Unhinged (9 page)

“Don’t do it,” Aaron
muttered under his breath, his arm wrapping tightly around me.

“Do what?” I tilted my
head back so that I could look up at him.

He just smiled as we
walked inside.

We had just made it to
the front door when Mr. Trovato came down the stairs.

“Payton,” he called,
causing me to turn toward him. “Leaving already?”

“Yes, sir,” I said,
just as Aaron said, “She’s not feeling well.”

“Well, thank you for
coming. I hope you had a good time.”

“I did,” I lied. “Thank
you for inviting me.”

I felt a set of eyes
watching me from across the room, and I looked past Mr. Trovato to see
Sebastian leaning against the wall, his legs crossed at the ankles as he stared
at me.

I quickly turned my
attention back to my boss, but not before both Aaron and Conrad were looking
over at Sebastian.

Conrad met my gaze
again and I saw his irritation in the brown depths, but then it was masked
quickly. “Take good care of her, son,” he said to Aaron, sparing him a brief
glance, then looking at me and adding, “And I’ll see you on Monday.”

Unable to speak through
the desert that had taken up residence in my throat, I nodded my head and after
receiving my wrap from the butler/man, I allowed Aaron to lead me outside. I managed,
I still don’t know how, not to look at Sebastian again.

The valet brought
Aaron’s car around quickly and I kept my mouth shut until we were safely inside
before I punched Aaron in the arm. “Why did you do that?” I exclaimed.

Aaron laughed and rubbed
his arm. “What did
I
do?”

“Why did you make
Sebastian think we were together?”

Sure, I had allowed
Sebastian to believe Aaron was my boyfriend, but it was something else entirely
for Aaron to act so possessively.

“You’ve got a lot to
learn, kiddo.”

“Don’t call me that,” I
shouted unnecessarily. “I’m older than you.”

“By a minute.” Aaron
chuckled as the gates opened allowing us to leave the estate.

“By a month,” I
corrected him as I closed my eyes and rested my head against the back of the
seat, snuggling into Aaron’s jacket. “You still didn’t answer me.”

“Doll, you’ve got a lot
to learn about men.”

“Tell me about it.” I was
referring to the testosterone overload I’d been in the middle of just a few
minutes ago. “In the meantime, why don’t you enlighten me?”

“It’s all in how you
play the game,” Aaron stated.

“I don’t
want
to
play the game,” I retorted.

“We all play the game,
doll.”

“But thanks to you,
Sebastian’s gonna think I really do have a boyfriend.”

“Maybe. But that’s what
you want.”

I turned my head toward
him and peered at him through one eye. “Why’s that?”

“Because men want what
they can’t have. And, sweetheart, I just set the dominos in motion. Sebastian
isn’t gonna be able to stop thinking about you.”

“Wait.” I studied him
briefly. “How do you know his name’s Sebastian?”

Aaron chuckled, sparing
me a sideways glance. “Because you just said it was.”

“Oh.” Closing my eyes,
I returned to my original position, my head facing forward, eyes closed. “It
doesn’t matter anyway. It’s not like I’m gonna see him again.”

“Oh, honey, you’ll see
him again. Probably sooner rather than later.”

The gentle hum of the
tires on asphalt lulled me to sleep. As I drifted off, I didn’t bother telling
Aaron that I hoped he was right.

Sebastian

I should have snuck
back to the guest house when I’d had the chance. If I had, I wouldn’t have just
spent the last few minutes staring out into the darkness with a woman I knew I
needed to stay away from. But the silence had been comforting, her presence
even more so. I could’ve stood there all night, listening to her soft breaths,
letting the spicy sweet scent of her perfume tease me.

She had all but dared
me to kiss her. How I refrained, I still don’t know. It had taken everything in
me not to pull her against my body and crush my mouth to hers just to see if
she tasted as sweet as I suspected she did. As it was, when my lips brushed
hers, I’d nearly come like a fucking teenage boy.

