by K. A. Linde
OTHER TITLES BY K.A. LINDE
AVOIDING SERIES
Avoiding Commitment (#1)
Avoiding Responsibility (#2)
Avoiding Intimacy (#2.5)
Avoiding Decisions (#1.5)
Avoiding Temptation (#3)
RECORD SERIES
Off the Record
On the Record
For the Record
TAKE ME DUET
Take Me for Granted
Take Me with You
Following Me
Diamonds, All That Glitters
By K.A. Linde
Copyright © 2015 by K.A. Linde
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All rights reserved.
Cover Designer: Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations, www.okaycreations.com
Editor and Interior Designer: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com
Poem reprinted with permission © r.m. drake, instagram.com/rmdrk
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.
Visit my website at http://www.kalinde.com
ISBN-10: 0996053050
ISBN-13: 9780996053051
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Gold Teaser
Acknowledgments
About the Author
listen, i am not someone who
is easy to love. i am not
someone who is to be taken lightly
and most of all, i am not someone
to burn.
for i am the fire, my soul is on
fire and everything i live to
touch becomes one with the fire.
—r.m. drake
BROKEN—mind, body, and soul.
Begging to forget her meaningless existence, to be commanded and molded and remade into someone else, she needed the embrace of the nightlife, the pounding of the music, the sweat, the intoxication just to feel again.
If even for one night.
Allure wasn’t Bryna’s usual scene. She preferred exclusive nightclubs in Beverly Hills and house parties that catered to her and her überwealthy friends at Harmony Prep. She favored places where everyone knew her name, and she could rule as queen bee. But, tonight, she didn’t want to rule her throne.
She wanted to forget her own reality and get lost in the imagined one that Allure provided. The room was full to the brim with bodies grinding to the music and people drinking top-shelf liquor and indulging in the dark secret desires of their hearts.
She swirled the gin martini in her hand and pursed her lips as she surveyed the room.
It was easier here.
Easier to forget about her Hollywood parents and their pathetic divorce. Easier to forget that her high-profile director father had remarried this summer to some Valley trash he’d been having an affair with while he was with her mom. Easier to forget that she had three new stepsiblings and that the oldest, Pace, was only a year younger than her and the new starting quarterback at school.
Easier to forget about everything.
At least everything that was cluttering up her picture-perfect life. Despite the heinous drama consuming her, she needed to remember who she was and what she stood for.
She was fucking Bryna Turner.
A goddess at Harmony. Queen bee. Head cheerleader.
She had started dating Gates Hartman before his breakout role, and now, he was the hottest up-and-coming actor who had hit Hollywood since Ryan Gosling.
She refused to give two shits about what anyone thought of her, especially her parents. Her world might have shifted with the upheaval of their marriage, but she had remained strong for all the eyes always watching her.
But tonight was different.
Tonight, no one was watching.
Tonight, she could lose herself, lose control.
And maybe that was what brought him closer.
“SCOTCH NEAT.”
The bartender nodded at the man standing next to Bryna at the bar and grabbed the top-shelf liquor.
Perfect.
Bryna tipped back the last of her martini and set it down on the counter. She licked her lips. “One more for me.”
The man turned to take her in. His eyes snagged on her slinky royal-blue dress, her chest popping out of the deep scoop neck. Then he looked up into her baby-blue eyes. He grinned. “Put that on my tab.”
She met his gaze and arched an eyebrow. “Thanks.”
“I’ve never seen you here before,” he said a moment later.
“Maybe you weren’t looking hard enough.”
Oh, he likes that.
He angled his tall muscular body toward her. His hair was dark as night, cut short and styled like a European soccer player. His eyes were milk chocolate and danced in the dim light. “I’m glad I’ve found you now.”
A smile stretched across her face. She couldn’t disagree with him.
He splayed his hand out on the bar to reach for the scotch resting before him, and her stomach dropped.
Third finger on the left hand.
Silver band.
Married.
It might as well have been a brand on his skin. It was screaming at her to walk away.
No. Don’t walk.
Run. Run far away from this.
Bad, bad idea.
She dropped the seductive smile from her face. As soon as the martini was set in front of her, she took the drink and backed away. She wouldn’t do that. Even flirting with him made her skin crawl. She liked bad ideas, but she had lines she wouldn’t cross. Her parents’ marriage had been torn apart by this very thing. Her stepmother, Celia, had destroyed everything sacred, walked across every line, and forced Bryna’s father to leave her mother.
