Pulling her knees up, she clasped her legs together at the small of his back. She looked into his face, noting the furrowed brow and deep look of concentration in his green eyes. He was treating this as the most important thing he had ever done, and that she was the most important and precious person in his life. The emotion she felt expanded inside her, and she whispered, "I love you, Kevin."

The expression of concentration momentarily softened, and he reached to push a strand of hair away from her face. He gazed into her light brown eyes, and whispered back, "I love you too."

They surged together, each movement rhythmic and purposeful until each reached satisfaction. Her legs tightened around his waist and her back arched, bringing him closer and deeper inside her. Kevin tossed his head back, and closed his eyes as the physical sensations overtook him.

Relaxing as they drifted back to reality, he rolled over, bringing her with him, so that she was lying on top of him. She tucked her head under his chin, and arranged herself on him. They laid there together, each lost in thought.

She silently thanked her friends for dragging her to the bar near the St. Louis hotel where the Backstreet Boys were staying after their show. She had wanted just to go home after the concert, but her friends wouldn’t let her. After an hour, Kevin and Howie came into the bar, and it wasn’t soon after that she boldly went up to Kevin and introduced herself. He was her favorite Backstreet Boy and she wanted to meet him, and see if the attraction she felt would be mutual. It had been. Howie soon disappeared and she and Kevin spent a couple of hours together dancing and drinking before he led her back to his hotel room. By the time they had undressed each other, she was convinced she was in love with the man in front of her, and they were destined for each other.

His thoughts were only slightly similar, in that he was glad he went to the bar with D. But there his thoughts diverged from hers. It had been a rough week for him, starting with the arguments he had with Johnny and Donna Wright about how they were handling the Boys’ career, to being stuck in the same room with Nick in the previous city and no way to remove the young blond pest, to finally culminating with his girlfriend calling him the previous night and telling him that it was over between them. Kevin’s ego had taken quite a beating in the past week. This woman helped heal him, in that her wanting him restored his sense of balance. It wasn’t anything more than sex for Kevin and he certainly had no feelings of commitment or attachment for her. But he had been around enough to know that in order to keep her here, he needed to turn on the charm. She had grown restless, and was now looming over him, hands running over his chest. He reached up for her.

"Ashley. . ." he murmured, bringing her closer to him by pulling on her long, black curls, "Com’ere, honey. I need you right now." She smiled down at him, and. . .

Ashley DiSanto woke with a start. Closing her eyes again, she could feel him next to her, could hear his steady breathing. She reached over and grasped air. Opening her eyes, she realized she was alone. Disappointed, she got out of bed and pushed back the curtains hiding the balcony. Looking at the lights making up Lexington’s skyline, she rested her head against the cool glass.

"Soon, Kevin, soon," she whispered. "We will be together again very soon, my love. And for always, I promise."

"Hey Jaim, why are you dressed? I thought you weren’t being discharged yet?" asked Brian as he and Leighanne entered her hospital room. She turned around, and Brian stopped short.

"Whoa, sorry. I thought you were Jamie."

Jamie walked out of the bathroom in time to hear Brian’s last comment. She smiled, "Well, good. Glad to see this might actually work." Jamie stood next to the other woman.

"Wow, you two could be twins, almost. Boy, Jamie, I never noticed how short you really are," said Leighanne, staring back and forth between the two redheads in front of her.

Jamie mock scowled, "I’m not short. I’m just tall for a kindergartner." They all chuckled, and Jamie said, "It’s not going to matter that Stephanie’s taller than me. She’ll be lying down most of the time." Jamie made the introductions.

The door suddenly flew open and Nick and AJ came barreling into the room, followed by a more sedate Kevin and Howie. Nick pushed AJ out of the way, then stopped short before crashing into Leighanne.

"I won!" exclaimed Nick, red in the face, but looking very pleased with himself. AJ was leaning over, hands resting on his knees, breathing hard.

"You wouldn’t have if that nurse hadn’t been coming out of that room just then," insisted AJ.

"Do we wanna know what this is about?" asked Brian, amused. Kevin and Howie both shook their heads.

"No, trust me, Rok, you don’t. Don’t ask, please," said Kevin. By this time AJ had recovered enough to notice the extra person in the room and stare at her.

"You cloned Jamie! And made her taller! Kev, you get the tall one, I’ll take the original." AJ hugged Jamie and pushed Stephanie over towards Kevin. The others started cracking up, except for Kevin.

