Harlequin Desire January 2021--Box Set 1 of 2 by Maisey Yates (inspirational books .TXT) 📗

had hated the experience of publishing a memoir—that much he knew. She was reluctant to write another. Besides, she didn’t have to. Screenwriting credits on your résumé had a way of widening your options.

“I’m looking at her bio. She’s a memoirist. That’s it. Sure, she used to work at a magazine, but that was a long time ago.”

“Why are you looking at her bio? What happened?”

His temper flared so rarely, but everything about this conversation was pissing him off.

“An excerpt of her diary was published on Celebrity-Soup.com.”

He processed this, the gears of his brain grinding painfully slowly. “How did it get out?”

“No one knows for sure, but I need you to consider that she leaked it.”

“She didn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“I know.”

An excerpt of her diary had been published on a gossip site. That was all they knew so far. But Julian knew how this worked. They would need someone to blame, someone to cast as a villain.

“Julian, you don’t know this woman. She’s wiggled her way into your life, and now she’s writing about it. You didn’t make her sign anything. She’ll probably get a book deal.”

“Kat.” His voice cut into the silence of the bathroom. “Be careful what you say about Nina.”

“If I crossed a line, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need an apology. I need you to understand that she is not some random woman who wiggled her way into anything.”

He’d lured Nina into his world, a world populated with paparazzi and gossip columnists. He would shield her anyway he could. She wasn’t an attention seeker. She was a writer, a thinker and a private person. He would not let anyone insult or degrade her.

“Read the excerpt and see for yourself,” Kat said. “I sent you the link.”

“Thanks, Kat,” he mumbled. “Sorry I jumped down your throat.”

“Let’s talk again in the morning with cooler heads.”

Julian ended the call. He scrolled his messages until he found the link to the website post. The title alone turned his stomach sour. One Hot Knight in Miami. Once again, his private life was served up for entertainment. He scrolled down and started reading. The words jumped at him. “May I taste?” Julian heard the tap on the bathroom door, but he couldn’t stop reading. When his tongue meets my tender skin, I’m not prepared for the rush… We haven’t made it to the bed.

Intimate details.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Nina was alone in bed. She was sure of it even before she opened her eyes to heavy darkness. Julian was in the bathroom arguing with someone over the phone. When silence settled in, she slipped out of bed and tapped on the bathroom door. No answer. She called out his name. Nothing. She opened the door a crack. “Everything okay?”

He was staring intently at his phone, and when he looked up at her, the glow from the small screen gave him an eerie look.

“Julian, what’s the matter?”

He handed her the phone. “Explain this to me.”

“Explain what?”

She glanced at the screen, more concerned with the tight set of his jaw than any clandestine photo or provocative tweet. But she recognized the words as her own. He presses me against the door and hunches low. “What’s this?”

“An excerpt from your journal.”

Nina felt a tightening in her gut. She was going to be sick.

“How did it end up online?” he asked.

“I don’t know!” she cried. “You tell me!”

“Did you leak it?” Those four words sent Nina reeling. She smacked his phone onto the counter and backed out of the doorway. He followed her into the bedroom. His voice was low when he asked the follow-up question. “Did they pay you?”

Each word was a blow, and he wouldn’t shut up.

“I need to hear you say it. Then we’ll figure out what to do.”

She switched on the lights in the bedroom to better confront him. “You think I sold our story for money?”

“I don’t. But since we don’t have a confidentiality agreement, I have to ask.”

“A confidentiality agreement?”

“I know. It sounds terrible, but it’s more common than you’d think.”

On the first day they’d met, they’d hashed out an agreement. She’d promised not to write about him or anything that happened between them. She reminded him of her promise. His silence told her that it wasn’t enough. There was nothing he could add to or subtract from the equation to change the value of this revelation. Her promise, her word, was not enough.

Alarm bells were ringing in the back of her head. She would not waste her breath trying to reassure Julian. She had to look out for herself. Someone had stolen her diary. How did they get it? Who had it now? How many people were reading, sharing and tweeting her words at this moment?

She paced around the room. Soon Julian was doing the same. They circled each other.

“Where’s the notebook?” he said. “Let’s see it.”

She opened the nightstand and desk drawers, hoping her journal would magically appear. “It’s not here. To be honest, it’s been missing for weeks.”

He faced her. “Your notebook is missing? And you said nothing?”

“I asked the front desk if anyone had returned a missing journal. To be honest, I figured it would turn up.”

“Let me understand. You kept a detailed record of everything we said and did together and took no measures to protect it?”

Her breath was coming hard and fast. Legal agreements and records… Who was this man? “We’re talking about a diary, a place for my private thoughts. With or without any mention of you, I would have protected it. My diaries are private. I don’t share them with anyone.”

“Except you do,” he said. “You turn them into books.”

Nina’s anger snapped. “Get out.”

“Calm down. We can talk this through.”

“I am calm. And I want you out.”

“Where do you want me to go? It’s the middle of the night.”

“There’s a pullout couch in the other room,” she said. “Don’t worry. It’s comfortable.”

Julian leaned against a chest of drawers. He’d gone pale under his honey-brown complexion. Nina turned away. Although he had hurt her, she could not