Vows were supposed to mean something, and Celia hadn’t cared about them. Bryna barely saw her father now as he was always out working on-site. Instead of moving out with her mother, she had stayed in his house with that wretched woman because of Harmony. She only had one year left. Leaving now and starting over at some other school would be impossible.
“Are you all right?” he asked, lightly placing his right hand on her slim shoulder.
She recoiled from his touch. How dare he!
“You’re married,” she spat.
“Oh.”
He looked down at his hand, and his face fell. Th
e sadness in his eyes was all-encompassing before he recovered and locked everything away inside of him. She only recognized the reaction because she had been doing it every day for the last year as her whole world had split apart, leaving her in perpetual free fall.
“I’m…we’re separated.” He slid the ring from his finger and held it out in front of him. “Honestly, I forgot I had it on.”
She pursed her lips. She didn’t want him to bullshit her. Who forgets they are wearing a goddamn wedding ring?
“You don’t believe me,” he said, taking in her appearance. He tucked the ring into his pocket, out of sight.
“My tolerance for married men is very low.”
He smirked. “Daddy issues?”
“Like you’d never believe.”
“Let me guess. He left her for a younger woman.”
“Bingo.”
“Well, I’m not in that situation.”
She shook her head. “Nor will I be, which is why I have to say good-bye.”
“Stay.”
Her eyes met his, and he wasn’t exactly pleading with her. It was more of a command, more of a desire to get to know her, to find out what was making her run so easily.
“I won’t be made a fool of,” she told him.
“I know.”
“You’re not with her?”
“No,” he answered immediately.
She narrowed her eyes, and he knowingly met her gaze. No hidden agenda. Just a mirror of the emotions skittering through her.
“Fine.” She snapped her fingers at the bartender. “Tequila shots, please.” She held up two fingers.
The bartender poured the shots for them, and they knocked them back. The liquid burned down her throat, but she ignored the pain as she sucked on the lime. His eyes traveled to her lips. She purposely licked the juice off her finger. Her tongue swirled her thumb, and he watched her with utter fascination and longing.
He possessed none of the idiocy of the guys she had dated before, not even Gates. The person in front of her was a man. And completely delectable. At the youngest, he was in his late twenties. No less than ten years older than her seventeen years.
Even before he ever made the first move, she knew that he knew what he was doing to her with that look.
“SO, WHAT ABOUT YOU?”
“What about me?” Bryna asked.
“Well, you can’t possibly be single.”
She laughed lightly and ducked her chin to her chest. No, of course she wasn’t single. But as far as she knew, Gates didn’t care if she flirted with every guy in Hollywood as long as she was on his arm when he needed her. They had known each other a long time, and he liked that he didn’t have to explain himself to her, let alone have her fawn over him for doing something he had always been naturally good at. She treated him exactly the same way she did everyone else, and their relationship had blossomed naturally out of their mutual understanding.
“You say that with such surety,” she said.
He tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. “You are the most exquisite thing I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you have people knocking your door down.”
“Yet I’m here all alone.”
“Waiting for someone?” he guessed.
She shook her head.
“Anyone going to break down my door when we leave?”
Damn. He was so sure of himself. She liked the self-confidence he wore like a cloak. It was her biggest turn-on.
Gates had it in spades, but it was nothing compared to this guy. And it wasn’t as if Gates would be busting down anyone’s door to get to her. He was on set on the East Coast, filming his new movie, Broken Road. She hadn’t seen him in months, not since she had flown out there this summer.
And she wasn’t even sure Gates would be angry. She could probably tell him tomorrow that she had fucked this guy, and she doubted she would see an ounce of fury. Maybe some wounded pride. Maybe a touch of jealousy over someone touching what belonged to him. But he wouldn’t really be angry.
Their relationship had never been like that. Sometimes, she thought she was just more of a convenience for him.
Her silence spurred the man forward.
“Ah, so there is someone.”
She shrugged and averted her baby-blue eyes.
“An idiot to leave you here all alone,” he continued.
“Why? He’s a very secure man. I doubt he’d think anyone could come in an sweep me off my feet.”
“Then, he truly is an idiot,” he said in a heartbeat.
He stepped toward her, and she had to tilt her head up to look at him.
But she didn’t move away or back down. She could play along. “You don’t know him.”
“Should I?”
She bit her lip. She didn’t want him to know who she was. If she told him she was dating Gates Hartman, well, then that would be the end of their game. And she really liked playing this game.
