Kissed and Missed (Daddy Issues #2)

Chapter 12

12

JULIAN

PRESENT

H onor is shaking as she explains to me and Grey what’s happened, eyes huge on her chalk-white face.

“How did they know my name?” she whispers for the third time, allowing me to guide her onto the couch as Grey strides from the room, already barking orders into his phone. “I’m nobody. It doesn’t make any sense.”

It’s all I can do to keep my expression from reflecting the rage that exploded to life when I found Honor back at my hotel door, tears streaming down her face. “I don’t know.” I pull her close, keeping one arm around her shoulders as my other reaches for the phone in my pocket.

She doesn’t say a word as I fire off rapid messages to my staff, issuing orders and demanding answers. There’s nothing I hate more than being caught unprepared, and this time, it wasn’t me they caught. It was Honor, and the entire thing is my fault.

If I’d taken the time to prepare for this, if I’d stopped for one goddamn day to allow my security to develop a plan to keep this relationship private, then maybe this wouldn’t have happened. She didn’t choose to be a public figure, I did, but now because I acted so impulsively, she’s been sucked into it anyway.

When I got on that plane, the only thing I was thinking about was getting to her as quickly as possible. If I’d stopped for even a day, and allowed my team to put protections in place, this wouldn’t have happened.

“I’ll fix this,” I promise, kissing her temple, and it’s difficult to swallow past the guilt and shame crowding my throat. “My PR team will spin it. They’re some of the absolute best, Honor. I promise, everything that can be done, will be done.”

Honor stares at the coffee table. “It’s going to be on the news, right?”

The news? Maybe.

Every trashy celebrity gossip site, blog, magazine, and social media channel? Almost certainly. There’s nothing the internet loves more than a scandal, and Julian Ballard—notoriously single billionaire—getting caught in a hotel with his daughter’s ex-girlfriend might as well be blood in the water.

“We’re going to lay low here for a few days,” I tell her, doing my best to sound calmer than I am.

Her bottom lip trembles. “What about the gala? My work? God, I really need to go home and check on Leni—” Her head drops into her hands, and I want to tear my own hair out as she lets out a quiet sob. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“I’m so sorry,” I croak, “Honor, I’m so goddamn sorry.”

She shakes her head, peering over at me through shining eyes. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t call those people.”

No, I didn’t, but I was naive. In the back of my mind, I thought we were safe out here, an entire country away from the madness that is my life. I thought laying low until the gala would be enough.

Picking up my phone again, I fire off a few more messages. “I’m sending a few staff members to see to your sister. You may want to warn her, though.”

Just as I’ve finished speaking, however, a phone begins ringing in Honor’s purse and she dives for it, fumbling around until she pulls it out to see the name on the screen.

Leni “The Buttface” Vogel

“Hello?” Honor asks as she lifts the phone to her ear, her voice shaky. I go to stand up, to give her some space to talk to her sister, but Honor’s hand darts out to stop me. The sad, watery smile she gives me makes my chest ache. “Just a second. I’m putting you on speakerphone.”

“Okay,” a clear female voice comes from the speaker, “so, the internet seems pretty split on whether you’re a legend or a slut. The pictures are everywhere , though. How the actual fuck did this happen? When you left the apartment this morning you were still rocking the sad puppy look.”

“Pictures?” I demand, my heart sinking like a stone.

Lenora lets out an incredulous laugh. “You haven’t seen them yet? Oh boy. They’re pretty incriminating, to be honest. I mean, dude, did you have to fondle her in the middle of a freaking ballroom?”

It’s been a long time since anyone called me dude , but I have more pressing concerns at the moment. Picking up my phone again, I perform a rapid Google search of my name, and am met with dozens of recent videos, articles, and celebrity news releases, all with headlines saying more or less the same thing: Julian Ballard, CEO of Ballard Enterprises, spotted getting cozy with his daughter’s ex-girlfriend.

The pictures Lenora mentioned are at the very top of the first article I click, and it couldn’t be clearer that she was correct. Incriminating might even be an understatement. Judging by the angle, they were taken from the darkened stage area in the ballroom by a cell phone camera. The first shows Honor and I intertwined, her expression unguarded and radiant as she looks up at me. Next, our lips are about to meet. In the third, we’re kissing. The fourth is a grainy close-up of my hands gripping her ass.