I should’ve kissed her.

And then her boyfriend
had shown up and ruined the moment. The chaos in my head returned the instant
he stepped outside, as though whatever filter Payton provided had been
interrupted. I don’t know what it was, or whether I was just conjuring up crazy
bullshit in my head, but I’d felt an overwhelming peace when I was near Payton
tonight.

She calmed me, even
when she wound me up at the same time.

I’d spent the last
couple of hours watching her from the shadows of the ballroom, not wanting her
to know I was there. It had been hell on earth watching her laugh, talk and dance
with the tall guy who’d arrived with her. At one point, I had envisioned
shooting out his kneecaps just because he was with her and I wasn’t.

My sister had come over
briefly to talk, only to give me a hard time when she caught me watching
Payton. Aaliyah had a huge grin on her face when I asked her about the guy
Payton was with, having seen the three of them talking shortly after Payton
arrived. She informed me that his name was Aaron, and she went on and on about
how funny he was and how cute the two of them were together.

I knew her well enough
to see through her. She’d been trying to get a rise out of me, but it hadn’t
worked.

Little witch.

But now Payton was
leaving with the blond guy and my night had officially gone to shit.

“Sebastian.”

I rolled my eyes at the
sound of Conrad’s voice. I could hear the click of his Italian loafers on the
marble floor as he approached. Slowly, I transferred my gaze from the front
door over to Conrad’s face.

“Stay away from her,”
he commanded, his voice rough, his eyes beady.

“What?” I twisted to
face him as I stood to my full height. We were nose to nose and I was tempted
to punch him in his fucking mouth. I hated when he treated me like a goddamn
child.

“You heard me,” he
growled quietly. “Stay the fuck away from her.”

“Or what?” I taunted.

“Don’t push me,
Sebastian. She’s off limits to you. Do you understand? I’m not gonna sit by and
let you ruin her.”

Ruin her?

What the fuck.

I laughed, but there
wasn’t an ounce of humor in it. “Right. ’Cause that’s what I do. I ruin women.”
I took a step closer, our noses nearly touching as I narrowed my eyes on him.
“I’m not you. I don’t use them and throw them away. That’s your M.O. Not mine.
And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll take your threats elsewhere, old
man.”

Conrad didn’t back
down, but I saw a glimmer of fear in his brown eyes. He knew not to push me. I
had a fragile grasp on my temper most of the time as it was. He knew that.

Realizing we’d gained
an audience, Conrad took a step back just as I turned to walk away. When he put
his hand on my arm, it took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to turn
around and nail him between the eyes with my fist. I glanced down at where he
was gripping my arm tightly, then back up to his face.

“I’m serious,
Sebastian.”

I shrugged his hand
off. “So am I.”

With that, I turned and
walked away. I noticed Aaliyah was watching me from across the room, her eyes
wide. She’d seen Conrad and I go toe to toe before, but just as I did, she knew
that one of these days I was going to lose it.

That, or I was going to
implode.

Half an hour later I
was in my workout room,
Holler Til You Pass Out
by
3OH!3
blaring
from the speakers, sweat pouring from my face as I pummeled the heavy bag
hanging from the ceiling. The bass reverberating off the walls matched the
pounding in my skull and the throbbing in my knuckles.

While I threw one punch
after another, gasping for air as I exhausted my muscles, I pictured Conrad’s
face on the bag.

This was my stress
reliever, something I relied on to keep me sane. That and racing. Those were
the only two things that helped to quiet the voices in my head, to calm the
fury that pounded in my blood.

I stopped moving, my
chest heaving as I wrapped my arms around the bag, trying to keep from falling
to the floor.

My thoughts immediately
drifted to Payton.

She had calmed me in a
way I’d never known before. In a way that no amount of punching a faceless
enemy or redlining a powerful engine to its breaking point ever could.

For as long as I could
remember, I’d battled the fury that was a living, breathing thing inside me.
Chaos was how I referred to it. A constant state of chaos that had a
stranglehold on me.

