I didn't think things would get worse so soon, but Izzy Rollins was a fucking fast worker.

The sun was barely setting when Camden texted, asking if I'd seen what the bitch had done. She didn't mention Izzy by name, but I as soon as I opened the message, I knew exactly who she meant.

Camden followed her text with several links, and my stomach dropped into my shoes. They were all links to trash tabloid sites well known for stirring up shit about celebrities. They were probably already spreading gossip about Finn and me, but Camden wouldn't have texted me about that. Something else was going on.

Slumping onto the sofa, I opened the first link.

"Oh, you bitch," I muttered.

"What's up?" Finn said, dumping more logs into the stove and closing the door.

"Finn Donovan's mystery woman is only using him to further her career," I read the headline out-loud.

"This should be good," Finn said, sitting next to me.

"Fans of rockstar Finn Donovan were shocked to discover that the infamous bachelor has been secretly living with his girlfriend who, earlier today, was unmasked as Tasha Harris, the younger sister of Camden Harris, currently married to Angels & Demons frontman Jude Scott. Apparently seducing famous rockstars runs in the family," I read.

I paused, lowered my phone.

"Only the first paragraph and it's already full of shit. Camden changed her surname to Scott months ago, and no one can say whether or she seduced Jude or he seduced her, or they both seduced each other because not even they remember what happened the night they met and got married," I said.

"You did seduce me though," Finn said.

"Oh please, like you were resisting."

He gasped and clutched his chest. "I did everything I could but you were determined to have me."

I giggled. "Damn right I was, and I'm not sorry about it."

"Keep reading," Finn said.

"The Irish-born former member of Momentum is notoriously tight-lipped about his romantic attachments, and he has yet to comment on his relationship with Tasha Harris, but a source close to Tasha has claimed that the younger Harris is simply using Finn to further her career." I had to stop again because that hit way too close to home.

"'She doesn't care about Finn at all' claims the source," I continued. "'She's using him to land an internship with Clash.' Clash, the leading rock music magazine in the country has yet to respond. The source accuses Jude Scott of nepotism, claiming that he arranged the exclusive interview for his sister-in-law, giving her an unfair advantage over other aspiring interns. The source also claims that Clash themselves were aware of this nepotism and betrayed their journalistic integrity by allowing blatant favouritism."

I looked up from my phone, my mind whirring. Why was Izzy going after Clash?

"Anything else?" Finn asked.

"Yeah. It's unclear whether Jude knew about his sister-in-law's designs to seduce Finn, or what impact that might have on his friendship with Finn. It also raises questions as to the legitimacy of Jude's surprise Vegas wedding to Camden, which was dogged with speculation that it was all for publicity. The source reports having no knowledge on what went wrong with rumoured reconciliation between Finn and former flame Penny Lang, and though Penny recently expressed surprise that Finn might have a girlfriend, she has yet to comment on this latest development."

I sighed and lowered my phone. "That's all that one says, but there are more." I scrolled through them. "Most of them are saying the same sort of thing, although this one focuses more on the Clash angle, and this one floats the idea of a love triangle between you, me, and Penny. Despite the fact that I've never met the woman."

"And I haven't spoken to her in years," Finn added.

I stared at the stove, the flames flickering through the grille in the door.

"You knew Izzy was going to do something. Is this what you expected?" Finn asked.

I grabbed a cushion and hugged it. "I don't even know. Way too much of what she said was true, that's the worst part."

"Do you think the love triangle rumours came from her?"

I helplessly spread my palms. "No idea." A bolt of anger shot through me. "But how fucking dare she imply that I somehow tricked you into bed, or that I'm just using you. She must have seen the shit that people are saying about me online, and she must know that she's just made it worse. And if she had anything to do with dredging up those fucked-up rumours about Camden and Jude, I'll rip her fucking hair out."

I snatched up my phone again, furiously scrolling through my contacts.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked, sitting up straighter.

"Calling her."

"Are you sure – okay."

Izzy answered before Finn could finish objecting.

"What do you want?" she said.

"You realise how much you've fucked things for me, right?" I said.

"How is that my problem?" Izzy replied.

"Not just me, but my sister. I know you hate me, but what did Camden ever do to you?"

"Nothing." Izzy's voice was maddeningly calm. "I didn't bring her into this."

"You brought Jude into it, didn't you? You must have known that this would affect Camden too. She's pregnant. She doesn't need this kind of stress right now," I snapped.

"Okay, but that still isn't my problem. I had a story to sell, and I sold it," Izzy said.

I took a deep breath and tried to rein in my anger. "Why did you call out Clash like that? I thought you wanted to work for them."

"I did. But after weeks of waiting for an announcement, I realised they were never going to pick me over you, not when you've got Jude Scott and Finn Donovan in your corner. I needed to get my name out there, and publicly slating Clash was a good way to do it," Izzy explained.

"Your name? You're just the 'source' in these articles. How does that help you?" I demanded.

Finn leaned forward to listen. I quickly put Izzy on speaker and Finn gave me a thumbs up.

"I'm just a source for now. Every publication that I contacted is going to milk this for all it's worth. In another couple of days, my name will be made public, along with my rocky history with you and the possibility that you're only sleeping with Finn to stop me from getting that internship," Izzy said.

I gripped the edge of the cushion in my lap. "You're so fucking stupid."

"Am I?" Amusement coloured Izzy's voice.

"Yes. I've already told Louise Hoffman to fuck her internship."

Silence.

"What?" Izzy said, sounding less confident.

"It's over for me. I've burned my bridges with Louise, so if you'd just waited, that internship probably would have been yours, and this time you wouldn't even have had to fuck anyone for it."

Finn suppressed a smile.

"Oh, piss off," Izzy snapped.

"Why? It's true," I said.

