Shine Bright E-Book

K. A. Linde

• Herausgeber: K.A. LINDE
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Diamond Girls
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 491

Beschreibung

A passionate one night stand rockstar romance from USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde…
Damon Stone is the hottest DJ in Las Vegas.
And Trihn is grinding against him like it’s her job.
With her history of dating cheating jerks, she knows she’s not ready for a relationship. But with a body like his, the sexiest British accent in history, and his incredible musical skills, there’s no other word but yes in her vocabulary.
She thinks it’s a one night stand. He wants more.
She just might let him convince her he’s the real deal.
But when his latest remix ends up on the radio with the biggest pop star in the country, they both have to figure out if it’s worth it to try in the midst of his meteoric success.

Leseprobe

Shine Bright

Book Two in the Shine Bright Duet

K.A. Linde

Copyright © 2016 by K.A. Linde

All rights reserved.

Visit my website at

www.kalinde.com

Join my newsletter for free books and exclusive content!

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Cover Designer: Staci Hart, www.quirky-bird.com

Photography: aarrttuurr, depositphotos

Editor: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing,

www.unforeseenediting.com

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN-13: 978-1948427319

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Epilogue

Under Pressure

Acknowledgments

Also By K.A. Linde

About the Author

1

This was a very bad idea.

Trihnity Hamilton sighed heavily as she stared at the name on the screen of her phone and avoided the knowing looks from her best friends, Bryna Turner and Stacia Palmer.

“Just don’t invite him,” Bryna said irritably.

“I’m not inviting him,” Trihn snapped back.

Trihn had been dating her boyfriend, Neal, for over a year and a half. They had met and fallen for each other over their mutual love for artistic endeavors. He was a graphic design major while she studied fashion design with a focus in art. Unfortunately, the artsy lifestyle didn’t exactly fit with Trihn’s love for partying.

Or so Neal had said.

Frankly, Bryna flat-out hated him, and at this point, Stacia barely tolerated him. The disconnect between the two most important things in her life—her friends and her boyfriend—was causing some…unnecessary strain.

“I’m just going to answer this, and then we can go,” Trihn said.

She turned away from her friends before they could say anything to change her mind. And she knew Bryna would try.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” Bryna said to Stacia behind Trihn’s back.

“Leave it be, Bri,” Stacia said.

Trihn took a breath and answered the phone with forced enthusiasm, “Hey!”

“Hey, what are you up to tonight?” Neal asked.

Trihn twirled her long brown-to-blonde ombré hair around her finger and tried to calm herself down. She was not going to argue with Neal tonight, not about going to the club for a girls’ night. He’d understand.

He will.

She would just keep telling herself that.

Her stomach knotted anyway, twisting and turning against her will, as fear crept up her spine. No matter how much she tried to tamp it down, it’d just slither its way back up.

She took a deep breath. “I was just about to head out with Bri and Stacia. We’re going to this club that’s having some kind of crazy dance party.”

“Let me guess,” he said dryly. “Bryna’s suggestion?”

“Maya actually!” she said, trying to keep pep in her voice. “She’s meeting us there later after she gets off work.”

Maya was their favorite bartender at the local club they frequented, Posse. It was located just off the Las Vegas State campus where Trihn was starting the second semester of her sophomore year.

“I see. Well, never mind then.”

“I would totally invite you,” Trihn insisted.

Bryna coughed noisily behind her. Trihn swiveled around and glared at her and Stacia.

“But…it’s a girls’ night. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you would be getting back early. I should have checked with you about your schedule.”

Stacia snorted and shook her head. Bryna looked like she was ready to rip the phone out of Trihn’s hand and tell Neal exactly what he could do with his schedule.

“It’s fine, Trihn. I was going to see if I could come over since I just got back from San Francisco.”

“I know,” she whispered.

Over winter break, Neal had had a graphic design internship in San Francisco where his parents lived. It had been a continuation of his work from last summer. She had only seen him for a couple of days when her parents had flown him out to New York City for New Year’s.

He had gotten back to Las Vegas two days early. She had thought he wouldn’t be in town until the Sunday before school started, but his parents had decided otherwise. She felt bad that she already had plans. She would have run over there in a heartbeat, but Maya never got out of work to hang out with them. Trihn couldn’t pass up the opportunity. She figured she would just see Neal tomorrow, and all would be fine.

“So…” she said softly.

The silence stretched between them as she waited for him to say something. She bit her lip and fought against the growing awkwardness in their relationship. When he had visited her only a couple of weeks ago, things had been strange. He’d been more interested in getting to know her sister, Lydia, than spending time with Trihn. She and Lydia still had a strained relationship after what had happened post–high school graduation, and it didn’t help that Trihn had another boyfriend who seemed to be enamored by Lydia.

“I’ll just talk to you later or something,” Neal said after a few silent seconds. “I’ll probably go to The Kiln since you don’t want to see me.”

Trihn cringed. She actually hated The Kiln. It was an artistic dream in theory—a bar with live music and slam poetry under the same roof as a pottery studio. But, in reality, everyone would sit around and bemoan the state of the art movement, or the lack thereof, in America while getting high as fuck, and then they’d make art with their bodies with whoever was around. It wasn’t uncommon for the place to turn into an orgy.

“It’s not that I don’t want to see you,” she insisted. “I really do, but we’ve had this planned for a while.”

“Okay.”

“But…do you have to go to The Kiln?” she managed to get out.

He knew she hated that place. It was a breeding ground for bad behavior. All the while, he’d claim that the clubs she went to were bad.

“You’re going out to some club to get wasted with your friends and basically have sex on the dance floor, and you’re asking me not to go out?” he asked in a tone that brooked no argument.

“I’m not going to have sex on the dance floor,” she argued anyway. “But I know that people do at The Kiln. It’s just…gross.”

