Chapter 21 Ella #2
The video is indeed of me, and it has an easy explanation that is anything but easy to explain to the public.
In the video, I’m attending what’s called a “heels” class.
It’s a style of dance that is primarily focused on a sensual type of movement, much like what is performed in music videos.
It’s a legitimate style of dance that is taught all over the place since dancers must be trained in all styles so that they can land jobs.
One job might ask for Broadway style jazz, and the next could be a music video, so if you’ve never tried that style, you wouldn’t make the cut and/or be hired for that job.
In the dance world, there is nothing risqué or questionable about this routine—but that’s the dance world—not the rest of the world.
In the video, I’m wearing that tiny dance outfit and dancing in knee-high boots, and I’m performing choreography that is very sexy.
But it’s not a fucking strip routine, and there isn’t a pole anywhere in that room.
I’m in a dance studio, and there are a dozen dancers around and behind me, all doing the same routine.
This was recorded probably five years ago at a dance class.
So how do we explain that to the public?
And who the hell recorded this video and sold it? I grit my teeth and shove my phone back into my purse, then lean into Asher.
“We’re headed back to your parents’ house after this?”
He nods.
“Good. I have a situation I’m going to need to deal with.”
He raises his brows.
“Not now,” I shake my head.
“There are three more articles,” I seethe, pacing and reading the articles on my phone.
Asher and I are in our bedroom in his parents’ house between events.
I’ve been texting Emily and my team nonstop since we left the Vanderholts’ garden party.
We’re trying to put together a plan, but we don’t know what direction to take yet because the universe is a bitch, and it’s like once one article broke, the dam burst, and now there’s a flood of negative articles in various tabloids, all aimed at me.
One article has comments and sound bites from all sorts of random people from my past, from college classmates to friends from high school, and anyone else they could find who wanted a minute of fame and a few bucks to talk about me to the sleazy tabloid.
I swear a vein bursts in my head when I read a paragraph quoting my old high school boyfriend telling the world I dumped him because he wasn’t rich.
You’ve got to be kidding me. Yeah, the reason I dumped that asshole couldn’t possibly have been the fact that he kept pressuring me to have sex with him when I wasn’t ready to and he wouldn’t take no for a fucking answer.
It was definitely his lack of money. Because that was my concern at seventeen.
But worse than that is an interview with my aunt, my father’s estranged sister.
I haven’t seen her since I was probably twelve years old.
She struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for most of her life and stole money from my father and grandparents on several occasions.
They tried for years to get her help, which failed over and over again.
Finally, they had to keep her away from the family because she was such a mess.
She apparently got sober a few years ago, and I’m glad for that, but it looks like she either reached out to or was contacted by a tabloid for an interview.
In her article, she goes on and on about how I was a spoiled brat who constantly tried to manipulate my family and friends, and how I’ve always said I would be rich and famous one day, no matter what.
It’s all complete nonsense and lies. I’ve probably talked to my aunt Cassie five times in my whole life, and that stopped fifteen years ago.
I toss my phone onto the bed, unable to read anymore.
Asher wraps his arms around me from behind. “We’ll take care of this. But in the meantime, let’s try to enjoy the weekend.”
I huff out a breath and tug at the ends of my hair.
“It’s hard to enjoy anything when it feels like everyone who’s ever known me is lying about me to trashy tabloid magazines.”
Asher lets out a long sigh and leans down to rest his chin on my shoulder.
“I know it’s hard to hear, but this is a natural part of being in the public eye.
The public wants to build you up and set you on a pedestal, but they also want to tear you down and watch that pedestal crumble beneath your feet.
I don’t know why that is, but I see it with every single person in the public eye.
No one is immune. You’ve had lots of good press since you were photographed with my mom, so it’s only natural that it shifts, and people’s claws start to come out. ”
“Yeah, I noticed. I had to stop reading the comments. Did you know that my smile is so fucking annoying? And my hair is hideous. And lots of people are totally sure I’m just a fake-ass bitch gold digger.”
