Page 197 of Pure Recklessness

‘I fucking knew it!’ Heath barked. ‘You lied to me. I knew that red handbag was hers! It was in your office that time and I saw her with it on the rooftop bar last Friday. What the hell are you playing at? Did you not learn your lesson from dating this witch? How could you be so stupid!?’

‘Not here,’ Seb warned as a crowd started to form around us. ‘Let’s go somewhere else.’

‘You fucking idiot!’ Heath threw a punch at me, but luckily I managed to duck before it made contact.

‘Leave him alone!’ Ellie surged forward, standing in front of me and holding her arms out protectively.

The DJ cut the music and more guests rushed over to see what all of the commotion was.

‘What’s going on?’ A journalist appeared hoisting her phone forward to record the response.

‘Sated’s CEO, Blake Devlin has been caught screwing junior employee, Eleanor Lewis.’ Pandora flashed her evil grin. ‘An act that’s in direct violation of the company’s policy that forbids those in a position of power to date their subordinates. A rule that he introduced.’

Panic swept through me.

Telling my brothers was one thing.

But now she’d just announced it to hundreds of journalists and influencers.

This was beyond catastrophic.

‘Oh my goodness!’ The journalist gasped.

Suddenly a barrage of camera flashes went off, as everyone started snapping photos and barking questions.

‘Is this true, Blake?’

‘Do you really have a non-fraternisation policy? And if that’s the case, isn’t it hypocritical for you to do the very thing that you forbade?’

‘How long has this been going on?’

My mind raced.

My throat went dry.

I didn’t know what the fuck to do.

A photographer pushed his camera in front of Ellie and I lost it.

‘Get your fucking camera out of her face!’ I barked, snatching it out of his hand and throwing it to the ground where it landed with a thud before smashing into pieces. ‘No one takes pictures of my lady without her permission.’

They could say whatever the fuck they wanted about me, but they needed to leave Ellie alone.

I wasn’t going to allow them to splash photos of her in the papers, over the internet or God knows where and try to tarnish her name.

Not on my watch.

‘Blake!’ Oscar held me back. ‘You need to get out of here!’

‘Ellie, come with me.’ Seb led her in the opposite direction as Calista sprinted over.

‘Don’t say a word!’ she whispered in my ear as she steered me away.

Oscar rushed ahead to clear a path, pushing through the sea of people who were all staring on with shocked expressions, whispering and pointing at me.

When I saw my parents shaking their heads, my heart cracked.

Shit.