“Trihn, don’t lecture me about what I can and can’t do.”

“I wasn’t,” she whimpered. “I just—”

“Look, I’m going to go. If you decide to stop fucking around and want to take us seriously, then come to The Kiln, and we can talk.”

“I—”

The line went dead in her hand, and she nearly screamed. How dare he insinuate that I’m going out to fuck around and that I don’t take out relationship seriously!

She was the one putting all the effort into their relationship. Half the time, he would be pissed off about what she was doing and who she was hanging out with. It was blatantly clear that he didn’t trust her. She didn’t get it because she had never done anything to make him think otherwise. She was the most loyal person alive.

After the fiasco with Preston, she couldn’t even imagine fooling around behind someone’s back. Just the idea of cheating pissed her off.

She tried to rein in her emotions. The last thing she wanted was to be in a bad mood when she went out with the girls. Things with Neal would work out. They always did. He would get mad and lash out, but when they got back together, everything would be fine. He was just frustrated.

“All right,” she said, dropping the phone to her side, “are you guys ready to party?”

Bryna and Stacia exchanged equally sympathetic looks. They knew things between Trihn and Neal were rocky even if they had only heard half of the conversation.

“Is everything okay?” Stacia asked hesitantly.

“I really don’t want to talk about it,” Trihn said stiffly. “Let’s just go have a good time.”

She hoped that would still be possible.

2

“There you are!” Trihn shrieked. She threw herself into Maya, standing just off of the packed dance floor.

Maya gave her a hug and laughed. “Are you drunk already?”

“Nah! But Bri and Stacia have been trying to feed me shots like candy,” she confessed.

“Oh, dear.” Maya turned to face Bryna and Stacia. “You’ve been getting my girl drunk?”

Bryna and Stacia innocently shrugged their shoulders, but nothing else about them proclaimed innocence. Bryna was a total blonde bombshell in sky-high Louboutin heels and a skimpy red dress that showed off her killer figure. Stacia had her own short blonde hair piled into a sexy messy bun at the nape of her neck. She was decked out in a royal-blue top that plunged to her navel and shorts so tiny that half of her ass hung out. Both girls were cheerleaders at Las Vegas State and enjoyed playing the part.

“I’m not drunk,” Trihn insisted.

They hadn’t been at the club long enough, and she had been dancing so much that the alcohol wasn’t hitting her that hard.

“See? She’s not drunk,” Bryna said.

“As if I’d trust you,” Maya said. She twisted her luscious African American caramel-toned body toward Trihn and gave her the same look she would give drunks at the bar when they insisted they were sober. Maya was tall enough to stare down at Trihn, which was a rarity for someone who used to model.

“Who cares anyway?” Trihn cried. “We’re here to have fun. You never come out with us. You’re not on bar duty. You don’t have to take care of anyone. Let’s just go dance.”

Laughing, she grabbed Maya’s hand and dragged her onto the dance floor. A part of her wished that she had switched out her Gucci heels for her combat boots. They were more comfortable, but she loved being dolled up, sporting her designer grunge, as Bryna called it. She had opted for black leather shorts, a lacy racerback bralette, and a glammed up jean vest that she had reconstructed herself.

“I’m going to need a drink if you want me to dance,” Maya said. She laughed at Trihn and released her. “Here, dance with the Cheer Slut in the meantime.”

She pushed Trihn into Stacia, who started shaking her ass against Trihn.

Maya raised her eyebrows at Bryna. “And what about you? Has Eric settled you down?”

Bryna responded with a defiant look that only she could pull off. Trihn was happy that her friend had found someone who made her happy. She’d had a wild couple of years.

In some ways, Trihn envied the way her best friend could say and do whatever the fuck she wanted without caring what anyone thought about her. Trihn had never been like that. She wore her heart on her sleeve and always wanted everyone to like her. But she pitied Bryna as well. Her life wasn’t as easy as it looked from the outside. Trihn couldn’t even imagine going through the shit Bryna had gone through last year, and Trihn was just glad that Bryna and Eric Wilkins were finally a couple.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Maya said with a giggle. “Go dance. I’ll be back.”

Trihn fell easily into the practiced movements from years of dance training mingled with endless nights of clubbing with her friends. Dancing was her happy place. It was one of the reasons she loved to party. Expectations would disappear, and she could live through the pulse of the music, the bright lights, and the rhythm of the people around her. She didn’t need anyone or anything in that moment. She could just be herself while dancing completely alone in the middle of a crowded room.

The moment she lost herself, she found herself.

A current ran through her body, and she soared as free as a bird high above the clouds. She turned and whirled and let loose. Half of the time, she’d freestyle to the hip-hop beats the DJ was blaring through the speakers. Sometimes, she’d perform remembered choreography from when she had been a part of the New York City Dance House in high school. She had a strong ballet background, but she had found a passion in underground pole dancing with her friend, Cassidy, after-hours at a burlesque club in New York City. Then, Trihn had followed Cassidy out to Las Vegas and never looked back.

“Whoa!” Stacia cried. “Did you see that?”

Trihn stopped moving. “What?”

“That.” Stacia pointed to a group of guys who were dancing a few feet away from them. “Some guy did a back flip!”

Trihn had a good half a foot on Stacia and Bryna, so she craned her neck to figure out what was going on. “It looks like people are showing off.”

“Let’s get in there!” Stacia cheered.

“Where do you think we are, S?” Bryna asked. “We didn’t just walk into Save the Last Dance.”

“Actually,” Trihn said, straining to to get a clear picture, “it doesn’t look that different than the movie. Come on.”

Without a second thought, Trihn threaded through the crowd and forced her way to the front of the circle. Stacia and Bryna came up behind her. As Stacia watched the people dancing, she bounced from foot to foot in excitement. Bryna looked a little bored, as if she would rather be the center of attention than let other people take the spotlight. But Trihn felt an inexplicable giddiness rising up in her stomach.

