One Condition (The Lust List: Kaidan Stone #1) (9 page)

Bia sits down at one of the tables, and her two friends head for the bar.

“Yeah. So? I don’t.”

“I do. Now’s a great time to remind her who I am,” she says, excited. She grabs my hand and drags me toward Bia. I shake her hand off and straighten my shoulders as we arrive. Bia’s got her phone out, and she looks up.

“Hey, Bia! Nice seeing you again,” Char says with a bright wave.

Bia stares at her blankly, and then her eyes come to rest on me, and they widen in recognition. “Hayley,” she says, pointing to me. “And…”

“Charlotte. Lamb. My mother is Diane Lamb?”

“Oh, okay,” Bia says, obviously not remembering Char at all from the club.

“This party is great, isn’t it?" Char asks.

“Your dad was Razor Wade, right?” Bia says. “So sorry.” She looks back down at her phone.

She doesn’t sound sorry, and she’s being rude to Char. I don’t think I like this girl. I don’t care who she is.

“Let’s hit the bar,” I say to Char.

“It’s fine. You go on. I want to catch up with B.”

Bia looks irritated. “When did we meet again?”

“The other night. VIP at LUSH? And I’m sure I’ve seen you around before that. I go to so many of these things, they just sort of run together.”

Bia perks up, like she’s decided maybe Char’s on her level enough to talk to.

I’ve had enough of this conversation. I want more alcohol running through my veins. That’ll make this entire experience better. I politely excuse myself and walk off.

I belong here, but I don’t. I’m the daughter of a rock star. I’m not the talent, I’m not even the one managing the talent. I just
am
. I felt like I was in my element earlier, but the truth is, I straddle two worlds, but belong in neither of them.

West Coast is new money. East Coast is old money. After eight years spent with trust fund babies from old money families, I get my dilemma. They never quite accepted me there, and I’ll never quite belong here.

Employees dressed in black and white work the bar, and there’s no line. I step up to the counter.

“Hayley Wade,” a deep voice says from my right. “What are you having?”

I look over, and it’s Ender Varrone, leaning on the bar, with some hard liquor over the rocks, and he’s looking at me like he wants to have me to drink next. At least someone appreciates.

He’s not wearing a tux, but he’s got on slacks and a dress shirt, and the shirt’s rolled up to expose the tattoos on his forearms. With his long, messy, black hair and piercings, he’s looking kind of homeless compared to everyone else in the room.

“Why, you buying?” I ask.

“Sure.”

“Oh, yeah? I’m pretty sure this is an open bar.”

“Even better.” He flashes me that panty-dropping smile of his. God, he’s so cocky.

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll be buying my own drink tonight.”

A gorgeous woman, one of several attractive bartenders, takes my order—a glass of wine. Damn, I forget how good-looking LA is when I’m not here. New money definitely has hotter waitstaff than old money.

Ender leans on the bar and openly admires my body as I wait for my drink. I let him look. Let him want what he’s not having.

“What are you up to tonight?”

“Oh, just drinking. Hanging out.”

“You could hang out with me. There’s a party room upstairs.”

“I think I’ll stay down here.”

He cocks his head to the side, considering me, then takes a drink. “So where’s Stone at?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” I say, as the bartender hands me my wine.

“Oh, I think you do.”

I get irritated. “No. I don’t.”

“Don’t let Peyton scare you off.”

“She didn’t.”

“You know, we call Peyton ‘The Ruiner.’ Not even I’d go near that. Stone wants you. He went looking for you after you left the club."

My cheeks flush, and I can’t answer. Did he really look for me? I don’t believe Ender. Kaidan looked
through
me tonight, like I didn’t exist.

Ender orders another drink, and I sip half my wine away, getting buzzed. I look for Char, but she’s still chatting up Bia. Bia’s friends came back, and Char looks like she’s getting along fine without me.

“So where’s your date?” I ask Ender.

He looks at me, amused. “What date?”

“The girl from the club? At LUSH?”

He laughs. “Oh, I have a policy against that.”

“Against what?”

He meets my eyes, and I can see the lust in them. “Being selfish. A woman can only have me for
one
night.”

“Oh, how romantic.”

“Too bad Stone got dibs on you first. I do have an opening tonight.”

“Oh yes. Because how else could I resist your charms?”

He laughs, loudly, and drains his glass. He leans in closer, and I smell the vodka on his breath. “I know how to have fun, Hayley. I can show you.”

“She doesn’t need you to show her anything,” a deep voice says from beside me. My heart starts beating faster. It’s Kaidan.

A flash of annoyance passes over Ender’s face, and I look at Kaidan, and with great effort, keep my expression smooth. “What if I
want
him to show me?”

Kaidan stares down at me, his eyes dark, and he licks his lips. “That’s not what you want.”

