Page 126 of Pucking the Team
“Pippa, is it true you called off an engagement to Steven Paya?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, and a wave of giddiness came over me. How had we ended up in this situation?
Eduardo shielded me with his big body and his embrace.
The reporters were all around us now, microphones jutting forward with eager, hungry faces behind them. I could feel their body heat, the press of their curiosity.
“Fuck off out of here,” Eduardo snapped.
They ignored him.
“A photograph of you with Ben Evans has emerged, taken in a hotel in Cardiff. What do you say to that, Pippa?” A man’s voice. “Are you seeing both Evans brothers? And why were you in a wedding dress?”
I turned my head away, burying it in Eduardo’s neck. Couldn’t they see that having my private life dissected was worse than stripping me naked?
“How many Vipers players are you involved with?”
“Is it true you spent a night with Dylan Sanders?”
My head jerked up at that one.
A woman had asked the question. She was tall and blonde and with bright-red lips. She was staring straight at me, and there was a sting of venom in her eyes.
“Was he as kinky with you?”
The elevator door opened.
“Get in.” Eduardo ushered me forward, bumping several reporters out of the way with his shoulders.
My heart was pounding, and my legs barely felt like my own.
Eduardo hit the button for our floor.
Microphones were being aimed at us and questions being fired.
A male reporter, tall and with a dark-brown beard, stepped into the elevator, camera phone held out.
“Get the fuck away from me,” Eduardo rounded on him. “Get out, now.”
“I just want to—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you want, get out or I’ll make you.”
The guy didn’t move.
Eduardo shoved him center chest, just one push sending him back into the crowd and creating a domino effect as the elevator doors closed.
“What the hell?” My ears were ringing. “How did they…?”
“Know we were here?” He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. “We should probably have been more discreet when we arrived.” He kissed my head. “I’m sorry, I know how important your privacy is to you.”
“But…but who was that woman? The one who asked me about Dylan? I’ve never been seen out with him, and she said about him being kinky? And she looked…mean.”
“Maybe she’s one of his past rink bunnies.”
I balled my fist on my stomach and forced down a wave of nausea. “This is awful.”
“It will be okay, I promise.”
