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Prologue

There were goldfish in her bathtub Goldfish In her bathtub Goldfish IN HER BATHTUB

For long seconds, Elise McKinney could do nothing but look around the sreen walls held a clue as to why—and how—someone had turned her bathtub into a fishpond—two hours before she was supposed to take the stage for the biggest competition of her life

Not that she really needed any clues to figure out who had done this No, she thought, as she watched allide around her bathtub, I know exactly who snuck into my hotel room and pulled this latest prank

Quinn frickin’ Bradford

And if she didn’t need desperately to take a shower before she went on stage in front of ten thousand people, she’d probably be ienuity After all, it wasn’t like she hadn’t known a prank was co Not after she’d snuck into his hotel roole pair of his boxer briefs

With a et back at Quinn if it was the last thing she did, Elise bent over and stuck her head under the sink faucet He was so going down for this

Ninetythat vow to herself as she walked into the greenrooently on the couch, his long, lean body sprawled out like he owned the thing His hair looked perfect, she noted resentfully, as did his custom-made tuxedo While she felt like the punch line of a bad joke

The sink thing hadn’t worked—it ay too shallow to actually wash her hair in it—and she’d been forced to scrape her hair back into a tight bun that made her look like a schoolo take the e in Paris to perform the second movement of Schumann’s “Kreisleriana,” one of the sexiest pieces ever written for the piano, and she looked like she should be carrying a paddle and a whip The long, clingy black dress she earing only added to the look

It so wasn’t fair He should know better than to irl’s appearance before she went on stage Seriously, everyone knew that, didn’t they?

Of course they did

Narrowing her eyes into the e, she stalked toward Quinn with every intention of going for his eyes She’d just had her nails done and was sure she could do soe before they pulled her off of him But he turned his head just as she reached him and she noticed for the first time that someone had beat her to it Quinn had a dark bruise on his jaw and a cut on his cheekbone, right under his eye

“What happened to you?” she asked, concern for hiht be enemies of a sort, but they were also friends of a different sort Hard not to be when they’d been on the perforether for nine years, ever since they were seven years old—two piano prodigies growing up together This wasn’t the first tih he always had an excuse, in herto wear thin Especially since Quinn usually blauy she’d ever met

“Ran into the wrong end of a fist,” he said with a wink and a grin that didn’t quite meet his eyes

Her stomach clenched “I can see that Whose fist was it?”

“So to pick up his girlfriend”

Her concern disappeared in a flood of disgust and soot in a fight over a girl?”

“Can you think of anything better to fight about?”

“You could have hurt your hands!”

“But I didn’t,” he answered with a shrug “Besides, it’s not like I started the fight”

She rolled her eyes “I swear, I don’t kno you have the time to find all the trouble you do”

“Just lucky, I guess” He looked her over then, his eyes lingering in places that had her hands tre in her chest “I have to say, I like the new look It’s very—”

“Don’t even say it!”

“Say what?” His ht eyes were a little heavy lidded and a lot wicked as they e to buy you a pair of bitch boots and a set of handcuffs? If you ask nicely, I ht even let you use them on me”

“Don’t even” She was trying to sound annoyed, but her voice was shaking so much that it came out soft and breathy instead “This look is all your fault”

“And I am totally okay with that You look hot”

“I look like a dominatrix!”

“Like I said, hot” Quinn reached onto the floor next to the couch and pulled out a sht face, he asked, “Goldfish? They’re the spicy ones you like”

“You asole!” He was taunting her, flaunting his victory in her face

“What?” he asked, his eyes ith fake puzzleoldfish…crackers”

Fury pounded through her No one could get a reaction out of her the way Quinn could—no one—and it irritated her to no end And though she knew the sive hi of goldfish out of his hands and du, perfectly styled hair