He couldn't follow me in there. I locked the door and sank down onto the seat folding my head into my hands.

He didn't knock right away. Maybe he wanted to give me the chance to calm down, or maybe he thought I was actually using the facilities. But when I didn't come out even after I’d flushed and stayed inside for a few more minutes, his voice drifted through the solid wood.

"Kins, are you okay?" he asked with such sincerity that it only made my tears even harder to push down.

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"Yes... just regrouping," I answered honestly.

"Could you regroup with me? What's wrong, babe?" I could hear his body slide down the wall next to the door and I knew he wasn't going to budge until I came out.

"Will you be honest with me if I ask you something? Completely honest?" I asked, stepping closer to the door and resting my forehead against it.

"Yes. Just tell me what's going on. We'll fix it."

I took a deep breath and prepared my heart for the wrong answer.

"Am I being naïve to trust you? Seriously, Liam, you have to be honest with me, I can handle the truth… what I can't handle is getting into another relationship with a guy 781/890

who doesn't respect me enough to be honest."

He sighed on the other side of the door.

"Kins, get your ass out of that bathroom and talk to me face to face."

I mashed my lips together in annoyance, but twisted the knob and cracked the door open. He was still gloriously naked, sitting on the ground, staring up at me with earnest eyes.

Once I'd cracked the door slightly, he reached forward, pried the wood out of my hands, and pushed the door open completely. I jumped slightly, but he shook his head as if to tell me to calm down.

"I am not Josh. I will not hurt you. I was joking in the kitchen. I'm just a normal guy, Kinsley. I want what any other guy wants: to 782/890

have a girlfriend that he loves and who loves him in return. I want there to be trust between us, and I want us to be open with one another. We haven't reached that point yet. I know I have to work to undo the crap other guys have done to you, but please don't shut me out. I can't change your past, Kinsley."

I nodded and finally felt the tears streaming down my cheeks.

"I just felt scared and vulnerable lying on that kitchen floor with you. You could pull the rug out from under me whenever you feel like it... whenever you're ready to move on."

He reached up and pulled my hand down so that I collapsed onto his lap. Our skin was pressed together, hot and sweaty 783/890

from our lovemaking, but I loved it all the same.

"I love you, Kinsley Bryant. I love you because you aren't afraid to go for your dream. I love you because you had the balls to ask me to show you my tattoos when you didn't even know me. I love you because you're so talented and yet so humble. You've been given this tremendous gift and you push yourself every day to become even better. You're inspiring to be around and I love you. Please, believe that."

I stared at his chiseled chest, rising and falling, and let his words marinate inside of me. After a few moments, I finally glanced up and flashed him a small smile.

"You didn't say anything about my rockin’ bod or my quick wit..." He started 784/890

laughing and shook his head, but I kept going despite my laughter. "Or my amazing talents in the bedroom, or my stellar whist-linggggaggghh—” he started tickling me and I couldn't speak over the laughter. I had to use every bit of strength to fend him off.

"Ahhh, STOP Liam Wilder. Right now!"

I demanded, though he didn't heed my harsh tone. He picked me up off the ground and carried me toward the shower, depositing us both under the warm stream. He kept holding me, letting the water rush over both of us.

"By the way, I'm on birth control and I'm clean y’know... if next time we want to…?"

He kissed me before I could continue. "I got checked before we started dating, so yeah, no more condoms."

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I smiled up at him. "Perfect. Let’s go again."

He laughed and tossed water onto me.

"You're insatiable, but I love you," he murmured, kissing my lips. "I love you," he said again, kissing each of my cheeks.

When I opened my mouth to tell him that I loved him too, he stole my breath with a kiss and I never got the chance. I think the sneaky twit did it on purpose.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Are you sure this is a good idea to look at this?" Becca asked as we huddled together over my computer on my bed. I was finally going to go online and see what was being said about me. I knew it was a bad idea, but curiosity was eating away at me and I had to know.

“No, this is a terrible idea, but since we’ve already closed the drapes and locked the doors, we have no choice.”

“Yeah… that’s not how that works, Kinsley,” Becca laughed.

“There’s no choice, Becca!” I added dramatically.

“Whatever, weirdo.”

My life had completely flipped upside down in the past few weeks. I used to take 787/890

my old life for granted. Going to the grocery store, to practice, out to eat—I couldn't do any of it anymore without a group of photographers hounding my every move. And I wasn't even doing anything interesting! Had I been leaving clubs at 2:00 A.M. with white powder dusting my nose, sure, maybe Instagram me, but carrying Whole Foods bags to my car did not seem interesting to me.

Which is why I had to see what they were posting about—why was I still so newsworthy?

Becca typed in one of the top celebrity gossip sites and we waited for it to load. The first few stories were about actual celebrities doing things that were actually semi-interested: cheating, partying, and spending their money frivolously.

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Then my name popped up and beneath it there was a photo of Liam and me walking hand in hand out of Starbucks. I was prepared for the worst, so when I saw

"America's Sweetheart Soccer Couple" beneath the photo, I gasped. They clearly had the wrong person; that photo didn't even show the real details of the situation.

Beneath my stylish sunglasses I had zero makeup on, they thought my hair looked trendy because I hadn't washed it yet that day, and there had been a coffee stain on the front of my shirt, which the website had clearly photoshopped out. I was smiling up at Liam because he was making fun of me for being a klutz with my coffee. I mean, we were happy and we were a couple, but as far 789/890

as being anything close to "America's Sweethearts"... they had it all wrong.

Becca scrolled down to the comments section and that's where all the real controversy was housed. There were thousands upon thousands of comments concerning whether I was good enough/hot enough/nice enough/stylish enough to be dating Liam Wilder. Becca didn't let me read them for too long, but the comments I had time to read tore me apart piece by piece. Some of the claims were just too ridiculous not to ignore.

" He should be with a blonde. "— " He should be with a republican." — " He should date someone who is Jewish."

"Wow. People are really opinionated about Liam's dating habits. Like hyper-opinionated. Why do they care if I use a certain 790/890

kind of shampoo?" I commented as Becca flipped to another website.

“Probably to make sure you don’t use a shampoo that tests their products on animals. They said they don’t want Liam dating an animal abuser.”

Oh good God. I wasn’t killing monkeys over here.

The next site she pulled up had a photo of Liam and me out on the beach near his house. I remembered seeing paparazzi that day and Liam had wanted to go back inside, but I wasn't going to let them ruin our afternoon. Now, I wish I'd listened. Seeing my body in a bikini splashed across the Internet felt oddly personal. The photographs weren’t even close to being pornographic, but it felt 791/890