"Wouldn't you rather skip this, go a little earlier?" Jack asked carefully. "Avoid those guys on the polo team?"

Kelsey shook her head. "I don't give a shit," she said. "I'm not ashamed of me, I'm not ashamed of you, and I'm certainly not ashamed of us." She looked at Jack, gently indignant, as she leaned against his kitchen counter in her workout bikini. It fit her like the proverbial second skin, and she looked magnificent.

She gestured toward the blender, which they'd brought from her kitchen to his when they'd begun living here. "Please? Make me a smoothie? I need to fortify myself before my workout."

Jack looked her up and down, grinned slowly, and began putting ingredients into the blender, calling out what he needed so Kelsey, his assistant, could chop things and hand them to him.

Five minutes later they were sitting in his shady little patio, sipping their smoothies, garnished today with blueberries and strawberries. It was a small but pretty space, with a gorgeous bougainvillea in riotous bloom on the fence. Kelsey took a long pull through her straw, enjoying the crunch of the chia seeds. She watched Jack take a drink so she could lean in and kiss his mustache.

"This will always be the high point of my morning," she announced, leaning back and licking her lips.

"Good, because it's definitely the high point of mine," Jack replied, winking at her.

Kelsey tried to wink back, but she was an appallingly bad winker, who could only do it by screwing up one entire side of her face.

Jack burst out laughing. "You really shouldn't do that," he said. "You look like you're having a stroke." He reached out and grasped her hand, and they sat in silence, drinking their drinks, enjoying the greenery and relative cool of the shade before heading out.

They left half an hour later, at their usual time. Jack was nervous about the polo guys. The whole world knew about what had happened at the party by now, and though Don's version of events hadn't gained much traction anywhere but within the entertainment world, he had the feeling the guys at the pool would come for him, if for no other reason than because they wanted to and felt they could.

Kelsey had gotten lots of sympathy online, on social media and other outlets. People and organizations had reached out to her, telling her she didn't have to stay in a violent situation, that domestic abuse was untenable for anyone, she shouldn't suffer in silence, etc.

Jack's friends and family knew the truth, of course, as did those close to Kelsey. While her family didn't know the details of what had actually happened, they did know that Don was the bad guy, and that Jack, whom they'd never met, was a good person and posed no threat to their daughter.

At first, Kelsey had wanted to release a statement of her own, refuting everything Don had said, and explaining what had really happened. It had taken Raymond and Jack most of that day and the next to convince her that it would help no one for her to do that, and would just convince the public that she was, in fact, a cowed and abused woman. And it might push Don to actually go to the police, and turn the whole thing into a true media circus, which was what they wanted to avoid for Kelsey and her career.

"I don't understand why you think it would hurt my career!" Kelsey had pretty much been shouting at Raymond by that point.

"Kelsey. Lawyers? Police and doctor's reports? Photographs of your bruised and battered body entered into evidence?" Raymond had looked at her pityingly. "Come on, kid. A rape trial never helps the accuser's career, ever, you know that."

Now, in the car on the way to practice, Jack could tell from Kelsey's face that something was on her mind. She was really distracted, and not even "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynyrd Skynyrd was enough to pull her back into the moment. Jack sang the ridiculous words while looking over at her, but she was in another world.

They pulled up and headed for the pool, and Kelsey seemed more distracted than ever. Jack reached over and took her hand, and she smiled at him. Jack, though, couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, that something was coming. He wanted to cancel the workout and take her home, and she ended up basically pulling him onto the pool deck.

They got through their workout, even after the water polo players were there, all around them. To Jack, in fact, it seemed like they were being watched as they swam. He told Kelsey to do an easy five hundred as warm down, then began his own warm down. He could see a few people on the deck, just standing and staring at the lane he was splitting with Kelsey, every time he swam into the wall during his warm down, and he began to grow uneasy.

WTF?

He finished first, and pulled off his goggles, shaking his head and hoisting himself out. As he stood on the deck, the people gathered began to clap for him. A few even cheered, shouting things like, "Way to go, Jack!" and "Awesome, dude!" He could see Brandon and Brock among the cheering throng.

WTF?

