She nearly choked.

“Are you on a date?” one of the reporters shouted over The din.

Ferro simply smiled and said, “If you have to ask, perhaps I’m doing it wrong.”

Jeez. The man oozed charm. She’d never seen him not at ease. Even when she’d pulled off her great OnePhone caper and messed with his product launch, his public face had remained completely smooth.

“Julia, any comments?”

“We better be. I don’t want to have to pay for my own dinner.” That earned her some laughter and she was gratified that she’d managed a witty response. Especially since half of her brainpower was being used up to focus on the heat that was coursing from her palm, where Ferro was holding her hand, up her arm, to her breasts, making her nipples, of all things, tingle a little bit.

Ferro waved and she did the same, and they walked on, into the ornate theater where they were ushered to their seats. Ferro released her as soon as they were in the dark.

And again, Julia felt like she was in danger of getting whiplash from the recognizable faces surrounding them. “I think that’s—”

“Don’t stare, Julia, it’s rude.”

She shot Ferro a deadly glare he probably couldn’t see in the darkness. “Sorry. I forgot we were being blasé.” And she shouldn’t have forgotten. Anything else was way too revealing and embarrassing.

“You’ll get to the point where you don’t have to remember. Trust me.”

“You think?” she asked, looking sideways at him in the dark.

“I know. You’re lucky life hasn’t knocked it out of you yet.”

She leaned back in her chair. “You have no idea what life has taken from me,” she said. For the second time in the same day, she thought back to that long-ago prom night. Why was she thinking about it so much? She never thought about it. She’d moved on from it. She was fine. Bruises healed. And the stuff that didn’t? It had helped her realize that you had to be strong. It had been when she’d stopped trying to fit in, when she’d stopped being so afraid to be unusual. She’d just started owning it then. And it had been the key to her success.

She wasn’t sending out any thank-you cards to the jackass who’d assaulted her, but she wasn’t wallowing, either.

“I’d venture to say you know less about mine than you think you do, Julia,” he said, his words darker than the theater.

“I read the bio,” she said.

He chuckled, a sound that lacked humor and warmth. “As I said, you know less about me than you think. Just because it’s in print, doesn’t mean it’s the whole truth.”

The End of the Tech World As We Know It?

The headline screamed up at Julia from the newspaper, just delivered to her tablet. Ferro was already in her office, sitting in the chair in front of her desk like he had every right to be there.

“Not exactly the headline we anticipated,” he said.

“Ya think?” She skimmed the article, her stomach sinking. “Either a sharp blow to progress or a cheap publicity stunt,” she read out loud.

“Because if we’re sleeping together we won’t be competing, and if we aren’t competing, will we be on our game?”

“I have a lot of words rolling around in my head right now and they’re all filthy,” she said, standing up and pacing up and down in front of her office window. “What are we going to do? It’s everywhere. It’s trending on Twitter. There’s a Facebook page, Calvaresi, a freaking Facebook page devoted to…what are they calling us?” She leaned in and skimmed the article again. “JulErro. For the love of Darth.”

“And for everyone rooting for this little enemies-to-lovers tale…”

“There are just as many rooting for us to go down in flames. This…this is a lot bigger than we anticipated, isn’t it?”

Ferro wished he could say he’d anticipated just this, but the simple fact was, social media was hard to anticipate. The press was one thing, the civilian-run news machine? Something else entirely. And the simple truth was, this had gone way outside the tech world, thanks to the internet, which was run by the masses. Who were entirely unpredictable.

“Yes,” he said. “It is.”

The feeling of claustrophobia he felt now, the feeling of being trapped, he didn’t like it. A trap of his own making. And it wasn’t the first one he’d ever been in. He knew all about this. About going so far down a road there was no way to turn back. That you just had to push through, keep going, because you’d gone too damn far.

“Fine,” she said, continuing to pace. “We continue on, and we make it the biggest spectacle ever. And when we blow it up, we make it huge. The biggest media explosion ever. And we’ll always be more interesting after this. Think about it, when you hijack another one of my presentations, just think how newsworthy it will be when we’re exes? Hypothetically. Don’t hijack one of my presentations again.”

Julia might be wearing armor, but she was a tough woman. Smart. Brilliant even. “Of course,” he said, “we’ll be expected to spend a lot of time together. A lot. The visibility is too high. We’re going to have to give them something to talk about, because if we don’t…if we get caught in this…”

“We’re in trouble.”

“Putting it mildly.”

“Okay…okay…what’s the plan then?”

“There’s a charity event tonight. I was planning on skipping it and writing a check, but I think we should make an appearance, don’t you? As a couple.”

Julia looked like she was going to say something, but she hesitated.

“Come on, Julia,” he said. “Don’t wimp out now.”

“I’m not wimping out!”

“Then why do you look like a deer caught in the headlights?”

“Because the other day we were sworn enemies and if I never had to see you in person it suited me just fine. Now…two outings with you in a row? I could live without that.”

“Maybe this is why tech, and business in general, is traditionally a man’s game,” he said, not meaning a word he was saying but knowing it would give Julia the kick she needed. “Maybe it’s because women are too ruled by emotion.”

He knew it wasn’t true. Because he’d been…he didn’t even know what to call it. Shaped, molded, by women who hadn’t cared what their actions meant to the emotions of a teenage boy. He’d spent years surrounded by women who saw people only as pawns. People of both genders were more than capable of acting based on selfish desire. Of using people to meet their ends.

But his words would push Julia. He knew it. Knew it was a hot button for her.

“Are you saying I can’t do this?” she asked.

“You’re the one who looks like she has a problem. I’m willing to make this work. Are you? Or are you just giving me lip service here?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’m going to ignore the potential double entendre there.”

“If it suits you.”

“Fine. You have yourself a date for tonight. Ferro?”

“Yes?”

“Uh…what’s the charity?” He had a feeling that wasn’t the question she’d intended to ask.

“For homeless youths.”

“Great. I’ll bring my checkbook.”

CHARITY EVENTS WERE the scourge of Ferro’s existence. A shiny, gorgeous hotel ballroom, filled with internally ugly people who possessed an unnatural amount of self-importance. People who manipulated and used the less fortunate for their own pleasure during the day, but showed up to things like this to show their altruism to the press.

He could well remember the first time he’d been in a room like this. Hating who he was with. Hating that he had to smile and fawn and do whatever it was he’d been paid to do. No matter whether he wanted it. No. The tabloids, the author of his bio, they really had no idea of the depths he’d been to.

He looked at Julia, who was holding on to his arm like it was a live eel, the smile on her face anything but easy, and he wondered if he had become no better.

No. This benefitted Julia, too. It was an exchange.