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“Grey Richards’s office. May I help you?”
Her heart jumped at his name. “Louisa, I need Grey.”
“Toni.” Louisa’s abrupt, startled pause lasted only a second.“He’s on the line with some PR person.”
“Did you read it?”
“Yes. I—” Louis paused, and Toni became aware of a perturbing silence behind her friend. As though the office were dead. As though everyone had stopped in their tasks in order to overhear this particular phone call. “I’m so sorry,Toni,” Louisa finally whispered.
“They turned me into a . . .” Whore.
She couldn’t say it. While she had been experiencing her first Mexican party, having a wonderful time, with her two men watching her like the most adorable bodyguards on the planet, these people had taken it and turned it into something horrible. They’d turned her life into something horrible. Her men. Her loves!
“Oh! Hang on. I’ve got Grey. He’s asking for you.”
She wasn’t left waiting. His voice immediately poured over her; a salve for her wounds, a blanket for her quaking, breaking heart.
“Toni.”
She had an insane urge to apologize, say, I’m sorry, Grey! I’m so sorry! But really, why? To whom was she apologizing, and for what? Apologize to the world for something three consenting adults did?
“You’ve seen,” he said with such quietude, she ached.
“Yes.”
Their pause was dense with repressed words.
His sigh clenched around her stomach, crowding her with even more cutthroat pain.“Are you all right? Is anyone out there hounding you?”
That was all he could think of. If she was all right. She had ruined his life. Something was wrong with her.And all he wanted was to know she was all right.
“I’m all right.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“I’m fine, Grey.” She spared a preoccupied glance at the front door, eyeing it as though she could see directly through the slab of wood. “Nobody’s here. Don’t worry about me. I’m a big girl.” And if I see someone, I’ll break their cameras in two! “I’m worried about you, Grey.”
“I want to hold you in my arms.”
The longing his words evoked was so great, her limbs trembled. “I want to be held.”
“I’m sorry,Toni. I should have protected you, I should have—”
“Don’t be! If anyone should be sorry it’s me. Your public image—”
“Don’t.”
“This would never have happened if I hadn’t—”
“Baby, don’t. Don’t do this.”
She twirled the phone cord with one twittering finger, inhaling one breath at a time. One short, unfulfilling breath at a time.“Grey, I don’t want them to make us regret it.We had amazing moments, and if we let them take that from us, we’re so screwed.”
His chair creaked, and she pictured him leaning back in that massive thing, rubbing his hair, frowning as he thought.“Your mom and dad?”
“Want us over for dinner.Which, of course, I will refuse until . . . I don’t know.Your dad?”
“For the first time in my life, I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself.”