Three main guys kept moving in and out of the circle while a handful of girls were jumping in and shaking their asses to loud cheers. She wasn’t interested in the girls’ performances. They looked all right, she supposed, but the guys were way better.

One was a tall black guy with black hair under his navy blue hat with NY stitched on in white. He was throwing some pretty impressive break-dancing skills. The second guy was shorter with light hair. He was smirking at some other girls nearby. He had some fancy footwork, but he kept nudging the guy next to him, as if waiting for his approval.

That guy wasn’t even paying attention. He was teeming with energy. He was tall with short dark hair and wearing all black clothing. He was rolling his hat back and forth between his fingers while waiting for his turn to go out there, but his hips were moving, and he clearly knew what he was doing.

Trihn couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.

He was so damn good.

As if sensing her staring, his eyes found hers. She sucked in her breath as he just watched at her, his gaze resembling a challenge. But if he thought she was going to walk into that circle, he was out of his mind.

She was sure muscle memory would help her throw a few tricks of her own if she went out there—not that she had any intention of doing so, but it would be funny to show him that girls could do more than shake their booties.

Despite the fact that she loved performing, she couldn’t imagine doing it now. Performances had always been scheduled in her life with lots of notice and prepared choreography. She wasn’t drunk enough if she was worrying about what people might think about her dancing out there. Her stomach was twisting into knots while she considered it.

The first guy finished his break-dancing move, and suddenly, the last guy stepped into the space. With the circle all to himself, he moved his body, as if he owned the place. He didn’t have one single self-conscious bone in his body.

“He’s hot,” Stacia murmured next to her. “Not my type, you know, because he obviously doesn’t play football, but he’s still hot.”

Trihn nodded. “Definitely.”

“I think I know him from somewhere,” Bryna said curiously.

Bryna knew everyone, so that wouldn’t surprise Trihn, but she was pretty sure she would have remembered him if she had seen him before.

Maya pushed through the crowd to get to them in that moment. “Jesus Christ! Just abandon me, why don’t you?”

“Sorry,” Trihn said without taking her eyes off the guy dancing.

“Well, I see why you did,” Maya said.

Maya nudged her forward a little, and Trihn nearly fell across the invisible threshold. That drew the guy’s heated gaze, and he gave her that same knowing look. He smirked at her stumble, and she felt her heartbeat skyrocket. She wanted to believe it was from embarrassment and not the hot guy in front of her.

“Maya! God!” Trihn cried.

She pressed back into the throng of people once more. She didn’t want to be noticed.

“Seriously, how do I know him?” Bryna cried. “This is going to bug me. I’m need to talk to him. Stacia, go shake your ass or something.”

“With pleasure,” Stacia said.

Trihn grabbed her hand. “Don’t go out there. You’d just be perpetuating the stereotype that the only girls who can dance are girls who shake their asses.”

“And?” Stacia said in confusion.

“Well, you’d be feeding into the patriarchy.”

Bryna busted out laughing. “That is how she’d be feeding into the patriarchy?”

“She has a point, Trihni,” Maya said. “Admit that you just don’t want Stacia dancing with the hot guy looking at you like he wants you for dessert.”

“You guys are unreal.” Trihn glanced back over at the guy.

Some girl had just entered the circle before Stacia could and was trying to dance up on him. He moved his hips around a couple of times before gliding his feet across the floor, as if he were floating and moving away from her. He relinquished the dance floor to the girl. When his head popped back up, he was looking at Trihn.

“He’s staring at you,” Maya said.

“No, he’s not.”

But he was.

3

“Give it up for my main man, Damon, killing it on the dance floor!” the DJ called over the speakers. “Damon will be back in the DJ booth, bringing you all your favorite mixes, after this break.”

“Oh my God!” Bryna shrieked. “That’s how I know him!”

“How?” Trihn asked.

Maya laughed. “This should be good.”

“Not like that actually,” Bryna said.

She turned her fierce gaze on Maya, but Maya just rolled her eyes. She could deflect Bryna like no other.

“Would it have really surprised anyone though?” Stacia asked.

“I suppose, he isn’t her type. She liked them older and filthy rich,” Maya said. She laughed and tipped back her drink.

Bryna shrugged her shoulders, unperturbed. “He was the DJ at my party last year when I moved into the mansion. I just couldn’t remember his name, but that’s definitely him.”

Trihn looked up at Damon again. He had this air about him, like nothing could change his good time. He was so carefree and utterly intoxicating to watch. He wasn’t even the best dancer that Trihn had seen before, but he’d moved with such confidence that everyone in the place cheered for him.

“Are you sure it’s the same guy?” Trihn asked. She found it hard to believe that she wouldn’t have noticed someone like that at one of Bryna’s parties.

“I’m positive that he is the same guy,” she said.

“Hmm…” Trihn shrugged and backed out of the circle as it started to close in on itself.

Damon caught her eye in a way that said he knew all her secrets.

She shied away from his gaze. It wasn’t like she wanted to jump into the middle of the circle and take over. Her best friends were more likely to do that than she was. It’d be better to forget all about Damon and just walk away.

So, she did.

The girls followed her back to the bar where Maya promptly ordered them all drinks. Trihn sipped on her gin and tonic and pushed her hair off the back of her neck. It was boiling hot inside. The dancing certainly hadn’t helped to cool her down.

Some guy started talking to Stacia, and then she promptly disappeared onto the dance floor, dragging Bryna with her. Ever since Stacia and Pace Larson—Bryna’s stepbrother and the backup quarterback for the LV State football team—had broken up, Stacia had been all over the map. Sometimes, she’d mess around with other people. Other times, she’d slip off to try to make amends with Pace even though she had been the one to break it off, only to come home and cry herself to sleep over the loss of her quarterback because she’d decided it would be best for them not to work it out. Trihn suspected she hadn’t seen the end of them while Bryna thought it was all done with.

