Page 50 of Tiebreaker

"So, you don't have any shame, do you?" Porky says, and Shelly shoots her a look.

There's something in it that makes my stomach clench down and Kai laughs.

"Not really. I'm a rock star living that life."

Porky smirks, her look devious and almost evil. "Yeah, well, even most rock stars would never end up with a prostitute for a girlfriend."

The reaction of the crowd is instantaneous screams of, "Oh," fill my ears that are suddenly burning. The hipster guy beside me laughs, holding his chest. And Kai's mouth opens slightly as if he doesn't know how to respond to that.

All of a sudden, there's a camera in my face, bright light blinding me. And I wince, leaning back.

"That's right. You've even brought her here today. I hear you two had quite the steamy first encounter set up by your team, huh? Do you normally have to pay for sex?" Porky asks.

And now she just sounds mean. Shelly even looks shocked. Kai's face has transformed from light-hearted to lined with frowns, his eyes dark.

"Yeah, I'm not sure that's exactly what I want to talk about right now," he says.

Porky presses bright red lips together in a smirk. "So what's the official line of how you two met?"

Kai stares at her and then gets to his feet, "You know, I think I'm done."

He grabs his mic cable from his shirt and rips it off, dumping that and the box strapped to the back of his jeans right on the ground. He steps down off the stage and scans the front row before seeing me. I scramble to my feet ducking out from behind the camera, and he grabs my arm.

"Come on," he says. "Fuck this place."

The crowd is on their feet again, and a girl reaches for him. But he yanks me forward. A security guard steps in immediately between us and the crowd. And we dodge out through the side door as they're screaming his name.

My throat is choked with emotion, tight. And my eyes are burning. Assistants are running around like crazy backstage.

"Get the next guest! Get the next guest!" one says into her headset before a producer intercepts us. Kai holds up his hand.

"I don't want to fucking hear it," he says. "That was unacceptable. I don't know what you guys were thinking. I'm never going to do the show again."

"I'm so sorry," The producer blurts out, running a hand through his hair nervously. "We had no idea that she was going to go on that line."

Kai glares, "Oh, really? Then why was the camera guy prepared to shove his gear right in my girlfriend's face? Whatever, you guys are going to hear from my lawyer."

"You got everything?" he asks, turning to me.

"I—I," I stutter. "I'm good."

"Right," he says, "Come on."

We take the elevator. We're out in the studio parking lot where the limo is waiting for us. And he's silent on the ride back to the tower, furiously texting on his phone. As he gets out, he takes a call, not even looking at me.

"I don't know what the fuck they were thinking, but a live show? Doing that on a live show of all things?" he yells into his phone, obviously, talking to someone on his team.

I tag along after him. And when we get to his floor, he looks at me with a shake of his head, pulling his phone away from his ear.

"I got to deal with this. We'll talk later. Okay? Are you alright?"

Even if I wasn't all right, I'd have lied to him right then. He doesn't need to be dealing with my feelings on top of what he's going through. I'm not a public figure and I really don't care what people think about me. But I know he has an image and a brand.

"I'm fine," I say, really quickly. "Go, go deal with it."

He gives me a brief smile, walking towards his front door. It swings open and there's someone inside. Just as the doors to the elevator close, I see a glimpse of blonde hair and a gorgeous, stacked model woman stands there waiting for him. My heart swoops down into my stomach.

Who is that? But the doors close before I can say anything or ask him who she is. My breathing races as I'm taken up to my floor. And when the doors open, I stand there, not knowing what to do.

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