Page 23 of Rise

“They will find out. My manager is going to release it so we can control the information. As much as we will be able to, anyway.”

Megan felt as though she were throwing her stomach down a very dark hole. “That’s a hell of a way to think of it,” she said, hoping she put some amusement in her voice. She didn’t blame Alessandro for her name getting out there, but he didn’t know her family.

“Your family is going to be upset,” he said. Oh, now he could read her mind?

“They always find something to be upset about,” she said. She put her hand on her belly. “Last year, it was Thea, then Sam. It’s my turn.”

“Still. This was my fault. I should not have… asked you to come to the Studio.”

“I enjoyed going to the Studio.” And being out on that ice-cold sidewalk, being taken care of, for one second, by Alessandro.

“The press release will not give any information other than your name,” he said.

“But they’ll only have to google me for a second before they find Kane.”

“Yes.”

Megan’s lips twisted. “I’d better call him now.”

“Please tell him I apologize.”

“Sure.” Looking at that picture, Megan doubted Kane would feel charitable toward the man holding his little sister’s hand like she was his girlfriend.

Girlfriend.“Oh no!” she yelped. She stood, almost falling over the bedsheets in her agitation. “Nicola! She must think—” God! That picture! “Alessandro, I’m so—”

“Nikki is not my girlfriend,” he interrupted. “She never was.”

“Oh.” How manyohs did that make now?

“She was, at first,” he corrected himself. “But for a long time now, we have been friends. We kept up the romance for the cameras.”

“Oh.” Dammit, there she went again.

He isn’t dating Nicola Kulik!So when he’d looked at her like that last night and briefly yesterday morning, she didn’t have to feel guilty about it.

He. Isn’t. Dating. Nicola. Kulik.

“The press release is also going to announce that we broke up after the Perfection fight.”

“God.” She quickly looked up a picture of Nikki. “I’d be mad, though, if I were her. If—”If my pretend boyfriend was looking at someone else the way he’s looking at me.

Why had he looked at her like that? She hadn’t imagined it. Was it just a man’s wish to seduce? Megan knew she had a lot to thank her genes for.

But he wasn’t acting as though he’d only wanted to seduce her. In any case, she was too chicken to ask him outright.

“She was… surprised. But it is okay.”

“Are you sure?” Megan didn’t want a temperamental artist like Nicola Kulik, or her fans, coming after her.

“I am sure.” He paused.

“I knew it,” she said. “It is not okay!”

“No.” He laughed. Megan loved that sound. He made her laugh, too, even though she was imagining hordes of teenage Nicola fans knocking down the security guard downstairs. “Megan, I promise that Nikki is fine. Maybe one day you can meet her and find out for yourself.”

The silence that fell seemed to darken the room even more than the predawn gloom outside.

“I forgot,” he said.

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