Page 52 of Platinum Pressure

My heart sank to the pit of my stomach as I enlarged the screenshot. It was a paparazzi image of me and Porter in one of the SUVs we booked during our trip. As I kept swiping, the images became clearer. Then I saw a picture of us kissing. The fear I had of the world knowing my business before I was ready had my heart pounding in my ear like a war drum. With shaky taps, I opened social media, and a wave of notifications greeted me. It didn’t take long for me to find the original post and read the comments.

“Oh, no . . . No. No. No.” I continued to repeat the words as my hands shook. The comments were a mixture of emotions. Some people were excited to see our relationship bloom, others were salty. Some hardcore fans were happy to see Platinum moving without braces; some were upset he hadn’t been online as much and blamed me for it.

My head spun. Tears fell from my eyes as my leg shook vehemently.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Porter quizzed when he slid into the back seat beside me. He’d taken a moment to load the bags into the car and talk to the driver. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but he’d made it a point not to tell me when the driver pulled up.

“This.”

I turned the phone so he could see we were headlining news. He took the phone out of my hand and read the screen silently.

“They are calling me everything but a child of God, Porter.” My bottom lip quivered as I buried my face in my hands.

“Hey. Look at me, Dow.” Porter’s voice was soft in my ear.

I sniffled and shook my head. “No.”

“Look at me.”

I raised my gaze to lock eyes with him. He held my hand and rubbed my knuckles.

“Why are you crying?”

“People are mean. We were supposed to be sharing an intimate moment together, and now my face is all over the internet without my consent. This isn’t how I wanted the world to find out. I didn’t want negative energy to drain everything we’d worked so hard to build . . . privately.”

“Your feelings are valid, baby. I don’t want you to ever feel like you can’t cry when you need to, but . . . these parasocial-ass weirdos on the internet shouldn’t have the satisfaction of getting to you. You’re one of one, and none of them know who you are outside of the pictures you post. We control the narrative. We can give them everything or nothing at all, and I’m cool with either.” He leaned over the middle console and pressed a kiss to my tear-stained cheeks.

“I love you,” I whispered softly as my eyes closed.

“I love you too.”

It was the first time we uttered the words aloud, but I was never surer about anything ever in my life. My heart beat for Porter. My soul danced for Porter. My pussy throbbed for Porter.

I was in love with Porter.

The entire ride, I skimmed through comments. I was deep into the replies of many posts and saw some of my favorite celebrities in the mix. It didn’t occur to me just how different Porter’s life was from mine until social media pushed me into the deep end without floaties. He held connections with Grammy winners, Hall of Famers, and everything in between.

While I fell in love with the real Porter Jones, the world fell in love with Platinum, the superstar. The more time I spent with Porter alone, away from the public eye, the more the persona he put out into the world was clear. He put the persona out into the world as armor to protect himself from the vultures. Knowing that made it easier to accept my new reality.

As we pulled up to my parents’ house, my eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“What are we doing here?”

“Family dinner.”

“Family dinner! Why didn’t you tell me? Do my people know you’re popping up on them?”

He chuckled. “Yes, baby. The week we shared has been some of the best time of my life. I want to marry you, but there are necessary steps we must take before we do, so Seddrick gave me your emergency contact from the contract you signed months ago. I called your dad before we left the cottage. You were in the shower, singing your heart away, while we planned family dinner. He said all we had to do was pull up, and he’d handle the rest. My plan was always to meet your family officially before we took our relationship public, out of respect to them, but those stupid-ass vultures took that away from us this morning. It’s all working out as God intended, though.”

“So that’s why you took so long to get in the car. You were making sure we were still good to pull up.”

“Yeah. Everyone’s ready to meet me.”

I shook my head. “You never cease to amaze me. I can’t believe you set that up without me knowing.”

“You lock in for work, but outside of that, you’re kind of oblivious, baby.”

“It’s because you make me feel safe. I can be soft and carefree because of you. I don’t have to look over my shoulder because they set the world out to attack me. You keep me protected, no matter what. As long as you’re by my side, I’ll have no fears.”