As Trihn danced with Maya near the bar, she kept the girls in her line of vision. She finished off her drink and dropped it off on the counter. She was getting ready to drag Maya out on the floor when someone sidled up next to her.

“Hey,” he said. His voice was rich and deep with a posh British accent that sent shivers down her spine.

She slowly turned around, already knowing who she was going to see. When she got a full look at him, she had to pull back a step because they were basically on top of each other. She hadn’t realized how close he was.

“Um…hey,” she said with a smile.

“I was waiting for you.”

She laughed softly. “Waiting?” she asked, thinking she had heard him wrong.

“Yeah, out on the dance floor.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. She knew that he had been staring at her out there, but he hadn’t made it seem like he was waiting for her. He had just looked…inviting.

God! She needed to stop thinking about him like that. Who cares if he looks inviting? She was dating someone, and this was exactly what she had been worried about with Neal going to The Kiln. Well, she had been more concerned that an orgy would break out in the club, and he’d somehow be a part of it, but a hot British guy talking to her wasn’t that far off.

“Well, you didn’t gesture,” she said offhand. She looked away from his eyes and the welcoming tilt of his head.

He had his hat back on, but it was effortlessly tipped up. She didn’t know what to make of him.

“I’m gesturing now,” he said. He swept his arm back and motioned for her to take the floor with him.

When Trihn glanced over at Maya for support, her eyes were as big as saucers.

“What’s it going to hurt?” Maya asked.

Trihn couldn’t answer that because he was really hot. And the way her stomach was fluttering at his bold statements wasn’t helping anything.

She shrugged her shoulders and looked back at Damon. “You looked good out there,” she deflected.

“I know,” he said.

Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor at that statement, but laughter bubbled up before she could show her surprise. “Cheeky.”

“But you’re good, too,” he said easily.

His gaze locked with hers, and she tried not to beam at his compliment.

“I know you are. I was watching you from up there.” He pointed at the DJ booth. “You don’t just know how to move. You dance, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

“I could tell.”

“Thanks.”

Maya nudged her, but Trihn didn’t dare look at her. Trihn knew that Maya was going to try to get her to say more, to encourage her to do things she knew she shouldn’t.

“Show me,” he told her.

“I don’t even know who you are,” she shot back.

“Does it matter?”

“I…”

No, it didn’t.

Who cares who this guy is? It was just dancing, something she had done her entire life. She’d come from a renowned dance studio in New York City. Dancing at a club for some guy she’d just met shouldn’t even matter.

“I don’t have space,” she told him.

He shot her a devil-may-care grin and then started backing up with his hands spread wide to either side. “I’ll make space.”

The look he was giving her said, Bring it.

How can I back down from the challenge?

She could dimly hear Maya’s exclamations behind her, but the knowledge of what she was about to do deafened her to everything else going on around her.

Damon kept backing up until he had formed a circle big enough for her to dance in.

She stared in awe for a minute. How is this happening to me?

Then, her mind whirred to life. Ball change, prepare, double pirouette, floor drop, roll, tilt kick, prepare…

And on it went.

Choreography filled her vision like a fight in a Sherlock Holmes movie. It was euphoric. Adrenaline kicked into overdrive. All that existed was the here and now and the drive to not make a fool of herself in front of a large group of people…in front of him.

Damon stopped moving, crossed his arms, and just looked at her. That was her cue.

Taking a deep breath, she moved into the space with as much grace as she could muster from her years of training. Then, the dance took over. She executed the choreography in her head with her eyes glued on Damon’s face. Her friends back home would have called it sex eyes—picking one person out in the audience and making love to them with your eyes while you were onstage. She hadn’t believed it would enhance her dancing…until that moment.

She dropped to the ground to crazy screams from the surrounding crowd. Then, she rolled forward and got up in Damon’s face. The challenge was there. She might as well act on it. At this point, it was too late to back down.

He gave her a heart-stopping broad smile. He was nodding his head as he slowly clapped his hands. “That’s right,” he murmured. “That’s what I thought.”

She twirled in place, avoiding that sexy gaze. It felt good to be acknowledged for something she loved. He’d picked her out in the middle of a crowded club—not for her looks or anything else, but for her own ability. It was refreshing.

One of his friends had moved to the center of the circle, and the attention deviated from her as he started showing off his breaker moves again. Her body was still moving though. She was too energized now not to keep going. Her heart was pounding, and her head felt light. It was as if she had sparks under her skin, igniting her flesh and keeping her in motion.

Damon was near her, and he reached out for her hips, guiding her against him. She let the dance take them away with her body pressed to his chest and their hips moving in time. She raised her hands above her head and laughed with pure joy at the freedom in the dance.

He didn’t just stand there either. She was right. He definitely knew what he was doing. He grabbed her hand and twirled her until she was facing him. Then, their hips rocked seductively back and forth. Her breathing was quick, her chest rising and falling in time with the music.

“God, you can move,” he breathed into the small space between them.

Her head snapped up to look at him. They were so close, so achingly close together. His hands were like fire, one against the small of her back and the other gripping her hip. For some reason, she couldn’t stop looking at his lips. He had these lips. Oh God, those lips. They were perfect lips—full and sexy and utterly kissable…and something she most definitely should not be looking at.

She forced her gaze back up to his eyes, and it was as if he knew every thought in her head. He knew she had been staring at his lips. He knew exactly where her treacherous mind had been going.

And she froze.

Paralysis hit her like nothing ever had before.

Her hips stopped, and she dropped her hands from around his neck.

It was no big deal. It was just dancing. But her thoughts were another thing—a very bad thing.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“For what?”

“Leaving.” She turned and started walking away. Her heart was beating so fast, and she just needed to find Bryna.