Something occurred to me and I smiled, even though Izzy couldn't see it. "So here's the thing," I said. "As you've pointed out before, I have some very famous friends now. Friends with connections in all areas of the music industry. If I want to, I can get the names of every single person you've screwed to get a job or an opportunity." I paused for effect. "And then I can release those names. Do you understand, Izzy? You want to use me to further your career? I can fucking end your career."

Izzy was silent, but I could hear her breathing.

Finn's suppressed smile had become a full-blown grin.

"So you're not going to spread any more shit about me, Finn, Jude, or Camden. You're going to shut the fuck up and go the fuck away," I continued.

I gave Izzy a couple more moments to come back at me, but she stayed silent. I looked at Finn, who shrugged. I shrugged back and hung up.

"That was hot," Finn said.

I gave him a bemused look. "Seriously?"

"Hell yeah."

"I'll have to threaten people more often," I mused.

"Only when I'm around to hear it," Finn said.

"Deal."

"Speaking of deals, what's with you and Izzy? What's the history there?"

I sighed and patted the sofa next to me. Finn shuffled closer.

"I met Izzy in college," I said. "We were both studying English Language and Media Studies and we ended up in the same classes. For the record, I had absolutely no problem with Izzy at first. But she definitely had a problem with me."

"Why?" Finn asked.

"By the time I was thirteen, I'd already had a couple of articles published. Some local newspapers had run writing competitions, looking for teen voices; I won one of them, and was runner up in the second, and I even managed to place a small article with that second paper, even though I hadn't taken first place."

I stretched out my legs, putting them in Finn's lap.

"When I arrived at college with those admittedly small credentials, Izzy took it weirdly personally. I later found out that she'd entered those writing competitions too, years ago, and both times she'd lost to me. Ever since then she's had this stupid fucking rivalry with me, and I never used to react to it because it just seemed so childish."

"But now you do," Finn said, rubbing my calves.

"When I first started losing opportunities to Izzy, including another internship when we were eighteen, I didn't take it to heart. I couldn't win every competition or place every article, right? But I also knew I was a good writer, and when I read Izzy's articles that had beaten mine, something didn't quite add up. I thought I was being paranoid or that I was kidding myself that I was better than I actually was. For a while it really did a number on my self-esteem, but what was I supposed to do?"

Finn listened quietly, still rubbing my legs.

"Anyway, long story short, it turned out that Izzy was getting ahead of me by exchanging sex for job opportunities, internships, you name it. She isn't as good as me, so she got the upper hand by spreading her legs," I said.

"How do you know that?"

"Do you remember when Jude and Camden's marriage first went public? And Jude threw a party at his loft to officially introduce her to his friends?" I gave Finn a pointed look. "A party that you were invited to, by the way."

He smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"I met lots of interesting people at that party, including a junior editor at the magazine where I'd lost that first internship when I was eighteen. Either he didn't realise who I was, or he was too high to care, but he admitted to me that Izzy had only got that internship because she slept with him."

Finn narrowed his eyes. "Did she instigate that or did he?"

"He said that she did, and since he also told me about other people in the industry who've done the same thing with her, for the same reasons, I believe him," I said. "She was almost certainly sleeping with someone at Clash, which is how she found out that I was competing with her for the internship. For years she always seemed to be two steps ahead of me, and I could never work out how. But now I know."

Finn's hands had stilled on my calves, but his fingers still tapped out a pattern against my skin.

"And Izzy knows that you know that," he said.

I nodded.

"Then surely she's the most likely person to have leaked your name to the press."

"But if she did it, why would she lie about it?" I asked.

"She's spent years lying about how she's got jobs in the past, pretending it was on her own merit rather her willingness to fuck people to get ahead," Finn pointed out.

I tilted my head. "You sound genuinely pissed off about that."

"I don't like that you've worked hard but haven't landed jobs that Izzy has. It's not fair."

"You know better than anyone that life isn't fair," I said.

Finn sighed. "True, but it still pisses me off."

"Me too. But at least now Izzy won't get that Clash internship either. Maybe it's petty but I can take some small comfort from that."

"So that threat you just made to Izzy – you could have done that months ago." Finn started rubbing my legs again, his face thoughtful.

"I guess so."

"But you didn't."

"It honestly didn't occur to me," I admitted.

"And now?"

I plucked at the corners of the cushion. "I don't think I'll do it. I only meant it to be a threat."

Finn's hands moved higher, stroking behind my knees. "Maybe it would be an important lesson for her."

"Maybe, but I don't want to get dragged down in the mud with her. It's not worth it. And honestly this mess is partly my fault too. I was so angry when I first thought she was behind the rumours that I didn't think about what I was saying. If I'd been smarter, more careful, she wouldn't have realised that I was the secret girlfriend and none of this would be happening. I don't want to get in a situation where that could happen again."

Finn's forehead creased a little. "You don't know that this still wouldn't have happened. Louise knows you're living here. Izzy knows it was really you competing for the internship, not your pseudonym. You don't know how much info Louise shares with her staff, but if Izzy is screwing someone at Clash then there's every chance that she'd have put all the pieces together on her own," he said.

"Maybe," I conceded. "We'll never know now. Although, in Izzy's defence, she could have leaked my identity and she didn't. That has to count for something, right?"

Finn shrugged. "Unless she only hadn't leaked it yet. You don't know that she wasn't planning to. Maybe someone else just beat her to it."

"Again, maybe. But who?"

His expression hardened. "I don't know, but I'd fucking like to."

A prickle of unease skittered across my skin. Had whoever it was known the shitstorm they would bring down on my head? Had they been too blinded by promises of money that they hadn't realised? Or had they just not cared?

I tugged Finn's hand. "I don't want to think about this any more. Distract me?"

He leaned forward, his eyes sparking. "I know just how to distract you."