Free Three Rings and a Rose by Mia Ashlinn Page A

massive orgy had left her cold, disgusted, and very, very alone.
    Instead of continuing her conversation with the reporter who was trying to get the scoop, Ella quietly hung up and called Caedon back.
    The phone rang several times before he finally picked up and blasted her. “What the fucking hell did you think you were doing at a party like that?”
    She gasped at his bluntness. This was a man who’d always been kind to her. He’d never been anything but loving and sweet, and he hadn’t talked to her this crudely, this aggressively before. She’d known there was a gruff, dominant side to him, but he’d never exposed her to it—even though she would have loved for him to. She finally got to see the rough around the edges side, and he was pissed off at her. Jackass.
    “You do realize that you just fucked up your career and mine, Gabriella? Right?”
    What the hell? She knew that the video probably looked bad, but it wouldn’t do that much damage. It wasn’t an unforgivable sin.
    Surely people would see that. “Don’t be dramatic,” she managed to mutter. “It isn’t like I’m the first person to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    “Of course not,” he snapped, “but you are the one who got caught.”

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    “Whatever. I didn’t do anything wrong, Caedon. It isn’t like I got high. I didn’t smoke, drink, or fight. And God knows that I kept my legs closed.” Getting to her feet, she grabbed a towel and started dabbing her body with it. “This is insane. You shouldn’t be mad. It’s in the past. Joseph and that horrible party are long forgotten.”
    “Obviously not,” he replied. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have Ted and my PR team on my ass when I can’t do a damn thing to fix this scandal. I’m on the set of a movie in England for Christ’s sake.” Ella dropped the towel to the floor then stepped out of the tub.
    “First of all, this is not yours to fix. It’s my problem. Second of all, you’re being an ass. This doesn’t affect your career.”
    “You cannot seriously believe that crock of shit,” he snapped. “I have been taking shit from Ted and every one of my PR guys for months about dating you. Now—”
    “That’s an easy fix,” Ella interjected. “Stop listening to your asshat manager and his dipshit henchmen. They hate me, and they’ll say or do whatever they must to keep us apart. Why can’t you see that?”
    Caedon ignored her, continuing on as though she’d not even spoken. “ Now you have this…this fucking video coming out. It’s just too much right now.”
    “What are you saying?” she asked as calmly as she could in her current state of shock. When the call came through and the reporter had revealed what had happened, she’d expected to deal with a lot of irate, self-righteous assholes. But she’d never thought that one of them would be Caedon. “Are you breaking up with me?” He sighed. “No. Of course not.”
    “Then what?”
    “I don’t know.”
    As she stood in the bathroom in the nude, she’d never felt more exposed, more vulnerable. And it had nothing to do with her current state of undress and everything to do with the man on the other end of the line. She’d thought he was the man she would spend the rest of Three Rings and a Rose
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    her life with. She’d been under the impression that he would support her and love her through whatever life threw at her, exactly like she would be for him. Maybe I was wrong.
    “Look,” he said, “we need to take a step back. I’m pissed, and you’re probably stressed out. I will fly back to New York in a couple of days after I get some things wrapped up here. We can talk then.”
    “Whatever,” she muttered then hung up on him. When the phone rang seconds later, she deliberated over whether or not to answer it.
    But she ended up just shutting the damn thing off. If it wasn’t Caedon calling, it was a reporter, and she didn’t want to deal with one of those vultures. And if it