by K. A. Linde
And they both gave in to it. Letting the moment sweep them away, they forgot their pasts and any consequences of their actions because where they were right now was all that mattered.
Trihn sat back up a little to grab at his pants. She unbuckled his jeans and pulled the zipper down to the base. Damon was still wrestling with her lips while his hands tangled in her hair when she yanked his pants to the ground.
He looked at her with hunger in his eyes. She met his gaze. He pushed his boxers to the ground next, freeing his cock. Her eyes darted down to it, and a smile crossed her lips.
“See something you like?” he joked before laying her back flat against the empty booth.
“Mmhmm.”
Then, without warning, he slammed into her. She rocketed forward with the momentum, but he didn’t stop. He just grasped her hips and worked back and forth into her. He grabbed one of her legs and put it up onto his shoulder, stiletto high heel and all. The change in angle forced him deeper, and she cried out as he thrust into her.
Her world was spinning. Everything was teetering on the precipice of this moment, waiting for her to fall over the edge into oblivion.
“All I wanted was this—just me and you together.”
He leaned his elbow on the table, and she was glad that she still had her dancer’s flexibility. Then, he used the added leverage to steadily drive into her until she was crying out into the abyss.
Their voices carried out into the crowd beyond and were lost to the noise of the pulsing nightclub. Heat radiated off their skin, and sweat slicked their foreheads.
Her breathing was labored as she fought to hold back the waves crashing down all around her. She was going to lose it.
Trihn grasped for his hand and pulled him back down to her, letting her leg drop to the side. She voraciously kissed him, knowing that she was about to split apart.
“I can feel you holding back,” Damon growled against her lips. “Let go. Come for me.”
“Fuck,” she murmured. “Come with me.”
Then, they both let go and the tidal wave crashed down over them as they succumbed to the release.
TRIHN ROLLED OVER IN BED and snuggled against her boyfriend. A sigh escaped her lips at that thought—her boyfriend…her talented, wonderful, gorgeous boyfriend, who she had spent the entire night with at his apartment.
She let loose another soft noise, and her hand ran down his toned chest to the six-pack abs hiding beneath the baby-blue sheet.
“Mmm,” he murmured. “You keep purring like that, and I’m going to have to give you a reason to purr.”
“I wasn’t purring,” she said, trailing her fingers along every defined ridge down to the waistband of his boxers. She popped the material between her fingers, causing him to squirm beneath her.
He flipped over on top of her, going from just waking up to fully awake in a split second. She pushed back into the bed and smirked up at him.
“You most definitely were,” he whispered.
His kisses weren’t rushed. They were gentle and tender, laced with the strength from last night.
They had both worn themselves out at Posse and then back at his apartment afterward. The adrenaline had finally worn off during the early hours of the morning, and they had slept straight through to the afternoon.
Trihn knew she needed to get up and put in some hours on her designs. Samples were due this week, and she had so much work left to do. But when Damon started kissing down her front, removing her panties as he went, she reveled in the early-morning lust that clouded her vision.
She let him take the lead as he slipped back inside her sore body. His hand cradled her head as he started moving. She stared up into his dark eyes and saw nothing but warmth and love mirrored back at her. It was staggering to walk into this realm so quickly. But she had promised to let herself fall for him, despite her past relationships, and right now, she was head over heels.
They finished together at their own pace and then lay there on the bed, panting from exhaustion.
Damon leaned over and kissed her forehead. “You should take a relaxing shower. I’m going to make us breakfast. How do you take your coffee?”
Trihn sighed. “Coffee sounds amazing. Where did you come from?”
“I’ve always been here. I was just waiting for you, I guess.”
“Good answer. I’ll take cream and sugar. Don’t drown it.”
He laughed. “Got it.”
Trihn hopped off the bed and jumped into the shower. It was steaming hot as the water cascaded down her back. She washed off last night’s sexcapades until she was squeaky clean. Then, she turned off the water, dried off, and wrapped the towel tight around her body. She located a pair of boxers and a T-shirt from Damon’s drawer and slipped into them. Then, she tied her hair up into a bun at the top of her head and trotted out into the kitchen.
“Oh my God, it smells good,” she said. She came around the island and circled her hands around his middle.
Damon had put on basketball shorts, but he was still shirtless, and it was a sight to behold.
“I hope you like French toast.”
“My favorite.”
“Your coffee is on the counter.”
She reached for it and took a careful sip. It was still piping hot but delicious. “Hazelnut?” she guessed.
“Yeah. You like it?”
“It’s great. You have some high-tech coffee stuff over here,” she observed.
There were an assortment of different grinders, brewers, and various beans. It smelled like heaven.
“I’m kind of a coffee snob. I like to grind and brew my own coffee. I live off of the stuff.”
“Well, you have excellent taste, it seems.”
“Mmm, I would agree with that.”
He slid two pieces of French toast onto a plate, and she loaded them up with butter and syrup. She sat down at a barstool at the island and ate while he cooked for himself.
“Did Mel teach you how to cook?” she asked between mouthfuls.
