Page 85 of Heartless As Puck

I couldn’t dispel the niggling concern that Austin was doing the same thing by offering to make our relationship real. Was it really me he wanted or the success that our ruse had brought him… up until it all went to hell?

The fact he’d urged me to consider going home made me think it might be real, because he was trying to protect me, but getting me out of the public eye as quickly as possible might also have helped his reputation recover more quickly, so it was impossible to know for sure.

Ugh. I rubbed my temples. This was all such an awful headache.

“It will be okay,” I told him, dropping my hands to my sides and forcing a smile.

That was my mantra today. All I had to do was make it through the next few hours and everything would be fine.

The woman pushed the door open and I stepped through. Cameras were set up in two positions, facing a corporate-style chair and a small sofa. A smiling Black woman with short, curly hair sat in the chair, and Austin—already in his uniform—was on the sofa.

“Hi.” I waved awkwardly.

The woman smiled. “Hi, Jane. I’m Cindy. Why don’t you take a seat, and Melissa will touch up your makeup a little. Is that all right?”

I nodded and sat beside Austin, trying not to lean into him. The woman who’d guided me into the room kneeled in front of me and opened a small makeup bag.

I stayed still as she checked my eyeshadow and mascara, confirmed they were fine, and brushed a few other powders on my face. I didn’t care what she was doing if it would help me feel confident in front of the camera.

“Will you be cheering for your brother or your boyfriend during the game?” Cindy asked as Melissa packed the powders away and wiped her fingers clean.

My pulse fluttered at the base of my throat, and I glanced at the cameras, but they didn’t seem to be rolling. “Whoever is winning.”

Austin made a sound of protest, and Cindy laughed.

“Fair enough,” she said. “Before we start, I just want to reassure you that I won’t stray from the approved list of questions.”

I cocked my head, uncertain why she felt the need to verbalize this.

Her expression softened. “You’ve been victimized already. I don’t intend to do it again.”

My chest swelled. “Thank you,” I whispered, blinking back tears so they wouldn’t smudge my mascara.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart. I also want to confirm that the show isn’t live, and the final cut is subject to approval by the team manager. Now, shall we get started?”

Austin bumped my thigh with his. “You can stop this at any time.”

I sucked in a lungful of air and nodded. “I’m ready.”

Cindy motioned for the camera operators to start filming, and she beamed at the closest one. “Good evening, Chicago. I’m here with Chicago Chaos captain, Austin Harris, and his girlfriend, Jane Foster-Wright of the Wright hockey dynasty. This lovely couple has recently been exposed in one of the worst ways possible when an intimate photograph of them was leaked online.”

My tongue started to feel heavy and my heel tapped twice on the floor before Austin’s palm came to rest just above my knee and stopped the motion. Warmth flowed through me from that point of contact and seemed to ease something in my chest.

“I understand that you were on a team retreat when the photograph was published,” Cindy said, meeting first my eyes and then Austin’s. “Is that correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Austin’s voice was low and calm, and it soothed the ragged edges of my nerves. “We found out that the photograph had been published on the last morning of the retreat.”

Cindy nodded sympathetically. “I can imagine it was a shock.”

“We were horrified,” I said, giving the response I’d practiced in the mirror over and over again. “We thought we were alone, and for someone to violate a p-private moment between us like that was awful.”

I fought the urge to grimace at the stutter that had slipped out. Perhaps it wasn’t what I’d wanted, but a little slip could be attributed to emotion. It might even make me more sympathetic to the viewers.

“Has the photographer responsible been found and held accountable?”

“Not yet,” Austin replied. “Although we have every faith they will be soon.”

The questions continued, and I managed to stick to the script, my insides curling tighter and tighter, until we arrived at the section about my family.