Platinum (All That Glitters #3)(11)

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.

Bryna pushed Trihn in the direction of the stairs that led to the DJ booth, and she steeled her nerves for what was about to happen. Right now, she was thanking Maya for those two shots of tequila. She probably should have taken a few more.

She made it up to the booth, but she was disappointed to find a bouncer in front of the door. She hadn’t planned for that.

“Excuse me. You’re not allowed to be up here,” the man said. He crossed his beefy arms over his chest and stared down at her, not even blinking an eye. His dark hair was pulled back into a man bun, and he was wearing a black blazer over a black T-shirt with black pants.

“Hey! Sorry to bother you.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I was just coming up to see the DJ.”

“He’s not seeing anyone. He’s working.”

“I totally understand. I just wanted to talk to him for—”

“No,” he said plainly.

“But he’s expecting me.”

“No,” he repeated. He stood his ground and gestured for her to walk back the way she’d come.

“But—”

“What is going on down here?” a man asked, walking toward them.

When Trihn got a good look at him, her eyes bulged. He was super hot with short honey-blond hair, to-die-for lips, and a bulky muscular physique clad in a cut black suit.

“Sorry, boss,” the guy said. He respectfully nodded at the man. “I was just telling this girl to leave. She wanted to speak with the DJ.”

“You’re here a lot, aren’t you?” the guy asked casually.

Trihn narrowed her eyes. “And how would you know that?”

“I work in security. I make it my business to know who is in the club. You know Maya, right?”

“Yeah. She’s a good friend of mine.”

“And how do you know the DJ?”

“Damon deejayed a party for a friend of mine, and we hung out last night at a different club,” Trihn explained. “I was just going to say hi.”

The man critically looked down at her. He had the greenest eyes she had ever seen. They were even greener than her own, and that was saying something. Modeling agencies had coveted her eyes when she was in the industry. She wondered if he modeled. He was probably in his late twenties or early thirties, but she thought he could model if he wanted.

Actually, when she looked closer, she noticed why his suit fit him so damn well. Armani.

Damn! How can a security guard afford an Armani suit?

“All right. Let her inside for five minutes. It’s Damon’s break soon anyway,” he said to the door guy. He looked back at her. “If you bother him though, I’ll have to ask you to leave,” he told her.

“Thank you so much,” she said, the anxiety leaving her body. She had no idea what she was doing, and she had a hard time believing that she had just passed an interrogation from a bouncer and a security guard to see Damon.

“Just don’t rip out his heart,” the guy said with a wry smile.

She looked at him, taken aback. “I don’t think anyone has ever had to worry about that from me.”

“I highly doubt that,” he said with a smile before nodding at the bouncer and walking away.

She shook off the words of warning and turned back to the door. “Well?”

“Five minutes,” the guy said. Then, he opened the door and stuck his head inside. “Hey, Damon. You have a visitor.”

Trihn walked through the open door just as Damon swiveled in the chair he was seated in. The new Chloe Avana song, “Heartbreaker,” blasted through the booth with a cool remixed backbeat. It made Trihn feel alive and unafraid instead of how she had been feeling in that hallway. The way Damon looked at her when she strode into his booth definitely helped.

“Hey, Damon,” she said. She let the hot new beat wash over her. She was sexy and seductive, and she could do this.

“Trihn, I wasn’t expecting you,” he said with his amazing English accent before turning back to face the spread of equipment in front of him. He didn’t exactly sound enthusiastic.

She figured she couldn’t blame him after the way last night had ended. It wasn’t exactly encouraging to go from sexy to dancing to “I have a boyfriend” in the span of a couple of minutes. Maya probably hadn’t helped anything by laying into him either.