Heart of Stone

Chapter Thirty-Two: Caught Out

*

The message from Ed finally arrived. I almost didn't bother opening it, but the preview proved too intriguing to ignore.

Ed: Hey Soph. Sorry for the radio silence. Had to meet up with Lacey's team to discuss a staged photo. You'll probably see it on socials. Swing by my suite later and I'll fill you in?

I re-read the message five times, hating how I wanted to believe him. But no. I refused to fall for it twice. No doubt his PR team had panicked about the fallout from the photo, and they needed to ensure I didn't retaliate.

Too late. I'd already sent my latest expose onto Sammie, hoping that made up for the fact I'd not given her something as juicy as a Leddy kiss.

And besides, if that photo really had been staged, he could have told me about it before—or even straight after—it happened. Why wait until it had gone public?

The more I thought about it, the more it pissed me off. It wasn't bad enough that he'd been lying to me; he had the audacity to try to cover his tracks, too?

And if I went to his suite, presumably he'd continue the lie there? Would he even try to pick up where we'd left off, or would he sleep with only one woman now that him and Lacey were back in the same city?

Curiosity won.

I had to see him, if only to find out how far he'd spin his lie. Then I could confront him and get closure.

Teddy Stone might be used to getting what he wanted ninety-nine percent of the time, but I would always be the one percent exception.

*

In my enraged state, I forgot the codes to the service lift. After two failed attempts, I sifted back through my phone's messages until I found the one where he'd sent me the combinations. Seeing all our previous conversations—going back in time from dirty to flirty to friendly—only angered me further.

I hadn't been honest with him, either, but I hadn't cheated on anyone, and I certainly hadn't faked my feelings towards him. If I'd wanted to do that, I could have done it right from the start rather than pissing about with friendship first. Maybe I wouldn't have ended up liking him so much. That tactic had really come back to bite me in the arse.

During the journey up to the top floor, I tried to calm the fury simmering within me. If I stormed in there all guns blazing, I'd forfeit my chance of taking the high ground. And I needed to take the high ground given that I was hardly innocent in this whole debacle.

Out of habit, I knocked on his door and waited until he called me inside. It could have been any day over the past six weeks. The smile he flashed me looked genuine, his eyes crinkling and his dimples drawing my gaze down to his mouth as usual. The hug felt just as sincere, and my body seemed to think so, too, judging by how it melted into the heat of his muscles. And when his spicy cologne enveloped us in a bubble of memories and passion and friendship, I almost forgot why I was mad.

It was like I'd come full circle. I'd started off not trusting this act, and now here we were again.

"Have you seen the photo yet?" he asked as we sat down opposite each other in the living area.

His laptop was open on the table in front of him, and he briefly leaned forwards to type something before relaxing back into the sofa again.

"The one of you kissing Lacey? I saw it. Very realistic."

He tossed me a proud grin, seeming happy about that. "I know, right? I guess she is an actor so she can pull off a realistic kiss."

Unable to stop myself, I snorted. "Yeah, and I'm sure the fact you've kissed many times before certainly helped."

Teddy arched a brow at me, the corner of his mouth curling upwards. "You jealous, Soph?"

"Should I be?" I shot back.

I needed to keep the ball in his court, and it seemed to work because he reached to pluck his phone from the coffee table and quickly unlocked it.

"Here," he said, passing it over to me.

The same photo was loaded on the screen, and I cocked my head in confusion. "What, you want me to closely examine it or something?"

"No, I want you to look at the date it was taken."

I tapped on the screen to bring up the date.

23 January.

"I don't understand," I said.

"It's a publicity stunt with Lacey's team. Mark took the photo two months ago, but we knew it would have more impact if we released it just as the musical was kicking off."

I studied him, searching for clues that would confirm his lie. I'd expected him to downplay the kiss, but to create a whole story justifying it? That was a stretch.

"If it was taken two months ago, her name wouldn't be on the front of the theatre," I said. "Her musical only started yesterday. And you're wearing the same clothes as yesterday."

If I'd caught him out, he didn't show it. Instead, he simply shrugged, folding his hands behind his head—the picture of someone totally at ease and in control.

"Like I said, it was staged. The theatre changed the display to help us out and make it appear like it was taken at a later date. If it wasn't staged, don't you think there'd be more than one photo of us circulating? That part of London is constantly packed full of people. We'd never have been able to get away with it. We had to shut off the street."

"Hm," I said, crossing one leg over the other as I stared at him. "Sounds like you've well and truly covered your tracks, then."

Something in his expression shifted. If I hadn't been scrutinising his face to search for signs of deceit, I might not have noticed how his eyes narrowed just a fraction and how his relaxed smile gave way to tension in his jaw.

"Yeah," he said. "It's important to cover your tracks when it comes to releasing gossip, especially if you're trying to sell a lie."

"Were you together when the photo was taken, though? Because then it's not really a lie, is it?"

Teddy leaned forwards, threading his fingers on top of his knees as he fixed his attention on me. The atmosphere between us thickened, but if he was annoyed at the thought of me being jealous, he had no right to be.

"The circumstances of the photo don't matter," he said. "It only matters that it's believable. For example, that article about Lacey and me in the club? That was easily believed because she'd been posting about it on Instagram all night. Everyone could see we were there. Then the article about Lacey and me talking on the phone. It reportedly happened in Amsterdam, so that's believable because I had interviews in Amsterdam around the same time."

He pinched the top of his laptop lid and spun it to show me the screen. A familiar headline stared back at me, the words beneath it instantly recognisable because I'd written them only hours earlier.

"But an article about me taking drugs?" His voice dropped dangerously low. "That's not believable, because it's a very well-known fact that Teddy Stone has never touched a drug in his life."

***

Thank you for reading :) xx

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Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...