When he said, “like this,” did he mean when Janus was acting as Leander? I hadn’t missed that Milo never answered my initial question.
My eyes strayed back to Janus, sitting in the circle of pointy couches across the open space from us. People were crowded all around him—including some very famous faces, such as Leander’s costar I’d had the lovely run-in with earlier, Lena. Did they know it was Janus, or did they all believe he was Leander?
Lena certainly wasn’t paying him any mind. The entourage that had come with her, though? Women were gathered on either side of Janus. A few had somehow become magically more unclad as the night drew on. Janus didn’t seem to mind their attention. He certainly wasn’t pushing them away.
Did he enjoy pretending to be his brother and coming out for all the love and adulation of being a celebrity? It was such a different picture than had been painted of him by the media. Either he was just as good an actor as his brother or… they’d had some excellent freaking PR somewhere along the way.
A leggy blonde pretended to knock over her drink and half-fall into his lap while she “cleaned” it up.
I turned away and rolled my eyes. Then remembered how I’d barreled into Leander earlier and ended up all but in his lap. Feeling my cheeks flame, I took another swig of my drink and turned back to Milo. “So what about you? Where do you fit in all this?”
Milo frowned. “I’m the manager, but you know that. I guess I haven’t explained the security thing. I’m the head of security, but that’s mainly just a title. Mostly I schedule and run the guys from a couple different agencies we use.”
I tilted my head at him. “Yeah. Duh. But I’m trying to get a feel for this place. For you guys. The dynamics of it all. People think that working PR is about spin, but they’re wrong. When people call me a fixer, yeah, they’re right. But it’s not just because I come in and fix the public perception of things. I like to dig in and find out what’s really going on. To fix people.”
Milo laughed. “Well, after today I’d think you’ve gotten a pretty good picture of what’s going on here. We’re a fucking mess.” He grinned that big full-toothed grin at me again. “Think you can fix us?”
“Oh no,” I laughed. “That came out all wrong. I mean, I would never try. I don’t try to fix people, fix people, like I think they’re broken, just like a fixer, the term, you know.” I threw my hands in the air. “I’m gonna stop talking now. I’m no one to judge anyway, I’m far from perfect.” I swigged down the last of my drink.
Milo laughed out loud. “Nope. Don’t believe it. If anyone’s perfect, you’re it.”
“Ugh, no, God,” I slammed down my glass on the bar, feeling a pleasant buzz. “Please. Anything but perfect. I’m so tired of being Miss Virginal Perfect all the time!”
Milo had just taken a sip of Coke and he all but spit it all out. Right all over my Christian Siriano LBD.
“Virginal?” he coughed. Then he was grabbing a napkin off the bar and reaching for my cleavage before yanking back right at the last moment. “Shit, sorry—”
I grabbed his arm in a vise grip. “Oh my god, I can’t believe I told you that. Swear you won’t tell anyone. Swear.”
I shook him until he made a noise I took to be assent. Then he looked around, his eyes wide, especially when he zeroed in on a corner not far from us. What? I looked around too.
A little further away, someone had started doing body shots off a naked girl and in a dark corner, one man had dropped to his knees to suck off another guy.
My stomach did a deep swish and I jerked my eyes away.
“Come on,” Milo said, putting an arm around my shoulders. “You shouldn’t be here.”
I pulled away, laughing. “Are you kidding? Just because some people are getting frisky in the corner? I’m twenty-seven.”
“You say that like it means something. You’re still a child.”
I was pissed. Jesus, all this because I let slip that I was a virgin?
“What’s going on here, you crazy kids?” came a cool, deep voice that immediately had chills running up my spine.
Janus had somehow snuck up behind me.
I held a hand to my chest, still a bit damp from Milo’s spit take at my idiotic spontaneous confession. “You scared me,” I said, once I finally found my voice again.
He just glanced coolly down at my chest, his life of the party persona disappearing in an instant. “You’re all wet. You two looked like you were in some sort of heated discussion. I got curious.”