“No,” she finally said. “I don’t think you should.”
“Good.”
His hand slid around her waist where his long fingers splayed across her lower back. Her heart thrummed to a beat from his touch. She was warm everywhere at once. If he kept this fire simmering in her core, she knew there would be no going back.
She held on to her confidence and met his dark gaze. The gaze of the devil incarnate tempting her to sin, offering her the apple from the Garden of Eden. Perhaps he was a snake. But if sin tasted this good, then she understood why Eve had thirsted for knowledge.
“Dance?” he suggested.
His hand slid into hers and drew her out to the dance floor. They were soon consumed by people and lost in the crowd. He pressed her back into his chest. Their hips swayed to the beat. His fingers dug into the material of her tight dress, and she groaned at the feel of him. He knew exactly what he was doing.
The heat between them escalated. He pulled her hands over her head and around his neck. He pressed his pelvis into her ass as she ground herself against him. His mouth touched the sensitive skin on her neck, and she shivered all over. He traveled up to her ear, and then grasped her chin, forcing her to give him better access. His lips settled along her jaw and then her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed in the dark room. Her skin vibrated under his touch as she anticipated what was to come. She swallowed, barely breathing, as she felt the gentlest of brushes. A taste. A test.
Then, he was kissing her. The world went dark. The kiss was hot and insistent and as greedy as the music moving through the bodies around them.
His tongue brushed against her lips, and she opened her mouth to let him in. Their tongues met, and she was lost. She voraciously pulled his mouth down onto hers, never wanting to break away.
As the kiss intensified, he turned her around and drew her into his arms. Her body was on fire. Her face was flushed. Her hands clutched the collar of his shirt. She could do this all night.
She broke away, breathless. Her pupils blasted out, and her chest heaved.
Their game was coming to an end. She had forfeited the prize in the heat of the moment on the crowded dance floor.
“Leave with me,” he breathed into her ear.
“How do I know I can trust you?”
He lightly nipped her ear, and she shivered.
“You don’t.”
THE INCLINATION TO LEAVE WITH HIM ate at her like a virus infecting her body. She had been with older men before—not quite as old as him, usually college guys—so it wasn’t just the taboo factor that infatuated her.
It was something about him.
She didn’t know his name, where he was from, what he did. She didn’t know anything. Just that he was married. Separated. She gathered he was wealthy by the fact that he was at this club, wearing an expensive suit, and drinking top-shelf scotch. All these things mattered in her world even if her dad had chosen to ignore them by marrying beneath him.
But what intrigued her the most was precisely that she didn’t know if she could trust him. Yet, without that
knowledge, maybe because of the danger and mystery, she still wanted to leave with him.
She was sure it was more than just the fact that she wanted to fuck him. It was something in his eyes that said he understood her. It was something in his smile that said he identified with what she was going through. It was something in his confidence that said he recognized the act she was putting on. It was something about the desire in that kiss that said he would worship her.
Fuck caution.
“Let’s go,” she said finally.
He smiled smugly as if he always knew things would end this way. Perhaps he had. She hadn’t exactly made it difficult for him. She could have, but she was sure he still would have fought for her.
“I’ll close out my tab,” he told her.
He took her hand and guided her back to the bar.
While he had his back to her, she fished her phone out of her clutch and pulled up Gates’s number. She hit Call and waited. He answered at the last second in a drowsy haze. She hadn’t even considered that she was three hours behind him. The time difference always fucked with his sleep schedule.
“Babe,” he murmured in greeting.
“It’s over, Gates.”
“Hmm?” He yawned on the other line. “Tonight?”
“No. Forever.”
“What’s going on?” He seemed to be growing more alert.
“I’m breaking it off.”
“You with someone else?”
He didn’t even sound hurt, just curious. She had suspected as much, but it irritated her more than she had thought.
“Yeah.”
“All right. I’ll see you when I get back to L.A.”
“No,” she said, frustrated. “This is really over.”
He chuckled softly into the phone. “Bri, you want other dick. That’s fine.”
“Why is that fine?”
Gates always brought out the more human side of her that she usually hid behind her hard exterior.
“Because I’m on the other side of the country and not able to give you what you need. When I come back, we’ll figure it out.”
She shook her head. Why does he have to take this so calmly?
Fucking asshole.
“We’re not going to figure it out. I don’t think I should have to dumb it down for you to understand what I’m telling you. I said, it’s over. I mean, it’s over. Good night, Gates.”