Now Kelsey was getting out, and the applause was continuing, swelling, if anything. Jack looked over at her where she stood, taking a drink from her water bottle. She walked to Jack, grabbed his hand and said, "Let's just grab our stuff and go, okay?"

He nodded and they gathered their things, Kelsey quickly pulling her shirt on as they walked off the deck, still holding hands. He looked at her, trying to gauge her response to what was happening around them. Bemusement, concern, but definitely no surprise. She knew what it was about, then.

He checked his phone, and it was full of texts and voicemails, all similar, congratulating him, asking him to call or text back. He was able to wait until they were in the car and on the road before asking. "Okay, you obviously know all about it, so please put me in the know?" He looked over at her.

Kelsey sighed. "It's probably easier if you wait until we're home, and I can just show you, okay?" She looked over at Jack, and he was surprised at the fatigue and relief he saw there. "Please, Jack? If you love me, just trust me? Please?"

Jack finally nodded and remained silent for the rest of the drive home, though his stomach was in knots. He gave the road his full attention, though he could hear his love every time she sighed, which was often.

They got home, and Kelsey put on the shirt of Jack's that she'd slept in, and climbed into bed, opening her laptop and looking at him expectantly. He quickly pulled on sweatpants and a T-shirt and joined her.

"First, Jack, before I show you this," Kelsey began, turning to him, "you have to promise me you won't have a cow, okay?"

He looked at her, eyes narrowed.

"Just please remember that I'm here with you now, safe and sound," Kelsey begged.

"What? What does that mean? What happened? What did you do?" Jack demanded.

"You're already doing it," Kelsey noted.

"I never promised not to," Jack retorted.

Kelsey sighed, nodding. "Touché."

Jack gestured toward the laptop.

Kelsey found a popular entertainment news site, and right at the top, under a banner that screamed "BREAKING NEWS!" was a still of a video of Kelsey, sitting on a bed in what looked like a hotel room.

With Don Simonsen.

Kelsey clicked play.

"He's already heard from the school." Kelsey's soft voice filled the room.

Jack tensed. In his wildest dreams, he never thought he'd be sitting in bed with Kelsey, watching a recording of her sitting in another bed with the man who had violated her.

"Are you offering something, Kelsey? Some kind of trade in exchange?" Don was asking now, as he eyed Jack's girl up and down like she was a side of beef.

Oh god.

Jack turned tortured eyes on Kelsey.

"No, Jack, no," she assured him. She leaned into him, her body soft and comforting. "Just watch."

As her conversation with her rapist continued, they shifted position slightly, so they were out of the frame a little, off-center to the left. Nothing got adjusted, so it was obvious that no one was recording this. Someone had hidden a camera somewhere and left it, stationary, to record whatever happened, Jack thought.

This thought was confirmed a little later when Don rose and tried to walk around, and Kelsey pulled him back to sit next to her, so he'd be in the frame.

Now Don, who was obviously drunk, was rambling about the aristocracy of Europe, and how it wasn't possible for them to rape? He was weaving to and fro on the bed, leaning gently in and out of the frame. Kelsey sat next to Don, beautiful and watchful, and Jack could tell, because he loved her and knew her so well, how close she was to breaking, how sick she was feeling, just from the expression on her face, just from her posture as she faced her attacker.

Don had grabbed a handful of Kelsey's hair, and was twisting it, pulling Kelsey's head painfully.

Jack sat tensely next to Kelsey, swallowing, closing his eyes briefly.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Kelsey murmured.

Then Jack heard Don say, "Of course I raped you," in a conversational voice. As if he were agreeing that yesterday had indeed been a sunny day.

Jack opened his eyes. Don had released Kelsey's hair, at least. He was calling her more names, then he called Jack a few more names, then, finally, he rose and walked out of the frame. There was the sound of a door opening, then Don, speaking very clearly:

"Good bye, whore."

Mercifully, the video ended.

Jack slumped back as Kelsey closed her laptop and set it on the table next to the bed. Then she turned and hugged herself to Jack, leaning on his chest. He put his arms around her, resting his chin on top of her head.

"You made that video?" Jack asked.

Kelsey shook her head. "I made the original recording, though."

Jack nodded. "The day you said you were going to brunch?"

