Page 205 of Anger

His expression warms. “Ames, I‘ve never thought of you as a problem. You have some shitty taste in men, that much I’ll give you. But I think as a person, you’re just fine.”

I still in place at the compliment. “That’s really sweet of you to say. I think you’re pretty decent yourself.”

He huffs out a laugh. “Yeah, well, speaking of shitty men, Granger is in one hell of a mood tonight, so you may want to get your ass in there.”

Granger’s always in a mood. And although that’s not my problem anymore, I can’t help being nosy.

“What’s his deal tonight?”

Patrick shrugs. “Got me. But he’s storming around here like someone kicked him in the balls and then didn’t bother sticking around for the fight.”

“What else is new? Anybody get fired?”

With a shake of his head, he grins. “Nope. Which I find funny as hell. That bastard’s strings are being held for some reason, and I’d like to know who’s suddenly the new puppet master.”

“Thanks for the warning,” I say as I turn to walk inside.

The music hits me immediately as I cross the first floor en route to the stairs to the second. At this hour, the club isn’t insanely busy, and thankfully, I don’t have to push through a crowd.

Granger is nowhere in sight as I reach the second floor and turn right to go down the hall to the dressing room. What’s even more intriguing is that he’s nowhere to be seen when I finish getting dressed and head up to my cage.

Unsure about thepuppet masterPatrick mentioned, I remember Granger is not my problem and climb in my cage without worry of his sorry ass or anything else for that matter.

Tonight is about losing myself to the music. It’s about dancing and becoming the beat. It’s about enjoying a single moment where the world isn’t crashing down around me for once.

I’m bound to no person and no thing.

I’m going to transform myself.

I’m going to do what’s right for myself for a change.

And the calm I find inside my cage lasts for about an hour, at most.

How is it possible that I can feel him when he enters a room? How can his amber gaze be inescapable? How do I know that Damon is walking up the stairs to my cage before I even open my eyes?

I don’t think I’ll ever understand our connection, but there he stands, watching me with a knowing smirk on his handsome face.

Damon’s damaged soul has fractures and cracks that seem to fit perfectly with mine.

We’re like puzzle pieces that way, our story written into the jagged edges that match up and lock us together.

No matter how hard my pulse races when he looks at me, and no matter how chaotic my mind becomes at the sound of his deep voice, I have to remain strong to resist this man, if for no other reason than to save myself the heartache.

Gripping the bar above the cage door, Damon leans forward so that he is all that I see.

To say this man owns his space is an understatement.

He’s much larger than that, and I feel like a moon orbiting a planet that’s orbiting a star that’s orbiting a black hole at the center of the galaxy. All those ridiculous things. And Damon is the event horizon, pulling me in until time and space no longer exist so that I lose myself within him.

I can’t help it, though. When he occupies the same space as me, I’m stuck in place.

“You just going to dance there all night, or are you going to come talk with me?”

My feet stop moving, the music lost, the club around us disappearing into the background.

His question is so similar to the one I asked him the first night we spoke, and the memory of that night hits me like a speeding train.

Damon had been so lost that night.

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