Free A Hint of Scandal by Tara Pammi Page A

herself. It was either engage her mind or her senses.
    A warning glittered in those mesmerizing blue depths. “No.”
    The finality of that answer, the utter lack of emotion in it sent a shiver through her. No second chances, no looking back for Alexander King. Granted, in this case, his mother had shot his father, leading to one of the biggest scandals in Hollywood. “The press always makes more of it than it is.”
    “There’s never smoke without fire, Olivia.”
    She tried to ignore the censure in his gaze, fought the urge to explain her past. “No. But sometimes, there’s foolish naïveté instead of actual offense.” Like her assumption all those years ago that once she was out of her father’s control, her life would be a bed of roses, that she would forge herself a successful career, find a man who loved her. Like her sister’s assumption that Alexander King was the perfect man. He was, if you lived in a world where no one ever made mistakes. The thought curled up around her chest, making it hard to breathe.
    “Not in the case of my parents,” he said without compunction. A shadow fell over his features, as if he wasn’t in the present. “They were incapable of thinking beyond their needs, their desires or their passion, as my mother was fond of saying, as if it was just another great part she was playing. As a result, Emily and I spent months in and out of court, social services and the rest of our days haunted by the press. Is your curiosity satisfied now?”
    Having pushed him into answering, Olivia didn’t know what to say. At least, his sister would have been too young to understand much. But he had taken the brunt of it. It explained his obsessive need for privacy, to protect his sister, to control every aspect of his life and how it was perceived even. “I would have preferred it if my mother had shot my father instead of leaving.”
    A lick of fury came alive in his gaze and she wished she hadn’t made the remark. “Why did she?”
    She ran a hand over her throat. “Did you never ask Kim?”
    He shrugged. “I know that it pains her to mention your mother. So I left it at that.”
    Bitterness rose like bile through her, choking her. She abandoned us, Liv. Kim’s words rang in her ears. Yes, their mother had found an escape from their father, leaving them at his mercy. With their mother gone, he had turned his corrosive attention to them. But the one thing Olivia remembered despite her father’s best efforts was the cloud of misery that had always surrounded their mother. “How perfect you are for each other, looking down your noses at weaker people, sweeping it all under the rug so that none of it touches you. Did Kim say our whole family was perfect, like her?”
    He raised a brow, his gaze raking her. Her nails dug into her palms. “She could hardly claim that with you as her twin.”
    For once, his caustic comment hurtled her out of the past, from under the crushing weight of memories. She wondered if that’s what he had intended. A hint of kindness beneath the ruthlessness? There she was again, imagining things that weren’t true. “No, she couldn’t.” She tried to push away the memories to a corner. “That wasn’t fair to Kim.” Her twin loved her no matter what. “But it’s the one thing Kim and I’ll never agree upon. She never forgave my mother for finding escape, for leaving us with our father.”
    Alexander stared at Olivia. Because he understood Kim’s anger. Even more surprising, because for all that he knew about Kim and her twin, he was learning that Olivia had suffered the most at the hands of her father. And she was the one with more sympathy for her mother. “And you have?”
    She shrugged, her fingers laced tight in her lap. For once, the casual gesture, her well-worn defiance couldn’t hide the pain glittering in her gaze. And it reached out and stirred a part of him he kept locked tight. “There’s nothing to forgive.”
    “Nothing to forgive?” He