CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sitting down carefully on her sore lady parts, Paige answered the Skype call from her business manager Carrie. She’d been monitoring social media since Paige and Nate’s debut yesterday and was ready to give a full report about how it was going.
Paige had vowed to stay away from her laptop no matter how much she wanted to see what was going on but that hadn’t been a problem. Nate had kept her busy pretty much all night and into the morning. That was why she couldn’t sit or walk comfortably.
Lucky me.
She couldn’t say he hadn’t warned her.
After they’d rolled out of bed at the crack of noon, the smirking, cocky bastard had gone for a run, promising to bring back food she didn’t have to prepare.
Carrie’s smiling face appeared on the laptop screen.
“Talk to me. Tell me what’s happening. Good or bad?”
“Mostly good. Some bad, but you know, we expected that. Helen and Garrett are all over any negative stuff. I just got off a conference call with them.”
Paige wanted to rip the Band-aid off fast. “Tell me the bad first.”
Carrie laughed and shook her head. “How about I tell you some of the great stuff? Most of his fans really like you. They think you look cute together and that his dating a writer totally makes sense. The press coverage has been quite positive overall now that your mystery identity has been solved. I think you’ll find that you’ll see more paps following you from now on, though. Those pictures of Nate being protective of you as you walked to the limo are all over the place. That really moved things in your favor.”
The bad must be really terrible if Carrie was avoiding it.
“And the bad?”
“I haven’t even told you yet about your fans. Their response is overwhelmingly positive, and they’re already calling for him to play Flynn, so that’s all good.”
“And the bad?” Paige repeated, her stomach dropping to her feet. It was going to be ugly, she could feel it.
Carrie’s smile fell and she sighed heavily. “Some of his fans aren’t taking it well. They’ve flooded your Twitter and Facebook but don’t worry. Helen and Garrett have some people working on cleaning that up.”
There was more. Something Carrie didn’t want to tell her. Paige could see it in her body language even over Skype. She was fidgeting in her seat, her gaze darting away every few seconds.
“And?” Paige prompted. “Jesus, just spill it.”
“His fans have been one-star reviewing your books all over the place – Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo. The reviews are open that they haven’t read your books but that they hate you because you took their Nate.”
Their Nate. Like he was a thing, not a person. Like he really was Kai.
Acid rose in the back of her throat and she had to swallow hard to keep from hurling what little was left in her churning stomach. It was one thing to call her names, flood her social media with venom, but to play with her career? That was something completely different.
“I want you to promise me that you will not under any circumstances go read your reviews. Promise me, Paige. Cross your heart and hope to die and all that jazz. I am as serious as a heart attack here.”
She’d stopped reading her reviews a long time ago but at this moment it was all she could do not to open up her Amazon page and take a look. Just how much did these fangirls hate her?
“You’re not promising me. Promise,” Carrie commanded.
“I promise,” Paige finally agreed. Carrie was right in that nothing good would come from reading them. She’d only feel shitty and depressed and she hated feeling that way. “Is Helen working on them with the book vendors?”
Carrie nodded. “Absolutely. They’ll try and get them cleaned up as best as they can. Personal attacks are against the Terms of Service. It just might take some time. But you’ll be happy to know that your fans have seen what’s happening and they’re out there writing reviews on the books they love to try and mitigate the damage.”
Blinking back tears, Paige’s throat tightened with emotion. It was those readers that had put her on the bestseller list and now they were coming to her defense. She truly was a blessed woman, but she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to drag them into the middle of this. The less attention they gave these fangirls the sooner all of this would die down.
“We’re not asking them to do that, are we? Because I don’t want to do that. It’s not something I want to ask my readers.”
Carrie shook her head. “Absolutely not. We’ve been clear on Twitter and Facebook that we don’t want them engaging with anyone that comes there to bash you. It’s just something they’ve done on their own.”
Overcome, Paige didn’t even know what to say. She’d never imagined that she’d be in this position to begin with and now that she was, she was out of her depth.
