THE BOYFRIEND BY SCANDAL

d that morning to say his attendance was "expected" - a word he didn't use for anything less than a cri

ith CEOs, studio heads, and actors trailing entourages lik

he want badly enou

d to it were her brothers, Ilya and Maxim, photographed at hotel openings since they were in their twenties, the pub

e felt. "You're in the country?" She slid up beside him,

go." He didn't smile ba

here." She studied h

a's jaw was tight. "Just 'be th

d low in her stomach.

kno

life," Zoya said quietly. "What if tonight's the night he decide

ors, where a line of security stood too still, too al

t his sleeve. "Is

hours' notice, what do you think he did

u don'

lready moving. "

om full of powerful men, because everyone around him stood carefull

nd their father actually took, warm in the sp

n to her father, then away - too well-mannered to stare. Somewhere near the terrace doors, a whisper passed bet

in the generic, expensive way of men who'd never had to develop a personality

o the face, and another second after that to remember exactly why the name made something in her chest si

s worn smooth from repetition. "I told

e didn't move. "I'm asking you to be civil, for once,

ot hurt exactly, more like the mild irritation of a man unused to being someone's inc

would be its own headline. "I a

felt it. A hot, sick lurch behind her sternum, the unmistakable sensation of having

which told her he didn't

es

ever ment

l you everyt

en I'd like

t here t

e without calling it one. "If he's real, Zoya, I expect to meet him

cross the ballroom the way they moved across a set about to fall ap

en she saw

ng toward an older man in a dark suit she vaguely placed

er father's eyes followed, exactly the effect she needed, and pr

ing his CEO, expecting someone he knew. He was not

d enough to carry. "

n confusion crossing features that had probably n

rned back to her father. "Papa. This is m

iliar voice cut through it.

ainment sites. Marisol Vane, Thayer's co-star from the drama they'd wrappe

told everyone a month ago you weren't seeing anyone." Marisol's voice carried, not out of mal

es at all. Zoya recognized the discreet press badges clipped to their evening bags a beat too late, the specific, invited kind of report

Just the exact right people, in the exact r

ling, but interest. The exact expression he wore when a deal shifted in a

e her, Thayer went very still. She made herse

slid over his face, she saw exactly what he was thinking,

instead of killing it, that the two reporters near the terrace doors had already gotten exactly what they came for, and no amount of correctin

ust enough, dropped low and easy, like a private joke between two

'd committed some small, familiar offense. "You couldn't have

with the unhurried confidence of a man completely at ease in a room he had, until ni