Page 52 of Twisted Truth

“Ten grand says they don’t make it a month without fucking each other’s brains out,” Sterling says to Declan, holding out his hand.

They shake on it, chuckling to each other.

“Shouldn’t you be headed to the airport?” I snap at Sterling.

He checks his watch. “Shit, yes.”

He stands up quickly, and Declan and I stand as well. Declan gives him a quick hug and then I follow suit. No matter how annoyed I am at my little shit of a brother, I will always say goodbye. It will be weeks or months before I see him again since he runs our London division, and we brothers have an agreement between us to always stay as close as we can with the insanity that is our lives. We’ve seen too many families like ours destroyed because of distance, jealousy, and greed. We vowed when we were young to never let that happen to us. We would stay a family, no matter what. Business comes and goes. Family is not worth destroying over it.

“Well, I’ll be checking in regularly for updates,” Sterling says, clapping me on the back. “Let me know when you give in.”

“Get out of here, you shit.” But I can’t help my reluctant smile.

“Love you, too!” he calls as he walks out of the office.

I roll my eyes, still smiling a bit. Sterling and Declan could always make me laugh. No matter how mad or upset I am, they have a way of breaking through my walls. I both love them and hate them for it.

“I’ll be off as well. I have a meeting to get to,” Declan says. He pauses by the door and gives me a wicked grin. “I also need to add, ‘find a new place to work out,’ to my to-do list today. The last thing I want to do is come over to your penthouse to exercise and walk in on you two fucking in the kitchen.”

“Get out,” I grumble, rolling my eyes.

With another roar of laughter, Declan saunters off to his meeting. If I didn’t love my asshole brothers so much, I’d punch them both in the face.

I slump back down in my chair.

My desk phone chimes.

“Your PR meeting is in fifteen minutes,” Matthew says.

Now it’s my turn for a wicked grin. It looks like I have enough time for a private meeting with Ella first. And with all of her coworkers around, she won’t be able to storm away from me.

It’s time to remind her, and all of the employees of this company, who the fucking CEO of Langford Holdings is.

16

ELLA

“Mr. Langford will be here in ten minutes,” Emily says, panicking a little. “Josh, I need your final notes on the policeman gala next month.”

Josh scans his computer, a bit frantic. We’ve each been assigned two events to strategize. From clothing, to entrance, to connections with people who will also be in attendance. Anything and everything in between. And the team has gone through each event, weighing and discussing all the elements. We’ve also set a timeline for dates, vacations (gulp), and meeting Asher’s family (which I’ve already met except his mother, but the world doesn’t know that).

I’m a bit overwhelmed. Now that I’m the fake girlfriend, I’m staring at a very concrete layout of my future plans. There’s some wiggle room for things that we’ll need to add or things that could come up unexpectedly, but for the most part, almost every weekend and several events for the next few months are all carefully planned.

Now I’m really starting to feel like a Barbie.

And the weirdest part is that it has all been carefully curated by my colleagues. I thought they were all going to losetheir minds when I walked into the meeting an hour ago. I didn’t see them yesterday as Emily was kind enough to let me work in her office with her. With everything from the unexpected news break about Asher and me, to Kyle’s apartment, to signing the contract, I just didn’t have it in me to answer their questions yesterday. But today, there was no getting around it.

Heather demanded to know if we’d been secretly dating before. Josh asked if that’s why we left the club early Tuesday night. They all had question after question. Thankfully, Emily stepped in and told them the truth: that we were running out of time, the prospects weren’t happening, and that Matthew felt I was the right candidate, and Mr. Langford agreed. The photos and stories released about the club yesterday morning were not planned or staged, and no one knew they were out until after the fact.

She reiterated that no one outside the boardroom or this room can know that, and the official story is that Asher and I met at a product launch I was part of three weeks ago. He wasn’t meant to be at it, but decided to drop by at the last minute on a whim, and the rest is history. The first part of the story is all bullshit; Asher was at the event for a very short time, and he and I never crossed paths, but the world doesn’t need to know that part.

The door opens out of nowhere, and all of our heads snap in that direction.

“Mr. Langford,” Emily exclaims. “You’re early. We were just finalizing everything.”

Asher’s face is deadly serious, giving nothing away. “I need to see Ella before the meeting, alone.”

All the heads at the table snap back to look at me.