Busted (Barnes Brothers #3) (35 page)

She opened her mouth, then snapped it shut with an audible click of her jaw. “I don’t much like the fact that you’re being logical about this.”

“Yeah. It always pissed my brothers off, too.”

With a withering stare, she climbed off the bed and started to get dressed.

He was moderately mollified by the fact that she pulled the black button-down back on over her bra. Watching her fingers dance over the buttons, covering up all that lovely skin seemed to be a crime. “What are you going to do?” he asked, dragging his gaze up to meet hers.

She narrowed her eyes. “Men,” she muttered.

He grinned at her. “Yeah. Well.” Then he shrugged and repeated the question.

“I don’t even know how to answer that.” She sighed and caught her hair, dragged it out of the collar of the shirt, then looked for her jeans.

He snagged them from the floor by the bed and tossed them to her, watched as she shimmied into them.

“Trey!”

The sound of Travis shouting his name up the steps had him flopping back on the bed and throwing his elbow over his eyes.

“What?” he bellowed back, the habit of shouting back and forth across a house something he’d never really forgotten.

There wasn’t an immediate answer and he shook his head. “You know, it’s a beautiful morning. I’ve got a beautiful woman with me. I’d really like to be in my bed making love to her . . . but
nooooo. . . .”

Travis appeared in the doorway. “Your neighbor is at the door,” he said, his voice curiously flat.

Trey stared at him, puzzled. “I don’t have time for this,” he said, shaking his head.

“Make time,” Travis suggested.

Trey headed out the door, muttering under his breath.

But when Ressa went to follow, Travis caught her elbow and held her back.

*   *   *

“Trey . . .”

He opened the door and wasn’t surprised when Nadine slid inside, moving past him as though he’d flung it opened and welcomed her with open arms.

The sight behind her was a little more disturbing—and it had him gritting his teeth. Two news vans. One reporter was all set up, the other still fumbling with her equipment, but the second they saw him, they both started shouting questions.

He slammed the door shut and put his back to it.

Not again
. He’d never been as good at this as his brothers. He could handle it, yeah. But he
hated
it.

“I’m so sorry,” Nadine said, her voice soft. Sympathy filled her voice and she twisted the pearls at her neck.

“Sorry . . . ?” he asked. “For what?”

She waved a hand. “This. That . . . this woman you’re dating. Whoever she is. What she’s done. We never really met, but it’s awful what she did to you. I can’t imagine how you feel.”

“Hmm.”

Her gaze skipped to his, then away.

“Yeah, I bet you can’t.” He folded his arms over his chest, chewed on the inside of his lip for a second. There was an odd look in her eyes. It wasn’t
guilt
—not exactly. But it was something.

Going with his gut, he asked, “How long were you listening to us the other night?”

Blood rushed to her face. “I was—” A nervous laugh escaped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You
.
”

Ressa’s voice came from the top of the steps.

Nadine jerked her head around, her jaw dropping at the sight of Ressa there, descending slowly.

“What . . . Trey, why is
she
here?” Nadine demanded.

He didn’t even have a chance to respond before Ressa came between them and none too subtly pushed him back. “Not
what you need to be worrying about,” Ressa said, her voice sharp enough to cut. “Worry about
me
.”

Nadine backed up a step.

“Ressa, hold up a min—”

She whirled on him, her hair flying around her shoulders. “Oh
, no
. I don’t think so. You remember that little chat upstairs? You’re not letting me fight this all on my own because it involves you? Well, guess what? She did this because she’s
jealous
. I’m with you and she’s not. So that means it’s every bit as much about
me
as it is about
you
.”

Trey studied her and then slowly, backed away. He tucked his hands into his pockets and settled back against the door.

“Trey.” His name was a tremulous plea on Nadine’s lips. It scraped over his nerves like steel wool on an open wound. “You can’t think I had anything to do with this. All the interviews say it was her . . . they talked about her and her blog and everything. She could be doing this for publicity. It makes sense.”

“In what
world
?” Ressa snapped. “This is
not
the kind of publicity I want.
Ever
.”

