The Billionaire's Kiss(91)

“How do I know you’re not bluffing?”

Veronica pursed her lips and batted her eyelashes. “Logan, I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she said, channeling her inner Callie as sweetly as possible and holding back her laugh until the last word. “You think you’re in love with her, don’t you?”

Logan closed his eyes for a second. He didn’t want to look at the venomous glee in Veronica’s eyes, and he didn’t want to turn around and look at Callie’s happiness behind him. He just wanted to find some way to fix things. “If I do this, will you leave her alone?” he asked.

“That’s more like it,” Veronica said, turning and smiling toward Callie. She waved to her. “My advice: enjoy the next few days together. It was never going to last between you two anyway. You and me, we are what we are. Even if you think you’re going to be all noble and save her, it doesn’t change the facts. Sooner or later, you’re going to break her heart, and I might as well be the beneficiary.”

“Get out of here, now,” Logan said.

“Don’t worry, lover,” Veronica said sarcastically, “I’ll be in touch soon. We’ll see if my news is good or bad.”





***

“So Callie tells us that you’re the wonderful young man responsible for our vacation here in Newport,” Henry said holding his hand out to Logan.

“It’s nothing,” Logan said. He quickly shook Henry’s hand. He shifted his weight back and forth and looked down at the ground, avoiding eye contact with the old couple. Wonderful. He had spent the past week lying to Callie. He had threatened to end the political career of one of his closest friends. He had gotten in a shouting match with his father, and these two wanted to call him wonderful? He was anything but wonderful. He was bad. He was lowly, and he was worse than he had ever been. Just two days ago, he had almost gotten Callie arrested, and now this old couple, who really did seem like wonderful people themselves, wanted to praise him just because he was rich and wanted to win a bet with a pretty girl?” Logan felt sick to his stomach. His run-in with Veronica had convinced him that he had no way to make things work. The past was past, and now he needed to face the truth. “I’m just glad that the two of you were able to enjoy your time in Newport as much as I’ve enjoyed having Callie here.”

Callie slipped her arm around her waist and pressed her cheek against his shoulder. Don’t do that, Logan wanted to say. He didn’t want to feel her comfort. He didn’t want her to tell him that he was good at heart, and that all he needed was to believe in himself. It was bullshit, all of it. All of this was spinning out of control because of him. The bill was going to become a law in a matter of hours, and Callie was going to either leave him or ruin any chance she had at building a career and a life for herself. Logan just wanted to go home and forget about all of this. As soon as the bill passed, Veronica would pounce into action and release the sex tape. God, he had a sex tape and these people wanted to shake his hand. If they only knew what he was really like, they’d turn and flee.

“Logan, is everything ok?” Callie asked.

“Yeah, it’s good. I just wasn’t expecting to run into Nikki. That’s all.” He studied the expression on Callie’s face. Did she believe him? Maybe it would be better if she didn’t. A dull pain throbbed behind his eyes. This was supposed to be a good day, the day where he gave her everything she wanted. Instead, his past was butting in at every turn. “Maybe we should go,” he said. He looked over at the far sideline to see which, if any, photographers had focused in on him. Nikki was famous for picking favorites among the paparazzi and getting them to do her dirty work for her.

Logan tried to piece everything together. A few photos of Logan and Veronica, paired with the tape, would be enough to get everything started, and if Veronica wanted to keep things going, a few photos of Logan and Callie would only help fuel the fire. “Maybe we should go,” he repeated. He turned to Henry. “Would you mind coming with me?” he asked. “I need to check on something back at the car. You wouldn’t happen to like vintage convertibles, would you?”

“I’ve liked them since they were new,” Henry said with a smile. “Although, I never had much of an opportunity to see them up close. We were a station wagon kind of family. A little two-seater wasn’t exactly in the cards for us.”

“If you excuse us, Ladies, we’ll be right back,” Logan said. He and Henry cut through the crowd and started heading to the car. Logan looked back and forth across the crowd, looking for anyone who might be in league with Veronica. Once he got back past the concession tent and over to the stone wall that separated the spectator area from the dirt road down to the field where he had parked, Logan found what he was looking for. Two men, cameras in hand, were camped out next to his car. So that was her plan, a paparazzi ambush as he and Callie left?