Kelsey nodded again. "I'm sorry I lied, but I knew you wouldn't want me to go."

"You're right about that," Jack said. "But it's done, so I won't bother to 'have a cow', okay?"

"Good." Kelsey relaxed a little. "Anyway, there are some nice people in the business, believe it or not, and I know one or two, and they owed me a favor." She shrugged. "So they edited it a little, put it together, and sent it where it needed to go, anonymously."

"But it's obvious from watching that you're the one who made the recording, Kelsey," Jack replied. "Don's going to know for sure!"

"Well, that's the tricky part, I guess, the favor part," Kelsey said, snuggling in even more. "They're saying it came to them anonymously, but they're also putting it out there that they somehow got their hands on Don's phone, and that it's a recording that Don made, you get it?" She lifted her head to look in Jack's troubled hazel eyes.

"The unofficial, gossipy, Hollywood version of the story is that Don wanted to record us having sex, but he got drunk, things went wrong, and his phone fell into the wrong hands, somehow." Jack could tell Kelsey was smiling. "It's perfectly plausible, and Don will never be able to deny it. No one will believe him, because the people who are doing this for me are absolutely reliable and believable, with no reason to lie. It can never be traced back to me."

"What about Raymond, though? We both promised him--"

"We promised no police, no doctor's reports, no trial, no lawyers," Kelsey said. "And none of that will happen, but the truth is out there now, for the world to know." Her voice was soft, but held satisfaction.

"Your career?"

"Will be fine, I promise," Kelsey replied. "The same can't be said for Don's, though."

"Really?" Jack was surprised. "I thought his eye was fine?"

"Oh, it is, but those race car drivers have to have sponsors," Kelsey explained. "And fans. No one's going to want to touch him with a ten foot barge pole after this." Her voice was smug.

Jack couldn't get the images of what he'd just seen out of his head.

"What possessed you to do it, though, Kelsey?" He couldn't keep the anger out of his voice. "I mean, what were you thinking? You know, from horrible experience, what can happen when you're alone with that animal, yet you went to a hotel room by yourself?" His arms tightened around her.

She scooted up to kiss Jack softly on the mouth. "I couldn't leave that story about you out there, Jack. I couldn't have the world believing you were a violent person, an abuser of women. You were willing to let your reputation suffer for me, but I couldn't let you do it.

"I love you, Jack." Her voice was soft, but Jack heard the thickness in it, and he looked at her. He saw the tears clotting her lashes, making her gray eyes lustrous. "No one's ever done for me what you did, no one's ever, ever, been willing to wreck their whole life so I could have mine."

He looked at her, at how beautiful she was. "I love you, too, sweet, sweet, Kelsey. These last months with you are the happiest I've ever been, and I would gladly have lived with what I did, I want you to know that.

"Come here, come here, sweetheart," he murmured, pulling her up closer so he could kiss her. "Mm," he moaned as he lost himself in the kiss, the taste of her mouth, moving his arms down so he could stroke her back. He slid them all the way down so he could grasp her soft bottom, squeezing, holding her to his body.

"God, I love you, I love you," he repeated, eyes closed, his kisses growing stronger, his grasp on her getting tighter. He turned them over so he rested on top of her, so her dark hair was spread on the pillow like a fragrant fan.

He pulled her shirt off, leaving her only in her undies in the afternoon light of his bedroom, elegant body glowing as she smiled at him.

"Now you," she whispered, lifting his shirt over his head, untying his sweats and sliding them off his hips.

Jack didn't know if all men responded this way to seeing their partners, or if it was just him, or just her, but Kelsey was so beautiful that he felt like it was hard to breathe every time he saw her naked.

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he told her. He slid his hand up her body to cup her breast, squeezing it as he kissed her, making her gasp into his mouth as he moved his body on her, as he rolled her hard nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

They took their time, readying each other lovingly, then, after there was nothing between them anymore, after Jack had touched her wetness and heat and made her gasp and cry out as she arched her back and fisted the sheets, he slid sweetly into her, joining them together in the warm afternoon. He moved inside her, feeling the slick warmth that she'd produced for him, and she rocked into him, over and over, arms wrapped around his back, whispering, "Yes, yes, yes," into his ear.