Stolen Desire (The Lust List: Kaidan Stone #3) (8 page)

The next group consists of two men and two women. They're all well-dressed, like Kaidan is. I think I recognize the men from the picture. Kaidan introduces the women as a girlfriend and fiancée and says they didn't go to school with him.

The way they look at me, mouths smiling, eyes judging… I just know they're sizing me up to see if I'm good enough for Kaidan. Maybe I'm imagining it, but it makes sense. I mean I made a fool of myself last week. Hell, I've made a fool of myself every week lately. Are they comparing me with the girl from that picture? Did Kaidan date her, too? Everyone here probably knows her.

God, my brain needs to shut the eff up.

We all nod and smile through the introductions, and I try to remember all the names, but they slip away. Char name-drops her mom yet again, and the conversation drifts to Diane's roles and her many awards. These people seem way more interested in Char than in me. Good.

Kaidan hasn't once, not once, name-dropped my dad or my mom. And I love him for it.

One of the guys leaves to get another drink, and Kaidan looks at Char and me with a brief expression of embarrassment. “Sorry, ladies. Where are my manners? What are you two having?”

“I'll have a pinot noir,” Char says. “Thanks.”

He looks at me. “Usual?”

“I liked that drink you made me in your penthouse.”

Kaidan gives me a brief kiss, in front of everyone, then heads to the bar. I enjoy my warm fuzzies as Char continues talking. Kaidan quickly returns with our drinks, and I blissfully sip my way to buzzville.

Neveah and Nina have drifted over to our group, and when a few more people come in, and I get introduced, I recognize the last names of both a prominent politician and a famous basketball player from the 90s. All these kids could name-drop their parents, I'd guess, but Char's the only one insisting on doing it. Yet the women seem to really like her. She's talking to all of them while I stand here silent.

Kaidan's got the men involved in a conversation, and they're reminiscing about some vacation they all took to Italy.

Sometime during my third drink, two more guys walk onto the patio.

Neveah or Nina gasps from beside me. “Why the fuck did Matt bring
him
? Kaidan's gonna freak.”

Nails bite into my opposite arm, and I find Char standing close to me, her face pale.

Then I see why. One of the guys who just walked in is Matt Lin, her actor crush. And the unwanted guest—the guy whose presence will apparently piss Kaidan off—is standing beside him. He's handsome enough, with blond hair and a lip ring, but he oozes eau de douchebag.

Matt heads for the group, but mystery douche throws everyone a wave and heads straight for the bar.

Char's nails dig even more deeply into my arm as Matt greets everyone. Kaidan gives Matt a half-hug and a slap on the back, but his face darkens for a moment when he sees who he brought. Then, just as quickly, his expression smoothes. He returns to the conversation he was having with the other guys.

“Why'd you bring Corey,” Neveah hisses, once Kaidan has turned away. I'm pretty sure it's Neveah, anyway.

“Nice to see you, too, Nina.” Okay. I was wrong. Note to self: Nina's wearing the pink.

She puts her hands on her hips. “Kaidan hasn't forgiven him.”

“Relax.” He puts a hand on her shoulder and rubs it. “My cousin's cleaning up his act. He's doing better now.”

We all glance toward the bar where Corey has just downed two shots.

“Is he
really
good for you to be around?” Neveah asks, her hands crossed over her chest.

“I've been sober for
three
years now. My cousin's
not
going to change that.” He glances our way, like he's embarrassed strangers are listening in, and holds out a hand to me. “Hey, I'm Matt. You are…?”

“Hayley. Kaidan's girlfriend.” I shake his hand.

His eyes light up with interest, and I think he’s made the connection between me and my tabloid drama. Then his gaze travels to Char on the other side of me, and his face brightens even more. He steps around me, and she thankfully releases her painful grip my arm.

“And you are?” he asks.

“Charlotte Lamb.” She holds out a hand, and he takes it, holding on way past a normal handshake between strangers.

A thrill shoots through me for her sake. Matt Lin is definitely digging her.

