Exposed by Sierra Riley Read Free Book Online Page A

not like he’s the top or bottom of my list of enemies.”
    “But he’s the one you’ve tried the hardest to fuck over,” Vince told him, watching him evenly.
    Briar flinched. He hadn’t become a household name by playing nicely. And Austin… well, he might have taken it a step too far when Austin left.
    “What’s done is done,” Briar concluded, then pushed himself to his feet. “Shots.”
    “Shots,” Vince agreed.
    When Briar brought them back, they clinked them and downed the tiny glasses of amber liquid without a second thought.
    Then, Vince leaned in. “Speaking of London… You’re looking forward to seeing our new guy perform, aren’t you?” He gave a conspiratorial smirk.
    “Which one?” Briar tried to bluff, but it was no use. Vince was the guy who could always see through that.
    “Oh ho, there is something there,” Vince grinned. “Or you wouldn’t be avoiding the issue.”
    Briar grumbled under his breath and leaned back, rolling his head back as the whisky burned down his throat and heated his chest up.
    Like Gabriel did, every time Briar thought about watching him shift from pose to pose for the camera like it was his first language.
    “He’s exactly your type. You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed, or you wouldn’t have hired him,” Vince laughed. “Dayne didn’t just magically convince you you needed an assistant after all this time.”
    The heat in Briar’s cheeks was definitely from the Fireball. “Maybe,” Briar snorted. “But after Austin…” he trailed off.
    Vince looked sympathetic. He reached over the table to squeeze Briar’s hand, then picked up the cocktail menu and turned it over to scan the list. “You’ll get through it.”
    “I fuckin’ won’t. I told you back then, and I mean it—I’m done dating,” Briar told him, his voice harsher than he meant it.
    Vince knew better than to look skeptical. He just nodded slightly. “Forever is a long time.”
    “No more strings attached to me. It’s great.” Briar’s eyes flickered down to Vince’s wedding ring. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
    “Oh, I know,” Vince assured him, a laugh bubbling in his chest. “You know I know.”
    True: Vince had worked his way around just as much as Briar. But he’d chosen right, and Briar had ignored his gut instinct in favor of a pretty face.
    Briar rubbed his face. Enough thinking about this shit. He had meetings in the morning. “One more drink for the road.”
    One more drink, and maybe he’d forget about Austin’s hard-edged smile when he leaned over the desk to tell Briar he was out .

11
Gabriel
    I t was his first time on a transatlantic flight, and Gabriel tried his hardest to ignore the churning nerves in his stomach. He hated even domestic flights, but a shot at the bar before they took off could always take care of that.
    This time, he had eight hours to sit through before they got to London, and he was a little terrified.
    The plane was big enough that the takeoff was smooth, but every little shudder of turbulence made him dig his nails into his palms while he folded his arms tightly.
    Damn it, they insisted on keeping the window blind open for takeoff, too. It would be a little better if he couldn’t see the ground rapidly falling away from under him.
    And he didn’t want to show his nerves around the other models. There were six of them in total, all sitting in one section of premium economy. He was on the aisle, and the guys in the middle and window seats—Adam and Jon, if he remembered right—were busy talking.
    Just as well, since he didn’t feel like wasting the flight talking to them. He could mentally rehearse instead, going through everything he’d learned from Julius and Vince, from the photographers over the last two weeks, and from a lifetime of watching male models strut down the catwalk.
    His job was pretty simple: final fittings, walk down the catwalk from dawn ’till dusk, then attend parties all night.
    From what