Released (Devil's Blaze MC #3)(77)

“Smaller ones are easier to fill,” notes Other Eric. “We never sell out the house.”

Victoria grips my arm suddenly. “She studied at Rigby & Claudio’s. This chick’s been places!”

“So, you’re here for the grad program?” asks the girl from the floor.

“No. I’m a sophomore. I left that school after one year. It … It wasn’t a right fit for me.” Inspired by all the attention, I let my mouth run off. “An arts school in New York really … isn’t all that. I learned nothing I didn’t already know. All the students think they know everything.” I can’t shut up. “The professors are failed actors, bitter and blaming their failures on you. Half the time, it was me schooling them.” The resentment pours out of me like soured wine. “Claudio Vergas … is a prick.” I feel shivers up my arms, just saying that one harsh word. “And Rigby? You’d be lucky to even see him once a semester. Don’t get me started on the fools who run the dance department.”

“Please,” Victoria urges me, “get started on the fools who run the dance department.” That inspires a laugh from the others.

“It’s all so pretentious!” I go on. I’ve craved this release. My parents wouldn’t listen. I need to get this out so badly. “They make you pay so much money just to fund their own shoddy off-off-off Broadway productions—and they’re never hits. They had a whole play once where the entire set was constructed from just … chairs. Chairs stacked together to form a bed, to form a wall, to form … a bigger chair.”

“That sounds kinda cool,” murmurs goth girl from the floor.

“It wasn’t,” I assure her. “Then, during a grueling five-hour rehearsal of this weird, modernized, full-of-itself, leather-daddy rendition of Romeo & Juliet last spring, I found myself realizing—”

My words catch in my throat at the sight in front of me. From backstage emerges a man whose face catches the stage light so potently, his creamy skin glows. His killer face is carved from stone, sharp and dusted with a hint of five o’clock shadow. Even from the seats, his f*ck-me eyes glisten like chips of glass. I want to tangle my fingers in his messy brown hair, which casts a shadow down his forehead.

I’m still trying to finish my sentence. “And … And I found myself realizing …”

And then there’s his body. Damn. His magnificent body. I have seen countless stunning male actors, but instantly forget all of them in the presence of him. He wears his heather-grey tee like it was hand-stitched to fit his every delicious contour, from his strong broad shoulders to his thick biceps—I can already picture him lifting me with just one arm. His jeans, light blue and torn at the knees, hang low on his hips, the sight of which guts me and sends me down a path of naughty thoughts.

“And …” I’m still trying to make words. “And I found myself …”

“Go on,” Victoria encourages me.

He’s standing now at the table with the beer, and the firmness of his ass is a one-man show all on its own. I want to grab it or tear his pants into shreds. He’s turning me into a damn animal.

I am never like this. I’m so ashamed of myself.

“And I found myself,” I finish. Maybe that was the sentence I was looking for all along. “You know what? I think I will try that beer.”

“Drank it,” says Eric, wiggling the empty cup.

“I planned to get one that wasn’t roofied,” I joke distractedly. “I’ll … I’ll be right back.”

I turn and walk up the steps to the stage. With each footstep, my nerves grow tighter and tighter. I don’t think I can do this. Seeing him at the table with his beer, I strongly consider changing my mind. This is so insanely out of character for me, I feel like a different person with each of my slow and slower footsteps, dragging my feet through a swamp of molasses. My thighs threaten to drop me to the stage floor in an embarrassing heap of limbs.

My sister does this so easily. She approaches the hottest guys like they should be lucky to share oxygen in her vicinity. But this is my turn. She’s not here. I am.

One step at a time. One breath at a time. You’re just walking into an audition, except it’s ten billion times worse, and the casting director is the hottest guy you have ever seen. Suddenly, all I can hear are my own breaths, in and out. Then come my footsteps as I cross the stage, each slap of shoe against wood rattling my brain.

I draw so close, I bump into the table. He doesn’t seem to notice, turned away slightly and seeming to be trapped in a web of dark, bothersome thoughts. A tortured artist, I decide with a smirk. He’s a man of many mysteries.

That’s okay. I’m mysterious, too.

Then I inhale, and that might be the greatest mistake of all. He smells amazing. The hint of some unnamed, mannish cologne invades my senses, its spicy subtleness intoxicating me. He smells clean and oddly comforting, like the way someone else’s home might smell—safe, inviting, yet unfamiliar.

I have to speak. I have to say something to get his attention. I can’t just be the ghost girl who lurks. I draw breath to say something, anything—and then nothing comes.

He has a cup of beer in his big, strong hand. He studies it pensively. This is your moment. No one else is around. You even have the perfect excuse: you’re new and you’re meeting people. Introduce yourself.