Rina whipped her head around at once, all of her being fully aware of his presence. Her breath hitched in her throat as she took him in, looking as relaxed and confident as ever, dressed in a grey suit that fit him like a glove with his wavy hair finishing his look. His eyes narrowed in on Adam’s fingers grazing the stray curls of her hair, and a muscle twitched in his jaw. “I’m certain I’m not going to repeat myself.”
Adam seemed to catch himself in that moment, withdrawing his hand at once, letting it fall to his side. The shoot was temporarily paused, their attention was focused on the sudden appearance of Zayn, coupled with the article that had just been released that morning. If there had been any doubts in their heart, they had been washed out by the glare in his eyes as he gave Adam a once-over.
“Zayn,” Rina finally found her voice. “What are you…”
The door to the studio opened and a messenger appeared with a message for Rina. Her presence was being demanded in the conference room, and at once, Rina knew what it was about. It wasn’t out of place for her contract to be revisited as one of the rules of being a model for a brand is the absence of drama for the existence of the agreement. But surely, Claire McGregor knew the barrel of events Rina had been thrown into before hiring her.
Rina nodded and moved away from the triangle that had formed, with Zayn following her out of the room. They walked the space to the conference room in silence, with Rina’s thoughts all over the place. She wanted to say something but she didn’t know where to start. Should she begin with the kiss, or were they going to ignore it as they had done with the last episode in his room?
“Sorry about the article,” he murmured as they got to the door. “I know you weren’t ready for the world to find out about us, and I let this happen. If I hadn’t been so obsessed with seeing you last night, we would have avoided it. The paparazzi perhaps followed me, and I have a good idea about who it was.”
“It’s none of your fault,” Rina whispered, happy they were at least talking. “You didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to do, and I love the fact that you came to see me yesterday. I was beginning to get worried when you didn’t respond to my texts.”
“What do you want me to do about this? There is still a flicker of doubts in people’s minds about the article, so we can capitalize on that and give no public statement. I also have a strong feeling that whoever took that picture also got one of us kissing. They are going to reach out with blackmail, and we need to be able to control it. The blackmail would be directed at you since I have practically nothing to lose, and you have so many people who want your downfall out there. So, we have to make a decision now while we still have the time to control this.”
Rina thought about denying their relationship, but there was no essence of doing that since she had already made up her mind to be his wife for the next five years. Zayn had been of so much help to her when she really needed it and the least she could do was to help him in return.
“Let’s do nothing,” she said, an idea playing in her head. “We can use this in our favor. We could let the rumors play on for as long as it can, and then wait for the reporter to reach out to us with their term. After that, we make our first public appearance. I know it definitely isn’t going to be as seamless as I think, but we can try, right? I also have Regina looking out for me in Scottsdale so I will know if Kayla is behind this and what her next move will be.”
“Are you sure?” Zayn questioned, searching her eyes. “I can make this go away as fast as it got here. You wouldn’t have to deal with any of it and we can go back to the way things were before this.”
“Over a million people already saw it.”
“And we can prevent more people from seeing it. I just want to ensure you are comfortable with this before going on with the plan. You didn’t want anyone thinking you got here with my help.”
“And I am here already,” Rina replied. “You mentioned something about your sister not wanting to be associated with the Graham name so people didn’t think she got her way through the doors the name would pull open. But just like I, I have come to the realization that no one is playing this game clean with me. Their tactics are dirty and as much as I want to do this alone, I am going to need all the help that I can get moving forward. People are bound to find out about us sooner or later so the best I can do right now is control it.”
“Rina,” he breathed. “Are you going to be able to make it for the launch of the branch of my company tomorrow? If you will be, I need to make provisions for you.”
“Yes. I want to be there. By then, the rumors should have simmered enough and we can make a public appearance. I’m thinking that whoever is responsible for this would have reached out by then and we would have our response in the evening.”
“You look like you’re enjoying this,” Zayn mused, tilting his head. “I just keep on discovering new parts to you.”
Rina shrugged. “I have never been one to stay in the shadows, and even if the world forced me in there, there’s no way I’m going to let myself remain locked up. It’s time for me to break forth, and Pages by Claire already set the stage for me. All that’s left is for me to change the narrative the world has of me. They will need someone to blame so my anti-fans are still going to hate me until I can prove that Kayla is behind all of this.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. You’ve got me.”