Nadine’s green gaze bounced away, not connecting with Ressa’s. “She could be doing it just to toy with you. Who knows?”

“
I
know,” Trey said. He shoved away from the door. He laid a hand on Ressa’s shoulder. “This isn’t the kind of thing she’d do—she cares about me too much.”

Ressa felt some of the knots inside her dissolve. It was like he’d never even had any doubts.

Nadine’s porcelain skin went even whiter, though, and her mouth drew tighter. “But there’s
proof
—”

“I wonder how the proof will hold up if Trey decides to pursue any kind of legal action,” Travis asked, jogging down the stairs. “Ressa, I’m good on computers. You willing to let me access your laptop? We can clear that up right here. Seeing as how you’ve been with either your aunt or here with Trey—and us—for the past thirty-six hours, shouldn’t take much to figure out if you really did do that interview—since naturally, it was
requested
that everything be done via e-mail.”

He smiled thinly at Nadine. “Might have been harder to
pull off if you’d done a live interview, I’m thinking.” Planting himself at Trey’s side, Travis glanced over at Ressa. “So . . . laptop?”

Ressa frowned. “I didn’t bring my laptop. It’s back at my house.”

“Hmmm. Okay. That simplifies it.” Travis shrugged. “Trey, that means if she did that online interview, it was from here. They said it was an exclusive online interview, obtained early yesterday . . . although, damn . . .”

Travis tsked. “You and your aunt were on the road, right? Were you typing and driving or what? Those are some hellaciously
long
interview questions.”

“Trav.” Trey bared his teeth. “Please feel free to check my computers. Ressa, would you let him check your phone?”

“That doesn’t prove—” Nadine stopped, sucked in a breath.

“Come off it,” Ressa suggested. “We all know. Thanks for almost costing me my job, by the way. I
really
appreciate that.”

Nadine shot a look to the left, then the right, before looking at Trey. “You really think I could do this?” she whispered.

“I didn’t want to. But the answer is pretty clear. What I don’t know is why?”

Nadine sniffed and moved to the door. “I can’t believe you think I’d . . .” Abruptly, she froze and her voice went tight. Slowly, she turned and the uncertain, nervous female just . . . faded. “I did it because
I
waited. All this time. I waited for you to see me and you never did.”

Then she spun back around and jerked the door open, half falling out in her determination to leave.

Travis sighed and shook his head. “I’ll make sure she gets home okay.”

“Behave,” Trey warned.

“I always do.” He shot them a wicked grin. “But for your sake, I’ll behave
nicely
.”

He slid out the door.

Trey went to shut it and the rush of voices caught his attention. Wincing, he glanced outside and saw that in the past few minutes, the two vans had multiplied to five.

“And here I was thinking
I
would be the one catching their attention,” Sebastian said from the living room, glancing around the arched doorway.

“Shut up or I’ll drag your scrawny ass out there.” Sighing, Trey reached down and caught Ressa’s hand. “You trust me?”

Her eyes flew wide.

“You aren’t serious.”

“I’m just going to address it, real quick,” he said. “They won’t go away until I give them something.”

She winced, look down at herself. “I’m a mess. I don’t have makeup on. My hair is probably a wreck. I’m wearing
your
shirt . . .
I don’t have makeup on
. I barely remembered to put a bra on!”

“You didn’t have to do that on my account,” Sebastian offered.

“I’m killing you when I’m done,” Trey warned. Then he reached up, smoothed her hair down. “They aren’t going to focus on any of that. You look beautiful.”

He pressed a kiss to her lips, remained there. “Trust me?”

“I might kill you for this,” she whispered against his mouth. “Fine.”

*   *   *

Ressa gulped at the sudden flash of cameras, the rush of questions. There were only a few people, she’d
thought
. Now it seemed like dozens.

Stunned into silence, she gripped Trey’s hand and held tight.

“Mr. Barnes! Mr. Barnes! Is it true that you’re also writing erotic sexy stories under another name? What does your family think about this?”

“They are romance books,” he said. How could he sound so calm. “And knowing my mom? She’s probably going to be mad I didn’t let her know already so she could read them. She loves romance.”

