Mira Lyn Kelly - Front Page Affair (Harlequin Presents Extra: One Night at a Wedding)

F LASHBULBS exploded. Shutters snapped like automatic fire around him as reporters from rags of all caliber called for attention, each voice clamoring to rise above the rest.

Mr. Evans!

One more over here!

Beneath the awning of the exclusive Chicago hotel, Nate Evans offered up a stock smile, responded to a few light questions with a handful of ambiguous words and waited for the question he knew would come.

It didnt take long.

Mr. Evans! Care to explain your sudden absence from the social circuit these past months?

The question shot through the early autumn evening, silencing all others with its gathering strength while narrowing the focus on him like an interrogators spotlight.

They knew when they were onto something.

But he was ready for the assault. Invited it.

Feigning surprise at the inquiry, Nate paused in mock consideration before answering. Guess Ive been so caught up in business, I hadnt realized Id gone off the map.

His answer wouldnt satisfy even the most limited curiosity. And more than that, it was a lie. Hed spent the last six months laying low. Flying under the radar to avoid notice while the nightmare of his life slowly, painfully, worked itself toward an unsatisfactory resolution. Six months out of the limelight, away from the cameras, only to find his absence conspicuous enough in itself to fuel new rumors and speculation as to the cause.

Whos the beauty behind this bachelors broken heart?

The squelched headline had hit him like a sucker punch to the gut and hed spent a fortune making it go away. Buying time. But if he didnt get a stranglehold on the situation, the trash hounds would dig and dig until they found the truth. And then theyd keep digging, making such a muck and mess that the dirt slung in their quest for ratings would reach anyone and everyone even remotely tied to his life.

His dad didnt need that.

Neither did Bella, the tiny baby whod dragged a commitment from his jaded heart with a fist too small to wrap around his thumb. She was pure and precious and new. And though she didnt belong to him, hed sworn to protect her from whatever hardships he could. And preventing a media circus from assailing her home and her motherwho wasnt in any shape to defend against itwas top on the list.

Which brought him to tonight. The first whos-who gala event available to spin the press off his scent.

He smiled his best cat-about-to-give-the-canary-a-go smile for the cameras. Better find out if any of the ladies still remember me. And with that parting sound bite, he jogged the few steps through the grand entrance, looking for all the world as though he didnt want to miss a minute. As though he wouldnt rather be in his physicians office turning his head to the left to cough, than heading into the society wedding of the season.

He needed a diversionand the sooner the better. So this was it.

Hed dive headfirst into tonights sea of swank and silk, in search of the biggest scandal. Hed reel in a beauty he could splash across the tabloid pages. Someone with enough hook shed drag the presss interest out of the past and secure it in the now.

Someone who knew the score.

That was the touchy part, because, when it came to his dates, Nate didnt do soft. He didnt do love. And he didnt do forever. He made certain his women knew what they were getting into with himand then he did them with enough attention and skill they didnt care there wasnt anything deep or lasting between them.

Scanning the throngs of social elite gathered within the gold-domed ballroom, he searched for a like-minded wave-maker. Except after barely five minutes, Nate realized hed miscalculatedand in no small way. Finding a woman to flaunt was easy. There were at least a hundred willing candidates batting thick-fringed lashes at him. But with each toss of perfectly coiffed hair and every lingering glance, the apathy that had kept him so easily unattached these past six months turned to something darker.

More suffocating. Everywhere he looked, false claims and secret agendas lurked beneath the guise of enticement, and he found himself backing away rather than closing in.

And then he saw her.

Payton Liss, slinking through the crowd, using every evasive technique at her disposal to dodge the conciliatory hand pats, air kisses and general gossipy blood sport that occurred post nuptialsregardless of the social strata involved.

The good girl from his past. Brandts little sister. Miss Off-Limits herself.

Payton didnt need his money. She wouldnt want his name. And shed help him regardless of what went down with Brandt all those years ago because she habitually did the right thing.

Or make that, she mostly did the right thing.

The corner of his mouth quirked as, while he watched, she pilfered a dinner roll from the table closest to the kitchen access hall and slipped stealthily out the door.

Nates feet were moving before his brain had even finished processing the plan.

Neck deep in a cloud of ill-fitting taffeta and tulle, Payton Liss pressed her shoulders into the wall behind her. Stretching across the floor of her hideouta miraculously unlocked utility room, discovered purely by accident three weddings beforeshe braced a foot against the door and straight-legged with the determination of a second-string bridesmaid on the run.