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“Kevin?” I called, knocking softly on the door.

Just when I was beginning to think that he had actually managed to squeeze in his much desired nap, the door swung open.

“Come in.” Kevin said, holding the door open for me.

‘So much for his power nap...’ I thought. He actually looked slightly worse than he had only a couple of hours ago.

I smiled weakly at him as I stepped inside. I still had no idea how I was going to bring the situation up. I could actually feel my face getting hot with embarrassment as I walked farther into the room. How did you show someone a picture of their cousin in that kind of a situation?

“Amy!” Brian’s voice snapped me back to reality.

I looked up and focused my attention on Brian who was sitting on the bed. Shit! I hadn’t anticipated the fact that Kevin might not be alone. I definitely hadn’t thought about what I would do if Brian was there.

“Where’s Baylee?” I asked, stalling for time and looking around rather frantically. There was no way that I could show anyone the picture if Baylee was around.

“He’s playing X-Box with Nick and Lauren.” Kevin supplied. He gave me a knowing look. “What’s wrong? You seem ... anxious.”

I let out a shaky breath and handed Kevin my phone without any explanation. I had already cued the image up on the screen, and I was careful not to look at it as I handed over the device.

Kevin shot me a curious glance as he flipped the phone over in his hands. “It would be a lot easier if you just ...” he stopped mid-sentence as his brain registered what he was looking at. His eyes widened and I noticed a tinge of pink appear on his cheeks as he turned the phone over. “Where did you get this?” He asked, obviously trying to keep the panic out of his voice.

“It was posted on the forum.” I sighed. “One of my friends from the Nashville office sent it to me. Apparently, your team has called in the top graphic expert who works in our office to look at it.”

“This was on the forum?” Kevin repeated. His voice cracked slightly and his eyes were straining in their sockets. Needless to say, he was failing miserably at remaining calm and collected.

“I was told that it was only up for a few minutes. Jason happened to be online and he took it down as soon as he saw it.” I assured him.

“What is it? What are you looking at?” Brian asked, getting off of the bed and walking over to his cousin.

“I thought you should see it before PR brought it up. I didn’t know that he ...” I trailed off as I looked at Brian’s desperate face. I had been hot with embarrassment before. Now, I was positively on fire.

“Kevin! What is it? Let me see the phone!” Brian demanded.

Kevin gave me a fleeting look before handing over the phone. Brian quickly turned the phone over in his hands and let out a small gasp. The colour drained from his face and he grabbed Kevin’s arm in order to steady himself. Afraid that he might actually be about to faint, I reached out and caught him around the waist.

“It can’t ... because I never ... it’s impossible ...” Brian stammered. “I think I’m going to be sick.” He finally choked out, closing the image and roughly shoving the phone back into my free hand.

“Brian, if there’s something that you need to admit this would probably be a good time.” Kevin said. His tone was gentle but his message was firm. He needed to know what the band was going to be dealing with.

“Admit!?” Brian exclaimed. “There’s nothing to admit! I don’t know what that is or how it got on the Internet. I don’t even know that girl!”

“It looks like you know her pretty well.” I shot back with more anger than I had intended. I quickly removed my hand from his waist and took a step back towards the door.

“Amy!” Brian cried, realization flashing in his eyes as he turned to stare me in the face. “Oh shit! I know how this looks ... what you must be thinking ... I never would have said what I did just to ...”

“What’s all this?” Kevin asked, his eyes darting back and forth between me and Brian in confusion.

“Nothing” I muttered. “I have to go.” I added, as I turned and hurried from the room.

I could hear Brian giving Kevin a mumbled explanation as I made my way out of the room and into the hallway. The tears were threatening to overflow as I reached my room, and I fumbled hurriedly with the access card. I finally managed to get it into the slot as the door to Kevin’s room opened. I could hear Brian coming up behind me as I opened the door, and I wasn’t surprised when he pushed in behind me.

“I wouldn’t lie to you.” He said, shutting the door behind us. I could feel his breath on the back of neck and I shivered slightly in response.

“Wouldn’t you?” I asked, taking a few steps forward before turning to face him. “You swore up and down that you had never cheated, but it sure looks like you have. What if we hadn’t been interrupted? What number would I have been?”

“Amy, you wouldn’t have been a number! Everything I told you last night was true. I swear to you that I have no idea who that girl in the picture is.”

“Then why are you practically on top of her ... naked?” I spat. “It is you, isn’t it?”

“It is me.” Brian acknowledged. His voice wavered, but he kept his eyes locked with mine as he spoke. “I can’t deny that it’s me.”

“So how do you explain it then? How can you say that you’ve never been unfaithful to your wife if there is a picture of you clearly about to have sex with another woman?” I asked.

“I ... I can’t explain it ...” Brian stuttered. “It’s a fake. This girl ... whoever she is ... she must have faked it.”

“But how?!” I exploded. “How could she fake it? How did she get a picture of you ... looking like that?!”

“I don’t know.” Brian admitted. “Amy, if I wanted to fuck some random girl, then I would. I don’t want that. You know that I don’t want that. I think part of you also knows that I would never lie to you just so that you would want to sleep with me.”