“Let me grab a
soda
,” he says, giving the twins a pointed look. “And I'll be right back.”

I inch away from the sisters so they can't hear me, and I lean close to Char's ear. “I think he likes you.”

“How could you not tell me he'd be here?”

“I swear I had no idea. Now go after him. Go pretend you need more to drink. Get a soda.”

“I don't know. Maybe he has a girlfriend… Maybe she'll be here soon.”

“He came with his cousin. Clearly it's meant to be.”

Char's eyes are shining. “Oh my God, Hayley! Matt Freaking Lin!” she squeals. She's trying to keep her voice low, but the sisters glance at us.

I gently push her toward the bar. “Go.”

She shoots me a grateful look and hurries over.

That's when I notice Corey, off to the side near the pool. He's staring at me. No. Leering at me.

Kaidan catches him staring, too, and shoots him a dark look. Corey averts his eyes and chugs his beer. Ugh. What did he do to make Kaidan hate him so much? Maybe it's just his sparkling personality.

I run my fingers through my hair self-consciously and turn back to Nina and Neveah and their gossip. I hear the name Calypso Day.

“Calypso? I wore a dress of hers.” Finally I have something to add to the conversation.

“We know.” Nina stirs her martini. “How did she even get a chance to dress you?”

“Well… Kaidan sent me a rack of dresses. His stylist delivered them, and I picked the one Calypso designed.”

“Isn't Kaidan's stylist from House Milan?”

I shrug. “I don't actually know.”

“Calypso was a total
nobody
before the HIT awards,” Neveah says snottily. “No one had ever even heard of her. Now they all want to wear her.”

Nina laughs. “Maybe she fucked the owner of House Milan.”

“He's gay.”

“Then maybe she screwed one of the stylists and snuck her dress onto the rack.”

“I loved Calypso's dress,” I say. “And if me wearing it gave her some sort of recognition… I'm glad I chose it. Everyone needs to catch a break some time, right?”

Neveah pats my arm. “But it's really
Peyton
she has to thank for her sudden popularity, isn't it?” Her voice is so sickeningly sweet, it could give high-fructose corn syrup diabetes.

“Why's that?” I snap.

She wrinkles her forehead like she feels sorry for me. “Don't you see? Your dress designer wasn't famous until someone poured a drink on your head. And that someone was Peyton.”

Nina elbows Neveah in the side and shoots her a glare.

My stomach's churning now, and I really want to escape these bitches. I wave a dismissive hand and try to act like none of it matters. “I'm just happy my misfortune helped someone.” I glance down at my half-full drink. “Oops. Looks like I need a refill.”

I manage to evade the twat twins for another hour by making small talk with the others. Matt Lin and Char have been sitting at a high table at the end of the patio ever since she went to talk to him, and they seem completely enamored with each other. They've only moved to get more soda. I hope this works out for her. What are the odds my boyfriend would be high school friends with her Hollywood crush?

Kaidan heads back from the food table and shares an ahi tuna pupu with me before getting back into the conversation with his friends. I can't help but wish he would pay more attention to me, but I get why he isn't.

These are his old friends, and he doesn't see them that often. The guys are all laughing again about some teenage prank they pulled in the boys' dorm in their French American boarding school.

It makes me happy to see him this way, even if I don't really fit in here. I've seen how people act when they're sucking up and trying to get something from me, and these people don't act like that with Kaidan. Even the twat twins seem to genuinely like and respect him. The way they all interact with each other makes it seem like they're true friends, if somewhat dysfunctional.

But Corey's another story. He's gloomy and quiet, and has spent the entire night getting drunk by himself. Nina and Neveah tried to talk to him for a while, but he was unresponsive. I'm glancing over at him when he suddenly strips down to his underwear and hops in the hot tub with his beer in hand.

Neveah and Nina decide this is a good idea and follow suit, but they slip out of their clothes and jump in the infinity pool instead. One of them turns off the pool light and leaves only the lights dotting the edges of the pool on. I'm guessing this party is quickly heading for skinny dipping territory. But I'm not complaining. Not if Kaidan wants to swim with me.