“Yeah. My mum is talented, as you could tell. She said you could come over again for dinner, if you wanted. I think she likes you.”
Trihn blew out a breath of relief. “That’s good.”
“She seems worried about you and your family though.”
“Oh, that,” Trihn said. “I haven’t spoken to anyone in her family since speaking to my mom that day. She wanted me to come home to look at wedding dresses”
“What do you think about that?” he asked. He dropped another piece of French toast onto her plate and then turned off the stove.
“I can’t go back home right now. I’m swamped with work for the fashion show. I still have to decide on a few more pieces. I need to get models. I have to work the designs into runway material. I have so much to do.”
“I know. But how do you feel about the wedding?” Damon took the seat next to her.
Trihn looked down at her plate. This was the moment of truth. She hated breaking this spell that they were under, post-coital bliss and all that. But if she was going to give one hundred percent to this relationship, then she needed to be honest with him about what was bothering her.
“So, you know how I said that Preston cheated on Lydia?”
Damon nodded.
“Well, it was with me.”
Damon nearly spit out the food he had just put into his mouth. He coughed and slammed his fist on his chest to try to clear his throat. “What?” he gasped out.
“It was a long time ago. We met right after I graduated high school. I thought he was single. He was my first real boyfriend, the first boy I ever loved. I invited him to go away with me and my family to the Hamptons at the end of the summer, but he said he couldn’t go because he had to work. It turned out, he was going away with Lydia to the Hamptons, and he just thought that they were going alone.”
Damon’s jaw was practically on the ground. “He had been with your sister the whole time?”
“Yes. When I told Lydia, she
seemed like she understood. She was going to end it, and I would stay in New York and go to NYU.”
“Really? NYU?”
“Yeah. I had been accepted there and had plans to go until all of this went down. But Preston manipulated Lydia into believing that he hadn’t been serious with either of us and that he actually just wanted to be with Lydia.”
“And she bought that bullshit?” he asked.
“Hook, line, and sinker.”
“Wow.”
“But he had no intention of breaking up with me, and he would have continued with the lie, if neither Lydia or I had found out. We actually…had sex in the Hamptons that week after I knew he was with Lydia.”
“Fuck. No wonder you hate him and are terrified of relationships.”
“I’m not terrified of relationships. I’m terrified of getting my heart ripped out all over again. I find it hard to trust people after what Preston and then Neal did to me.”
“But you trust me?”
She nodded slowly. “I really want to.”
“I really want you to, too.” He linked their fingers together and pulled her in for a slow kiss.
“What about you? Any past girlfriends?” Trihn asked, trying to take the spotlight off of her for a minute.
“Sure. A couple. None really worth mentioning.”
“That usually means something bad in my book.”
He chuckled and took another bite of his French toast before drowning it in coffee. “I guess I had a serious girlfriend in high school, but we went to different colleges, and long-distance worked for all of two weeks before she wanted to see other people. There were a few short-term girls in college. Just didn’t work out.”
“I’m surprised by that.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re so…perfect,” she finished.
Damon laughed disbelievingly. “I’ve cleaned up my act a bit since then. Decided I wanted to be someone other than the life of the party.”
“So, you partied a lot?”
“Comes with the territory. DJs usually end up at parties. You get to know a lot of people—frat boys, jocks, stoners. When you mingle with them all, you start to find yourself drifting in that direction,” Damon admitted. He frowned and looked down, as if he were remembering something particularly troubling. “I kept my cool, but I saw a lot of people who didn’t.”
“I bet you did. What was the worst thing you saw?” she asked.
Damon shrugged. “That’s all relative, of course. But one memory kind of sticks out.”
She questioningly raised her eyebrows.
“I was at this insane party last March. This crazy blonde cheerleader was throwing it because some sugar daddy had bought her a fucking mansion.”
Trihn laughed. “Bryna’s party?”
“Yeah. This gorgeous girl was at that party. Hands down the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.”
“Oh,” Trihn said, wondering why the hell this was important.
“But she was there with another guy.”
“How unfortunate for you.”
“Yeah. All I wanted to do was go over and introduce myself. But she was way too far out of my league. She had these beautiful friends who would do anything for her and a boyfriend who she seemed to care way too much about. The guy was a total dick and made it his personal mission to be as horrible of a boyfriend as possible to this girl.”
Trihn narrowed her eyes. “Me?”
“You.” He nodded. “He chose to come to the party. Then, he moped the whole time and got pissed at you for being there. He made you cry, and then you ran out after him.”
“I did,” she whispered. “You remember that?”
“I remember because I swore if I ever got a girl as amazing as you, I wouldn’t do the same things that douche bag did.”
Trihn sighed in satisfaction. “Where did you come from again?”
“Born and raised in London, love.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and leaned forward to give her a kiss.
“If all Londoners are like you, then I fear for the hearts of the women in England.”
“I only fear for my own heart because of my drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend.” Damon laughed and pulled her in for another kiss. “You taste like cinnamon.”
“I like when you say that.”
“Mmm…delicious cinnamon.”
