My eyes bulge wide, and all sorts of nightmare scenarios run through my head.

"It's not true!" I blurt out. I say it to everyone, and to no one in particular. I feel like all eyes are on me in the ballroom right now, and I would do anything to disappear into thin air.

I stand up from my seat, accidentally catching the tail of my dress under my high heel. A ripping noise zips across the room like a phone book being torn in half, and I realize the entire right side of my dress just split open along the seams.

Some people laugh, and others gasp with embarrassment. I feel tears start to well up in my eyes, but I refuse to cry. Not here in front of the entire publishing industry. My writing career is probably over at this point. But I'm not going to let them add insult to injury.

I free my dress from my spiked heel, gather it up in my arms, and rush out of the ballroom as fast as I can toward the nearest bathroom. And when I get inside, the first thing I do is deadbolt the door. I run the water until it gets hot, and then I splash some on my face, staring at myself in the mirror and trying to process everything that just happened.

The water makes my makeup run down my face, but I don't care. There's no way this night can get any worse than it already is.

A banging sound comes from the door, followed by Luke's voice. "Leah? Open up."

I trudge to the door, my dress dragging on the dirty bathroom floor. "Is there anyone with you?" I say through the door.

"No. Just me. Open it up."

I comply, and he quickly slips inside the bathroom with me. I catch the unmistakable flash of paparazzi cameras behind him.

"Well that's just great," he says, turning the deadbolt again. "A photograph of me going into the women's restroom right after that debacle. That's just perfect."

I sniffle. "Oh, Luke, what was he talking about? Womanizing and drinking? Are you hiding something from me? I had such a weird feeling ever since that naked photo appeared on your phone."

Luke looks angrier than I've ever seen him. "Goddamnit," he says. "No. In the past, when I was stupid and young, I did some things I wish I never had. But that's not me anymore. It's a smear campaign, Leah. A dirty fucking smear campaign."

"But what about the selfie?" I say, on the verge of tears.

Luke grits his teeth. "Rex sent it, Leah. Bullshit from my past. I have no idea where or how he got the photo. It was a threat. There's no one else, and there hasn't been since I first laid eyes on you. And there won't be as long as we're together."

"But what about TMZ? What is all this stuff he's talking about?"

Luke just shakes his head. "Watch it if you want. All you'll see is a dumb kid doing dumb things in his 20s. It's all old crap. It's not me anymore, Leah. You know the real me. I'm not hiding anything from you and I never have. This is who I am."

Suddenly I crack up and I can't stop laughing. Nothing about tonight seemed funny up until right now. I believe everything he's saying. My gut, deep down, says that Luke Steele is an honest man. I can't keep having these doubts. His character is under attack, and he needs my support right now. Not my suspicion.

Luke shakes his head, only giving me a small, wistful smile. "You're crazy."

"Oh, Luke," I say, putting my arms around him and tucking my head in tight against his chest. "This is so crazy. I thought the publishing industry was just a bunch of book nerds. I never expected drama like this. What are we supposed to do now?"

He puts an arm around me, too, and it makes me feel safe and protected. "This is going to take some damage control." He strokes my shoulder with his thumb, thinking. "The first thing we've got to do is get the hell out of here."

"I can't think of anything I'd like to do more," I say.

He releases me from his embrace and walks across the bathroom, toward a few windows cracked open near the ceiling. They lead to the grass lawn on the side of the convention center, near the limo drop-off point.

Luke gets a mischievous grin on his face. I can't help smiling back at him. This whole night has completely blown up, and instead of being sad or angry, everything just seems funny right now because it's all so absurd. "Think we can make an escape through these?" he says.

I look up at the windows. They're big enough for a person to fit through.

"You first," I say.

He takes his suit jacket off, one arm a time, and then tosses it over a stall. "So long," he says to the jacket. Then he loosens his sleeves and collar, and jumps up high enough to hook his fingers over the window ledge. Hanging there with one hand, he manages to turn the window crank until it's wide open. Then he hoists himself all the way up, pulls himself through the window, and disappears out the other side.

"Hey!" I call out. "What about me?"

A moment later, his head pops through the window and he grins. God, he looks so handsome like that. I love it when his five-'o-clock shadow comes in during the evening.

"Give me your hand," he says. I kick off my heels and stand on my tiptoes on the bathroom floor, trying not to step in any of the mysterious-looking puddles all over the tile floor. I reach up with both hands, and then he pulls me up and through the window after him.

When I'm all the way through, we collapse into a heap on the grass outside. He falls onto his back, and I fall right on top of him. In my underwear. Because my dress got caught on the window, and it got completely ripped off my body.

I crawl back to the window on my hands and knees, trying to rescue the dress from the window. But it's completely tangled up on the wood splinters, and every tug I give it is met with a horrible ripping noise.

Just then, as I'm tugging on the dress with my butt in the air, a crowd of paparazzi come around the corner of the building. I look over my shoulder and a look of surprise crosses Luke's face. "Run for it!" he yells.

He grabs my hand, lifting me to my feet, and we both sprint as fast as we can toward the pickup area where the limos are.

The driver, Earl, sees us coming and races as fast as his old legs will take him to open the back door for us. That's what I love the most about Earl. The man knows how to use discretion. When he sees his boss and his boss's naked fiancée running toward him, he doesn't even stop to think twice about the situation. He just gets things done.

I dive into the limo first, and Luke follows me, slamming the door shut behind us. My ears are ringing and I have stars in my eyes from all of the flashes coming from the paparazzi's cameras.

"Oh my god," I say, breaking into another uncontrollable fit of giggling. "I cannot believe that just happened."

Luke laughs, but then groans and puts his head in his hands as the limo pulls away. "I can't believe this," he says, starting to sober up from the adrenaline rush we just experienced. "This is seriously a disaster."