"It's blurry," he said as he peered over Nadine's shoulder.

She scoffed. "It's clear as day."

He'd thought that he must've been out of frame, but there, there, by the pool house was he and Elizabeth engaged in a kiss.

He winced as he anxiously shoved his hands into his pant pockets. "I had no idea that the photographers were attending. Not only attending but photographing."

She scrolled to the top of the page. "That's what photographers do, yes."

He pulled his hands free from his pockets as he stepped to the other side of her desk. "It's a ninth-page feature in Veranda magazine." He shrugged his lips. "Maybe no one will see it."

He was only kidding himself. Not only did the magazine have a circulation of upwards of 400,000 copies, but, like most modern-day publications, it also had an online footprint. Someone who was someone would see it.

"What were you thinking?"

His eyes snapped up from his expensive shoes to Nadine's face.

"I—"

His inhibitions had been lowered from all the wine he'd guzzled. His emotions had boiled over after holding Meredith's hand through her breakdown over white-collar matters. They were in Connecticut, for God's sake. They were within the gates of his family's estate, among friends and family who had bigger secrets to hide than a lousy affair. They were supposed to be safe!

"I don't know." Sweat had built on his brow. "I don't know," he repeated.

Nadine had warned him. "You're taking her home?" She'd said that it took the cake of terrible ideas, of course, other than the one where he thought it was okay to jump into bed with Elizabeth McCord.

"We need to take this to Elizabeth," she said as she pushed back her chair.

His eyebrows jumped toward his hairline. "Now?

"Now," she said.

Nadine's hand was on the door handle when he touched her shoulder, stopping her.

"Be straight with me." He looked her in the eyes. "How bad?"

"Extramarital affairs are the kiss of death for anyone with a security clearance," she'd said months ago. "Maybe you can keep the affair from Henry, but you can't hide it from the government." Given her past with Vincent, he'd figured that she knew from personal experience.

"This is going to blow up," she told him.