The scent of lilacs drifted through the air along with the clink of raised champagne glasses, and I wondered how long I could hide in the fancy white gazebo behind the honeysuckle bushes.

I’d been so wrapped up in my personal drama, I’d almost forgotten about my mother’s big matchmaking plans. I might have managed to wriggle out of this event early on in the game, when she wasn’t as desperate and her focus wasn’t as tight, except for two things:

1. Norcross Hope, the charity, bought schoolbooks for impoverished kids, a cause that was really dear to my dad’s heart, and I couldn’t let him down, and;
2. Knox was also affiliated with Norcross Hope, and so attending this shindig was technically part of my job.

“Are you really wearing that?” Oh crap, my mom had found me. “Allison, darling, you know green absolutely washes you out.”

“Does it?” I said. “Ah, well.”

“I think she looksh—looks lovely,” my dad said. He avoided my mom’s dagger eyes by taking another swig of champagne. Was this his fifth? We were way too early in the evening for that. I wished he didn’t have to drink to get through events with my mother. Though honestly, I couldn’t blame him. And come to think of it, maybe he had the right idea…

“She looks washed out, and you know it,” my mother snapped. “Allison, on the phone we specifically discussed the color palettes that most favor—”

“Oh look, I see a handsome successful man, bye!” I interrupted, and sped off to find another, better, hiding place. I eventually chose the nook behind the catering crew, but decided to first stop by the cash bar and tip the bartender fifty small to make sure Daddy got his drinks watered down for the rest of the night.

“Bribing someone to slip arsenic in Chuck’s drink?”

Hunter’s honey voice slid luxuriously through the scented air. Suddenly my dress felt very tight, and the night very, very hot.

I turned to survey him. Oh, big mistake. He was looking good enough to eat, his classic cut tuxedo hugging the perfect lines of his muscular body, a slight five o’clock shadow adding just a hint of danger and bad boy appeal to the grin he was sending my way.

“As if I’d be that obvious,” I said, trying to act unaffected. “Why, did you already bribe someone?”

“Nah,” he said. He leaned closer. “I’d offer to buy you a drink, but given the way this conversation started, I’m not sure you’d take me up on it.”

My hand raised itself of its own volition, trailing down the front of his shirt. “Given the way this conversation went last night, I’m pretty sure I would.”

He grinned at me, our eyes locking. For a moment, we were the only people in the world.

And then—

“Hunter!” A booming voice rang out as a man in a blue business suit came up and slapped him jovially on the back. He didn’t seem to see me at all. “Good to see you! Got some questions about the board meeting coming up, know you won’t mind taking a minute to answer them—”

With a pained look at me, Hunter allowed himself to be led away. Now was not the time for him to brush off any of his supporters within the company; he couldn’t afford to lose any foothold he had.

And right behind him, where they had heard every word we had said to each other: the Douchebros. My stomach clenched and I willed myself not to blush tomato red.

Harry and his little posse strutted up to me like roosters with brand-new tail feathers. I braced myself. But not, as it turned out, hard enough.

“Well, what do we have here, bro?” Harry asked the Douchebro closest to him.

“I think it’s the case of Nancy Drew and the Secret Slutbag, bro,” the second said.

“Bro, you are totally right.”

Their weird verbal tic almost distracted me from what they were actually saying. “What—what are you talking about?”

“‘The way the conversation went last night,’” Harry mimicked in a falsetto voice. “You got some brass ones, Ally Bally Fee Fi Fo Fally. I mean, it’s one thing to fuck your way up the ladder, but flaunting it like that, in a public place? Tsk, tsk.”

“Excuse me?” I said, my voice ice to cover the way I could feel the ground slipping away from under me.

“What, you didn’t think Knox hired you on merit, did you?” Harry asked with a sneer. “He just wanted to hit that ass. Same as Mr. Avery. That’s how you got this job in the first place, or did you not notice that all the other interns were dudes? Wasn’t much to choose from, truth be told.”

“What? That is not true. I got this job on my own merits—” I sputtered.

“That your nickname for your boobs?” Harry interrupted.

The Douchebros gave him high fives.

“You—are—pathetic,” I gritted out between clenched teeth. “You are a pathetic little baby hiding in a man’s body and shouting at the world because you’re terrified it doesn’t care about you, and you know what? You’re right. It doesn’t. No one cares about you at all, Harry, and no one ever will.”

