Razing Ryker (Dissonance Book 1) Read online

  You want a picture?

  I want you.

  She smiled, staring at those three words and biting her lip to keep from making some ridiculous girly sound. It was so surreal. All of it. She couldn’t believe the man on the other side of these texts and phone calls was one of the hottest stars in the world. And he wanted her. He simply fucking wanted her of all people. And he was so real! So amazingly sweet and funny and kind. She was falling for him hard and fast in the scariest and most exhilarating way. She wanted to talk to him every second of every day and when she couldn’t she was thinking about him. Dreaming of him. And he was real. He was real and he could be hers. She could belong to someone.

  The thought made her lightheaded.

  Runaways don’t belong to anyone. Not even themselves. Family is nothing, friends are fleeting, and even the love she felt for Cameron couldn’t compete with the idea of being claimed by someone the way she wanted Jace to claim her. The way she wanted to claim him. It was wrong how big this felt so fast but it was what she wanted. What she needed.

  I want you too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Fuck, it was hard to concentrate with Greer there. He’d never even kissed her but he had vivid images of her in his mind; wet, soapy, breathless, calling his name. Her tits in his face, in his mouth, on his tongue and she was riding him like she was trying to break him. And dammit, he wanted her to.

  She was in the mirror right behind him and he had to focus on the others to keep from watching her work. She really was a phenomenal dancer, too good for the chorus. He watched her move behind him and wondered what it would be like to always have her there. Could he hire her and bring her with him? It was crazy and rash, but she made him feel that way. She made him feel alive.

  She smiled at him now, her face flushed from the dance and he smiled back. Not grinned or smirked, but smiled. He’d laughed that day and not just at her. He laughed because things were funny. Because he was having fun.

  When was the last time he’d felt that way?

  “That’s lunch, everyone!” Bryant called, clapping Jace on the shoulder. “Let’s thank Ryker for his time today. He made a special point to be here with us this morning since we only have another week until we head to Washington for the show. Oh, speaking of,” he continued before anyone could speak, “we have your plane tickets. I’ll hold onto them but grab a flier off the table with your flight information on them. Be at the airport early, people! No screw ups. We can’t spare to lose anyone in transit. If you miss your flight, pack yourself UPS and get your ass there, you hear me?”

  They laughed and agreed, nodding their heads and making their way to the table for a flier. Jace stepped in front of Greer, keeping a discreet distance but smiling down into her eyes.

  “Will you be flying with us?” she asked hopefully.

  He shook his head. “No. I have to head to California first to take care of some things. I’ll meet you there.”

  “You’re flying private, aren’t you?”

  He smirked. “It’s the only way to fly. You want me to book you a private flight?” he teased, knowing she’d never go for it but secretly wishing she would. He’d love to spoil her if she’d let him, but she wasn’t the type. Money made her nervous.

  “I’m good. I’ve never flown before so anything will be impressive for me. If I take a private jet, I’ll be ruined for life.”

  “Fair enough. Offer is on the table though.”

  “Okay.”

  He stepped closer, playing with fire and feeling its heat radiating from her body and in her eyes. “I wish I could fly with you,” he whispered. “I’d love to be there for your first time.”

  “Would you hold my hand at take off? Give me your peanuts?”

  “I’d even buy you headphones.”

  “Easy, money bags. What’d I just say about ruining me?”

  “What if I want to ruin you? What if I want to destroy you?”

  What if I want to make you mine?

  Her face fell serious, her eyes going guarded in that tight way they did when she was scared. “You easily could,” she breathed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Sam!” Cameron shouted, jogging after her as she hurried away from him. “Sam, just stop and listen!”

  “No thanks, asshole,” she replied bitingly.

  “Oh, come on! I said I was sorry.”

  “I heard you.”

  “I admitted I was wrong.”

  “Really noble considering that you were in fact wrong,” she shot back, not slowing. “What’s next? Your groundbreaking reveal that you like a finger in your ass during sex?”

  “Whoa!” he cried, glancing around to see who was listening. Everyone. Everyone was now listening. “Sam, can you—“

  She turned on him, coming to face him and making him screech to a halt. “Tell me I’m lying,” she challenged quietly. “Say it. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  He licked his lips, painfully aware of the eyes and ears all over the park tuned in. Someone even had their phone up to videotape their argument. “You’re not… fuck, you’re not wrong.”

  “I’m sorry, what? What was that?”

  “Is this really necessary?”

  She shrugged, turning to leave. “Guess not. Later, asshole.”

  “Fine. Fuck it, fine!” he called after her, throwing his arms out wide and spinning to face everyone. She turned to watch, her face impassive. “I like it when that woman right there, that gorgeous woman with the body that just won’t stop, puts her finger in my asshole as I come. I love it! It makes me crazy.” He pointed at her. “She makes me crazy.”

  The crowd burst into a smattering of applause and he bowed slightly, going to stand in front of Samantha. She was fighting a smile and losing.

  “Are you happy now?” he asked.

  She let the smile loose. “A little.”

  “Am I forgiven?”