Bryna would calm Trihn down and know what to do. Bryna took control of situations, and Trihn needed her to take control of this one because having thoughts about kissing some other guy was absolutely not okay.

She nearly made it across the room before Maya caught up to her. “Hey. What the hell happened back there?”

“Nothing.”

But something had happened.

She felt ridiculous. Damon and she had been having a good time. It was just dancing, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, she had thought about kissing him, and she couldn’t believe herself. She wasn’t upset with Damon but with herself. That was not the person she was. It wasn’t the person she ever wanted to be. She would never put anyone in the position she had been in herself.

“That sure as hell didn’t look like nothing.”

“Well, it’s nothing. I just want to go,” she said softly. She wasn’t even sure if Maya had heard her.

When she looked back up, she saw Damon running after her.

“Hey,” he called.

“Oh God…”

Maya looked between them and then shook her head. “You’re right. We should just go.” She put her hand on Damon’s chest before he could get any closer and gave him the best don’t-fuck-with-the-bartender look. “Back off, buddy!”

He looked at her quizzically. “I didn’t mean to upset your friend. I don’t even know why she left.”

“She’s not interested, so just back off,” Maya spat.

“Maya!” Trihn was freaking out, but Maya didn’t need to lie. Trihn was interested. That was the problem.

“Sorry. I just…” He pulled his hat off and started self-consciously flipping it between his fingers. “I don’t even know your name.”

Trihn pushed past Maya and smiled hesitantly. “I’m Trihn, but I have a boyfriend so…” She trailed off. What more do I need to say?

“Oh.” He nodded his head and took a step back. Already, his eyes were searching elsewhere. All of that confidence that had been in his dancing fled him at the first sign of her rejection. “I’ll see you around then,” he said. He took one last look at her and then left the floor.

She hated the way her stomach plummeted in his absence and the way doing something right felt so wrong.

“What the hell?” Maya demanded, swiveling to face Trihn. “He was totally into you!”

“Yeah, that’s the problem,” Trihn said. She chewed on her lip and averted her gaze from where Damon had just disappeared. “Thanks for having my back though.”

“I only did it because you had given me that terrified look. I immediately went into bartender mode, but maybe I shouldn’t have.” Maya placed her hands on her hips. She leveled Trihn with a knowing look. “I think you were into him, too.”

Trihn shrugged. “He’s cute.”

“He’s cute? That’s all you have?”

“Really cute?”

“Hot. Smoking hot. And he can move.”

“And I still have a boyfriend,” Trihn said.

It really didn’t matter how hot Damon was or how he could move because she was taken. If she had learned anything from the bullshit with Preston, it was that dating two people at once was never a viable option.

“I’m not Bryna or Stacia. I’m not going to tell you to break up with Neal or that he’s an asshole. I know the things they say about him.”

“Thanks.”

“But,” Maya said, “I want you to know, we’re all just looking out for you. We want you to be happy.”

“I am happy,” Trihn said. “I just want to go home to my boyfriend. That’s all.”

“Okay.” Maya held her hands up, but she looked sad. “Are you sure you want to leave already? We haven’t been out that long, and I don’t get many nights off.”

“I just haven’t seen Neal in a while, and I miss him,” Trihn told her. “There will be plenty of other nights like this.”

Maya frowned but nodded. “All right. Well, catch a cab, and be safe. I’ll tell the girls that you headed out.”

Trihn pulled Maya into a hug. “Thank you for being such a good friend.”

“You know I’d do anything for you, Trihni. Call me if you need anything.”

“I will,” Trihn said. Then, she turned and walked out of the crowded club.

Her head was fuzzy, and for some reason that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, she felt disoriented.

Walking away was the right choice. Finding a guy attractive was one thing. Fantasizing about kissing him was an entirely different matter.

Maybe Neal was right after all, and she shouldn’t have come out to the club tonight. She had thought The Kiln was bad, but she had been in a world of temptation all on her own.

Trihn flagged down a cab, and on the way to her place, she pulled her phone out and dialed Neal’s number. It rang four times before going to his voice mail.

She sighed but waited for the beep. “Hey. I’m leaving the club now. You were right. I probably should have just stayed in with you tonight. I miss you. I’d love for you to stay the night with me. Call me back. Love you. Bye.”

She slumped back in the seat and stared out the window as the Las Vegas Strip disappeared behind them. She lived in an apartment with Bryna and Stacia. It was just off the LV State campus, which was only a couple of miles from the Strip.

The cab dropped her off outside her building, and to clear her head, she trudged up the steps to the top floor instead of taking the elevator to clear her head.

Her phone dinged just as she got into the apartment.

Too loud to hear your voice mail.

Trihn stared down at the message and grated her teeth before replying to Neal’s message.

Left the club early. You were right. Stay with me tonight?

I know I’m right.

Trihn rolled her eyes at the return message. She was jotting out a response when she got another text from him.

I’m going to be out all night. I’ll just stay at my place.

Should I come over in the morning?

Trihn waited and waited for a response.

“Fuck that,” she groaned with a shake of her head.

She tossed her phone onto her bed and changed into something more comfortable. She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She could go to The Kiln to see Neal, but she honestly hated that place. And he wasn’t responding to her message. The last thing she wanted was to get there and start an argument. She was tired of arguing. Lately, every conversation had been ending up in an argument, and it was getting to be exhausting.

Rubbing her temples, she pulled out her sketchbook and flipped it open to her latest work. She was lucky to be in the Teena Hart School of Design as a fashion design major. After discovering that her boyfriend, Preston, had been secretly dating her sister, Lydia, behind her back, Trihn had dropped out of NYU to come to LV State two weeks before school started her freshman year.

