Zoey’s eyes welled with tears. “I think I want to go back to the hotel.”
“I’ll go with you.”
She didn’t respond, just tucked up into a ball with her head on my shoulder.
“Z, let me take a shower, and then we’ll get you out of here. We can skip the after-party.” I stood and gave her a quick kiss. “Will you be okay for five minutes?”
“Yeah.”
After cleaning up, I shook out my wet hair and pulled on jeans, an LTZ T-shirt, and my black Doc Marten boots. Quickly, I stuffed my sweaty clothes into my tote and gathered my phone, charger, and tablet. I promised Zoey’s dad that I’d take care of her, I decided to realign my priorities.
“Let’s just go, Z.” I held out my hand.
Zoey reached up to squeeze it reassuringly. “No, Ty. I’ll be okay for an hour or two. It will give me time to process all of this. Go do the VIP meet-and-greet, I’ll just wait here.”
“Just don’t shut me out,” I said softly. “I’ll go and get this over with and then we can hole up at the hotel until my team can sort it out—”
“Are you decent?” Sienna’s voice rang out as she barged into my dressing room, Andrew, Katherine, and Jace followed close behind.
“Zoey, are you okay?” Katherine wove around the publicists and sat next to Zoey. “I know this is upsetting.”
“Yes.” Zoey fixed her deceptively neutral gaze on Sienna over Katherine’s shoulder. “I just wonder how they got the material to make up such a colorful story.”
“Who knows.” Andrew gestured to the air. “We can’t waste any time worrying about that when we need to do damage control.”
“Andrew’s right, we need to protect Zoey’s image.” Sienna smiled sweetly at me.
To her credit, Zoey remained deathly calm while our manager, publicists, and Jace argued about how and when to “handle” the situation. So calm that it unnerved me. After a few minutes, Katherine sent me and Jace to put in a quick appearance at the party. I didn’t want her alone with Sienna, but reluctantly left her and was back from the event in under half an hour. When I returned, she hadn’t moved. She was laser-focused on the conversation still going on between our publicists and manager.
“Guys.” I tried to get everyone’s attention when I walked back into my dressing room.
No one listened to me.
“Guys!”
Everyone turned.
Channeling my stage persona, I commanded the room. “It’s late, there’s nothing we can do about this tonight. I’m taking Zoey back to the hotel so we can get some rest. Let’s all meet there tomorrow morning, say around eight, and we will go from there.
“That’s a great idea,” Katherine squeezed Zoey’s hand. “We’ll get this all cleared up by noon.”
After they left, Sergey snuck us out of the venue and into the service entry of the hotel. By the time I finally swiped the key to our room, I was exhausted and starving. When I hung up with room service, I found my beautiful butterfly dozing in the bedroom, curled up against the pillows, her blonde hair fanning out around her.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I brushed a lock of hair away from her face and stroked her cheek lightly with my thumb, careful not to wake her. After I undressed, I crawled behind her under the covers and spooned her tightly.
“Hey, is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” Zoey mumbled sleepily.
I grinned against her hair at the old joke. “I’m always happy to see you, and there is always a banana in my pocket when I do.”
Zoey turned around to face me and gripped my jaw, using her thumbs to stroke my stubbly chin. She closed her eyes and softly touched her lips to mine. My tongue darted along the seam of her full lips, tasting her and encouraging her to deepen our kiss. My heart swelled with emotion, being with her was always the only thing that mattered. We were going to be fine.
Reaching down between us, Zoey gripped my stiff cock and guided me inside her. Clasping her ass I pulled her thigh over my hip and rocked into her. She wound one arm around my neck and other around my waist and our movements became more urgent. Her pussy tightened around my cock sending me right over the edge in a haze of electric sparks down my spine. Zoey followed, gasping through her release.
As we recovered, Zoey traced my lips with her shiny, black-tipped finger. “Please tell me that being together like this is what’s real.”
“Of course, this is real.” I kissed her finger.
“Why do you think Sienna arranged that article?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ty, c’mon. I’m not stupid.”