Stay away from her.

My father’s words
invaded my thoughts, a red haze clouding my vision momentarily.

In all the time that
I’d known the man, after all the warnings he had dished out, all of the threats
he made, never had I wanted to defy him so badly.

But for the first time,
it wasn’t to get back at him.

It had nothing to do
with him period.

I wanted Payton. I wanted
her with a passion I’d never experienced before. I wanted to hold her in my
arms, to lay her out beneath me and bury myself so deep inside her that she no
longer thought about any other man. I wanted to own her, to possess her.

It was crazy.

I
was
crazy.

Pushing away from the
heavy bag, I retrieved the bottle of water sitting on the window sill. Staring
out into the night, I could see my reflection on the window glass. The crazed
look in my eyes was something I’d gotten familiar with. I knew what was inside
of me. A beast that needed to get out.

No amount of adrenaline
had ever extricated the turmoil though, and Lord knows I had tried. Too many
times.

I downed the rest of
the water and tossed the bottle into the small recycle container in the corner.
Placing my hands on the wall above the window, I leaned forward, trying to see
past the reflection into the night and that’s when it came back to me.

Payton.

The dreams.

It was her I’d seen,
even before I met her.

She was the one I’d
been drawn to, the reason I hadn’t wanted to wake up. Closing my eyes, I tried
to conjure up the image of the woman who infiltrated my dreams, the way she
looked then. She was just out of reach.

Just like Payton.

Stay away from her.

As Conrad’s words
bounced around in my head and images of Payton’s face continued to drift
through my mind, I knew what the right thing to do was.

For her sake, I needed
to stay away. I needed to pretend we never met, ignore the fact that I was
obsessed with her.

There was only one
problem.

She unhinged me.

And I wasn’t strong
enough to resist her.

Sebastian

One week later

Thursday

Wiping the sweat from
my face with the edge of my T-shirt, I allowed the wrench to fall from my hand
and land with a shrill clatter on the concrete floor. The sound was
surprisingly reminiscent of the noise that was clanging inside my head. Even
with the music blasting, I couldn’t block out the frenzied thoughts bouncing
around inside my skull.

The garage door was
open, the chilly November wind whipping through the open space, but it did
little to cool me down. My skin felt hot, my blood was racing through my veins.
Although I could usually get myself under control by working, that wasn’t even
helping today.

“Fuck,” I growled,
thrusting my hands through my hair, then sliding them down to the back of my
neck.

I paced the floor just
like that, my eyes on the ground, my hands gripping my neck, the muscles
pinched tight.

I’d been strung tight
as a bow since last Friday. Six days ago.

The last time I saw Payton.

I could still feel her
breath on my lips. I was kicking myself in the ass for not kissing her, for not
taking her into my arms and holding her, touching her. I just wanted to know
what she would feel like against me. If I could have done anything differently
about that night, that would have been it. It was the only damn thing I could
think about.

And it was slowly
killing me.

It didn’t help that
Conrad was watching me like a hawk. If I didn’t know better, I would have
thought he was tracking me. Maybe he was. I actually wouldn’t be at all
surprised.

If it weren’t for my
sister requesting that I have dinner with them every night, avoiding him would
have been a hell of a lot easier. But it was hard for me to say no to Aaliyah.
So, every night, I had to endure my father’s scowl at the table. He would
purposely bring up Payton’s name and every damn time his eyes would be on me.
So far, not since the night of the party, he hadn’t warned me to stay away from
her, at least not verbally, but I knew he was thinking it. I could tell by that
tell-tale gleam in his eyes that he was just waiting for me to defy him.

Just so we’re entirely
clear, I fully intended to defy him, but it had nothing to do with getting back
at him. Not this time.

From the moment Payton
walked out the front door with that blond guy, the noose had continued to
tighten around my neck and it wasn’t easing up. The longer I waited before
seeing her again, the more frustrated I was becoming.

