Breaking Stars (The Celebrity 2)

Colin wrapped his arm around my lower back. When I tried to wiggle out of his grasp, his fingers dug deeper into my side.

“Get off me,” I hissed at him, knowing that this was the ultimate publicity stunt for him. What better way for him to save his own hide than to be seen with me? If Paige Lockwood could forgive Colin, then why couldn’t the rest of the world?

“Stop being so difficult, Paige,” he said through clenched teeth. “Let me help you inside.” He smiled brightly at the cameras before kissing the side of my head.

The moment his lips touched me, I recoiled and fought off the urge to puke all over my shoes. The paparazzi continued to shout, cameras continued to flash, and I no longer cared about any of it. I pressed my palms against Colin and shoved him away from me so hard he almost fell to the ground. I wished he would have.

“Stay away from me,” I yelled without considering the implications. “I don’t want you here!” I rushed into the lobby of my building and into a waiting elevator, in which Sam held the doors. It was nice to see a familiar, friendly face.

“They’ve been here for days, Miss Lockwood. It’s like they knew you were on your way back. They won’t leave,” Sam said, and his concern for me was touching.

I considered his words for only a moment before saying, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not true, right? All the things they’re saying?”

“No, Sam, it’s not true,” I said with a tired sigh. I was exhausted, and I’d only just returned.

A wide smile transformed his face. “I knew it. None of it sounded like you at all.”

Thankful to finally have someone on my side, I said, “Sam, please make sure that no one lets Colin or Jayson up to my apartment without verbal permission from me first. Okay? It’s important.”

I no longer trusted Jayson. I had only considered the notion before I left town, but was now convinced that he didn’t have my best interests at heart.

“No one will come up,” he said with a nod. “Except Miss Quinn and your family?”

“Perfect. No one except them. Thank you.”

“Anything for you.” He leaned around me and pressed the proper floor on button panel before slipping out of the elevator and leaving me alone.

As the doors closed, Tatum’s face appeared in my mind’s eye and I winced. Would I never see him again? Even the thought of that broke my heart. But right now I needed to focus and figure out my future, and not worry about the guy who sent me packing.

What the hell had I done to my career and reputation by leaving?

Just a Fling

Tatum

I hadn’t accomplished a damn thing since I pushed Paige out of town. My computer at the shop had been bookmarked up the ass with celebrity gossip sites and entertainment channels.

I was a man obsessed. Every time I saw a photo of Paige and Colin together, like the one splashed on every website of him walking her into her apartment building, his hand on her waist, I wanted to throw this piece-of-shit computer across the room and watch it shatter the same way my heart had.

As much as I wanted to believe they weren’t back together, there was no denying the pictures I saw. Even the one where it looked like she was shoving him away, but the photo was followed by a headline that made even me question exactly what I was seeing, and I had just spent weeks with the girl.

I needed to rein it in. Paige stopped being my business the minute I allowed her to drive away without me.

Knuckles rapped against the door frame of the shop’s office, forcing me to find some sense of inner calm. I leaned back in the squeaky swivel chair, and my eyes fell upon Celeste’s sad expression.

“What do you want? Come to rub it all in my face?” I ask snidely, knowing that Celeste wasn’t at all the cause of my ire and didn’t deserve it, but I’d been an unbearable bastard since Paige exited my life.

“Don’t be mean to me,” she snapped, and shame washed over me.

“I’m sorry.”

Pulling up the guest chair closer to me, she sat down uninvited. “I know you’re hurting, Tatum, that’s why I came. I know who ratted out Paige’s location, and I couldn’t keep that information from you. Not once I knew for sure.”

I leaned forward, my arms pressing down on top of my old man’s desk. “Who?”

Her eyes closed briefly before she opened them again. “One guess,” she said, her head nodding along with my changing expression.