Elena unfastened her seat belt and turned more fully toward him. They sat in the open air, birds calling and the creek babbling below them.

“Supposing that’s true—and I’m not convinced it is—why haven’t you or any of the other ranch owners released a statement condemning his actions?” She tilted her head and gave him a questioning look. Her long dark hair spilled over her shoulder with the movement, reminding him how much he’d dreamed about running his fingers through all those silky waves. “You all were Alonzo’s students at the Dowdon School. I know from our past conversations that he was a mentor to you and your friends, so I’m aware that you respect him. But it can’t be good for the ranch to be associated with that kind of scandal. Why protect him?”

His publicity coordinator had posed the same question. But when Gage had met with Weston, Miles and Desmond before the party last night, they’d agreed the less said the better. Yet, he needed a different strategy with Elena. He had to keep her close, to buy himself time to figure out why Alonzo had written a book that had torn apart lives. Devon Salazar hadn’t returned his calls yet today, but maybe Alonzo’s son would share April Stephens’s findings.

“Keep in mind that he wrote the book as fiction, and changed all the names, so I don’t believe it was his intention to hurt anyone with it.” Gage tipped back the brim of his hat to feel the sun on his face, breathing in the spring air to help cool the desire for Elena that was never far from the surface. “Remember the book was out for over a year before some Hollywood gossip columnist got a hold of it and decided to make a game out of matching up the characters to real people. That’s when the fascination with the story began on a large scale, not because Alonzo billed it as anything true-to-life.”

“I’ll definitely revisit that.” She nodded thoughtfully, her gaze flicking back to his. “I’d forgotten about that. I think the media frenzy took hold around the time we were dating.”

The months they’d been so wrapped up in each other that they hadn’t done much of anything else but talk, touch and make love.

“No wonder it didn’t make an impression with us back then.” He couldn’t imagine how she’d left a relationship as intense as theirs only to turn right around and marry someone else. He’d been hurt by that all over again, thinking right up until he’d seen the engagement announcement that she would change her mind.