I stopped a few feet in front of him—arms at my side—and tried to keep my voice calm. Even though I was fuming internally, I did my best to keep the conversation professional. “This is hardly a social call, Fields.”
“Oh, I’m guessing you’ve seen my new magazine! No need to be angry. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you shouldn’t pay attention to anything you read in the tabloids?” He started to chuckle, like the fact that my naked body was currently splashed all over the country was an amusing little aside.
“It’s not funny, Devin. Why are you doing this to me? Why are you trying to destroy Trip?”
He didn’t even miss a beat to answer, “Oh, you mean aside from the fact that you left me for him?”
Wrong. “Let’s just get one thing straight. I left you for me.”
He wandered over to the built-in bar, grinning smugly as he said, “Now that hurts, Warren. I always thought we made a great team.” He poured some Perrier into a glass, held it out to me and asked, “Care for a drink? Or maybe Wiley’s gotten you used to something a little stronger these days. I have some whiskey, if you’d rather.”
That’s it. I snapped.
“Okay, that’s enough! You’d better pray I don’t sue your ass. You have no right to print those pictures of me and those lies about Trip. And you know it!”
“I’m well within my rights. And I have quite the legal team at my disposal if you need confirmation.” His answer was collected, but I knew him well enough to recognize that my threat had put a bit of fear in his voice. The thing was, I didn’t even know if I had a case. So, I guess I was bluffing, too.
“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here, but I don’t like it. I don’t deserve this.”
“You reap what you sow.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You can’t stand here and tell me that you’re still hurting from our breakup.”
“Hardly. I’m actually getting married in a few months.”
Huh. That was certainly interesting. I wondered who the poor girl could possibly be. “Well, congratulations,” I said flatly.
Devin smiled a genuine grin at my well-wishes, but he looked even more pleased with himself when he said, “What I meant was that this is the life you signed on for, this is the life you chose. You want to date a guy like Wiley, you have to be prepared for this kind of attention.”
“I didn’t choose to have my naked body gracing the cover of your magazine. Trip didn’t choose to have you trash him every chance you get.”
He shrugged, dismissing my complaints. “Better get used to it.”
I couldn’t tell if he was being snarky or genuinely offering advice. I didn’t care to figure it out. “When did you become this vindictive person?” I shook my head in disbelief, taken aback by the new Devin in front of me. “How can you print that stuff about him? Do you have any idea what he needed to go through in order to get his life back?”
“It’s not personal. It’s The Backlot, for godsakes. It’s what we do here.” He gave a chuckle at that, and that one, little, trivializing guffaw managed to make me feel like I was in way over my head. As if this was just the way things were done in that city, and I was the oddball for not adhering to their rules. What was wrong with these people?
Devin didn’t notice my epiphany and just continued with his self-inflating commentary. “I turned this magazine around. We went from relative obscurity to the third-highest-selling tabloid in the entire country. I turned this place into an empire, and you’re looking at the king, baby.”
“You’re sitting on a throne made of porcelain. It’s a kingdom of crap.”
He stammered a bit at that, caught off guard by my dig. “It pays the bills.”
“Destroying people? I can’t imagine any amount of money is worth that.”
He snickered, but I knew my words had gotten to him. “Always with your high ideals, Layla. You may want to join the real world sometime.”
If that was the real world, I didn’t need to be a part of it. I was much happier living in my delusional bubble, thank you very much. “You’ve changed, Devin. I mean, you were always ambitious, but I never knew you to be cruel before.”
I saw his face fall, but he quickly regained his composure as he shrugged and defended, “It’s just business, baby.”
“It always was with you.”
I paced a few steps around the room, ran a hand over my hair. “Okay, look. I didn’t come here to argue with you. I came here to offer you a deal.”
I stood there with my arms crossed, eyeing up the man I had almost married. I was pretty disappointed in myself at that moment for ever considering it and grateful that I’d finally woken up in time before I did. Granted, he wasn’t always this much of a jerk, but the signs had always been there.