Page 211 of Handsome Devil
“That did not happen.Ever. I’ve never done something like that to a woman.”
“You kissed me without asking,” she said in a small voice.
I rubbed my hand over my face. “I was a teenager and I was drunk. I know that doesn’t make it okay. But Devi, this is not the same thing.”
“I know it’s not,” she said softly, holding my gaze. “Because I wanted you to kiss me.”
I blinked at her. She’d never admitted that to me before.
I leaning over the island and looked her in the eye. “That article is a work of complete fiction. You were right. Someone is out to get me. They’re attacking my character and picking me apart piece by piece. And they’re doing a really fucking great job.”
Devi just studied me in silence. Like she was digging really, really deep to decide if she believed me or not.
She didn’t look like she was about to sprint out the door, so that was something. Tina had dashed right out before we even got this far into any conversation about the sex tape.
I took a breath and tried to find the right words to convince her of what I knew to be true.
“Please believe me. This,” I thrust my phone in the air, “is not who I am. No matter what you’ve ever thought of me. I don’t prey on women. Someone is trying to fuck me over. The thing is, this particular attack, this allegation, is not even fucking true.” I shook my head, the shock giving way to near awe. “It’s like they planned it perfectly. First the sex tape, which is undeniably true, to undermine my credibility. I mean, you can see me in it. Then this. And now, who wouldn’t believe this?”
“It’s a pretty damning accusation,” she said slowly.
“Yeah. It is. What’s the best way to ruin a man right now? Prove him a fucking predator with a track record of devious sexual conduct… and get him cancelled.”
“Dane,” she said calmly, “if someone is trying to cancel you, based on a lie, we need to find out who and why and make it stop.”
“How? I don’t even know who this woman is, Devi. She worked at Valhalla four years ago. That’s what it said in the article. Obviously I can look into that. But I do not know this woman. Her face, her name… I don’t recognize her. And there was no groping at any office party. I don’t even go to most office parties. And I sure as fuck don’t grope my employees.” I clawed my hand through my hair. “Shit. I mean, present company excluded.”
“You married me,” Devi said, almost sympathetically. “And you never even touched me until I gave you permission to do it.”
I stared at her, at the soft, almost concerned look in her eyes.
Was she actually believing me on this? The relief gripped my chest like a heart attack.
“Fuck.” I stalked over to the couch, feeling kind of dizzy or something, and dropped onto it. My head was all over the place, and Devi’s deep brown eyes were killing me a little. “What the fuck am I gonna do? How the hell do I fight this? Men never come off looking good when they fight this.”
“That’s because most men who fight this are probably guilty as shit of exactly what it says in the article,” she said, “and worse.”
Very true.
But I was not guilty here.
“So, you tell the truth,” she went on. “This didn’t happen. The woman is lying. And if that’s the case, she’s a very shitty human being. All she’s accomplishing with this, besides trying to hurt you, is hurting all the other humans out there who have actually been assaulted by someone in a position of power. She should shut the fuck up and get off my feed.”
She was scrolling on her phone and it freaked me out.
“Please, put the phone down.”
She put the phone down. “Look, Dane. If you’re telling the truth, then I don’t see the problem with this one. You talk to your legal team. You talk to your family. You tell the truth. And you fight this.”
“Jesus.” I planted my face in my hand.
My phone kept buzzing, reminding me that it would never be that simple. Yeah, I could fight this. But first and foremost, I’d be fighting my family all over again, as I tried to defend myself while bending over backwards to somehow please them—when I never even did anything wrong in the first place.
“I can try to fight this. And maybe I’ll be able to save my public reputation. But my family? Fuck, my mother is gonna roast me alive.”
“Why? You didn’t do anything wrong, right?”
“Devi. She didn’t believe me when I told her I did not make that fucking sex tape. She is not going to believe this if she doesn’t want to.”
