Read Scandal (Tainted #1) for Free Online Page B

She blinked to clear the shock, then took another gulp to calm the flutters in her stomach. ‘This isn’t about fun. It’s about saving your career.’
    His heavy sigh sounded in her ear, but she didn’t think he’d give up that easily. ‘Now we’re officially a couple, we should go over your plan again and make the adjustments. Plus, you still need to get my contacts for the charity program.’
    Alicia gritted her teeth. ‘It’s late and I’m off the clock.’
    ‘Think again, Blondie. The deal with Maine makes you mine all around the clock.’
    Her mouth dropped open, but nothing came out but air.
    ‘I’m training tomorrow, but you could swing by with a protein shake at twelve. The press usually sniff around, so it’ll be good fodder. Then I was thinking we could do a proper press release, come out as a couple, you know. And –’
    ‘Sebastian, stop!’
    Her heart was beating so hard, mimicking the pounding in her skull. This wouldn’t work. She couldn’t imagine spending all that time as his girlfriend. He’d drive her to violence, or worse –into his bed. Putting the heat thrumming through her veins down to the wine, she forced herself to think of more realistic problems.
    Like the public shame she’d bring down on her father, one who was no doubt considering disowning her after one picture.
    ‘What did I say?’ he asked, his cautious tone suggesting he could sense her panic.
    ‘There has to be another way to do this.’ After all, getting ahead in her career was only going to kick her further down the social scale – not that she really cared; since she’d moved to London she’d managed to avoid that circle.
    But her family still cared.
    He took a long time to answer and she spent it playing with the stem of her empty glass. At last, he said, ‘Alicia, I’m only trying to do what’s best for us both. Maine was threatening to discipline you and my manager was about to give the contract to another company. Convincing the world we really are a couple is the only way to go, or we both lose out.’
    Gratitude was the last thing she wanted to feel, especially toward him. Especially imagining what her father would say. But Sebastian had done everything he could to keep her from a disciplinary, still winning her the contract.
    She’d just have to find a way to deal with her father.
    ‘OK, I’ll be there at noon.’
    He whispered something like, two to me, then said louder, ‘Catch you later.’
    ‘Wait,’ she said, unable to let that slide.
    ‘Shoot.’
    The cockiness in that one word loosened her tongue, or maybe it was the wine. ‘Don’t expect me to be your slave, Collins, because it’s not going to happen. Tomorrow I’m laying down the rules, and you’re going to stick to them.’
    She disconnected, unable to keep a grin off her face. He’d signed, and pulling from the contract would be harder, but she didn’t think he would anyway. He needed her help, maybe more than she needed her job, so she wasn’t going to bow down to his demands.
    The feeling of triumph only lasted until she glanced down at the blinking voicemail message on the screen of her phone. She wanted to crawl into bed and hide, but for the first time in a long time she felt brave. Still, she poured another glass of wine and took a deep breath before she called her father.
    Time to get this over with.

Chapter Four
    The sun had long since set, but Juliette stayed in her chair in the drawing room, gazing out of the window with a glass of wine in one hand and an almost empty bottle on the table next to her. She’d always wondered what life would be like if she hadn’t been raised the way she had, married a man with a title who was colder than the marble lining the dining room floor. A man who expected her to have the same disposition he did.
    If she could live again, be young just for a little while, would she be here, surrounded by riches that could never hope to warm the chill in her heart no matter how vast?