Well, now the lead balloon in my belly was real.
Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.
I couldn’t get the words out, not when I’d literally just been inside her. I just couldn’t. So, I babbled, “I don’t think she’d do that after our meeting. Please don’t worry about Sienna, she shouldn’t have said anything. It made the night shitty for you.”
“Uh-huh.” Zoey considered me for a minute. “Can I ask you a question? Why is she still working for LTZ?”
“To take the pressure off of Jace. They’ve been really effective to get us lots of press. Their work helped propel those songs to where they are today.”
“Well, as I said yesterday, I think you all sell yourself short, but whatever.” Zoey scowled.
“Sienna and Andrew were the ones who concocted the idea of making me a bad boy, to annihilate my reclusive image. It worked.” I reached out and stroked her cheek. “Of course, then I’d drink myself into a stupor, and soon there were photos and videos of me with women I could barely remember.”
Zoey just watched me pensively. I continued to babble.
“This went on for a couple of years, you’ve heard it before but it was not nearly as bad as what was in the press. Andrew and Sienna were just doing their jobs. The coverage of my descent into hell sold records, and merchandise, and basically the band.”
“Why were you willing to endure all of this?” Zoey was clearly appalled. “I mean, they encouraged you to do things so they could write horrible shit about you.”
“Pretty much.” I shook my head. “It became who I was, but it wasn’t true to who I am as a person. It just didn’t feel like me.”
“No, Ty. It’s not you.” Zoey covered my hand with hers. “It hurt me seeing you like that. When I found out you were a willing participant in all of it? I understand why you think you were a bad guy. It just devastates me that my actions caused you to have such low self-esteem that you’d allow that.”
Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.
The words wouldn’t come. I was a coward. I continued my justification ramblings. “I know, I was stupid. It took a while for me to come out of it because of all of my substance abuse, but one morning after a particularly embarrassing hookup, I looked in the mirror and my mom stared back at me. I didn’t like it one bit. I’m a guy who only ever wanted to play my music. It made me sick. So, I stopped. Cold turkey. I’ve never looked back.”
Zoey sighed but remained silent, allowing me to finish my story.
“I’m the one who allowed it. I knew I needed help. The therapist I told you about. She specialized in counseling rock musicians. I was able to come to grips with a lot about my childhood, my insecurities, and my tendency to let things happen to me rather than me having a say in my life. Jace cleaned it up. He’ll clean this up too.”
Yeah, I realized the hypocrisy as I spoke the words.
“But then you let them do it all again when they set you up with Ronni.”
Tell her. Tell her. Tell her.
My heart pounded so loudly I swore I could hear it.
The door buzzed, room service had arrived. Relieved at the reprieve, I got up to answer and tipped the delivery girl a hundred dollars just so she’d go away. I returned to the bedroom with a tray of food. Zoey joined me on the edge of the bed. I set the chicken tenders, club sandwich, French fries, cheese sticks, and tomato salad on the be
nch.
We delved in and devoured the food in silence.
After we finished, I shoved the tray outside the door into the hallway and clicked on the “do not disturb” light. “Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow, I’m getting to the bottom of this bullshit, babe. I will protect you. I will protect us.”
“Okay. I trust you. The article really sucks. In the meantime, I’ll try not to let some shit-stirring publicist or any article define me.”
“That’s good.”
“After tomorrow, that bitch better be fucking fired though,” Zoey mumbled as she drifted back to sleep.
God, I loved my feisty girl so much. I didn’t deserve her.
Still, I couldn’t sleep. I felt like I’d sidestepped a landmine tonight. I knew the right thing to do was to tell Zoey what happened with Sienna. I just didn’t know how to do it. The words just wouldn’t come out. Zoey was right to be skeptical of Sienna’s motives, after all she was doing what she always did. Create controversy just to solve it.
But would she tell Zoey what happened that night?
Something told me that if I didn’t get my shit together by morning, I’d face an entire field full of landmines that would be hard to come back from.
