Free The Barefoot Groom: Bachelor Billionaire Romance (A Last Play Companion) by Taylor Hart Page B

reading Romeo and Juliette the first time when she’d been ten.
    She’d written it to get it out of her mind. To free it. To free herself. She’d found from an early age when she wrote her feelings, she could move on.
    That’s what she’d done.
    Now, she went to the file and deleted it.
    Poof.
    It was gone.
    Relief spread through her.
    Closing her computer, she thought about how to to find another angle on him. Something she could give to Marcia and be able to still live with herself.
    Something that wouldn’t hurt him.
    Her phone buzzed, and she saw Marcia’s number.
    “Hello.” She really didn’t want to talk to her boss.
    “How’s the debunking going?”
    She hesitated, wondering how she would slant the article so she could live with herself and make Marcia happy at the same time. “Good.”
    Marcia laughed. “Whatever. Don’t be modest. I saw the article.”
    Crap. Double crap. She’d forgotten her files were tied to the shared file server.
    “What?”
    “It’s hilarious. I can’t believe you actually snuck into his hot tub, and he didn’t tell you who he was.”
    Her heart hammered into her chest. No. No. No. “The article isn’t accurate.”
    “Why?” Marcia demanded.
    “Because I listened to him yesterday, and he was really good.”
    “Just because he’s a good presenter doesn’t mean our audience, Rage ’s audience, won’t want to hear the personal experience of how the master manipulator got manipulated.” She cackled. “Wow, you really went for the jugular on this one. All that stuff about his wife. I’m proud of you.”
    “Wait, no, it’s not right.”
    Marcia let out a breath. “What are you worried about? I told you I love it.”
    “No!” She snapped. “Look, I … you can’t publish that. I took advantage of what he said to me in private.”
    “You mean about his wife only coming back to leave him.”
    Closing her eyes, she pinched the top of her nose, her heart racing. “Marcia, listen to me—”
    “Oh, no, London. You can’t go soft on me. This is the article. The exact one. Rage is publishing it.”
    London’s mind whirled, trying to figure out possibilities. “He likes me.” She blurted out.
    “What?”
    “He … wants to get to know me.” Her stomach churned. Now she was really messing things up. She’d just told Cooper she couldn’t date him because of a boyfriend.
    “Really?”
    The only way to deter Marcia would be to offer her more. “Yes. I’ll find out more, re-write the article, and make it better. Just don’t publish what was on the server. Please.”
    “Hmm …”
    London could see her staring at the screen, wondering if she should send it off. “Are you kidding me, Marcia?” She found being as brassy to Marcia as she was to her was the only way to get through to her. “This could be big. Huge. Give me the week, I’ll get you a series of articles.”
    Marcia let out a long breath. “Fine. But whatever you give me better be huge or this article is as good as already read by the American public.”
    “Fine.” London’s hands felt clammy, but a knot of determination formed in her gut. “It’ll be so good you won’t even remember the first article.”

    * * *
    A n hour later , London sat in the back of the large auditorium, waiting for Cooper’s presentation. She’d skipped breakfast, knowing she wouldn’t be able to eat with this hanging over her.
    How could she have been so stupid? What was she going to do? She had to figure out how to write a series on him that was interesting and nice?
    It was mean. It was everything Marcia had wanted. Closing her eyes, she thought of how awful it would be if the article she’d already written ever got out and how it would hurt him.
    Cooper moved to the center of the stage, already barefoot and spread his hands wide. “Today, I want you all to think long and hard about something that’s not talked about very much—manifesting.”
    He paused. “Many of you might think this is some hocus