She’d kissed me.
She was in the middle of a huge, destructive personal crisis.
But,I’m a grown woman in control of her own mind and her own actions, she’d snarled.
And she’dkissed me.
What the fuck was I supposed to do?
‘You look beautiful,’ Romeo-Dylan said to both the women.
‘Thank you,’ Juliet-Dylan said.
‘I know,’ Lily said.
Both Dylans blinked.
‘Really?’ Lily said. ‘You want me to be modest? You want me to lie?’
She waved a hand at Juliet-Dylan. ‘Did you even try?’
‘Murray, should we cut?’ Carrie said in my earpiece. ‘If Lily goads Dylan G too much…’
My job. That was what I was supposed to do. My fuckingjob.
I forced my brain into gear. If Lily sank her teeth in too deeply, Juliet-Dylan might crack. Having a rivalry behind the closed doors of the Villa was one thing, but a full-scale fight in front of Romeo-Dylan would be very difficult to walk back.
Which Lily knew.
She’d been opposed to the Double Dylan endgame since she’d worked out I rigged the season. If she wanted to, she could completely sabotage them here. She could destroy everything I’d built, make telling a romance story about them utterly impossible.
That was not something Lily Ong would do. My partner would not cut me off at the knees like that.
But the woman who didn’t want to be Lily Ong anymore might.
A fireball,I remembered her saying on that first night, stroking a finger along Romeo-Dylan’s jaw,can burn it all down.
‘I’m not doing this high school mean girl thing with you, Lily,’ Juliet-Dylan was saying evenly. ‘I didn’t come here to spend my night arguing about who’s prettier.’
‘And it’s not a competition,’ Romeo-Dylan said, holding up his hands placatingly.
Lily burst out laughing. ‘It’s not a competition?Oh, darling, did you even read the rules when you signed your contract?’
‘Murray?’ Carrie said again in my earpiece.
Lily flicked her fingers at me – a small movement, one that the camera wouldn’t pick up – but I understood it immediately.I’ve got this.
I hesitated.
She flicked her fingers again.Trust me.
‘Don’t cut,’ I told Carrie. ‘Not yet.’
‘If this is a competition, that makes me the prize, and I don’t like to think about it like that,’ Romeo-Dylan was explaining gently. ‘Just because I choose someone doesn’t make them automatically better than everyone else. It just means that we have a connection.’
Lily rolled her eyes. ‘You keep telling yourself that, Prince Charming.’
Juliet-Dylan took a step between them. ‘Back off, Lily.’