When the whole thing had blown up in Trihn’s face, her sister had chosen Preston over Trihn, and rather than be around them, Trihn had chosen to leave New York City for good. She still couldn’t believe that Preston and Lydia were still together a year and a half later. Preston was a manipulative cheating scumbag, and Lydia had never held a boyfriend for longer than a couple of weeks. They were a match made in hell.

Thankfully, Trihn had ended up loving Las Vegas, and the design school was a dream come true. Teena Hart herself—a world-renowned fashion designer with her own line and a boutique in Caesars Palace—would personally work with the students. Trihn had been taking art classes to fulfill major requirements, and she completed her first round of intro design classes last semester. This semester she would be into more advanced program work. If everything went as planned, she might even get to help with the senior fashion show in the spring. The winner would go on to New York City in the summer.

In her spare time, she would work on her own clothes. It seemed to calm her down when her anxiety took over.

Like right now.

Trihn worked on her artwork until she heard Bryna and Stacia coming home. Not wanting a confrontation with them, she quickly switched off her light and got into bed. They knocked on her door as they passed, but Trihn ignored it and pretended to be asleep. She just lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling until she finally fell asleep late that night.

4

Trihn woke up bleary-eyed at the crack of dawn. She had slept horribly with a serious case of nightmares that she had been haunted with since she had found out about that bullshit with Preston a year and a half ago.

Trying to shake off the lingering feeling of unease, she dialed Neal’s number. Even though it was early, he was usually up long before she was, no matter how late he’d stayed out the previous night. When it went straight to voice mail, she frowned. He was probably just getting in a few extra hours of sleep or something. She figured she might as well help him with that.

She hopped into a quick shower. When she got out, she threw her wet hair up into a perfect ballet bun and then hurried into a pair of destroyed skinny jeans, a black tank, and her leather jacket—her favorite wardrobe staple.

She skipped out of the house hours before Bryna or Stacia would surface and drove her red hybrid to Neal’s house. Even almost two years after leaving New York, it was still strange to have to drive so much. She had gotten her license in the city only to prove that she actually could. Truth be told, it had taken her three times to get it, too. But with all the driving she had done in Vegas, she had gotten exponentially better.

Trihn pulled up in front of the house that Neal rented with a few of his art friends. When no one answered, she knocked on the door and tried the knob, but it was locked. She had a key, but her purse was stuffed with so much shit that she knew it would take forever to find.

She pounded on the door again and then started digging around in her bag for the key. She found an extra pair of workout shorts, two pairs of socks, a mini sketchbook, a to-do-list journal, and half a dozen tubes of lipstick, but no key.

Just when she was about to give up on her quest and try Neal’s cell again, the door opened to reveal a mussed Neal.

“Trihn?” he croaked, as if he had just rolled out of bed. And he looked like it, too. His dark hair was a hot mess, his shorts and T-shirt were rumpled, and he had bags under his eyes.

“Hey. I tried to call you, but you must have been sleeping,” she said, mustering an enthusiastic smile.

“No, I wasn’t,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Oh. Okay. Were you ignoring me?”

“I was going to call later but might as well get it over with now. I think we should break up.”

Trihn’s heart plummeted to her stomach. She gasped in disbelief. Her mouth hung open. There was ringing in her ears, and she could feel her pulse all the way through her fingers and toes.

“What?” she asked.

“This has been coming for a long time, Trihn. We’re not compatible. You’re a different person than who I thought I was dating. I’m over it.”

“We’ve been dating for a year and a half,” she sputtered. “How are we suddenly not compatible?”

“It’s not sudden. I’ve just been ignoring it for a long time. Last night was the end for me.”

“What happened last night?” she asked shakily.

How could this be happening? He couldn’t just leave. After all they had been through together, she didn’t want this to be over. She wanted to fight for this. She needed to fight for this. She had done everything right in this relationship. He couldn’t call it quits.

“Nothing in particular. I just didn’t miss you, and I didn’t miss you when I was home in San Francisco either.”

It was a knife to the heart.

Trihn stumbled back a step, her hand going to her mouth. He hadn’t missed her. She had missed him every day that she was stuck in New York without him. She had spent a lot of her time in her room or with her friends from home—Renée and Ian—but mostly she avoided her sister, Lydia.

She just didn’t understand. She felt like her body was being crushed. Everything ached and hurt.

“Is there someone else?” she managed to get out. She was surprised her voice was even functioning.

Neal looked down at the floor and then off into the distance, as if this were the last place he wanted to be right now.

He must have cheated on her. It was the only logical explanation.

Preston had cheated on her and left her to pick up the pieces of her heart off the floor and try to sew them back together. After that, she had been extremely careful about giving her heart out again. Neal had seemed like the perfect guy at the time. She had made sure he was for real about their relationship before introducing him to any of her friends. Things had been perfect from then on. They’d had their ups and downs, like any other relationship, but as a whole, she’d thought they had a good thing.

Now, her heart was shattering all over again, as if the last year and a half meant nothing at all to him.

“Tell me!” she yelled into his face. “Don’t just stare at the floor. Do you have someone with you right now?”

Trihn tried to force her way into the house, but Neal put his hand out, barring her from entering.

“Just give it up. It’s over.”

She raised her eyebrows and tried not to cry. She held on to the anger that welled up in her.

“I need an explanation. Do you have some whore in your bed right now? Is all that frustration you’ve been taking out on me actually just bullshit guilt for cheating on me?” she asked.

“Just believe whatever the fuck you want to believe, Trihn,” Neal said, pushing her backward, out of the doorway. “It’s fucking over, so it doesn’t even matter. I just don’t want to be with you.”

Neal slammed the door in her face, leaving her standing there in shock.

She banged on the door and shrieked, “It matters to me!”

When it was clear that Neal wasn’t going to answer the door or Trihn’s question, she screamed in frustration and turned away from the house. As she walked back to her car, her hands were shaking. She dropped the car keys twice before she got them the door unlocked.