I slurp my drunk way to the bottom of my pineapple drink and head to the bar to get another for courage. The British girl, Trish, is leaning on the bar. Her pretty boy stands behind her, arms wrapped around her waist, nuzzling her neck. She turns to me as I step up to the bar.

“Hayley!” She picks up her empty glass and clinks it against mine. “Did you know your dad stayed at my house in London? I just remembered.”

“What?” It's hard to know if I heard her right, her voice is so slurred. “My dad was at your house?”

“Yeah. My dad's Owen McDougall. He's a music producer for a bunch of Stone label artists. Mostly UK artists now, though. Your dad would come party when he passed through London on tour.”

“That's cool.” A lump shows up in my throat. I don't want to talk about my dad, so I change the subject. “So you hung out a lot with Kaidan at boarding school?”

“Oh, a ton.”

The way she says “a ton” makes me wonder, and I'm too tipsy now for social filters. “So, does that mean you and him…?”

She cackles. “No fucking way. Not like that.
I'm
not his type.” The bartender hands Trish a new drink, and she takes a swig.

I stay silent, hoping she'll say more. But she just keeps drinking.

“So, uh, what's his type?”

“You! You're his type. Blonde, green eyes. You look so much like Avery, it's crazy.”

“Avery?”

Trish opens and closes her mouth like a drunk fish. “Shit, I shouldn't have said that.” She grabs my arm and stage whispers, “Puh-lease don't tell Kaidan I mentioned her. No one talks about her anymore. Makes him ragey.”

People splash and shout from the pool, and Trish glances at it. “Ooh. Alejandro, baby, let's take a dip before we head to the club. Come on.”

She leaves her drink on the bar and drags Alejandro over to the pool.

The lump in my throat grows as I order my drink and wait for it. I glance at Kaidan, laughing with his friends. I was never Peyton's doppelganger. Peyton and I both came after this Avery girl. Who is she, and what happened between her and Kaidan that makes him so ragey about her? Where is she now? A decade is a long time to still have such strong feelings about a high school girlfriend.

Char shows up at the bar, looking positively high on life. I make myself smile. “Wellll?”

“Matt's so amazing! A bunch of them are heading out to the mountains tomorrow morning—to a resort. He invited me to come with!”

“You're going, right?”

“Of course I'm going.”

“See? I told you it was meant to be.”

She glances back at the table where he's still sitting and gives him a wave. He grins back at her.

“He's so nice, Hay. And so interesting. He's really passionate about acting. You can just tell. He reminds me of my mom, only less…”

“Eccentric?”

She laughs. “Yeah, that.” She grabs my arm and squeezes. “Do you mind if I head out early with him to grab some late dinner? I don't want to ditch you—”

“Oh, 'dinner,' huh?”

“Yes.
Dinner.
He wants to take me to this sushi bar before we hit the club.”

“Of course not. Go. You've been with him all night, anyway. I'm happy for you.”

She beams and gives me a hug. “Thanks. Will you be going to the club later? Apparently they're all heading over there soon… I guess whenever they get out of the pool.”

“Not sure. I'll ask Kaidan. He never said anything about that.”

“Okay. Well text me if you decide to come.”

“I will. Don't worry about me. Go have fun!”

Char goes back to get Matt, and then they leave.

The bartender hands me my drink, and I chug it. Someone's gone inside to crank up the music, and half the party is in the pool and hot tub. I guess it's my turn.

When I get to the edge of the pool, and I'm unzipping my dress, Kaidan's suddenly there. He wraps an arm around me from behind, and I smell his woodsy cologne as he turns me around to face him.

He leans in to kiss me, and for the first time tonight, I get a real kiss, a sensual kiss. Longing and heat radiate through me, waking my body up. I'm breathing hard when he finally pulls away.

“What are you doing over here?” He asks, eying my unzipped dress.

“I'm about to get in that pool.” I pull my dress over my head, exposing my lacey bra and panties. His eyes darken with lust as he drinks me in, but then they change, and he glances around at the rest of the party.