I stormed off, refusing to let the tears surface. So what if Harry and the Douchebros thought that? So what if everyone thought that? So what if I was so devastated that I felt like I was cracked apart inside, like I was going to fall into a thousand pieces? I wasn’t. I couldn’t. Not yet, not out here in the open.

I had to find Hunter.

* * *

“Ally, what’s wrong?”

I had thought my emotions were well-disguised, but one look at my face and Hunter had made his excuses to the board members and allowed me to pull him away to the gazebo for a private talk. I tried to still my trembling hands, tried to keep tears from leaking out where they’d blur my mascara, where they’d let Hunter dismiss what I was saying. I could still hear the Douchebros’ accusations ringing in my ears.

“I’ve been indecisive,” I said hurriedly. “I’ve been saying things, and then doing different things, and it’s not right and it’s not fair to you, and—Hunter, I can’t keep doing this. I’ve worked too hard; I can’t afford to let myself get the reputation of—of a—”

My voice broke. Hunter tried to lay a comforting arm on my shoulder, but I pulled back as if his hand were a red-hot brand.

“I…see,” Hunter said slowly. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t want my actions to hurt your career. But Ally—we’ve been discreet. And it’s the twenty-first century, I don’t think people are as judgmental as you’re afraid they are—”

“Of course they are!” I said. “People are already noticing, that’s why we’ve got to put a stop to it as quick as we can, before things get too out of hand—”

Hunter was shaking his head at me, a frown tight across his lips, refusing to go along with what I was saying or even try to understand where I was coming from.

Why was he stonewalling me like this? Couldn’t he see how much it was hurting me just to say this; couldn’t he have any mercy?

“Ally, just stop, listen to yourself.” His expression grew hard as he cut me off. “Now look, if someone has been spreading rumors, I can…”

“No, no!” The last thing I needed was Hunter charging in like a white knight and confirming everyone’s opinion that we were sleeping together. “It’s just…this is really for the best. This has to end.”

“Oh really?” he said, crossing his arms. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. Someone is spreading rumors, aren’t they? It’s those assholes you work with!”

“What does it matter who it is?” I snapped, throwing up my hands. “The fact is that it’s happening! And I can’t afford to have people think that I’m some kind of—”

“What do you care what those jerks think?” he said, taking a step towards me, his hand reaching for my shoulder as if to pull me into his line of thinking.

I almost let him. I wanted so badly to be told that I could have everything I wanted, that everything would turn out fine, that we could live happily ever after.

But I knew we couldn’t. I pulled away from his touch as if his hand were a snake.

The hurt on his face couldn’t have been greater if I had slapped him. It was followed quickly by fury. He took another stride closer; I could feel his body trembling with suppressed anger, I could feel heat radiating off him. “Is what we have so fragile that you’re going to go running from the first sign of trouble? I thought you were better than that. I thought you were strong enough to stand on your own, not be influenced by the opinions of men you don’t even like.”

I clenched my fist before my hand could rise up and slap him. Was he really so blind? Couldn’t he see how different it was for him? A man could dick around all he wanted and no one looked twice. A woman made one mistake, and her career was done forever.

“As if you would know the first thing about standing on your own,” I said, my voice trembling. “Tell me, Hunter Knox, is it terribly lonely up there on your high horse with only your millions for company? How you must have struggled, having your opportunities occasionally delivered to you on a silver platter instead of a gold one.”

“You think I’ve had it easy?” Hunter countered, his volume rising to match my own. “You think I haven’t worked and sweated and goddamn bled for this goddamn company? You don’t know me. You don’t know one fucking thing about what I’ve had to do these past years.”

Rage coursed like acid through my veins. “And you don’t know one fucking thing about what I have to do right now, every single day.”

Hunter shook his head, his expression fierce. “I’m not letting you walk away from this, Ally.”

As if I had wanted to walk away. As if this were anything other than my only choice. Oh, Hunter. Oh, proud, beautiful, angry Hunter. My heart felt like it was going to burst with regret and loss and rage and desire.

“There’s nothing to walk away from. We only ever had a beginning. And it might seem like it matters to you now, but one day, you won’t even remember it.”

“Ally—”

“It’s done, Hunter.” I tried to walk away but he placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, attempting to pull me back toward him. I resisted his touch, keeping my body still and refusing to turn around.

“Is this…is this really what you want?” he asked. “I’ll respect your choice if it is, and we can end this for good, but—”

“Yes,” I said, my voice cracking at the lie. “It’s what I really want.”

I turned and ran, Cinderella fleeing the ball, before he could hear me cry.

Before he could realize just how much I wanted him to persuade me to stay.