“There’s no training class or book about how to handle this, is there?” Paige asked to no one in particular. “Nothing really prepares you for people that hate your guts but don’t even know you.”
“You’ve been preparing for this your whole life, Paige. Back when you were in the corporate world and now dealing with all kinds of people. It’s all grace under pressure and you have it. This isn’t even about you. There is no woman in the world that would make those fans happy. Not one.”
Intellectually she knew that, but it still kind of hurt. She was a good person or at least tried to be, yet there was a faction of the population who would as soon see her fall off the planet.
The front door opened and Nate burst through, humming a song, a huge grin on his face. He ought to be fucking smiling after all the sex last night.
“Nate’s home with food so I’m going to let you go. Keep me in the loop with everything, okay?”
Carrie promised to do that and then signed off, leaving Paige feeling rather deflated and sad. Her mood was in sharp contrast to Nate’s enthusiasm but so far he hadn’t seemed to notice.
He came in to the living room and nuzzled her neck, pressing a kiss to the pulse point.
“I’ll head upstairs and take a shower and then we can eat. How was your afternoon?”
“It was great. Good. It was good.”
She was a lousy liar apparently because Nate came around the sofa and sat down on the coffee table in front of her, moving her laptop aside.
“Don’t ever take up professional poker, darling. Your expression tells a completely different story than your words. What’s wrong?”
She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, giving herself a much needed hug. “I just talked to Carrie.”
He nodded, understanding in his eyes. “Yes, I spoke with Garrett about an hour ago. They’re working on cleaning that all up, love. I’m just so sorry that happened to you.”
His tone was regretful and she believed that he was sorry but he shouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place. The fangirls had put him there though and for that she was kind of angry. He was convinced that he needed to be something he wasn’t to keep his fans happy. To have a career.
“It’s not your fault. Your fans are rather…passionate, shall we say? You get anywhere near a vagina and they lose their minds.”
Nate laughed and took her hands in his, pulling her into his arms, and she took comfort and strength from his closeness. “That’s one way of putting it. Listen, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. We belong to each other and that’s the way it is. Once they see how happy I am and that this is for real and isn’t going anywhere, they’ll get used to it. It will all blow over. Let’s take solace in the fact that the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. I told you they were going to ship us and they do.” He hung his head for a moment. “I feel badly because I should have warned you. I wish I could protect you from all of this but responding just fuels the fire.”
Paige shook her head. “No, I absolutely don’t want you to respond to them. You’re right, the less said about any of this the sooner it will fall into oblivion.” She sniffed his shirt and wrinkled her nose. “Boy, you are ripe. Go take a shower and I’ll set the table.”
He hesitated, his expression unsure.
“I’m fine,” Paige assured Nate, nudging his shoulder. “I’ve had much worse reviews and I’ve developed a thick skin. I just had a moment, that’s all. By dessert I will have forgotten all about this.”
His hands slid up her thighs, his fingers brushing a particularly sensitive area. “Perhaps there are a few things I can do to take your mind off of all of it.”
He had to be joking. She could barely move and he wanted to fool around?
“I can’t believe you’re serious.” Paige slapped at his hands and tried to wriggle away toward the other end of the couch. “Do you know how sore I am? I can hardly move or walk.”
A grin magically appeared on his handsome face. Asshole. “That was my goal. I’m a little sore too but I’m willing to play through the pain.”
Her brows shot up and her mouth fell open. “You’re sore? You’ve got nerve, Mason. Nerve. I have delicate parts down here that need tender loving care. You treated them like toys last night.”
Standing, Nate bounded toward the staircase, chuckling the whole way. “They were more fun than the bicycle I got for Christmas. Seriously though, after dinner we’ll soak in a hot tub. I do want to take exquisite care of my girl.”
That was quite a compliment. Better than a bike from Santa.
“We’ll see. Feed me first.”
No sense making things too easy for him. He already knew she was going to give in but he needed to work for it, if only a little. He wouldn’t appreciate it otherwise.