Once she finally got inside, she sank into the driver’s side. Tears washed down her cheeks like rain. Hiccupping deep breaths racked her body.

She hadn’t cried like this in a long time. Sure, she and Neal had argued. Tears had been involved, but they had always worked it out. He wanted her to be just the artsy type, and she wanted to have fun and party with her girlfriends. No harm had come from it.

The only time she had ever thought about hooking up with someone else had been last night, and she had felt so guilty about it that she left the club entirely. Maybe Neal knew about that somehow. Maybe that was what this was about.

Maybe she wasn’t good enough for him.

“Fuck!” She banged her hands against the steering wheel.

How can a guy make me feel this stupid?

She was all for feminist ideals—until this shit happened to her. Then, she’d curl into a ball and let the man win all over again.

She hated thinking that she wasn’t good enough for anyone. She was strong and beautiful and smart. Maybe one day, she would even be a brilliant designer going somewhere—rather than a designer who had turned down NYU because of a guy, rather than a girl who had tucked tail and run instead of facing her issues, rather than a girlfriend who had let her boyfriend walk all over her instead of facing the facts.

The drive back to her apartment was seen through a veil of tears. She wasn’t even entirely sure how she’d made it there. It was a blur.

Did I stop at that stop sign?

She truly couldn’t remember. Autopilot had gotten her home in one piece, up the elevator, and back into her apartment.

She stripped out of her jacket and jeans and trudged down the hallway to Bryna’s room. She opened the door and peeked inside. Half the time, Bryna’s boyfriend, Eric, would stay the night, or she’d crash at his place. But since it had been a girls’ night last night, she was all alone.

Trihn sniffed and then crawled under Bryna’s silky sheets.

Bryna shifted in her sleep and then jumped up. “Fuck, Trihn!” she cried. Her hand flew to her chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Neal broke up with me,” she whispered.

Bryna frowned and sighed. “Oh, Trihn, come here.” She wrapped her arms around Trihn and pulled her close. “What happened?”

Trihn wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “At least I didn’t waste my mascara on him,” she said to avoid the question.

“That’s good because that shit is expensive.”

“Really fucking expensive.”

Trihn burst into tears again. She rolled onto her side and cried into Bryna’s pillow.

Everything hurt, and her mind was moving a million miles a minute. She didn’t know if there was a way that she could have avoided this or fixed it. If I had stayed in with him last night, would it all have been okay? Had he been planning this all along? Every possible scenario ran through her mind, but she couldn’t find one situation where she could have made this right.

Bryna ran her fingers through Trihn’s long black-to-blonde hair and waited until her tears subsided before speaking, “Tell me what happened.”

“He said we weren’t compatible and that it was over. He said that he didn’t miss me when we weren’t together,” she groaned. Another sob escaped her. “Then, I asked him if there was someone else…if he had a girl with him right now, but he refused to answer me.”

“Bastard!” Bryna cried. “Do you think he was really cheating on you?”

Trihn looked up into Bryna’s blue eyes and felt like crying all over again. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Ugh! I’m sorry, Trihn.”

“He said that it didn’t matter whether I thought he was with someone else because he didn’t want to be with me. How could he say those things, Bri? We’d been together for so long. We were so good together.”

“Well, I think it matters whether or not he cheated,” Bryna said.

“I know. That’s what I tried to yell at him, but he slammed the door in my face.”

Bryna clenched her jaw. “You’re making it really hard for me not to call Eric and have him send half of the football team over to Neal’s house to beat the shit out of him.”

Trihn’s laugh turned into a moan of despair. “Don’t do that. I still love him.”

“I won’t send them, but you know Eric has your back. The whole team would go to the ends of the earth for any of us.”

“I know.”

“You’ll get through this. You’re strong and beautiful and smart. I’m biased because you’re my best friend, but you’re not a cold, heartless bitch, like me. When you let people in, you give it all, a hundred and fifty percent. I know you don’t want to hear this, but you can do so much better than Neal.”

Trihn laid her head back and stared up at the ceiling. “I’m surprised that wasn’t the first thing you said to me. You hate Neal.”

“I don’t hate Neal. I hate the way he treated you, and I hate that he made you feel like less than the incredible person you are. You know the shit I’ve gone through in my past,” Bryna said with a sigh. “Jude made me feel amazing, but bit by bit, he stripped my confidence from me and morphed me into something I wasn’t. I hadn’t even seen it until I got away from it. I think you’ll see that soon, too.”

“You think I changed because of Neal?” Trihn asked.

“I think Neal wanted you to change, and it’s hard to ignore that forever.”

Trihn just lay there. Bryna had good points, but all Trihn wanted was for Neal to take back everything that had just happened.

“I just want him back,” she whispered.

“I love you, Trihn, but I honestly don’t know why you want to be with him. He abandoned you last year at my party. You ran out of that party in tears, and that was nearly a year ago. He canceled plans to see you after you were apart last summer. He sabotaged Halloween and avoided you all last semester. Don’t even get me started on the emotional abuse of wanting you to only be an artist and have no other life outside of him.” Bryna sat up in bed and stared down at Trihn. “Everyone else saw this but you. You made excuse after excuse for him, but I didn’t think his behavior deserved to be excused. You’re better off.”

Trihn groaned. “I know. I know you’re right. I just wanted this to work out so bad.”

“You shouldn’t have to force it. Like this Damon guy,” Bryna said with a twinkle in her eye. “Maya told me he was hitting on you, and you were into him.”

“Ugh! She did not.”

“I have one word for you, Trihnity Hamilton,” Bryna said dramatically. She hopped out of bed, and in the tiny blue slip she had worn to sleep, she walked over to her closet.

“Do I even want to know?” Trihn called out to her.

A minute later, she returned with a slinky little black dress. Trihn had seen that dress on Bryna, who was a solid seven inches shorter than Trihn, and it barely grazed her mid thigh. On Trihn, she would be lucky if it covered her nonexistent ass.

