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“Okay” Jessie’s eyes had been so worried, and Cleo had knohat she’d say “But you wanted Brian, too”

“Jessie,” Cleo had said fiercely, “I need you to support me Please? Can you just support me?”

And her best friend had nodded jerkily, then sain

But all of that was nothing once the ot hold of the story, and Cleo’s ind romance in ancient Jhurat with its darkly handsoination of people everywhere

They co old pictures and splashed theazines that s and printed them as breathless truth They spoke to people who claimed to be old friends and talked about Cleo as if she were a vestal virgin clai They ossiped and called her the new Grace Kelly The new Kate Middleton The snider ones tutted and made dark predictions based as much on Je picture of Cleo in a slutty Halloween costue that she was positive Brian had released to the tabloids Perhaps in revenge, as no one seerettable chapter in Cleo’s life

“This is awful,” she’d co despair “How do famous people bear it? How do you?”

“I didn’t dress raduate university,” he’d said in that dry way that made her flush, that she wasn’t certain was either a Or both

“That was a private picture” And she’d been hideously embarrassed that he’d seen it That her parents had seen it That the entire world had seen the effects of too much bravado and way too much beer “But that doesn’t seem to matter anymore”

“No,” Khaled agreed He’d taken her hand in his and played with it idly, as if he was unaware of the wildfire that even so innocuous a touch ignited within her when she knew very well he wasn’t “Most fa about themselves and the fantasy lives the papers concoct for theed there across from her, so close and yet still so far out of reach that it hten “I’d advise you to do the same”

“But it’s all so invasive,” she’d said, frowning “It makes me feel hunted—”

His gaze had been so intense Very nearly ferocious