Did you want those down too?”

Shit, the fact that he could even do that hadn’t crossed my mind, but they were up legally, and Kelly and I had both signed approvals for them. It wasn’t like I was ashamed of the scenes. Not to mention they were hot as hell, and it would be doing not only Kelly but the whole fanbase of viewers a disservice by taking them down.

“No,” I said. “Those are legit. Just make sure my name isn’t attached to them in any way.”

Harry nodded and went back to typing. “Sure thing.”

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