Heartbreaker (Unbreakable #1)(15)

Alarm bells that should’ve been clanging my eardrums deaf seemed to muffle. Self-preservation instincts had gone nonexistent. Everything about the man standing before me tempted me to get closer, find out more, take whatever he had to offer…no matter the risk.

I took a deep breath, then blew it out, daring to face the unknown—enticed by it.

“In.”

Most definitely in.





Darren…

Quick shower. Race across campus.

I’d barely made it. I jogged faster, then shot my hand into the two-inch gap of the door slamming shut.

Everyone else in my class, all seventeen of them, had already settled into their seats.

As usual, I veered left, toward the back.

Trey gave me a chin up, then lifted a Starbucks cup. I grabbed it as I took a seat.

“Wasn’t sure you’d show,” he rasped right as the professor entered our tiered room from the opposing corner front door.

“Wasn’t sure either.”

Turned out, I hadn’t been in a hurry to leave Kiki. I’d walked her to her car. Asked her what she’d be doing for the rest of the day. Got caught up in her description of a new sunflower sculpture she’d begun working on. Shocked the hell out of me when I’d realized the time—or that I’d lost track of it wanting to spend more of it with her.

Trey slouched in his chair until his shaggy blond head rested against the brick wall. He tilted his face toward me. “Got you the audition.”

I blew out a relieved breath. “Thanks, man.”

In the following seconds, as the professor droned on about the focus of transformational theory, excitement rocketed through me so hard my legs started to bounce.

It was a longshot: studio drummer for trumpeter Dino Mathis, a rising jazz phenomenon. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity didn’t typically come to working-class college kids like me. But Trey’s dad owned a record label in New York. And I wasn’t above using his connections.

Yeah, it wasn’t exactly what I’d dreamed about as a kid. Wasn’t my own gig in a band. Wouldn’t be on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.

But my dreams had changed in the last couple of years. Food on the table, stable home life, and everyone tucked into bed at night and waking up in the morning were my primary goals. Working multiple jobs, finishing my degree, and exercising like a machine—holding me on the better side of sanity—helped keep those goals in check.

No time for anything I wanted for myself. Not yet.

Time with Kiki fell into forbidden territory. Something that made me feel a little more alive. Something for myself. But the only way it worked? Keeping things neutral. And sliding it into already-scheduled workouts seemed like the perfect way to have it and not lose control of anything else.

Trey leaned his head toward me. “Audition’s Friday at 9:00 a.m.”

“Damn. That’s early. And at rush hour.” In Manhattan. A two-hour drive not in rush hour.

“Sorry, dude. I only put the good word in. Pops calls the shots. Still want to jam at Nick’s?”

Nick’s was on Thursday, right before I’d agreed to meet Kiki for her second training session. The audition was a whole day later. But Trey knew how crunched for time my schedule was. In order to blow a whole day for an audition, other things had to give. I’d miss two Friday morning classes and a monthly staff meeting at Loading Zone. But things were on autopilot at the bar? and I was set for the Invitation Only party on Saturday.

“Yeah, I’m good.” In order to move up, make more money, and get more secure in life, sacrifices had to be made.

A studio drummer’s salary could be more than quadruple what I made as a DJ. Maybe allow me to quit Loading Zone. Ease up on my time-crunch. Spend more nights at home.

The reminder of home warred with thoughts of Kiki. Guilt pinged through me. How did clearing room in my schedule for training Kiki mesh with the commitment I’d made to the one thing most important to me, the only person I’d promised to care for, make safe…love?

I blew out a hard breath, angry at myself for burying my head in work and exercise and school. I stewed about it for a solid ten minutes, staring at the clock over the chalkboard, not hearing a word of the professor’s lecture. Then something fundamental shifted deep in my gut. The justification of keeping a shallow existence in order to avoid another disaster no longer sat well with me.

Why all of a sudden?

Kiki.

Damn.

The bright sculptor with an easy laugh and strong determination, a girl who strived for more in her life, made me want more for mine…and for everyone in it.

The girl I hadn’t seen coming tugged at my heart—even though it couldn’t belong to her.





Kiki…

Thursday afternoon, I pulled up to the address Darren had texted me, ten minutes early.

Nervous excitement hammered my pulse, and I blew out a hard breath to calm myself.

I gripped the steering wheel, staring out the windshield at an empty street. Then I glanced in my rearview. “Flirtatiousness, adorableness, and sexiness.” The words had been a fortifying mantra last time I’d met him.

And venturing into the uncharted territory of friends—that I wanted to f*ck—at least I hadn’t fallen flat on my face. Running or otherwise.

But it didn’t soothe my nerves this time.