  “No. But we’ll get there.”

  He watched her walk away, the words she’d given him after he’d fucked her wild ringing in his ears. In his blood.

  And he wanted her more than ever.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “Don’t you ever stop?” Jace asked. “Even to eat?”

  Greer didn’t startle. She stopped dancing, smoothing her rehearsal dress and shaking her head to her reflection in the mirror. “I want to get it right.”

  “You have it. You have it down better than anyone.”

  “I want it to be perfect.”

  “You are perfect.”

  She looked at him sideways and he expected her to smile, but her eyes were guarded. She was scared.

  He stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and locking it, letting the click resonate loudly through the room so she’d hear it. So she’d know.

  She turned to face him, her hands on her hips and her eyes tight. He wanted to break her down. He wanted to take her to nothing, to take himself to zero, and build them both back up from the ground up until they were stronger and straighter. Until they were both full to bursting with the missing pieces they both needed, that they both had, but they had to give them up. You had to give to receive and neither of them wanted to budge. They were both too afraid to fall apart for each other because what if they couldn’t get back up? What if their pieces didn’t fit and they were worse off than they’d been before.

  But they did fit. Jace knew it when he looked at her, when he thought of her and his whole outlook changed. She could brighten his day with a word, with a smile, and that kind of power couldn’t be ignored.

  “Don’t be afraid of me,” he whispered, feeling like he was talking to a spooked animal. He was terrified she would run.

  “How can I not be?” she whispered back.

  “I’m just a guy.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re Jace R—“

  “No. That’s it. I’m Jace. With you I’m just Jace.”

  “On the phone I can believe that. I can pretend, but in real life you are
who you are and you are…” She laughed shakily. “You are so far out of my league.”

  “Bullshit. I’m here, aren’t I?”

  “For how long? For the run of the show and then what?”

  “You’re getting ahead of things. We haven’t even hit Washington yet.”

  “But when we do, what happens? You live in California, I live in New York. What? We’ll date? We’ll do the long distance thing? How many baths on the phone can you take with me before you need the real thing?”

  “You’re writing us off before we’ve even started,” he snapped, feeling his temper flare.

  She put her hands on her face briefly before dropping them, suddenly composed. “Look, I know I sound crazy. I know this is really new and we barely know each other, but it doesn’t mean I’m not scared. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t be something and I want it to be, but I don’t even know if you’re on the same page about me, and I’m just looking out for myself. I’m okay so far. I like you a lot, yeah, but I’m not past the point of no return yet. We haven’t slept together, we haven’t even kissed and if this can’t be something real, then it’s good that we stop it now. I need to stop it now because I can’t do a casual fling with you. I just can’t.”

  “I don’t want something casual. I’m not looking for just sex from you, Greer.”

  “Then what do you want?” she pleaded. “I know it’s not fair to ask yet, but I can’t take a chance on you. On anyone. I’m not built that way, so I have to know what the hell you want from me.”

  Her eyes were begging him, asking him to let her go and he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. So instead he’d have to take her.

  “I’ll show you what I want.”

  He crossed the room in three angry strides and took her mouth with his. She grabbed onto him immediately, her hands seeking him out and latching on to him with a strength that weakened him. He kissed her aggressively, pushing aside the images in his mind of what he’d imagined and replacing them with flesh and blood and breath, and it was beautiful.

  She surprised him when she shoved him back, pushing him until he stumbled into a leather chair in the corner, a prop from another production left behind and forgotten. She stared down at him, stepping in close until her legs slipped between his and spread his knees.

  He held his breath as he brought his hand behind her right knee and pulled it forward, buckling it beneath her. He lifted until the toe of her pump was resting on the leather of the chair beside his thigh. The sharp heel pressed into the supple soft material dangerously, threatening to burst through as the slit in her dress split open wide, giving Jace a view of her leg, of her exposed inner thigh, and the shadowed warmth beyond.

  She watched him with stuttered breath as he ran his hand back and forth on the back of her calf. He tickled the underside of her knee with the lightest brush, just enough to make her giggle slightly. Then his hand continued up the underside of her thigh and suddenly she wasn’t laughing anymore. Greer met his eyes and he held her frozen with them as his hand continued to move. His fingertips danced up her flesh, running from the bottom around to the inside. His arm wrapped around her leg like a snake as he reeled her in. As he pulled her closer with his whisper light touch that made her shiver and burn.

  “Are you going to run, Greer?” he asked, his voice rumbling in that deep bravado that tingled in her toes and bloomed like fire in her belly. “Are you going to run or are you going to stay?”

  “Stay. I want to stay with you,” she whispered tremulously.

  He gave a ghost of a grin just before his hand slid home. Just before he pushed aside the skirt of her dress entirely and turned his eyes to her nakedness beneath, and when his fingers found her folds and pushed them aside to enter the warm wetness within, it was almost too much.

  Greer let her head roll back, her chest pushing out and filling fully as she breathed in deep, trying to control her voice that wanted to burst with life from her lungs and moan his name. She was trying to keep it all in, to keep quiet and contained and safe, but as he moved across her with his patient, meticulous fingers, she feel like shouting.