Jamie stopped laughing long enough to extricate herself from AJ’s grasp and say, "Not exactly, Bone. And you already have a perfectly good girlfriend, so knock it off. Everyone, this is Stephanie Miller. She’s agreed to take the job, so please don’t do anything to change her mind. Stephanie, don’t worry, these insane people are just the rest of the Backstreet Boys."

Stephanie stood there wide-eyed, staring at the group. Leighanne came up and put a hand on her arm. "They take some getting used to. Don’t mind them too much. Besides, you’ll be staying here in Lexington, and we’ll be in Orlando."

Kevin stood in front of Stephanie and took her hand. "You sure about this? Detective Logan explained it all to you, right? You sure you want to do this? If you’re not, it’s alright."

In a soft Southern voice, Stephanie replied, "I’m sure, Kevin. Thank you for your concern."

Nick grinned, "It’s a good thing you don’t have to say anything. There’s no way you’d be mistaken for Jamie if you spoke. Leighanne, maybe, but not Jamie."

"What’s that supposed to mean, Blondie?" asked Jamie, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Well, for one, you have that Midwest thing going, not a Southern accent. And I don’t think you’ve ever spoken that softly in your life, Jaim."

"That’s not true," said Brian. "You could barely hear her say her wedding vows."

"You’re just deaf from all the screaming at the concerts," replied Kevin. "I heard her perfectly."

"You were also standing right next to her," pointed out Nick. Kevin just looked over at Nick with a "Really? I didn’t notice" expression on his face before shaking his head.

Jamie coughed. "Anyway. . . this is way off the subject. The point is Stephanie is just supposed to lie in bed and pretend to be me. If she can handle that, it’ll all be fine. This will work."

"I hope," said Kevin dubiously. "Logan seemed a little too insistent about this."

"I know you don’t exactly approve of Logan right now," said Jamie. "But I think it will work. Stephanie and I look enough alike that she can pretend to be me. No one has to know I’ve really been released, and she can stay here while we go back to Orlando."

"But Jamie, Kevin hasn’t left your side since this all began. No one in their right mind is going to believe that he’d leave you now," protested Howie.

"This psycho is not in her right mind. She’ll just see this as another opportunity to come after me, and an easy one at that. Logan explained this already," said Jamie. "Besides, if we say you all had to leave because The Firm needs you back for some promotions or whatever, it’s a logical reason to leave."

"You’re supposed to be on a honeymoon. The Firm shouldn’t be needing all of us for anything," said AJ.

"We didn’t actually go, now did we? You really think if Kevin is available that The Firm isn’t going to use him for anything? Even I know that’s not how the industry works, AJ. If you’re around, you can be used, it’s as simple as that. No one is going to look too deeply into the reasons why he’s needed," insisted Jamie. "Look, if none of you thought this would work, why did you let Logan go through all the trouble of finding an actress?"

"At the time, it sounded okay, but I guess we’re just thinking more about it now," said Howie.

"Well stop it. You’re overthinking this."

Even Kevin looked amazed by that statement, "This coming from a lawyer? I thought you said that you can’t look at something enough, you can’t overthink something."

"I never said that. Besides, even if I did, there’s an exception for everything."

"You really think that this woman is going to believe you’ve been left behind by Kevin and that she’s got another shot at killing you?"

Jamie winced at that, "Oooh, bad pun, D. Look, but I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but we have to try something. I’m not really comfortable knowing that someone out there is roaming around and wants me dead."

Kevin looked at Stephanie. "After hearing all this, you still sure you want to do this?"

She nodded, "I’m going to be fine, she won’t get close enough to actually do any harm. And if she does get that close, she’ll see I’m not Jamie. I’m not going to get hurt."

"If she sees you’re not Jamie, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of all this?" asked Nick.

"She has to get very close to see that. Getting that close will get her arrested," said Stephanie. "Jamie’s right, this will work."

Nick raised an eyebrow, "You’re either way braver than I would be, or just incredibly blind."

"I’d like to think it was bravery, but I will say a paycheck does have its benefits."

Kevin mumbled, "Money does you no good if she kills you."

Jamie said, "Could y’all not talk her out of this? She’s agreed to pretend to be me, let’s try this and see what happens."

"We’re just worried. If something happens to Stephanie, it’ll be all our fault for putting her in this situation."

"I’m a big girl, Kevin. I know what I’m getting into, and I’ve accepted the risk," Stephanie said firmly. "You don’t need to look out for me. You have enough to deal with right now. Let me do my job."

Nick rolled his eyes, saying to no one in particular, "Great, she already thinks she’s Jamie." He turned to Kevin. "This may work after all."