Chapter 29
ZOEY
My anxiety about the entire mess waned when Ty cuddled me and promised to fix things. Not so much in the early morning light , waiting for yet another discussion about the goddamn media. With goddamn Sienna.
So much about her bothered me.
From outward appearances, I probably looked calm. Freshly showered, dressed in leggings and a plain white T-shirt, I was sitting on the couch, watching the bustling city below me. But it had been a few hours now, and the shock and panic at the label of “crazy, stalker bitch” had fully set in. This weird fictional account of me was out there for everyone to read and it had multiplied. The story now had even more hits than the sweet photos Jace posted.
Hell, if I didn’t know myself, after reading it I’d also think I was a crazy, evil, ugly, fat, skanky, lying, opportunistic slut who had toyed with Ty’s emotions for years. Such a nice way to describe a twenty-six-year-old woman who never got into any trouble whatsoever. Gotta love the misogyny.
It made me want to crawl out from under my skin and disappear. I couldn’t cry. I could barely breathe. All I could do was stare out the window while my mind whirled. And contemplate ways that I could move to somewhere exotic where nobody knew me, like Zanzibar.
Which made me inappropriately laugh out loud because, well, Tenacious D. Thank god for my dad’s musical library.
Katherine, Sienna, and Andrew had come to some understanding about strategy. Katherine and Jace had left to meet with the legal team. Sienna and Andrew sat in our living area, tapping away on their laptops. I didn’t like that they were still involved, but I also didn’t have much choice. And so, to my chagrin, I was relinquishing my need for control and trusting that Ty and his team would have my back.
Even though I was certain that Sienna did not have my back.
From what I could ascertain, Katherine had managed to get the original article pulled at the publisher level, but other articles had spun off and gone viral, and now, entirely new articles and publications had their own versions up. Every celebrity magazine was running stories about the love triangle between me, Ty, and Ronni, and offering up their own “journalistic” commentary. It was like a game of whack-a-mole, and I couldn’t stop reading everything that popped up in my Google alert.
A loud knock at the door startled me, and Ty went to answer it, even though he was on the phone to the band’s lawyers. As if things couldn’t get any worse, the most beautiful, chestnut-haired, buxom beauty I’d ever seen in real life practically danced into the suite. My mouth hung open when none other than a cheery Ronni Miller sauntered into the room and gave Ty a big squeeze. They spoke softly, clearly very chummy, and I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. When Ronni shot me a sympathetic look and familiarly clutched Ty’s arms right above his elbows, I could feel my fear and panic turning into rage.
“Zoey, I’d like you to meet Ronni.” They approached me with big, cheesy grins.
“Um, hi.” My voice didn’t sound like my own.
She embraced me like we were long-lost sisters. “It’s so great to finally meet the famous Zoey!”
I couldn’t take it. Tears filled my eyes. I pulled away from the beautiful actress, the emotions of the past twenty-four hours came rushing to the forefront. All day I’d stoically endured the hustle and bustle around me, knowing that I couldn’t add anything to the crisis control unfolding around me. Being embraced by the woman who I’d seen canoodling with my boyfriend in hundreds of photos did me in.
“Excuse me.” I started to cry and got up to run into the bedroom.
“For fuck’s sake, you’re crying again?” Sienna’s annoyed snarl followed me.
Predictably, Ty followed close behind me and enveloped me in his strong arms when I shut the door. I tried to push him away, but he wouldn’t let me go. He curved his entire body around me while my deep cries filled the room.
“It will be okay,” Ty said over and over, his hand splayed across the back of my head. “I’ve got you.”
“Wwwhy isss ssshhee heeeree?” I stuttered into his black Henley shirt.
“She’s going to give an interview to refute the bullshit.” Ty held me tightly. “That’s why I was talking to the lawyers.”
“Grreeaaat,” I sobbed. “More good news.”
“Oh, butterfly.” Ty cupped my face as his eyes sought mine. “It is good news. I’m sorry. I didn’t get a lot of warning that she was here, but you’ll like her. I promise.”
“Yeah, it’s so great to have more people I don’t know share in my humiliation.” I pulled away from him.
