Stop being ridiculous. Why would he stay in a suit after his day was over?
But logic doesn’t want to be in charge. It’s already ceded the driver’s seat to emotion. I tighten my grip on my control.
“How was your day?” he says with a smile.
I search his expression, looking for any hint he is hiding something or wants to tell me what he’s done. But no. It’s just a smile.
“Tiring,” I say, giving him the same smile.
He makes a small sympathetic noise. “Sorry to hear that.”
His response feels mocking. He’s the reason my day was tiring.
“How are your face and back?”
“Fine.” My response is like marble—smooth and cold. The bruise on my cheek is the least of my worries. I heal fast. You can hardly see it now. My back’s a little sore, but nothing more.
I wish I could conceal my churning emotions as easily as I can cover up the bruises.
I place my purse on the counter and get a glass of cold water. The iciness gliding down my throat pulls me out of the fatigue fog. The fluid sloshes in my empty stomach. I haven’t had dinner. Bianca brought me some soup and salad, but I couldn’t choke them down.
“There’s something I wanted to tell you, though.” Concern and bemusement twine on his handsome face.
“Okay.” Is he about to come clean about how he went behind my back to make Gabriella the face of the Sebastian Peery launch?
“I looked into who leaked photos from the party toThe Hollywood News.”
Shock slaps me. “That wasn’t necessary,” I say sharply. “They always do what they want, and going after them only comes back to haunt me.”
His stunned expression says I’m being unreasonable more eloquently than any words. “I’mthe one who’s going after them. They won’t bug you about it,” he says. “You can’t just leave these guys alone. Not when they violate your privacy like this.”
“They’ve always violated it,” I say, fighting to keep my voice calm. There’s no point to having an impervious façade if I’m going to start shouting.
He doesn’t care about my struggle, though. “Well, in this case they couldn’t have done it without somebody feeding them the photos.”
“Any guest could’ve done that.” Gabriella could’ve done it. And now that he’s brought it up, I’m sure it was her.
He must sense my silent accusation. His face starts to turn red. “Not one of mine.”
Is he kidding?“Of course it was yours! Who else would want to leak photos making me look like a complete bitch except Gabriella?” Staying above this drama is impossible now. I want to bury my face in a pillow and scream into it to vent my frustration.
“Gabriella—? What? She has nothing to do with this.”
I raise a hand, palm out. I can’t do this right now. “Stop defending her. You’re making this worse.”
“And you stop jumping to conclusions before I can even tell you what I found.”
The pain in my head is getting worse. The nerve behind my forehead is pulsing. Am I going to pop a vein in my skull?
He continues, “It was sent through an anonymous Gmail account, and whoever did it used your home Wi-Fi.”
It takes a moment before the meaning sinks in. “My home Wi-Fi?”
“Yes. So it couldn’t have been Gabriella. Obviously. She doesn’t have the password, and she isn’t savvy enough to crack the network’s security.”
“All right. That leaves you, me, Bianca and Matthias, but Matthias was off. And there’s no way Bianca did anything like that.”
“Regardless, somebody was on the network.”
