The corners of her lips tilted up slightly as she looked at him. Then her gaze fell on the open magazine and her little smile froze.
“Have you ever heard of The Life of Honey Pie?” Sutter asked her.
Jane’s gaze locked with Luc’s. “Yes. I have.”
“Honey Pie wrote about Luc.”
Color drained from her already pale complexion. “Are you sure it’s you?”
“Positive.”
“I’m sorry, Luc.”
Luc rose from his chair. She understood what it meant. To him. She understood even what the rest of the guys didn’t. Now, when anything was written about him, the Honey Pie article would be mentioned, just one more excuse to dissect his private life. To dig into the stuff that just didn’t matter. He moved to her and looked into her eyes. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, then shook her head.
Without thinking about it, Luc took her arm and they walked from the bar. They crossed the lobby and entered the elevator. “I’m so sorry, Luc,” she said just above a whisper.
“It’s not your fault, Jane.” He punched the number to her floor, then glanced over at her. She stood in the corner of the elevator. Her eyes were huge and filling with water and she suddenly looked very small. By the time they got to her hotel room, tears were falling down her cheeks. He hadn’t even told her of his bizarre suspicions and she was already crying.
“Jane,” he began as soon the door shut behind him. “I know this will sound crazy…” He paused to sort it all out in his head. “There are some things in that Honey Pie piece-of-shit article that are just too close to be a coincidence. Things that were written about you and me that actually happened. I don’t know how she knew so much. It’s like someone was watching us and taking notes.”
She sat down on the edge of the bed and stuck her hands between her knees. She didn’t say anything, and he continued to try and explain what he didn’t understand. “Your red dress, for one. She described your red dress with the chain down the back.”
“Oh, God.”
He sat down beside her and put his arm around her
shoulders. The things the writer of the article knew about him were disturbing. Jane was already so upset, he didn’t go into any more detail because he didn’t want to scare her more than necessary. “I can’t believe this is starting up again. I’ve been careful to get away from this sort of crap.” He gave her a squeeze. Thoughts tumbled in his head but made no sense “I feel crazy. Paranoid. A little insane. Maybe I should hire a PI to get to the bottom of this.”
She jumped up as if her pants had caught fire and walked to the chair by the window. She chewed on her bottom lip and gazed somewhere over the top of his head. “You’re not flattered?”
“Hell, no! I feel like some total stranger has been watching me. Us. Sneaking around, hiding in the shadows.”
“We would have noticed someone following us.”
“You’re probably right, but I don’t know how else to explain the things in that magazine. I know how crazy it sounds.” And it did sound crazy. Even to him, and he’d read it. “Maybe one of the guys…” He shook his head as he thought out loud. “I don’t like to think that one of the guys had something to do with this, but who else?” He shrugged. “Maybe I’ve lost my mind.”
She looked at him for several long moments, then said in a rush, “I wrote it.”
“What?”
“I write the Honey Pie serial.”
“What?”
She took a deep breath and said, “I’m Honey Pie.”
“Right.”
“I am,” she said through her tears.
“Why are you saying this?”
“Damn it! I can’t believe I’m going to have to prove it to you. I never even wanted you to find out about it.” She wiped her cheeks and folded her arms across her chest. “Who else would know that you asked me if I was cold or turned on? We were alone in my apartment.”
And then, one by one, the pieces of the puzzle slid into place. The things that only he and Jane knew. The note he’d seen stuck in her day planner reminding her of some “Honey Pie” decision she had to make. Jane was Honey Pie. She couldn’t be. “No.”