A sharp pain cut through his chest, his heart aching, his pulse thrumming. These words had eviscerated him. This article was going to undo all the work he, Dominic and Erin had done to win him a seat. The woman he loved would be the reason his career ended, and he could feel from the tone of the writing that that was exactly what she had wanted.
‘Was this revenge for me accidentally getting you fired?’
‘What? No? I’d like to think I’m more professional than that,’ Katherine said defensively. ‘I—I didn’t know you like I do now. I told Jennifer we couldn’t run it because it wasn’t the truth anymore.’
Lukas laughed at that. Heat radiated from his eyes. His teeth ground together but he laughed. ‘It was never the truth.’
He looked at her and she shrunk away from whatever she saw on his face, but then he witnessed her screw up her courage and approach him.
‘Please, Lukas, please understand things were different when I wrote that.’ She knelt at his feet and took his hands in hers. All he wanted to do was shove her away but he couldn’t because even though he was furious and hurt, he always,alwayswanted more of her. It was infuriating. ‘It was before you showed me who you are. Jennifer blackmailed me with this article in that meeting at Aero. If I didn’t agree to fake a relationship with you, she was going to release the article. I couldn’t let that happen. I told her I’d write something else. I thought you could have a say in it. I tried to fix this before it got out. I tried to make sure you weren’t hurt.’
And then Lukas did push her away. He got to his feet, marching angrily away from her. Looking around wildly for some way to calm down but there was no use because Katherine was lying.
‘That’s bullshit and you know it,’ he spat. ‘You had several opportunities to come clean with this. In Lapland when you knew it would run, you had your phone and your laptop but stayed quiet. All the time here, even though you asked for the article to be killed you could have confessed and been open with me. You hid it and still you’ve made no apology.’
‘Lukas, I’m—’
‘Don’t fucking say it now, Katherine. Just don’t.’ He gripped his hair tightly in his hands, the pain a welcome distraction. He felt stupid for ever trusting her. For falling so hard for her. ‘The woman who wrote this would have no problem coming into my life under false pretences. I think this person—’ he said, pointing at the phone ‘—would have cooked up a scheme with Robert and Courteney just to get those extra clicks.’
‘That’s not true.’ She tried to cross the room to him but he wanted none of it.
‘I should have seen it from the start. You only got close to me for a story.’
Katherine didn’t stop the tears then. ‘I would never do that!’
Lukas had enough. He went to Katherine and wiped the tears from her eyes. For all he knew, she was faking them. ‘And to think that it was my good word that got you this job at Aero.’ Her eyes widened, jaw slackened at his words, and he took pleasure in her shock. ‘I told them it wouldn’t hurt to have a beautiful woman who knows the sport on the presenter team. I said the drivers wouldn’t mind talking to you.’
‘You hated me.’
Lukas dropped his hand to his side. ‘Leave.’
‘You hated me!’ Katherine cried, near hysterical.
‘I didn’t at first,’ he said softly. A finality to his tone as he took a step back. ‘Leave.’
‘I don’t want to,’ Katherine said, her voice broken. ‘Christmas is days away, I don’t want to leave you.’
‘Get out, Katherine.’
‘Lukas, please. Maybe take some time to calm down and then we can talk.’
‘I said get out!’ he yelled. They stood there, staring at each other until she dropped her gaze and walked out of his bedroom.
He wanted no one in his home. Least of all this person who could be so utterly hateful towards him, even while he loved her. Never again. He was done with the media and done with love.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Katherine pulled upto a cream, three-bedroom semi-detached house in St Albans. A house she visited as frequently as was possible. A house that she’d grown up in, dreaming about a big career in London. She had no idea if her parents were home but as soon as she got off the plane from Nice—having spent the night at the airport waiting for the first flight out that morning—barely able to keep herself together, this was the only place she wanted to go.
She couldn’t get Lukas’s revelation out of her head. She blamed him all this time for almost destroying her career and maybe he did, but he was also the reason she was successful now. That she had a better role at Aero than at VelociTV. And she had used that opportunity only afforded to her because of Lukas to try to convince the world to hate him. To see the worst in him.
Her eyes misted up again, so she switched off her Mercedes and walked up to the door. Unable to hear any voices inside, she pulled out her spare key and let herself in.
‘Mum? Dad?’ she called, but there was no immediate answer. All the willpower she had to not fall apart ebbed away. The dam walls were fracturing and out spouted jets of anguish. She could feel her face crumble but she tried so hard to breathe through the pain of losing Lukas. A man she would have had to say goodbye to anyway but when he was kicking her out, she’d realised she didn’t want to leave. She never wanted to say goodbye to him.
She turned to leave. ‘This was a mistake.’
‘Kittykat? I thought I heard your voice.’