“Zoey.” Ty looked pained.
“I just want to go home.” I crossed my arms and blubbered. “I don’t want to be here. I can’t handle this, it’s too much.”
“Oh, babe—” Ty caught my hand, holding it tightly so I couldn’t pull away. “We’re working on it. I promise it will blow over.”
“You know what? I don’t want to be around anyone right now.” I slumped down on the bed. “I’m not sure I can face anyone ever again.”
Ty looked devastated. “Being with me is why we’re going through this.”
“No, that psycho publicist is why I’m going through this,” I snarled. “Do you understand that because of her my credibility is probably fucked forever?”
“Zoey, no. It’s not.” Ty tried to comfort me helplessly.
I picked up my tablet where the latest story was pulled up and read it out loud.
“After speaking with multiple sources close to the matter, it’s clear that Zoey Pearson is a bossy and controlling opportunist who has haunted Tyson Rainier for nearly a decade. She chewed him up and spit him out, leaving him a shattered man. Some of our generation’s most prolific songs were written by Ty about Zoey, and just when Ty had gotten over her and found a love worthy of his affection, she reappeared. Not content to let Ty be happy with Ronni Miller, Zoey wormed her way back into his life first with a position at his new foundation, and now back into his bed. All of the LTZ guys hate her guts.”
“Zoey, can’t you see it’s just bullshit? Please trust me. People will move on after a day or two. Katherine, Sienna, Andrew, Jace, and the lawyers are getting everything pulled down and retracted.” Ty grabbed my hand and tried to be reassuring. “We’re working on a real follow-up story.”
“You really trust them?”
“I do.” Ty squeezed my hand tightly. “They’ve never let me down.”
All of my rage boiled over, and I couldn’t play nice anymore. “Never let you down? Are you serious? Pardon me for distrusting the very people who preyed on your vulnerability and used you for years to line their pockets.”
“Fuck, Zoey. What do you want me to say?” Ty roared, stricken by my words.
“N
othing, of course. I’m beginning to think you liked being the victim. That’s how you’ve justified everything. Mean, psycho Zoey left you and boo hoo, Ty got hurt and was sad for sooooo long,” I yelled, unable to stop. “Has your publicity team considered how this affected me all those years, ever? I stayed away because I was asked to by someone who I thought had your best interest in mind. But, if you wanted me so much, after Carter told you what he did, why didn’t you make the effort to find me. Or at least fucking correct the record years ago?”
“Babe—”
“No! Seriously, if Carter hadn’t arranged for you to run into me at the law firm, would we be here today?” My voice cracked. “I don’t think so. No, I know so.”
“Butterfly.” Ty’s face was aghast. He knew I was right. Suddenly, I didn’t feel very safe. I didn’t feel very protected.
“Leave me alone, Ty.” I sobbed and when I realized he still had hold of my hand, I wrenched it away. “We’ve danced around this, but if you think for one goddamn minute that I don’t know that Sienna is out there planting these stories so she can fix them—don’t say one more word about protecting me. Fuck you. Fuck her. I’m not going to let her do this to me.”
My emotions were all over the place. Mad, of course. Heartbroken. Scared beyond belief to lose Ty. Scared to stay with him. Embarrassed. Defiant. Resolved. Devastated.
Yep, devastated. That summed it up.
“My mom and dad, and my law school classmates, my former coworkers at the firm? All of them have probably read—God.” The tears flowed again at the sheer shame of it all. “I’m always going to be the evil bitch who broke your heart. The world already fucking hated me because of the songs. I’ve lived with that characterization for years. Now, apparently, I’m also a stalker slut who slept my way through law school, with my firm bosses and with Carter? It’s too much! Especially if the publicists for LTZ were behind it.”
Ty’s face drained of color, he looked like he was about to faint.
“Zoey, baby. I need to tell you something.”
“Excuse me—” Ronni softly knocked on the door interrupting my tirade.
ENDLESS: A Less Than Zero Rockstar Romance: Book 1: Ty & Zoey Page 26
