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Chapter Three

Elle weaved her way through the bodies of people dancing in the club, heading straight back to where she knew Sofie was, hoping Julian wasn't following her.

"Sof, I'm gonna go," Elle said, setting the vodka cranberry drink Julian bought her onto the bar top in front of her.

"What? Why?" Sofie asked, breaking her attention away from the guy she was with.

"I just... I'm gonna go. I had fun," Elle told her, sending a smile her way as she squeezed her arm.

"Elle, why?" Sofie asked as Elle moved around her toward the direction of the exit.

"Just... call me tomorrow," Elle offered as she moved toward the door of the club, wanting more than anything to just get some fresh air.

Her whole head was a mess. She went temporarily mad underneath his touch, his kiss. Good god. Did that really happen?

When Elle finally broke out of the building, she took a deep breath, dragging precious air into her lungs, hoping it would help clear up the fog in her mind. But it didn't help. Especially when she felt a firm hand grab onto her arm and her breath was taken away again.

"Elle, hey," she heard his worried voice, and cringed as he spun her body toward him.

"Where are you going?" Julian asked, his intense, yet genial eyes washing up and down her face.

"I've... I've gotta go home," she told him, trying her best to not look into his eyes, but focusing on his mouth was equally as hypnotizing.

"W-why?" He asked, knitting his eyebrows together, sounding plagued.

Elle's whole body stiffened when she saw the familiar flashes of a camera on Julian's face as he looked at her.

"Shit," she hissed.

Julian's eyes shot up to whomever it was taking their picture, and Elle knew they had been caught, and it really wasn't going to look good on her part.

"Elle, are you dating the virginal movie star now?" She heard a menacing chuckle, as Julian dropped her arm from his grasp.

She turned to find a guy named Liam, who was a diehard paparazzo, a guy that was practically the leader of the paps calling her out for getting 'special treatment' in the field because she was a woman. He was seriously an asshole, and Elle always found it unpleasant to work around him. He was the type of paparazzo to start a fight with a celebrity just to be able to sue them when the celebrity lost their shit on him and broke his camera or punched him in the face. He called it a 'bonus' when something like that happened.

Elle scoffed at Liam and trudged down the sidewalk away from both men. She didn't think she had it in her to deal with either of them.

"Elle!" Julian called out again.

What the hell did this guy think he was doing? Did he really want to be associated with someone like her?

"Elle, stop," Julian called out as he trailed behind her. She could also see the flash of Liam's stupid camera as he followed them down the sidewalk.

"Taxi!" Elle shouted, holding her hand out, looking down the road for a yellow cab. All she really wanted to do was get the hell out of there.

"Come on, Elle," Julian said, grasping onto her arm again.

"What are you doing?" She asked him in a low voice, turning to look him straight in the eye. He was absolutely crazy, she was certain.

"I just want to get to know you," he breathed lowly as Liam barely gave them any privacy while he snapped an overabundance of unnecessary pictures of the two of them.