Free The Scandal and Carter O'Neill by Molly O'Keefe Page A

jerked away, stumbling slightly and he grabbed her to hold her steady, his palms melting into her skin.
    “Give us a kiss, Zoe!” yelled the scum-sucking paparazzo standing in the shadows beside the bushes.
    Zoe flinched, and even in the moonlight he could tell all the color had leeched from her skin.
    Her eyes, vulnerable and angry, crushed him.
    “I didn’t know that guy was there,” he said, but she pulled her elbows into herself, becoming tiny against the night as she slipped away from him.
    “Come on, sweetie, don’t be mad!” the photographer yelled, and Zoe ducked her head, fumbled in her pea-green bag for her keys. Her fingers shook and tears poised themselves on the edge of her eyelashes.
    “Zoe—”
    The door cracked open and she was gone. A flash of pink, a long leg and he was alone in the night, his blood hammering hard through his body.
    “Not your night, huh?” Jim Blackwell emerged from behind the bushes like the devil stepping into the light.
    Don’t hit him. You can’t hit him.
    Hitting him would only make things worse.
    But the urge was a wild dog at his heels.
    “No comment?” Jim asked.
    “Go to hell, Jim,” Carter said and walked away, his night in ruins around him.

    CHAPTER SIX
    “DEPUTY DEADBEAT DADDY Denied?” Amanda asked as she walked into the office on Monday morning. She tossed the paper onto Carter’s desk so he could see, once again, the photo on the front page.
    There he was, in bright crisp and clear color, leaning in, eyes closed, lips pursed—puckered up, really, like a child. But that wasn’t even the best part of the photo—no, the look on Zoe’s face as she leaned away from him, as if Carter were made of stinky cheese—that was the best part of the photo.
    “It gets worse,” Amanda said.
    “USA Today?”
    “No, YouTube. The photographer got video. Deputy Deadbeat Daddy Denied is worldwide right now.”
    “Great,” he muttered, spinning in his chair to face the window. Outside it was a gorgeous day, blue skies, fluffy white clouds—everything mocked him.
    Why did I try to kiss her? he wondered, feeling thick and heavy. This wasn’t supposed to be real.
    She wasn’t supposed to be so damn real.
    One of the most real things he’d experienced in a long time.
    He had no idea what she was thinking about right now, and he hated that he wondered. That he cared.
    Stupid was the word. He felt stupid.
    “I’ll deal with it,” he said.
    “How?”
    I’m not sure yet, he admitted to himself.
    “I have a meeting with Eric Lafayette in an hour about the Glenview—”
    “You can’t just brush this off,” Amanda snapped. “Eleven months until elections, Carter. You want a life in public service, you need to handle this crap. Pretending it’s not happening isn’t going to make it go away.”
    “I’m not. I said I’d deal with it, and I will.”
    “Carter, I’m on your side. I can help.”
    “You want to call Zoe and explain that the kiss wasn’t a promotional stunt?” he snapped.
    “Er…no?”
    “Then we’re done here.”
    After a long moment Amanda got the point and left.
    Zoe’s stink face stared up from the paper and he couldn’t take it anymore.
    He pulled out his cell phone and faced the music.
    ZOE’S CELL PHONE RATTLED against her kitchen counter, and her heart did a similar dance against her rib cage.
    She didn’t know why she was so nervous, or frankly, how she knew it was Carter calling.
    But she was nervous and it was him.
    “You want me to talk to him?” Penny asked, ready to rush to Zoe’s defense, as though they were on the playground and Carter pushed her off the slide.
    “I can handle this, Mom,” she said, though she was slightly afraid she couldn’t. She’d woken up this morning to Penny and the front page of the paper.
    A combination that had her running for the ginger cookies and salsa and she didn’t care who saw.
    It was bad, being kissed for a publicity stunt, but it was far worse to have that kiss all over the