“Thanks, Mrs. Cole. And Austin, I’ll see you next week, as soon as school’s out. We’re gonna have to cram a lot of work into a short time, so be ready.”

Damon smiled as he walked Austin Cole and his mother to the door of his condo—which was his current place of business until he moved into the office space he’d just secured.

Austin lifted a hand in a so-long wave, and said, “Don’t worry, dude. I’ll be so ready.”

“I’m counting on it, and I’m glad this worked out. I think it’s gonna be a great move for all of us.”

He closed the door on them, feeling more energized than he had in a while. Austin had just signed a contract making him Inspiration’s first artist. He couldn’t imagine a more promising start for the company, and he knew his investors would be pleased.

Of course, now that his visitors were gone, he found himself reflecting on an earlier conversation with the boy.

“How’d you hear about the new label?” he’d asked.

He’d merely been curious, making small talk, so it had surprised him when Austin had cringed slightly and said, “Uh, it’s kind of a secret.”

Damon had looked up. “A secret? What do you mean?”

The kid had appeared nervous, then said, “The person who told me about it said she thought my best move was to go with you, but she, uh, works for Blue”—he’d stopped abruptly then, correcting himself—“another label.”

Of course, there’d been only one person he could think of, but he couldn’t imagine she’d want to give up Austin. “It wasn’t Brenna?”

The boy’s features froze, and even when he said, “I’d rather not say,” Damon knew the answer. He just didn’t know why Brenna would do that.

Maybe it was her way of apologizing, and if so, he’d take it, but it didn’t change the way he felt about her. He’d meant what he’d said that last night. He didn’t need another deceptive person in his life. And to find out that Brenna, of all people, fell into that category—hell, he couldn’t deny that it had been fucking devastating.

The hell of it was—today was probably the first day in weeks that he hadn’t had her on his mind 24/7. He’d been so focused on getting Austin to sign with him today that nothing else had entered his brain—nothing. Until her name had come up.

And there for a few minutes, he’d been back in Vegas, back…inside her.

But it was high time he resumed focusing on business around the clock. Given that he was mired in the work of getting Inspiration off the ground, God knew he should have enough to occupy his mind. As luck had it, a handful of his previous Blue Night clients were up for contract renewal in the next few months, so he’d made some phone calls and felt confident all of them were going to come over to Inspiration and let him keep taking their careers in the right direction. So things were going well. But there was the office move to worry about, and staff to hire—and he planned to be very hands-on in developing Austin and maybe other new acts, too.

And, of course, there was the lawsuit to contend with. Claire had filed two of them, one against Blue Night and a separate one against him. He was trying to keep it off his mind as much as possible, letting his lawyer handle most of it, and having the new company was a great distraction.

So he simply didn’t have the time to waste on thinking about Brenna. Even if she had unknowingly helped him name his company.

He’d told her once that she inspired him, and he’d meant it. She’d made him feel things he never had before; she’d taken him to emotional highs—and lows—that had forced him to examine who he was and what he wanted out of life. He wasn’t sure he had everything he wanted now, but he had a promising label to build and, whether he liked it or not, she had inspired him—sexually, emotionally, and even professionally, given the way he’d lost his job to her.

Part of him hated her. He’d never felt so deceived, so much like a gullible fool.

Yet part of him kept remembering all those moments together. The really dirty ones. And the really sweet ones. And every one in between.

Shit, even now, it was still hard to believe she’d lied to him—he’d been utterly blindsided, simply hadn’t seen it coming.

But as far as he was concerned, it was a hard lesson learned. Trust was a valuable commodity, and he wouldn’t give it away so easily in the future—even to someone who seemed as totally guileless as Brenna had. Damn, he’d have thought he’d learned something about that from Claire Starr. But Brenna had been a whole different animal. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

He’d given some thought to her parting words, her promise that everything between them had been real. He didn’t know what to believe—so he’d simply chosen not to believe…anything.

He had a company to build, and he’d just signed Austin Cole, so that was a great start. From now on, it was back to music and sex. He didn’t need anything more—and, amending his earlier thought, he decided he didn’t want anything more.