Page 55 of When the Stars Rise

Trust me, I would love nothing more than for us to be completely honest with each other. I’d love to spill my sins and secrets and drop all my baggage at her feet, but I can’t do that to her.

It’s my burden to carry, and that’s just how it has to be, so I press my lips together and say nothing. Thankfully, she drops the subject.

“When I said I wanted to be a regular twenty-two-year-old girl, I meant it,” she says. “But I don’t even know what normal is anymore. I chose this life. This wasmychoice. Nobody’s forcing me to perform or to release new albums…”

“So what are you saying? You think you deserve all the bullshit that goes with it? You think it’s okay for some asshole to stalk you and for the paparazzi to chase you down the street and jeopardize your mental health?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “I’m just saying that if I want to continue with this career, I have to learn how to take the bad with the good. I can’t fall apart every time something like this happens, and I can’t allow the paparazzi to stop me from living my life.”

She straightens her spine and squares her shoulders. “Iwon’tallow it. Fuck you, paparazzi. And fuck you, Kevin, for sending me those stupid letters and making me feel like I owe you something when I don’t owe you a damn thing.”

I smile at the fierceness in her tone and the set of her jaw.

That’s my girl.

She’s fighting back. She’s not going to allow a bunch of assholes with cameras to destroy her.

Sadly, we both know that the paparazzi aren’t going anywhere. They’ll still be hounding her wherever she goes, and it doesn’t matter how many restraining orders you petition for. Nothing ever sticks in court. I’ve learned that from experience.

But we can still fight back in our own way—by going about our business and giving them nothing in return.

“They’re not all bad,” Hayley says, smoothing her hand over my chest to reassure me. “When they catch me alone, they’re usually polite and ask if I’m having a good day.”

I pause, considering her words. “Does it make it worse when you’re with me?”

She shrugs, and I’ll take that as a yes. “They love us together,” she says, her eyes on my chest. “They take offense when we’re caught kissing other people.”

I squash a smile. “Huh. Is that right?” I don’t know how much of this is true, but I don’t like it any more than they do. “Then I guess we’d better not do that anymore.”

Hayley bites her lip, trying to suppress a smile. “Guess not.”

“Let’s try this again. Are you okay, Hayley?”

She lets out a breath and nods. “Yeah.” A slow smile spreads across her face, and I know it’s genuine this time. “I am now.”

Her smile grows wider, those dimples in her cheeks making an appearance. “That’s how you know you’ve made it,” she jokes. “When you have your first stalker.”

She laughs at the stunned look on my face.

“Too soon?” she says.

All I can do is laugh and shake my head. “What am I going to do with you, Hales?”

She gives me a flirty smile as she slides her hand into the pocket of my gray sweatpants and plucks out my phone, holding the screen in front of my face to unlock it.

Turning the screen to face her, she opens my music app and searches for a song before hitting play and climbing out of my lap.

I smile, watching her dance to The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”

It’s flirty and fun, bordering on seductive, and takes me back to a simpler time when we were fifteen, and she was dancing around her bedroom, using her hairbrush as a microphone. But the memory screeches to a halt when she tugs up the hem of the T-shirt she’s wearing and gives me a flash of lilac silk trimmed in cream lace.

Jesus. She’s trying to kill me. I watch with rapt attention to see what she’ll do next and sure enough she hooks her thumbs inthe sides of the panties and pushes them down her thighs then kicks them aside. My dick twitches. Now I know she’s bare under that T-shirt.

What’s she trying to tell me? That she wants me? That she’s mine for the taking?

She beckons me with the crook of her finger and a sexy smile filled with promise, and I oblige just like I did earlier tonight when she called me onto the stage.

I’m a sucker for this girl, and I’m not even mad about it.