Page 127 of Pucking the Team

“But—?”

“I promise.”

The elevator door opened, and we stepped out onto a thankfully empty corridor and raced for our room.

Eduardo took out his cell. “Theo?” He put it on speaker.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Got a problem here.”

“Pippa all right?” There was instant concern in his voice.

“Oui, but…”

“But?”

“But we’re in a fix. We’re at this hotel, and the press have found out. We’ve just been mobbed in the lobby.”

“What? Fuck. She’ll hate that. Let me speak to her.”

“You’re on speaker.”

We went into our room and shut the door. “I’m okay, Theo, it was just a shock. We were so relaxed—a false sense of security, I suppose.”

“As long as you’re okay.”

“What’s going on?” Ben’s voice.

“We need to go get Pippa and Eduardo out of a tight spot.” Theo quickly explained the situation.

“No, we will figure it out,” Eduardo said, “but you needed to know, right, pictures are bound to hit the internet any moment. You guys were mentioned, and they know about Pippa and Ben being together in a room in Cardiff.”

“What? Dylan stayed in my fucking room with her?” Ben’s indignation was clear.

“They seem to have a photograph of me and you, Ben, me in my wedding dress,” I said. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry about anything,” Ben said. “It will be okay.”

“Fuck,” Theo muttered. He was quiet for a moment. “We’ll come get you. Organize with security to have a back dooropened. I’m guessing you can’t get to your car, and if you do it will be followed.”

“Oui, that is right.”

“And use the fire escape, the staircase.”

“I’m not sure if…” I said, staring out at the view from the balcony. It was so serene, such a contrast to the mayhem I’d just encountered.

“It will work,” Ben said. “Stay strong.”

“Dylan’s gonna be mad,” Eduardo said. “Merde.”

“He’ll be good if Pippa is,” Theo said. “Message me the address and we’ll be there.”

He ended the call.

I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my hot cheeks. I was still shaking slightly; the shock of it had got to me more than it usually would. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been spotted before and had a ton of questions thrown at me, but this time…this time it was different.

This time I’d been with a new lover. The situation had come out of the blue, not like at an airport or after a runway show or a big designer shoot. The sense of invasion made my skin crawl.