Razing Ryker (Dissonance Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

moving slowly along the front of the stage to head for the stairs. “It was good. I’m glad I got a chance to see it.”
    “Just under the wire.”
    “Yeah, I got lucky.”
    “Us not so much,” she replied, her voice unintentionally bitter.
    “No,” he agreed, not put off by her tone. “Not good enough to stay on Broadway, but there’s still something there.”
    “You know a lot about live theater?”
    He climbed the stairs and came to stand in front of her, leaving a good fifteen feet between them. He was dressed in dark jeans, black leather boots, and a gray suit jacket over a simple but expensive looking T-shirt. Since joining the theater Greer had learned to spot expensive clothing. It was all in the stitching.
    Jace’s hair was cut short high up on the sides and carefully mussed and gelled on the top. His tan skin told long stories of hours on California beaches and his dark brown eyes looked black in the shadows of the dark theater. They looked nothing like the eyes of the seventeen year old she’d imagined all those years ago. Those eyes had been cocky. Almost playful. Here and now in front of her were a man’s eyes. They were guarded, weary, and almost aggressive in their intent. As he stared at her, she felt instantly flushed and uncertain – a feeling she hated almost as much as fear.
    “Not much,” Jace admitted, tucking his hands in his pockets and shrugging. The move lifted his shirt in the front, giving her a tiny glimpse of his flat stomach beneath. “I know a thing or two about being on stage, though.”
    Greer laughed reflexively at that understatement, the mirth pushing past her nerves. “And dancing and music, I bet.”
    “A little.” He stepped forward, closing just enough of the distance between them to shake her hand. His skin was surprisingly soft and as he entered her space his smell wafted around her, full and heady. Like clean citrus and warm wood. “Jace Ryker.”
    “I know. Greer Weston.”
    “I know.”
    “How?”
    “Your name is on the playbill.”
    Okay, yeah , she thought, but that doesn’t answer the question .
    She wasn’t a headliner. She was only twenty-two and Rendezvous was her first time making it to the stage. So what the hell had happened in the universe to make Jace Ryker of all people take notice of her?
    “You were great,” he continued. “Your dancing is very clean. Decisive.”
    “Thank you.”
    “I’d like to hear you sing.”
    “You just did.”
    His lips twitched faintly. It wasn’t a grin or a smile, definitely not his sexy smirk, but it did something to her. It was a brief respite from the heaviness that fell around him, dark like a cloak of shadow on his shoulders forcing him down and holding the world out. “I’d like to hear more,” he amended. “Are you available for an audition tomorrow?”
    Greer hesitated, her eyes flitting to the curtain separating them from backstage. The noise had died down. They were probably two of the last people in the building. Just her and Jace motherfuckin’ Ryker, hot as Hell rock star god. That was fine. Normal. This wasn’t a cruel prank or bizarre fever dream at all.... “Are you offering me a job?”
    “I’m offering you an audition.”
    “To do what?”
    “Come to the audition to find out.”
    “When?”
    He pulled a small card from his pocket and handed it to her. “The details are here. All I ask is that you keep it to yourself. These are closed auditions. Invitation only.”
    “Okay.”
    “Good. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    He turned to leave, hopping effortlessly down from the stage and heading back into the darkness the same way he had come.
    “The front doors are locked,” Greer called after him.
    He lifted his hand and waved without turning. “Not for me they’re not.”

CHAPTER TEN
    “Did you talk to everyone?”
    Grant nodded, leaning back into the supple black leather seat of the car as it tore through the still busy streets. “I talked to the other two from Rendezvous