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ASHER
Irode until the anger writhing under my skin cooled off, and then I turned around. This morning I’d come dangerously close to hitting Ian in the face. That smug look, like he had the upper hand, and there was nothing I could do…
It sent me back to a place of powerless rage I thought I’d long since left behind. But there were some scars that never left you, even if you tattooed over them the way I had.
My skin crawled, the feeling of being watched and having to look over my shoulder making me paranoid. I lived that way for years, and I hated it. I never wanted to feel that way again.
But the open road and the sharp cold of wind took the edge off and allowed me to breathe through it and let it go. Something had always felt right about driving a machine like this. Power only I could control, and the only way anyone could join me was if I offered it. Sloane was the only other person who’d been on my bike. Ever.
Not even Vivian, the person she thought she had to sacrifice her happiness for, had ever sat on the back of it. Because even then, it had always belonged to Sloane. I didn’t want anyone else at my back.
Turning around, I headed back toward the city. Sloane’s room would be done soon, and I wanted to be there when she saw it. I also needed to tell Gabriel about what Ian had said.
When Ian and I had worked together in Concordia, I hadn’t been a principal. Just a soloist, and in that production ofLe Corsaire, I didn’t have a large role. We hadn’t had nearly as much interaction. Was that why I hadn’t noticed what an ass he was? Or was he different here?
I didn’t really care. All I cared about was the fact that he seemed to have it out for us, and I had no idea why. It wasn’t a joke, either. If he made another comment about Sloane, I wasn’t going to be able to hold myself back.
Sliding into the garage, I left my helmet there and went straight to my room to shower. Then I went upstairs, where Addison and the crew were almost finished. She saw me standing there and smiled. “What do you think?”
“I think she’s going to love it,” I said honestly.
The walls of the room were a rich blue bordering on purple, the ceiling a paler lavender with subtle patterns that looked like clouds.
An absolutelygiantfour-poster bed with frothy curtains wrapped around them that looked like they would close and make her bed into a little sanctuary. A swing in the corner along with pillows and blankets, a vanity that matched the bed, and a host of other details that made it perfect.
Addison had gotten the poster ofGiselleprinted and framed, along with the review of Sloane’s performance from the Slate City Chronicle.It was a glowing review of her debut as a principal, and I wasn’t even sure she’d seen it yet.
Her clothes were in the walk-in closet, her cosmetics were all in the bathroom, and the entire space looked like it had been taken out of a catalogue and placed in our home. “You’re great at what you do. I’ll give you that.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I love my job.”
“We’re thinking about turning the room across the hall into a rehearsal studio for Sloane. Is that something you can do? Don’t tell her, she doesn’t know.”
“Maybe. I’ve never designed a dance studio before. I could do some research about what it needs and get back to you?”
I nodded. “We’d love that.” Jace hadn’t put the final plans for it in place yet.
The crew went around putting on the last touches, and I went to see Gabriel. He glanced at me as I entered the office. “If you’re here to tell me about Ian, I already know.”
“How?”
“He called me and told me to ‘get my pack in line and make sure they don’t fuck in the studio.’”
My jaw tightened, my hands curled into fists, and I had to start breathing evenly all over again.
“Since I know if you were going to do that you’d be more careful, what happened?”
I allowed myself one breath of amusement. Gabe didn’t give a shit if wehadfucked in the studio. He cared if we got caught, and he was right. I wouldn’t have been so careless. The idea of laying Sloane out on the floor of a studio was one of my fantasies, but I wasn’t going to fucking share that fantasy with anyone else at the company, or risk embarrassing her.
It took me a couple minutes to tell him what happened, and Gabriel had the reaction I expected. “I’ll talk to him.”
“You should fire him.”
He clenched his jaw. “I can’t do that.”
“There isn’t some kind of clause that can get him out?”
“There is, but I can’t do it alone. I’d need to take it to the board, and right now I can’t. Not that I don’t want to, and youknowit kills me to say it, but he needs to do something worse than make a comment like that. The board will side with him about dancers getting it on at work, even if they’re pack. Even if you were bonded.”
