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Like I’d believe he’d take the time to communicate with her. Or that the antisocial shit would ever claim that anyone was his friend. Andof coursehe and I had told our PR people to brush off the rumors and play it off as if we were pals. We couldn’t exactly tell the world about our arrangement, could we? But I supposed I couldn’t blame her for believing the ‘they’re friends’ claims—she wasn’t a member of The Vault.
“Camila,” drawled the blond beside her, his eyes going wide.
Both bodyguards tensed, and each sidled closer to the woman they were assigned to protect.
Camila sneered at me. “I suppose you thought that being the infamous Inaya Rose would make him want more. How sad. I warned you that he was only using you to hurt me—nothing more. You wouldn’t listen.”
I looked at her PA. “Is she always like this?”
“Don’t you speak around me.” She shoved at her bodyguard when he tried planting himself in front of her. “I have a few things to say to you.”
That much was obvious. I slid my sunglasses up to rest on my head and gave her a bored look. “I cannot begin to tell you just how uninterested I am in hearing anything you have to say. You’re no one to me.”
“But I’m someone to Kaiser,” she said, that smug smirk kicking up a notch. “Someone important.”
A snicker popped out of me. Important? “Hmm, would we really say that? Really?”
“Yes, we would. He loves me. He won’t acknowledge it right now because he’s still hurting, but that will change in time.”
“If you say so.”
“Idosay so. Because it’s a fact.”
“I honestly don’t believe you deal in facts, but I really don’t care either way.”
She perched a hand on her hip. “You’re simply bitter because your attempt to reel him in didn’t work out.”
“The only person in this elevator feeling bitter is you,” I said. “And you know what? I can understand why it would bite that you lost him. He’s a great guy. Easy to fall for, just like you once pointed out. But I don’t believe you love him. You wouldn’t have done what you did if he truly meant anything to you.”
“You don’t have the first clue what went down between him and me.”
“Oh, I do. I know everything. And my opinion is that you fell for his music first. You built him up in your head to be your idea of the perfect partner. You decided you wanted a taste of his fame; wanted to share in his spotlight. So you sought him out. But then you came to see that he wasn’t the person you’d expected.”
Camila’s eyes flickered.
“You probably thought that you could mold him into who you wanted him to be. Or maybe you just didn’t care so long as you could have the other things you wanted from him.”
“You’rewayoff base. You know nothing.”
“I could be wrong,” I allowed. “But I don’t believe I am. Because if I was in your position, if I’d messed things up with Kaiser the way you did, the last thing I’d do is bitch at the person who makes him smile and laugh and come really, really hard.”
“Fucking whore.” She tried launching herself at me, but her bodyguard held her back while my own slid in front of me.
Leaning around Adrian to meet her gaze, I continued, “Yeah, the ‘friends’ claim wasn’t a lie. Our PR people left out the words ‘with benefits.’” The elevator came to a smooth stop. “And if you really begrudge him any level of happiness, you don’t love him. Never did.” Apingsounded, and the metal doors parted.
Camila’s companions ushered her out of the elevator, ignoring her protests. She began ranting at me again, hurling all sorts of juvenile threats.
When the doors glided closed once more, I exhaled heavily.
Adrian turned to me, his brow creased. “You all right?”
“It would take way more than a bratty display like that to shake me up.”
“Physically, yes. But emotionally? I don’t know.”
“You mean because of the stuff she said about Kaiser using me?”
“It couldn’t have been easy to hear.”
