Free Mine to Take by Cynthia Eden

Trace.  Smiled at Skye. “Have you ever seen her dance?” Robert asked Trace. His eyes didn’t leave Skye’s face. “It’s the most fucking beautiful thing in the world.”
    “I’ve seen her,” Trace’s voice was clipped. 
    Trace had seen her long ago. In a different lifetime. When he’d taken her to the community center. Stayed to watch her practice. She’d gotten much better than the way she’d been then.
    Well, she
had
been better.
    “We’re not here about the dancing,” she tried telling Robert again. The man had such a one track mind. “There’s something else that we need to discuss.”
    “Something more important than you getting that sweet ass of yours back onstage? Doubt it. I don’t see you—”
    “Someone is stalking, Skye.” Trace’s cold, quiet words cut right through the rumble of Robert’s speech. “Some bastard attacked her recently in Chicago.”
    “Skye!” Robert’s jaw dropped.  “Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you—”
    “She said that the man first started following her here in New York. He got into her dressing room…” Trace cast an angry glance around the room. “Since the security here is non-existent, I can see how that happened. He got into this place, he got into her home, and—”
    “And you said someone forced you off the road,” Robert muttered. He ran a shaking hand over his face. “Hell, I thought it was the pain meds talking. When you first woke up, you were out of it in that hospital. I didn’t realize…”  His words trailed off.
    Maybe because he’d just fully noticed the killing glare that Trace had aimed on him.
    “You think it’s me, mate?”  Robert demanded, backing up a step.
    “You sure have easy access to her dressing room,
mate,”
Trace threw right back. “You know where she lived.”
    “Of course, I did! I helped her move in!  Dammit, I even had her back-up key.”
    Trace’s shoulders stiffened. He turned and cast that rather scary glare of his at Skye.
    Crap. Had she neglected to mention that part?
    “But I wouldn’t do that to Skye! I would
never
do anything to hurt her.” And Robert reached for Skye again. His fingers locked around her arms. “You know how much I need you. I wouldn’t hurt you, not for—”
    “Get your fucking hands off her.”
    Goosebumps rose on Skye’s skin.
    Robert immediately jerked away from her. “Look, mate, I—”
    Trace caught Skye’s hand and pulled her to his side. “I’m going to need confirmation that you haven’t left the city.”
    “Y-you’re asking me for an alibi?” Robert sputtered.
    “Damn straight, I am.
”
    Now Robert was the one to flush. “A dozen dancers can tell you that I’ve been working their asses off for the last twenty days. They can all confirm that I haven’t left the city.”
    “Good.” Trace flashed a hard smile, one that held an evil edge. “I’ll get them to confirm that before I leave today.”
    Skye’s breath expelled in a fast rush. “Robert, did you ever see anyone hanging around my dressing room?  Anyone that lingered after a show?”  She’d asked stagehands the same questions before, but no one had seen anything. After a performance, it was too chaotic to keep track of people.
    Robert’s eyes had narrowed on Trace. He seemed to be searching Trace’s face with a dark intensity.
    “Robert?” Skye pushed.
    “There are always fans who try to get back to the dancers,” Robert said, rolling his shoulders. “I’ve told you before, when you dance, you become something…quite different.”
    That…different…had been what drew him to her.  A night of long practice had turned into something more for them.  But it hadn’t lasted with Robert. It never lasted because…  
    No other man is Trace.
    “You didn’t see anyone?” Trace questioned. “Dammit, what about video cameras?”
    “We don’t have them backstage.” Robert shook his head. “After a show, it’s chaos. Plain and simple.  Hell, do you have any idea