Rage is an understatement for how I feel right now.

“Oh my god. Someone was watching us?” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Honor’s hands fly up to cover her mouth in horror.

I have never in my life felt the need to ruin someone, but when I find out who took these images, I will make them regret it. The violation of having my picture taken when I’m not aware has become so commonplace to me, I hardly think about it anymore. To know it happened to Honor, however, and that as a result, the entire internet is saying God knows what about it…

My stomach churns as Lenora’s voice issues from Honor’s phone again. “Dad is going to lose his mind. Mom is at that meditation retreat, though, so hopefully you’ll have time to get this under control before she reemerges as a more enlightened human being.”

Pressed against me as she is, I feel Honor tremble. “Um.” Her voice cracks. “I’ll call him so he doesn’t hear it on the news or anything.”

“I’ll call Sophie. We can make it her problem,” Lenora advises with a snort. “Do you need me to do anything else?”

Honor opens her mouth and closes it again but doesn’t make a sound. Sensing she’s too shaken up to speak, I take over. “Not at the moment. I’ll make sure to keep you updated as my team learns more.”

“You do that.” There’s a note of animosity in her voice, and I can hardly blame her for it. I doubt I would feel any different if my sister got caught up in something like this. “I know you’re super rich and master of the universe and all that, but if you show up here, ruin her life, and leave, I will track you down and shove a pineapple up your ass.”

Beside me, Honor lets out a watery little giggle, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “It’s not his fault, Len.”

“It kind of is,” Lenora bites back. “And not to freak you out, but I just looked outside and there are a bunch of sketchy guys in black coats, holding cameras. So, probably not a good idea to come home.”

We hang up, and nearly the moment the screen of her phone goes black, Honor slumps forward, head in her hands. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she says weakly. “It doesn’t feel real.”

“I’m going to deal with it. I swear, Honor.”

She peeks up at me, smiling weakly. “I guess the cat is out of the bag, huh? The worst thing that could come of this has happened. So now, if we get through this, it’s home free.”

“It’s not an if ,” I assure her gravely as I brush hair back from her beautiful, tear-streaked face. “I wouldn’t have come if there was a question in my mind that this can work.”

Honor gazes back at me. “How can you be so sure, though? We barely know each other, and now there’s no wading in or testing the waters, you know? The whole world knows, and if either of us walks away, we’ll look even worse.”

She’s not wrong, and I hate the thought of her feeling even slightly trapped with me. I want her, yes, but not like this.

“Whatever happens, I’ll make sure the burden of guilt is on me.” I weave my fingers through hers, squeezing slightly. “For the record, though, it’s been a long time since I felt as sure about anything as I am about you. I’m so sorry you had to go through this, and that the world knows before you’re ready, but it hasn’t changed what I feel for you.”

Sniffing, she searches my face, obviously looking for signs I’m not being completely genuine. I can’t blame her for it. After all, wasn’t it my daughter who lied, cheated, and gaslit her? Even if their relationship was never going to go the distance—a fact I can’t pretend I’m not happy about now—it ending the way it did had to leave some scars. Now, with this horrible fucking development, of course she’s scared.

Which means it’s my job to make her feel as secure and certain of our future as I am.

“I want to believe you,” she begins cautiously, as if waiting for me to get angry at her for being honest. “It’s just a lot, you know? Not even twenty-four hours ago I thought it was never going to happen. Now, you’re here saying all these perfect things and we’re having the best sex ever, and the entire world knows we’re together…” She trails off with a tight, miserable smile.

It’s a challenge not to latch on to the best sex ever comment. “I understand,” I tell her gently, grateful the tears seem to have stopped for the moment. “I’m guessing we’re going to be here for a few days. I think it would be wise to stay out of public until the gala. Hopefully my team will have sorted out the worst of things by then.”

She nods slowly, taking this in. “You really think they’ll be able to make us not look like the worst people on the planet?”

Fuck, that anyone could think that about Honor, who is nothing short of an angel, makes my blood boil.

“I do.” Tucking her hair behind her ear with my free hand, I press a kiss to her temple, and my chest expands as she leans into me, like she wants my touch as badly as I want hers. “When I walk into that gala on Friday, I want you next to me, and when I announce the director of The Ballard Fund, I want it to be you.”