“Hey! Mrs. Wilde, can I ask you some questions? Is this your apartment building? Are you going to be moving into Wilde Tower with Severn?”
I looked at Phone Dude like he was crazy, holding up my hand to try to block the phone. “Um, I think you’re confused.”
The guy lowered his phone and grinned at me. “Come on, it took me forever to track you down. Give me a five-minute interview, and I’ll make sure the rest of the paparazzi stay off your trail. What’s your name? Or should we keep calling you mystery woman?”
“I think you have the wrong person.”
“Nice try. If you wanted to keep the wedding secret, you shouldn’t have gotten married in Central Park! At least three people filmed it!”
It slowly dawned on me what had happened. Phone Dude was a paparazzo. Even though Kell had taken the phone from the one guy recording our mock wedding on the picnic, there must have been other onlookers recording it, too. And they’d thought it wasreal!Severn and I…married! I wasn’t sure if I should burst out laughing or fall over and die of embarrassment.
“Youreallyhave that wrong,” I said, glancing over my shoulder, looking for a way to get out of this conversation. “We were just playing a game with Severn’s wards. I’m their nanny. It was just pretend.”
He smirked. “Mystery Woman, I saw the video. That kiss wasnotpretend.”
I felt sure my cheeks were burning brightly red. He started filming me again, and I took a step back, feeling like an animal caught in a trap. “Leave me alone,” I said and started striding down the street at practically a jog.
The paparazzo called after me, “What’s your name? Never mind, I’ll find out soon enough! It’s going to be all over the news by this afternoon!”
I practically ran back to Wilde Tower, trying to keep my face low and curtained by my hair, glancing suspiciously at every passerby. A newsstand displayed newspapers and magazines, and I stopped just long enough to scan them quickly, but my face wasn’t on any of them. No stories about a secret elopement between billionaire Severn Wilde and his nanny. I started to relax, telling myself that the one hipster reporter was probably a lone wolf. No one would be gullible enough to believe that Severn and I wereactuallymarried. It had clearly been pretend; no minister, no wedding dress, no guests other than two kids. Anyone could see it wasn’treal.
But as soon as I ran up to Wilde Tower, I slowed. A crowd had gathered. The security guards were holding them back, already stretching out velvet ropes from inside the lobby to contain the crowd. Two police cars were there, lights off, to try to control the crowd, too.
“There she is!” A teenage girl in the crowd thrust a finger at me, jumping up and down excitedly.
I froze. I was like a deer in headlights, totally unprepared for this. Thankfully, I was saved by one of the security guards, who grabbed my hand and pulled me into the building before the crowd could snap too many pictures. Once we were through the turnstile, he raised his intercom.
“I have her, Severn.” He listened for a response and then said, “Right.”
My mind was reeling. I’d just been helping my friend stuff her cat into a carrier, dressed in jean shorts and a cheap tank top, and now a swarm of people was trying to get pictures of me.
“Miss O’Dell,” the security officer said, ushering me toward the rear of the lobby, “You can go out the back. Mr. Wilde is already waiting for you.”
Curious fae in the lobby were watching me with amused looks.Theycertainly knew the wedding at the picnic was fake. As if I wasn’t already looked down upon enough, now I was the silly human who was in the news for the most entertaining misunderstanding.
The security guard led me through some dark corridors I’d never been to, which opened to an underground garage. A black car waited there with the engine running. My thoughts caught up to me, and I started to panic. What wasSeverngoing to think about this? I doubted he’d be amused. More likefurious.
But when the guard opened the car door for me, it wasn’t Severn waiting inside. Locke Wilde smirked at me, patting the seat next to him.
“Such a lot of trouble caused by a little human. Get in. My brother wants me tohandleyou.”
I got into the car with Locke, and the driver took us out of the tower and into the city. I’d never been more thankful for tinted windows.
I whirled on Locke. “I had no idea about any of this. I swear. It wasn’t in the newspapers or anything.”
“Not yet. Newspapers are always half a day behind. Didn’t you check online news?”
I fished my phone out of my pocket and opened my news app. Almost every article was about Severn Wilde’s elopement. There were photographs of us, and to my horror, itdidlook shockingly like a real wedding. Kell, in his black suit, hovering close to Severn, could easily be mistaken for a minister. And my light pink dress looked washed out in the bright sun, nearly white. I scrolled through articles frantically, reading the speculation. Everyone wanted to know who I was. A few articles identified me as the nanny, but that only seemed to playmoreinto the marriage story. A fling with the nanny turned into something more. Then I scrolled to a picture of us kissing and blanched. We looked like two people who couldn’t get our hands off one another.Thatpart was harder to explain away.
I groaned and fell back against the seat. “Severn can clear this up, can’t he?”
“We’ve issued correction notices.”
“No, I mean, can’t he cast a spell to make everyone forget about it or something?”
Locke’s sensuous mouth quirked. “You really have no idea how magic works, do you? To influence people, you have to seal the spell with a kiss. He can hardly kiss everyone in the city.”
I slumped down, burying my face in my hands. “This is humiliating. I swear, I had no idea we were being filmed or that people would misunderstand. It was just a game.”
