With open-mouthed shock, I could only stare as Xander sauntered off to join the throngs on the dance floor. He was immediately joined by a blonde and a brunette, each vying for his attention.

Who did he think he was? I had a father, and I didn’t need to take love advice from my professor, who looked more like a player than any teacher I’d ever seen. And if he wanted to steer me away from Lex, he’d seriously miscalculated and just done the one thing likely to make me run toward his brother.

Be smart.

The problem was I knew what was smart. But the moment Alexi had kissed me, something shifted inside me, and I couldn’t go back.

Lex…

I forced my legs to move in the opposite direction of where Abbie stood. I needed to get as far away from her as possible. And I needed to start using my brain, right fucking now. If that fucking paparazzo had gotten a picture of my face, I was royally screwed. Not to mention the shitter I'd just put Gemma in.

I scanned the crowd for her and eventually spotted her chestnut mane by the chocolate fountain. She was deep in conversation with another woman. Even as I battled the crowd to get to my supposed fiancée, I felt her eyes on me. It wouldn’t help me keep my head if she kept staring at me like that. “Hey, Gem, can I talk to you for a minute?”

She smiled up at me as I pulled her aside. “Yeah, Sure. Where did you vanish off to? For a minute, I thought you'd left the party, but I noticed Nick was still here.”

Unable to meet her gaze, I muttered, “Look, Gem, we have a problem.”

She arched a delicate dark brow. “Out with it, Lex.”

“I was on the roof. There was a paparazzo up there.”

“Are you serious?” She rolled her eyes. “They are such a pain in the ass. I'll go talk to the owner right away. You shouldn’t have to deal with that shit on your birthday. Can't they just fucking leave you alone, for once? It's not like you were up there doing lines of coke or anything.” She frowned. “Were you?”

I blinked once, then again. “No. Fuck. No. Nothing like that, but, uh, there was a girl.”

Gemma blinked at me and nodded. “Sophie's friend?”

She’d seen us dancing at Jasper’s party last weekend and had pestered me for days until I’d told her about Abbie. “Yeah. She was up there with me, talking.” I shifted from foot to foot and jammed my hands in my pockets. “There might have been snogging.”

Gemma's eyes widened, and she grinned. Then, as if dawning slowly crept in, her smile fell and she muttered. “Did he get a picture?”