I had dreamed about her
again. The night of the party. I don’t know if it was because I’d been thinking
about her, or trying to decipher the original dream, but she’d appeared out of
thin air. Waking up had been brutal. Reality could be a cold bitch sometimes.

Reaching down, I
grabbed the wrench I’d discarded and as I was standing up, the music cut off
suddenly and I heard someone clear their throat. I knew without looking who it
was.

“Yes?” I asked my
father, not bothering to look at him.

“I need an estimate on
when you’ll have that finished.”

Yep. Just as I thought.
He was there to ride my ass about the project, wanting me to be finished
already. I’d told him a hundred times, I didn’t know. He obviously wasn’t
accepting that answer.

“When I’m done,” I told
him honestly, tossing the wrench onto the toolbox, letting it clank against the
other tools. Grabbing the grease rag, I wiped my hands as I turned to look at
Conrad.

“Not good enough,” he
barked.

Holding my hands up in
mock surrender, I smirked at him. “Have at it, old man. You wanna take a shot
at making it work, do your worst. Or wait, better yet, why don’t you get your
guys over here, see what they can do with it.”

He’d tried that before.
Not that the guys he had working for him weren’t good at what they did. They
were. I was just better. It required a good ear to listen to a car, a steady
hand to fine tune it, and I’d proven time and time again that no one could
solve an issue better than I could.

I didn’t bother to tell
him that I was stalling on purpose. That wouldn’t have gone over very well.

“Sebastian.”

“Yes?” I feigned
innocence. I was so fucking tired of this dance we were doing. Conrad could
give two shits about when I had this prototype complete. I was pretty sure,
after the spectacle he’d made at the party that someone was ready to throw a
ton of fucking cash at him and he was just greedy.

As far as I was
concerned, they could wait. And so could he.

“This is absurd.”
Conrad moved closer. He didn’t get too close, probably worried he’d get grease
on that pretty fucking shirt of his.

“You’re tellin’ me,” I
agreed. If he would stop breathing down my neck, we wouldn’t have to go through
this every damn day.

“You’ve got three
days,” he finally said, surprising the shit out of me.

I spun around to face
him directly, trying to rein in my temper. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Three
days. I want that damn thing finished by Monday. If it means you work through
the weekend, so be it.”

I could hear my teeth
grinding together, feel the muscle in my jaw flexing.

“And if I don’t agree?”

Conrad took a deep
breath. “Then we’ll have to have a discussion regarding our little
arrangement.”

“Good idea,” I taunted
as I took a step closer. He took one step back. “Why don’t we do that,
Dad
?
Why don’t we just sit down and hash it out? Maybe call a press conference. I
think the media would be thrilled to learn more about the man behind the fake
fucking smiles and the fancy ass suits.”

“Goddammit, Sebastian!”
Conrad yelled, storming across the room and stopping abruptly, his back to me.
“Why the fuck do you have to keep doing this? I’ve given you everything you
could possibly want. Every goddamn thing and this is the thanks I get?”

I swallowed hard. “I’m
sorry,” I said facetiously when Conrad spun around. “I forgot about all the
things you gave me. I was too busy remembering,” I walked toward him, my voice
lowering, “all the shit you took away from me.”

Conrad glared, but he
remained silent.

We were through here.
There was nothing left to say. This was how it usually ended between us. A
stalemate. He thought he could threaten me, but what he didn’t realize was that
I wasn’t some dumbass fourteen-year-old kid anymore. I’d long outgrown my
initial fear of being accepted by him. I didn’t want his approval. I didn’t
need it.

“I’ve got to go back to
the office,” Conrad stated, as though that was the reason for the end of our
conversation.

“Oh, one more thing.” I
waited until he turned to face me again. He cocked an eyebrow in question.
“How’s Payton?”

With that, Conrad spun
on his expensive fucking heel and waltzed right out the door, leaving me
standing there. All alone.

Just as I always was.