Chapter 7: Not in the Terms

I untangled my legs from Kieran's waist and set my feet on the wet pavement.

My knees did not agree with me about it.

Kieran straightened his jacket, breathing hard, and turned toward the curb.

Max did not move.

"Kieran," he said pleasantly. "Your car is on Union. The valet will be annoyed."

Kieran looked at him for a long moment.

Then he looked at me, and what was in his face was not triumph.

It was something worse, a kind of terrified hope.

"El," he said. "Call me."

"No," I said.

He nodded once, as if that were an answer he could work with, and walked out of the alley past Max without another word.

Max held out my coat.

I put it on, and my hands shook on the buttons.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Get in the car."

He did not speak until we were on the highway, with the city sliding by in wet gold.

"It isn't jealousy," he said finally. "I want to be clear. I don't want you."

"That's clear."

"But our contract said no scandal."

"It's not a scandal. It's a kiss."

"It's a kiss," Max said, "that a bartender took a photograph of through the service door and sold to a gossip site ten minutes ago."

He held up his phone.

The photograph was dark and grainy and entirely legible.

My legs were around Kieran's waist.

The headline said, "Saxon's Ex Caught With Saxon While Engaged to Thorpe."

I put my head in my hands.

"I can fix this," I said.

"You can't. The chairman reads gossip sites. He has a staff for it."

"Then I'll call him."

"He just called me."

Max's mouth twisted.

"He wants the engagement party this Saturday, not next month."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Remarried After I Secretly Divorced the CEO from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.