“What is that for?” Trihn asked.

Bryna smirked, and Trihn knew what that meant—trouble.

“Rebound.”

5

“Remind me why I’m here again?” Trihn asked.

She was standing with Bryna and Stacia at Posse, their local hotspot, where Maya worked as a bartender. Bryna had forced Trihn into the tiny black dress, and it looked pretty amazing, but the amount of makeup that she’d had to use to cover her puffy eyes, not so much.

Eric had dropped them off earlier and returned with some football player friends. Stacia was currently hitting on Marshall Matthews, the star quarterback for the LV State football team. Her dream in life was to marry an NFL quarterback. She had been going from one quarterback to the next in the hopes that she would snag her guy.

That was not Trihn’s objective, and the assortment of men that Eric had provided for a rebound weren’t exactly her type. She wasn’t even sure what her type was, but douchey hot college guys who liked to promise her the world and break her heart were not it.

“You are having fun and not thinking about that asshole,” Maya called from behind the bar. With raised eyebrows, she pushed a shot toward Trihn.

“I don’t want to get drunk,” Trihn said.

Maya shrugged. “You’re not paying. You’re not driving. Take the drink. It’ll heal the wound for a bit.”

“So, you’re really on board with Bri’s rebound plan?”

Trihn took the shot in her hand and stared down at the clear liquid. Maya pushed a lime and a salt shaker toward her. With a determined glare, Trihn licked between her thumb and index finger and shook salt onto the area. She raised the tequila to Maya in a cheers motion, licked the salt off her hand, and then tipped the glass back. The alcohol burned all the way down, and she quickly sucked on the lime to try to mitigate the painful aftereffect.

“Completely,” Maya said, pouring them each a shot. She raised her glass to Trihn, and they threw it back. “Go fuck someone else, and you’ll feel much better.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Maya asked, as if it were a challenge. She looked around at Eric’s friends and then picked out a guy in the group. “Excuse me,” she said to him.

The guy turned around. Trihn was sure she had seen him before, but she couldn’t remember his name. He was one of the many football players who hung around their group of friends.

“Yes?” he asked, confused but appreciatively looking at Maya.

Everyone did. She was a bombshell.

“What’s your name?”

“Drayton, but my friends call me Dray.”

“Well, Dray, I get off at three thirty,” she said with a wink.

He raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Maybe I can buy you a drink.”

“Maybe I’ll let you do more than that.” Then, Maya looked at Trihn and smirked. “See? Easy enough.”

Trihn shook her head. “You’re all insane.”

“Hey,” Bryna said, running into Trihn, with Stacia at her side. “We have a surprise for you.”

Stacia bounced up and down. “It’s a good one.”

“Oh no,” Trihn groaned. “I don’t want any of the football players.”

Stacia rolled her eyes. “We’re so generous, and you hate our gifts.”

“I think you’re having enough fun with Marshall all by yourself.”

“He is delicious, isn’t he?” Stacia asked. Her eyes roamed back over to his muscular six-foot-four build, and she smiled. “He’ll make Pace so jealous.”

“Oh, fuck, Stacia,” Bryna groaned. “Just stop!”

Pace was Bryna’s stepbrother, and they had a horrible relationship. He had sabotaged her one too many times and seriously needed to grow up. It didn’t matter how hot he was—and he was pretty hot, not that she would ever tell Bryna that. She’d freak when anyone mentioned it. Also, he could play ball. Football wasn’t Trihn’s thing, but she knew he was better than Marshall. Unfortunately, Pace had to bide his time to get the starting position—just like he was biding his time until he got back into Stacia’s good graces. Trihn had a feeling the latter would be more difficult than the former.

“Anyway,” Stacia said with her bubbly personality, “we caught you a smoking hot guy. Don’t worry. He’s not a football player!”

“Lucky for me. That guarantees one of you hasn’t slept with him,” Trihn quipped.

Maya snorted and then went back to pouring drinks.

“Hilarious,” Bryna deadpanned.

“But she’s right,” Stacia said with a shrug.

“Just earn your nickname, Cheer Slut,” Trihn said with a half smile.

“It’s Damon,” Bryna said.

“No.”

“What? Why not?” Bryna asked.

“No way.”

“Look, he’s hot, and he’s into you. He’s perfect. Did I mention how hot he is?”

“He is hot,” Stacia agreed. “Perfect rebound material.”

“I’ve never seen him at Posse before, so I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Bryna pointed upward. “He’s right there.”

“In the ceiling?”

“DJ booth!” Bryna said with a shake of her head.

“Oh my God, just imagine the hot sex inside the booth!” Stacia cried.

“I’m not having sex with him in the DJ booth.”

“But somewhere else?” Bryna asked with a wink.

Trihn sighed heavily. “I’m going to have to talk to him, aren’t I? There’s no way you’re going to leave me alone otherwise?”

Both her friends shook their heads. Trihn wasn’t surprised. She didn’t even know why she had agreed to try a rebound at all. She wasn’t the type of girl who rebounded. She usually wallowed hopelessly in her own personal hell pit of depression until she felt like she could crawl back into the light.

But it wasn’t as if that had made any difference in the past. She had just ended up in the same place as the last time. And there was no guarantee that, by having an easy rebound, she wouldn’t end up here all over again.

“I don’t want a relationship of any sort.”

They nodded their heads, as if they understood. They were all serial relationship people, hopping beds and hearts without the scars that seemed to hit her so much harder than everyone else. She wished it were as easy for her to move on.

“If I do this, it’s just physical.”

“I believe the term you’re looking for is a one-night stand,” Bryna offered.

“That sounds so slimy.”

“It’s fun,” Stacia said with a smile. “Just try to have fun.”

Trihn rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe she was even considering this.