Page 172 of By His Vow

Images that I didn’t consent to.

Images that?—

A bitter laugh full of disbelief spills from my lips as I stare at a photo of me sitting on the railing, the two of us making out like teenagers.

Maybe it was stupid to think that we’d shared something over the past two days. Maybe I was a naive little girl, thinking that our fake arrangement was turning into something.

As I stare at the image, a single tear runs down my cheek.

I was wrong.

Everything about this is nothing but a business deal.

Fuck. I’m so fucking stupid.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I let him sweep me away in all of this.

I let him play me.

“Fuck,” I groan, slumping back in my chair as if all the wind has been knocked out of me.

“Tatum, talk to me. Didn’t you know about this?”

“Does it look like I knew about this? I’m molesting him, Lor.”

“Not exactly. You’re both fully clothed. It’s sweet.”

“It’s fake. All of it is fak—” A knock on my office door cuts my words off before Josh pokes his head in with my coffee in his hand.

Lifting my hand, I wipe the tear trail from my cheek and try to pull myself together.

“I don’t think that’s?—”

“Thank you, Josh. Could you let the others know that we’ll meet in thirty? I had a few ideas over the weekend that I’d like to discuss in regard to the campaign.”

“O-of course,” he stutters, his eyes bouncing between mine, my computer screen and the wall behind me. “See you soon,” he says before backing out of the room.

“So he’s still hot for you then,” Lori deadpans once she’s confident the door has closed behind him.

“Focus, Lor. Josh isn’t an issue here.”

“Is there even an issue here? Didn’t you sign up for this?”

“I thought he was going to do it Friday night at the gala. He didn’t and instead, he swept me away for a romantic weekend in the woods.

“It was so perfect, Lor. Everything about that place, about him?—”

“Uh oh,” she says, hearing what I’m not saying. “You’re falling for him, aren’t you?”

“What?” I shriek, trying to sound offended by the mere suggestion. “No. Of course I’m not. I can’t stand him.”

“But you just said?—”

“I didn’t know that it was photographed, Lor. I didn’t know that photos of me were going to end up all over the internet without my permission. That’s not right.”

“Maybe not, but it’s not something you can really stop when you’re publicly dating a man like King?—”

“If we were in Chicago, yeah, I’d let you have that. But we were in the middle of fucking nowhere, Lor. No photographers followed us there. If they did, there would be photos of what we did during the day. He did this.”