She shook her head and playfully slapped him on the shoulder. “No, calling me your girlfriend.”
“You’re my girlfriend,” he repeated before kissing her nose. “You’re my girlfriend.” Then, he kissed her lips. “You’re my girlfriend.” Then, he kissed down her neck.
“I’m never getting any work done ever again,” she said.
“Is that a complaint?”
“Absolutely not.”
Damon picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom. He dropped her on his bed. She laughed and lounged back.
Something lit up on the nightstand that drew both of their attention for a split second.
He narrowed his eyes at the phone. “Weird.”
“What is it?” she asked, sitting up on her elbows.
He reached for his phone and looked at the screen. “I have four missed calls from Jimmy.”
“Do you think he’s okay?”
He looked worried. “We’re about to find out.” He dialed the number. “Hey, Jimmy. You all right, man?” He leaned the phone between his shoulder and ear and then sat down on the bed next to Trihn. “Whoa, slow down. What are you talking about?”
Damon’s face drained of color, and Trihn’s stomach sank.
What the hell happened?
“Is he okay?” she whispered.
He pulled the phone back and pressed the speaker feature. “Hey, Jimmy, slow down, and say all of that one more time.”
“Fuck, Damon. Just listen to me already. Cadence posted a video of you on YouTube. It’s of you performing with Chloe last night at Posse. It’s all over the Internet. Get online right now. You’re fucking trending on Facebook and Twitter.”
Trihn’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my God!”
“I have to see this,” Damon said.
She opened the Facebook app on her phone, and sure enough, there was the headline.
CHLOE AVANA, GRAMMY-NOMINATED ACTRESS, PERFORMS WITH DJ AT NIGHTCLUB
She clicked on the link, and the video started playing automatically.
Trihn couldn’t believe it. Cadence had gotten a great shot of Damon and Chloe singing, and the vocals were perfect. Even though the booth was dark, it was clear who was singing. It even looked like it was just the two of them with no one else there.
“Damon! Fuck, are you still there? Everyone is asking who you are and where you came from. Your name is starting to show up online. I saw an article with it in there. Hold on. Let me send it.”
A second later, Damon’s phone dinged, and he opened up the link to reveal a picture of himself with Chloe beneath another headline.
CHLOE AVANA PERFORMS A REMIX OF “HEARTBREAKER” WITH UP-AND-COMING DJ DAMON STONE
“Up-and-coming,” Damon whispered.
“You’ve hit the jackpot!” Jimmy cried. “Can I get your autograph?”
“Fuck off, Jimmy. It’s nothing. This is about Chloe. It’ll blow over.”
“I fucking hope not!”
“It will, but thanks, man. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Congrats. Later.”
Damon hung up, and Trihn and Damon silently sat there as the rest of “Heartbreaker” played on Trihn’s phone. When the song finally ended, she closed out of the video and then refreshed the page. Her eyes bulged when she checked the stats on the video.
“One point two million views, and it’s only been up for a few hours,” Trihn said.
“This is Chloe’s life.”
“But you’re in it,” she said.
She started scrolling through the comments. Every fifth one mentioned Damon in some capacity. It was variable on whether it was fa
vorable or not, but he was as much a part of this as Chloe was.
Trihn didn’t think Damon even realized it until his phone started ringing again.
“It’s a blocked number,” he said.
She shrugged. “Just answer it.”
“Hello?”
Damon straightened immediately and stood up. “Uh, hey, Chloe.”
He took a few steps into the other room and chatted on the phone. He even laughed a few times at whatever she was saying.
Trihn pulled her knees up to her chest. Her stomach was in knots. She wanted to know what Chloe was saying on the other line, but some part of her didn’t want to know. At some point, she knew that whatever Chloe said had something to do with the 1.2 million views on their now viral video.
It wasn’t often that a person could point to one specific moment in time and say, This changed everything. But here, right now, was Damon’s moment. And it was about to change everything.
He walked back into the room as he hung up the phone and turned to face Trihn with clear shock and exhilaration on his face. “I’m performing ‘Heartbreaker’ tonight at Chloe’s concert at the MGM.”
“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, the moment you have all been waiting for,” the announcer called out into the stadium. “Chloe Avana.”
The crowd erupted with deafening applause.
From backstage, Trihn watched as Chloe rose from an underground platform onto the stage. It was insane to think that, just last night, she’d had front-row seats to this show with her best friends, and now, she was watching it live with her boyfriend, who would be performing the final number with Chloe.
Her life had flipped upside down in the span of one day.
Damon laced their fingers together and rubbed his thumb up and down her hand. “Breathe,” he told her.
She turned away from Chloe’s show and stared at him, taking in his chiseled strong jawline, sharp cheekbones, long dark lashes framing even darker eyes, and perfect kissable lips. His messy hair was tucked up under his signature flat-brim baseball cap, and he’d gone with an all black ensemble. Chloe’s people had said they would dress him if he wanted, but he’d wanted to be comfortable and confident out there. Trihn was biased, but she thought he was strikingly handsome tonight.