There was a faint pause and then the next rush of questions, most of them running over each other.

One finally distinguished itself from another. “Is this Ressa Bliss? Your former girlfriend? Why do you think she gave that interview?”

“Does she
look
like a former girlfriend?” He laughed. “This is Ms. Bliss but let me make it clear. We are still dating. I can’t explain what happened with that interview but the
interviewer didn’t bother to verify their source. Ressa didn’t give the interview. She’s spent the past few days with me or traveling with family. She hasn’t had time to give an interview.”

Now there was another flurry, but when Trey opened his mouth to answer, Ressa squeezed his hand and answered herself. “No, we are not
claiming
that I didn’t give the interview,” she said, her voice like ice. “We are
stating
that. Whoever did that interview wasn’t talking to me.”

The reporters paused, but it was so brief, it couldn’t even be measured by breaths.

“Are things serious between you two?”

Instead of answering that, Trey turned to Ressa and cupped her face in his hands. She stood there as he closed his mouth over hers, but slowly, she relaxed against him, her hands gripping his waist.

He broke away after a moment and hooked his arm around her neck. As he led her into the house, he said over his shoulder, “No comment.”

*   *   *

“You didn’t even pause when you read that.” Ressa stood in his office, staring at bookshelf after bookshelf. Trey sat at his desk, pounding furiously away at his keyboard. “You believed in me. Just like that.”

He paused at her words and looked up. “Of course I did.”

Of course I did
.

She thought about everything that had unfolded over the span of the past day—all the secrets she’d been afraid to tell him . . . and the one
huge
fear that had lingered over her head. All of it was out in the open.

Of course I did.

“You’re doing it again.”

She opened her eyes and turned her head to meet his gaze.

“Doing what?”

“Worrying.” He looked back at his computer.

“No.” She moved to him then, coming around the desk. She stared at the headline on his monitor. It was yet another prominent blog, one that focused on books and authors. It read:

BUSTED!

It referenced the news about Trey and his alter ego, but it
also included snippets from that so-called interview. There was also a link to the trial. She skimmed some of the e-mail he was writing and caught his wrists. “Dial it back, baby. They didn’t do anything—and hell, the woman is just re-posting some of what she read. She didn’t do anything.”

He flexed his hands, stared at the computer. “I’m pissed off.”

“So am I. But not at anybody online . . . well, except the person who didn’t bother to make sure she was actually talking to me.” She pressed her lips to his temple. “You already talked to your publicist. The site in question has already pulled it and a retraction will be up this afternoon. Although . . . the horror . . . you now have to give a real interview.”

He slid her a narrow look. “I think I should give it to you. What better place to put it than
Blissed Out On Books
. People are tanking you and your blog.”

“Better idea.” She nodded to the monitor. “Give it to them. Start your e-mail over, give the bloggers enough info to explain what
mostly
happened without getting personal and ask if they’d like to help you with a real interview. They’re bigger than I am. You want the word out? Do it that way.”

He blew out a breath, then shrugged. “If I do it that way, will you quit worrying so much?”

“I’m not worrying. I’m thinking.” She draped her arms around his shoulders and pressed a kiss to the sensitive spot below his ear. His body tensed.

“If you want me doing anything besides pressing you up against a wall, you shouldn’t do that.”

Things in her belly went low and tight, but despite the temptation, she went still and read the e-mail. Once he sent it off, he spun in the chair. He pulled her into his lap and she wiggled, tried to adjust to the confines of the chair. “I’m thinking,” she said again. “This is all so simple to you. I called Farrah back. She spoke with Thompkins—he’s still furious, but he’s agreed to give it a few days and see what happens.”

Studying Trey’s face, she smoothed a finger across his mouth. “Farrah apologized—she was—is—sorry but
she
thought I’d done it . . . for a few minutes at least. Trey, you would have had every right to at least
ask
.”

“No.” He hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her
in against him. “No, I wouldn’t. Because the woman I fell in love with isn’t the woman who would do that. I knew it, without even thinking about it.”