I could feel myself start to waver. Why would he go to all the trouble of trying to get me into bed if he could have his pick of hundreds of women?

“Everything is so messed up.” He let out a shaky breath. “Leighanne has taken off, apparently there’s a naked picture of me going around the Internet, my kid’s upset, and you think I’m a lying bastard.”

“I don’t think that you’re a bastard.” I conceded, my voice softening ever so slightly.

“But you do think I’m a liar.” Brian countered.

“I’m, honestly, not sure what I think about you at the moment.” I replied.

Brian looked defeated, but he pressed forward with his defence. “I know this is not the best time for me to be telling you this, but I can’t stop thinking about you. I was instantly attracted to you ... since the first day we met. I loved the way you looked at me when you shook my hand. It was like you were fighting to keep yourself from staring at me. I can’t remember the last time Leighanne looked at me like that.”

“It doesn’t matter how either one of us feels. You’re married.” I said. AJ’s words played in my ears as I tried to maintain my composure.

“Leighanne and I haven’t been happy for a long time.” Brian admitted. “She’s a wonderful mother to Baylee, but I’m not in love with her anymore. She’s grown so distant. When she threatened me with divorce last night, I was almost grateful that she had brought it up. But then she started threatening to expose me as a cheater and I panicked. I started spurting out all of this crap about how we could make things work and that things would get better. I don’t know what I was thinking. All I knew was that I didn’t want her to ruin things for the rest of the guys. This tour has been going so well; Kevin’s back and we’ve been selling out almost every show. She’s been awful towards me these last few months. I’m sure that she could sense my lack of interest and I think that’s also, partially, why she’s been so nasty to you.” Brian said. “AJ informed me that I wasn’t doing the best job of disguising my feelings.”

I nodded, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak. He seemed so lost and alone. He still looked sickeningly pale and his eyes had taken on a perpetually puffy quality. His t-shirt was rumpled and he had jammed a backwards ball cap on his head to hide his unruly hair. Despite it all, he was gorgeous. I couldn’t deny that I was still attracted to him, regardless of the fact that he was married and possibly a cheater. I knew that I should stand my ground and tell him to leave, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

As if sensing the fact that he was getting through to me, Brian cautiously took a step forward. “I mean it, Amy. If you tell me to leave, I’ll leave. If you tell me that you don’t want this, I’ll stop pursuing it.”

“You’ve known about my feelings for a while.” The words were out of my mouth before I even had time to think about it. “I know that your life is a mess right now, and I don’t want you to make a choice that you’re going to regret.”

A slow smile spread across his face as he took the final step towards me. I didn’t move. My heart was pounding in my chest as he pulled me against him. Our eyes locked and he hesitated. I could practically hear him fighting with his feelings in his mind.

“We have to stop.” I whispered. I abruptly pulled away from him; essentially ending his internal battle.

“What? Why?” Brian asked, his hands still lingering on my waist. His eyes were hooded with desire and confusion.

“I can’t be with you until I know the truth about that picture.” I said. The image flashed before my eyes as I uttered the words, and I could feel the warmth spreading into my face. Regardless of how much I wanted him, I couldn’t commit until I knew if the picture was indeed a fake.

“I get it.” Brian conceded, but I could still see the hurt penetrating his eyes.

“Brian!? Amy!?” Kevin’s angry voice floated through the door.

“I told him to wait for me to come back.” Brian grumbled, pulling away from me as Kevin continued to knock on the door.

“You should probably let him in.” I encouraged.

Brian sighed audibly and pulled open the door for his cousin.

“Okay, what is going on?!” Kevin blasted, storming into the room. He ran both of his hands through his hair in frustration and turned to stare at us. “Is there something that I need to know about?”

“There’s definitely something that I need to know about!” Howie cried, bursting through the open door and waving his iPhone in the air.

“Have any of you guys checked Twitter recently?!” AJ’s voice simultaneously boomed down the hallway as his heavy footsteps padded towards us.

“Oh God.” Brian moaned. What little colour that had returned to his face vanished instantly. “Is it on Twitter?”

“What do you mean ‘is it on Twitter?’ Have you seen it somewhere else? Did you already know about this!?” Howie shouted, shoving his phone in Brian’s face.

I leaned over to look at the screen and saw the all too familiar picture staring back at me. It had now been posted at both Brian and the band’s official Twitter accounts. Judging by the Twitter handle of the poster, it had clearly been sent from an account that had been created for the sole purpose of releasing the picture.

@anonymousbsbhater
Looks like the @backstreetboys’ @brianlittrell is not so FAITHful after all. #cheater #douchebag #badrep #boybanddrama

“We just found out about it.” Kevin grumbled. “Apparently, Jason saw it posted on the forum earlier. He was able to take it down, but I suppose that he wasn’t fast enough and someone must have saved it.”

“Do you know how many times it has been re-tweeted?” I asked, pulling my own phone out of my pocket and frantically logging into Twitter. “Maybe we can take it down before too many people see it.”

“I think it’s too late for that.” Nick said, as he and Lauren walked into the room behind AJ. “I just got off the phone with Jason. Cass from PR is attempting to do damage control, but it’s already been re-tweeted too many times to count. Management is debating about cancelling tonight’s show.”