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Paige glanced up at him. His anger was more than apparent. He looked ready to tear someone apart. And for one scary moment, she wondered if that might be her. “I can’t believe you have to ask.” His doubt dumbfounded her.
Hurt her.
“Tell me, Paige. I have a lot on the line here. My family has been through enough scandal already. I don’t need to add to it.” He ran a hand through his hair, a thoroughly frustrated gesture. “I can’t put my son through this sort of thing again, you know. His own mother had been neglectful, careless. The stories that surround her death to this day make her sound like a lousy excuse for a human being. It hurts me to know that someday Matty will read those articles and discover the truth.”
He’d just implied he believed his poor dead wife was a lousy human being. Would he someday think the same of her? All because of a bunch of lies printed in a newspaper?
She knew he had to protect his son. She knew that he had to protect his family and the business too. But what about her? Where did she fit into all this? He’d only declared his love for her a few nights ago. Were his words nothing but a bunch of lies? “I didn’t have an affair with my former boss.”
He studied her and she noted the tick in his jaw, the irritation in his eyes not lessening in the slightest. “There are a lot of details in this article. Intimate details about your involvement with—him.”
“None of it’s true.” She knew this with absolute certainty because she’d lived it. After months of making suggestive comments and inappropriate touching, Paul Leonard had finally lost it and attacked her. He’d slipped his hand down her pants and the other hand up her shirt, his disgusting mouth meshing against hers for the briefest second as she struggled and pushed him away with all the strength she could muster.
At that very inopportune moment, his wife walked in, catching them in a seeming embrace. Paige had denied the woman’s accusations. Paul had merely hung his head and took the verbal abuse, not bothering to argue, which infuriated Paige to no end.
She hadn’t been a willing participant in his callous attack. And she certainly hadn’t asked for it. There had been no flirting like Carolyn had accused and she definitely hadn’t carried on with the disgusting man for months in a sordid affair, as it was implied in the article.
Devastation crashed through her and she pressed her lips together, desperate not to cry. She was the innocent victim in all of this yet she was the one painted to look like a complete whore for all the world to see.
The entire world. That realization stunned her breathless, but Matteo didn’t seem willing to console.
More like willing to accuse.
“There are other articles online that are filled with speculation, all in the same vein as this one. All of them trying to paint you and me in a terrible light, as if our relationship is a fraud and you’re nothing but a gold-digging bitch.” She flinched at his choice of words and he immediately looked contrite. “I’m sorry. I’m not the one who said it—whoever the original source is did. This doesn’t look good, Paige. The press is having a field day with this. Renaldi’s name is getting splashed through the mud.”
Right, and forget about her name and reputation, since it didn’t matter? God, he was being so callous, so cruel. “I don’t know what to say. Do you want my apology? Is that what you’re looking for? Because I have nothing to apologize over—I didn’t do what they’re accusing me of,” she said firmly. “I wouldn’t do that. Ever.”
“So it definitely isn’t true, then.” His voice was calm, the fire in his eyes anything but.
How dare you? she wanted to yell at him. How could he even think she would have an affair with her former boss? She’d told him the circumstances. Rather vaguely, but still.
Of course, she was having an affair with her current boss, so…
“Is this because of what’s happening between us?” She tossed the tabloid off her lap onto the couch and stood, glaring at him. “Do you believe I became involved with my old boss too, because of how easily I fell for you? That this is some sort of pattern for me? Do you really think our relationship is that meaningless?”
“Paige…”
“No, answer me,” she interrupted. “Do you really think that low of me, Matteo? That I’m some sort of dumb slut who falls under the spell of her latest magnetic boss and spreads her legs for him at any given notice?”
“Stop talking like that,” he snapped, his voice firm. “And don’t put words in my mouth.”
“You certainly seemed quick to believe the lies. Not that I can blame you, what with what’s happened between us.” She tried her best to be tough, angry, but inside she was hurting. Falling apart completely. She’d told this man she loved him a few nights ago and he said he loved her. She hadn’t been lying. She did love him.