He kisses my neck. “I don’t know those things.
What I do know is that you’re beautiful, and intelligent, and too good for me.
” He pinches my sides, and I yelp in surprise.
“And fucking hell, I want you to recreate that dance for me in our bedroom. I practically blew a load in my pants like a goddamn teenager when I watched it.”
I groan. “But it apparently makes me a stripper.”
“We’ll do what we can to mitigate it, but things like this blow over. And I just count myself all the more lucky.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I know you’re not a stripper,” he leans down, and I turn my head to see a wicked smile on his face, “but now I know you can move like one. And I am fully expecting my own private lap dances from now on.”
I snort.
His hands tighten around my waist.
“And what do I get in return to be your private stripper, Mr. Langford?”
“At this point, whatever the fuck you want.”
I let out a dry laugh. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re paying me a lot of money to live in this insane spotlight.”
“It is good. Plus, as I said, it will blow over quickly. I’ve made sure of it.”
“You’ve made sure of it?”
“I have my lawyers on it already. But I took it a step further and put Sterling on it as well.”
I turn around to face him.
“Sterling? What can he do?”
“Don’t forget that he’s an incredibly talented hacker. I’ve given him the go ahead to fuck up the tabloids’ businesses from the inside. He’s hacking into their systems as we speak. They won’t know it was us of course, but they will get a taste of my wrath. And my lawyers will hit whatever is left.”
“If this was an option, why didn’t you do this in the past?”
“I have done it here and there, with larger stories or threats, but I have never given Sterling full license. I kept his skills on a leash because I didn’t want to draw attention to Langford Holdings, but after everything that happened with Kyle, RTZ, and Katrina, I’ve decided I’m done letting tabloids always have the upper hand.
I always try to be ethical, but I’m growing more flexible in certain areas, and so I cut Sterling’s leash. ”
“Will it work?”
“If Sterling and I have our way, it will.”
“You’re terrifying when you want to be, Mr. Langford.”
He pulls me back into an embrace. “Only to those who wrong me or mine.”
“Are you worried about what people will say tonight? What they’ll think?”
“What I’m worried about is the men seeing that video and then looking at you and letting their imaginations run wild. That is for my eyes only.”
“But it’s now immortalized on the internet.”
“We’ll try to scrub it as best we can.”
I eye him suspiciously. “You’re taking this remarkably well. I fully expected a raging, jealous, possessive caveman reaction. What’s going on in that head of yours, Mr. Langford?”
“Oh, I’m having that reaction, believe me.
But this is the internet, and there’s only so much we can do.
We didn’t learn about the video early enough to fully bury it, so at this point it is what it is.
” He gives me a cocky smile. “And while I’m a jealous bastard, I’m also a smug as fuck one, and this may or may not give me more reason to be called the luckiest man on earth.
I have the money, the career, the family, the prestige, and now the fucking hottest woman on the planet.
Isn’t that what all men want? A lady in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom? ”
I burst out laughing. “I’m no lady in the kitchen.”
“Oh, I know. I got an earful from Pierre after the cookie incident. You’re not allowed back in the kitchen, per his orders.”
I snort.
“But you’re everything else, Ella. You have a successful career in your own right, you’re now a brand ambassador, you volunteer with charitable efforts, you manage the chaos and fame of being with me with strength and grace.
You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman, which includes my perfect, dirty little whore in the bedroom.
” He kisses at my jaw. “Maybe I’m not entirely put out that the world knows it. ”
“You’re something else.”
He skims his lips along my neck. “I’m a man with needs at the moment.”
“As much as I would love to be your little whore right now, we have to get ready for the Daltons’ party.”
Asher groans. “Fuck my life.”
“But, since you’ve done such a good job at cheering me up, maybe we can revisit this after the party.”
“I definitely want to revisit the lap dance part.”
I turn in his arms and lightly slap a hand on his chest. “Go change, you horny heathen.”
“Whatever you say, vixen.”