Her response was nowhere near as convincing as he’d hoped. He swallowed hard, trying not to compare this to Shelley and her ex.

“What else did he say?” She didn’t say anything again for too long, and Felix’s mind was already going wild just imagining what else Grayson had tried to convince her of. “Baby, what else did he say? You can tell me.”

“He admitted he did set this up so he could have some time alone with me. But he said he did so because he loves me and he’s just sincerely worried and he was hoping to talk some sense into me.”

Felix’s heart pounded now, but not out of anger like it did earlier. Her tone was terrifying him. “Did he?”

“Did he what?”

“Talk sense into you?”

“No!”

“Really?” He gripped the phone, the anger mixing in now along with the terror, and he raised his voice. “Because it’s sounds to me like maybe he did get to you. Maybe he’s got you thinking. Does he?”

“Are you seriously asking me this?”

“Yes!”

“Felix, you know better than anyone that I would’ve never agreed to anything with you if I didn’t believe you were sincere about your feelings for me. I believe you when you say you love me.”

“I want him out of your life.” The words flew out even though his terrified heart knew the risk. But she had to know that was coming the moment she realized Grayson had gone to these lengths to talk sense to her.

Felix waited, his heart beating harder with every moment that passed and she didn’t answer. He knew what Ella was like and that becoming a pushing or demanding boyfriend the way Grayson had been was a risk. But this was different. Given the circumstances, she had to be reasonable about this. There was no fucking way she could expect him to be okay with this guy in her life anymore.

“It’s not that easy,” she finally said, sounding a little calmer.

“Why not?”

He’d managed to stay calm before, but he was about to lose it now. After everything she’d just told him, she was still going to want to keep things amicable with this asshole?

“He’s friends with my brother and my dad, Felix. I can’t just tell him I won’t speak to him anymore. He’s done so much for my family. And it doesn’t matter to me what he thinks or that he still has feeling for me—”

“It matters to me!”

“If you trust me, it shouldn’t. I trusted you when you said I had nothing to worry about your publicist spending the night at your place. There would be nothing of the sort going on with Grayson and me. I’d simply be cordial to him if I ever ran into him.”

Now Felix was really getting fired up. “How are you gonna compare the two? She’s a business acquaintance—my publicist. This is your ex-boyfriend we’re talking about, one who’s still in love with you and pulling stunts like this one and—”

“Have you slept with your publicist?”

That brought a screeching halt to Felix’s argument. He stood there frozen, blinking his eyes, his mouth going dry. There was no right way to answer this. He could try to lie, but something told him she already knew. He hadn’t even realized just how fired up he’d gotten, but his chest was heaving.

“Have you?”

“Way before I met you.”

Not really but he didn’t see the need to be specific about it. It had been before her and that’s all that mattered.

“I know the timing of when you acquired your new publicist in correlation to when we met, Felix.”

His heart thudded sharply. “Ella, it was still before—”

“It doesn’t matter to me. My point is I had a feeling you might have and I still trusted you. I may not be too comfortable being around her from here on, but as long as you tell me I can trust you, I’ll do my best to be as understanding about your relationship with her as I’d ask you to be of mine and Grayson’s.” She sighed. “I’m not saying we’ll be carrying on a warm friendship if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m just saying I’m not going to cut him off completely or in a mean way. He patrols the area I live in. He keeps a closer eye out for our place and my brother’s girlfriend’s area. I hesitate to give that up, not with the history our family’s had. He will know that I told you about everything he and I talked about tonight, so I doubt he’ll be stupid enough to think he can just show up at 5th Street still and everything will be hunky-dory.”

She was damn right about that. Felix hated that he didn’t have a fucking leg to stand on, not with a publicist Ella now knew he’d slept with. It wasn’t even a relationship she could presume was over in its entirety because they’d broken things off. Felix was still working with her, and the tabloids were still speculating. The last thing he wanted was for Ella to have any doubt about how crazy he was about her and how serious he was about making this work.

Felix didn’t care what Ella said. As strongly as she’d fired back when he questioned the doubt he knew he’d heard in her voice, Grayson had managed to unnerve her with all his sincere concern bullshit.

Adelina was going to have to go, and if Ella wanted added security at her place, Felix could arrange that. But mostly he wanted that fucker to know that if he pulled another stunt like this one Felix was coming after him. Maybe Ella couldn’t cut this guy off completely. He wouldn’t insist on putting her in that position. He knew how obliged she felt about staying gracious to the guy. Felix could admit maybe she did have good reason for feeling that way.