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I’d had time to clean up in the bathroom before buckling back up for landing and then we hurtled back into the craziness. Being hustled through the airport by our UK bodyguards while crowds were barely held at bay—it made everything that had happened on the plane feel even more surreal, more impossible.
Surely I hadn’t just been de-virginized at 35,000 feet? By the sexiest men on the planet? God, it all but took my breath away to remember it. The hands caressing my body. The fury that Leander had taken me with, claiming me like I was some kind of salvation—
What was crazier? It had sort of… worked. I mean, Leander was like a different man as soon as we stepped off the plane.
The moodiness had disappeared. And right now? It wasn’t Janus pretending to be Leander that Graham Norton was out there interviewing. Nope, it was Leander himself, along with Lena and some other British actor that I didn’t recognize. And Leander was killing it. The crowd was eating out of the palm of his hand. He’d just told some joke about on-set hijinks that had the crowd laughing their asses off.
Janus and I were watching from the green room. They really did have everything you could want in these places—a fully stocked mini-bar and craft services trays of little sandwiches. We’d filled little plates and grabbed sodas when we’d all first come in, hanging out together before an assistant had come for Leander.
Milo went with them to stand by on set and make sure Leander had everything he might need.
…which left me all alone with Janus.
I thought he should sit in the audience, but he’d waved me away and said he wanted the night off if he could get it. I thought I understood, since Leander going on as himself was a rare-enough occasion.
Janus was different on his own than I thought he’d be, though. The buoyant, gregarious guy I usually knew was absent. He was pensive. Pacing, even, while he watched his brother.
“You okay?” I asked. “He’s doing fine. Great, even.”
Janus gave a quick, half-shake of his head. “It’s not that.”
But before I could ask what it was, he’d grabbed the remote and was turning up the volume. I reached for my soda and took a sip.
Just in time to see Lena put a hand on Leander’s thigh as she leaned over him to whisper to Graham Norton, “Fine, we’ll tell you, but just you. Yes, we are back together.”
“The fuck?” Janus exploded right as I spit out the bit of lime soda I’d just sipped through the straw. I frantically swiped at the front of my shirt as Janus turned the volume up even higher.
“And now is the part where you deny it, fucker,” Janus said to the TV, glaring at Leander.
The camera focused in on Leander’s face for a closeup, Graham and everyone in the studio audience waiting for his reply. Along with Janus and me.
But Lena continued before he had a chance, and the cameras quickly panned back to her, “We’ve been back together for awhile now, but the paparazzi can be monstrous. Well, I don’t have to tell you British folks about that.” She furrowed her eyebrows sorrowfully and Graham did the same, putting a hand to his heart.
Then her expression changed, brightening to a beauty pageant grin as she forcibly clasped Leander’s hand in hers and posed for the cameras. “But we’re choosing to trust in the good of humanity. And frankly,” she laughed, “we just can’t keep it a secret anymore.”
Graham Norton’s eyebrows went up. “Oh? Is there another big announcement coming then?”
Leander’s face was impassive, completely unreadable as he looked intensely down at Lena. He also didn’t say anything to negate her big news. She just giggled and was clutching his whole arm now.
“Oh hush, no, don’t be starting rumors now.” She laughed some more, that annoying high-pitched laugh that made me want to gouge her eyes out just that little bit more than I already did, and that was saying a lot. “We’re just announcing we’re a couple, that’s all. For now, anyway.” More eye-gouge inducing giggling.
Then she turned her head towards Leander and went in for a perfect movie kiss.
I grabbed the remote from Janus and turned the TV off, then spun away from the set where it was hung on the wall.
“That wasn’t what it looked like,” Janus said, immediately jumping to his brother’s defense in a way that pissed me off for some reason. “You know Lena’s a scheming little bitch. You could tell she ambushed Leander—”
I didn’t care. I was furious. So like the goddamned little brat that I apparently was, I took three quick steps forward, threw my arms around Janus’s neck, and kissed him.
18
BRATS GET WHAT BRATS DESERVE
Janus’s lips were hard against mine, and he immediately snatched my arms from around him. He hauled me backwards into the open space of the room, between the couches.
