A frown registered on his handsome, chiseled features as I all but barreled into him, pushing him back into the limo. The sides of our bodies were pressed together and for a second all I could feel was lean, muscular male. And his hand still firmly on my upper arm where he’d caught me right before we collided, the attendant still chasing after me.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Mavros!” He came huffing after us, stopping me from shutting the door. “I’ll call security immediately.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Leander bit out. “This is my publicist.”
His eyes raked me up and down, and I realized that in my dash-and-crash, the skirt of my dress had hiked scandalously up my more-than-ample thighs.
“Why didn’t you say so?” the attendant asked me accusingly, but I just shook my head and looked back at Leander. We didn’t have time for any of this, not even the blush blasting my cheeks as I dragged my dress back down.
“Is your phone on? Have any of you seen what’s happening?”
Leander shook his head and Janus went on alert from the couch across from where Leander was sitting. “What’s up?”
Leander glared at the attendant until he backed away and we were able to close the door.
It was so suddenly silent after the roaring crowd that it took me a second to gather my bearings, but just a second.
“She did it. Geena leaked the story.”
Leander shot upright, his body pulling all the way away from mine for the first time since we’d gotten in the limo. I felt foolish even for noticing.
“She did not.”
But I nodded vigorously. They needed to catch up to current events, like yesterday.
“She did. And the second you step out that door, you’re going to get a thousand questions about it. We have about three seconds to come up with an action plan. Which I did already. And it’s, ‘No Comment. No comment, no comment, no comment.’”
I looked from one man to the other. “Got it? We all on the same page?”
“I’m at a movie premiere for the movie I fucking star in,” Leander said, eyes flashing. “I can’t just say ‘no comment’ about a scandal I’m directly implicated in.”
“Did she leak the footage or just the story?” Janus asked. “How bad is it?”
“Everything,” I said flatly.
Believe me, I remembered all too well the brief flash of entangled bodies I’d glimpsed. A manly ass thrusting from behind while another man held her on his lap from underneath. The video was good enough quality that you could make out the expression of concentrated pleasure on the twin facing the camera. That alone had been almost hotter than the rest of it.
I averted my eyes and hope they couldn’t read the thoughts all over my face. “It’s out there. All of it. The video already has three million hits. It’s gone viral.”
“Fuck.” This from Janus.
I took a deep breath. “Look, in the morning we’ll do the deep dive response about how easy deep fakes are and the whole spiel. Tonight you just need to say you’re as shocked as everyone else. And say ‘no comment.’” I winced. “They’ll try to go for the jugular to get a reaction out of you. To get the scoop for their outlet.”
I looked at Leander, dead serious. “Do. Not. Bite. I repeat, do not take the bait.”
Unlike me, it was clear that Leander’s cheeks did not get red when he was frustrated. No, he just went paler and paler. I didn’t realize it at first, but this was what Leander looked like when he was truly pissed off. Janus got it, though, because he immediately put a hand out on his brother’s arm.
“You’re out, baby brother,” Janus said.
Leander jerked away from his brother’s grip, his eyes immediately shooting to me.
Milo nodded but Leander’s gaze jerked away from me, and from the murderous look on his face, it seemed like he wanted to punch the both of them.
I just looked back and forth between them all, confused.
“Enjoy my fucking movie,” Leander said, throwing a metal cocktail shaker across the limo, where it banged silently to the carpeted floor. I jumped in surprise, but he didn’t apologize. He glared out the window, the only giveaway the fury in his eyes and his flaring nostrils as he grabbed for his tie, yanking it loose.
Wait, what was happening?
But Janus cleared it up by taking my arm. “I’ve got this one,” he said.
Leander looked back our way, glaring at Janus’s hand on my arm.
Then, as an attendant knocked on the window, yelling that there were cars getting backed up behind us, Janus opened the door. He held out a hand to me and then I was being pulled along the seat and out behind him.
I only got one last glimpse of a still furious looking Leander as the door closed and then the limo drove off.