Ruined By Rhapsody by Sherry Blake

“The most dangerous melody is the one that makes a monster feel.”

Noah

Control is everything in my world.

It’s how I’ve survived. How I’ve thrived. How I’ve become the man others fear.

Then I heard her play, and for the first time, I lost control.

One woman. One melody. One reckless decision.

I took her from a world of spotlights and standing ovations into my shadows.

Told myself it was for her protection. A necessary evil.

The lie tastes bitter even as I repeat it.

Because the truth is darker, more selfish, more consuming:

I saw something in her I recognized in myself—a captive soul yearning to break free.

And I wanted to be the one who set her free. The one who owned that freedom.

Evelyn

Music has always been my sanctuary.

The only place where expectations fall away. Where I can breathe.

Until the night my sanctuary was invaded by a man with death in his eyes and danger in his touch.

Noah Rivera doesn’t ask. He takes.

He doesn’t persuade. He commands.

My captor. My savior. The contradiction that holds my life in his scarred hands.

I should be terrified.

Instead, I’m intrigued.

I should be planning my escape.

Instead, I’m discovering parts of myself I never knew existed.

As the world I’ve always known crumbles around me, one truth emerges from the chaos:

Sometimes captivity reveals the prison you’ve been living in all along.