  Then he looked up at her, and when she saw his eyes she knew. She had a half a heartbeat to prepare before it happened, and it wasn’t enough.

  Jace slid two fingers inside of her. All the way in. She moaned, her body pitching toward him. He sat up straight, putting out his free hand to hold her up by the shoulder, but his other hand didn’t hesitate. It continued on as he crashed his mouth down on hers to absorb her moans and cries. Greer reached for him, holding on to his arms and digging her fingers into the soft fabric of his shirt. She was leaning on her right leg hard and the worry returned that she’d puncture the chair with her heel and everyone would see it and somehow know.

  Then the heat began to build in her core, and she no longer cared.

  “Jace,” she murmured against his mouth.

  “Do you want it?” he asked breathily, his excitement over her own arousal sounding loud and clear. “Tell me you want this and I’ll give it to you.”

  She nodded, pulling her mouth away and pressing her forehead against his. “I want it, yes. I want it. I want you.”

  He leaned in and gently kissed her one last time.

  “I want to give you everything.” He whispered it like a promise, like a vow, and then he kept it.

  His hand moved faster, his thumb circling harder and harder, spinning her out of control until she could feel it rise inside of her. She felt the heat branch out through every limb, across every nerve, and then she was gasping for breath and weeping as he wrung it out of her with feather light touches that left her jerking and clenching around his fingers.

  Greer held on to him for a long while afterwards. She was unable to trust her own legs to stand, and besides, she just wanted to be close to him. She needed to breathe in his scent for a few moments longer so she could think of it later that night when she went to sleep. So she could lie down and rest easy pretending he was there beside her.

  That he would stay.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “Mia, what’s up?” Anna asked happily, pinning her phone between her shoulder and her ear.

  “You are not going to believe what I just walked in on.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t want to guess?”

  Anna glanced up at John where he sat flipping pages and marking like a mad man. He was obsessed. He had been ever since she’d lit the fire under his ass and insisted they get the show back on track. His only concern was the show and the only people he would speak to were her and the play’s creators, Lester and Burk. They’d recently sent him new notes, revamped songs, new dialogue and now he was a constant struggle for Anna. It was like babysitting a giant toddler uninterested in eating, sleeping, or brushing his damn teeth.

  “Not really,” she muttered distractedly.

  “You’re no fun. Anyway, I came back from lunch a little early and I walked into the studio to find Greer getting nasty.”

  “With Cameron?”

  “Nope. With Jace Ryker.”

  Anna sat up straight, nearly dropping her phone. “Are you serious?!”

  John looked up at her with a scowl. He gave her a hand sign telling her to shut up. She frowned at him, flipped him off, and pointed to his untouched sandwich. He shook his head and she threw her pencil at him. In response he grabbed the sandwich, took a feral bite from it, and tossed it on the table.

  She wanted to kill him.

  “Anna, are you listening?” Mia demanded.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m here. That’s insane. Are you sure?”

  “He had his hand up her skirt and she was either coming or crying. If Jace Ryker had his hand up my skirt, I’d probably do both.”

  “Wow, that is… I don’t know what that is,” she mumbled, the wheels in her brain turning frantically. An idea was forming. Something wonderful. Something that could actually save them. “Look, Mia, I gotta go but thanks for the call. Let me know what else happens,
okay?”

  “Yeah, sure. Keep your head up, sweetie. We’ll find another show soon.”

  “Definitely. Bye.” Anna silenced her phone and slapped it down on the table, grabbing John’s attention. “John!”

  “What?!” he snapped, throwing his pen onto the table and sitting back in annoyance.

  She smiled happily. “I think I have an idea.”

  Keep reading for a preview of

  Dissonance Book Two

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Have you talked to Sam lately?” Greer asked, scooping up a bite of her frozen yogurt.

  Cameron chuckled darkly. “Uh, no. Not since she made me publicly declare my love of anal play during an encore.”

  “I saw the video,” Greer laughed. “Classic.”

  “How did you see the video? You don’t have a computer.”

  “No, but I have a phone and it has unlimited data and internet. It would have been hard for me not to see it.”

  “The phone that Jace Ryker gave you?” Cameron asked pointedly.

  “Lent me. He lent it to me. I’m giving it back after the show next week.”

  “Yeah, alright.”

  “Shut up,” she snapped. “So are you going to try and make peace with Sam again?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Why bother?”

  “Because you like her.”

  “I like fucking her.”

  “Please. You like more than that about her. You’re just running cold toward her now because of her connection to Eve.”

  “It’s a miracle I want to even look at her since she went running off with Eve,” he muttered.

  “My point exactly. You like her. If you didn’t, you would have forgotten about her the second she took up with Surrendered. But you haven’t. You think about her, admit it.”

  “No.”

  She looked at him, reading his angry expression. “You don’t want to talk about this, do you?”

  “Do you want to talk about you and Jace and where that’s headed?”

  Greer froze inside. “Nothing is going on with him.”