Mmm. No. It’s not. But I won’t say it. I won’t show it. “You think you know what I want?”

Ender slams his glass down on the bar, but I don’t look to confirm the glare I’m sure he’s sending Kaidan’s way right now.

Kaidan wraps his arm around my back and guides me away from the bar. I let him.

Kaidan brings me around the wooden stage that’s been set up at the back of the ballroom and out through the wide glass doors to the dimly lit stone veranda beyond.

A few couples are out here, but not many. Heat’s radiating from where his hand rests on my lower back. What does Kaidan want with me? Either he cares, or he doesn’t. Am I just a rebound girl, like the tabloids say? I feel a little light-headed from the wine. So I do the smart thing and drink some more.

There’s a breathtaking infinity pool to our right that looks like it leads straight into the dark ocean below us. Kaidan pulls me to the left, stopping beside a marble column, before a banister overlooking the ocean.

He lets me go. The lights cast a dim glow over the planes of his face as he looks down at me. He openly runs his gaze along my body, but his expression doesn’t change. I feel naked before him, like he feels my warm skin beneath my gown, like he can feel the chaotic emotions swirling within me.

Waves crash against the beach in the dark, and the saltwater air lifts my hair and carries a few strands into my face. Despite his unmoving expression, his touch is tender as he brushes the strands off my cheek. I want him to touch me like that again, but the moment’s over too soon, and he shifts away from me. For reasons I don’t understand, the distance between us is so much greater than the mere inches he stands apart from me.

“You know,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “I don’t need saving.” This is the biggest lie I’ve told all night. A little panic flutters in my chest—about Serena, about what I need to do about the necklace. I push those thoughts down.

“Maybe I’m not trying to save you.”

I search his face, but I still can’t read him. “What are you trying to do then?”

He averts his eyes and looks out at the ocean, gripping the railing tightly in one hand. “I was doing you a favor. Ender would use you and throw you away.”

“And you wouldn’t?” I cringe against how vulnerable I sound, but I can’t take it back now.

He takes a deep breath and runs a hand down his face. “When we met… Did you really not know who I was?”

I laugh and clutch my purse against my chest. “If you knew what I thought—”

“Tell me,” he says, in a tone that expects obedience. “Say it.”

“We’re being honest now?”

“I’ve never not been honest,” Kaidan says. There’s a darkness in his voice, and I find myself inching away from him, until the marble column at my back stops me.

“I had no idea who you were. I thought those paparazzi were there for
me
.”

“Maybe they were.” I think I hear a hint of a smile in his tone, but if he smiled, it’s gone, and I can’t see him well with his face turned toward the darkness.

“And you?” I ask. “You acted like you recognized me in the law firm. So I thought… I thought you were playing dumb in the car.”

A conflicted expression plays across his face. “No. When I first saw you… I thought you were someone else. For a moment.”

Peyton.
Knife through the heart, that. I drain my glass of wine, appreciating the warmth as it runs through me. I set my empty glass on a tall, round table beside the column. I shouldn’t have asked. I didn’t want to hear that.

“Okay, well, is there a reason you brought me all the way out here?” I ask. “I’m pretty sure Ender’s gone off with some other girl by now.”

“Would you have gone off with him?” He searches my face.

Wow. He’s serious. He thinks I’m a slut. “At least Ender makes it clear what he wants.” It comes out sounding sharper than I intend, and I try to step around him to go back inside.

Kaidan rests one arm on the column, blocking me in. He pulls my clutch from my tight grasp and sets it next to my glass on the table. He’s inches away from me now, and his dark eyes meet mine. Heat races through me, wine-induced or Kaidan-induced, I don’t know.

He leans closer. “I’m pretty sure I made myself clear last time.”

I glance at his full lips, remembering how they felt against mine in the Velvet Room, how his hardness felt against me, thin layers of fabric the only thing between us. Like now. I shiver in the night air and tear my gaze away.

His other hand comes up and wraps around my chin, forcing my face toward him, forcing me to look at him again. A little flicker of excitement bubbles in my stomach, and I swallow and push his hand away.

“Since we’re being honest,” I say, my voice low. “No. I don’t think you made yourself clear.”

His eyes soften, and he leans in. My heart speeds up.

“Then let me explain.” His lips crush against mine, and he presses me into the column. I’m dizzy with the feel of him, the scent of him. His tongue teases along the seam of my lips, but as I open my mouth to meet him, he shifts his lips to my ear.

“I want
you
, Hayley,” he says, his voice husky with lust. He licks my ear and pushes me harder into the column with his leg. His lips press against me as his tongue trails a line down to my neck.

Then his eyes meet mine again, and he watches me, watches to see what I’ll do as he runs his hand softly, slowly along my collarbone, down the length of body, coming to rest on my hip. I want him to touch me everywhere.

He kisses me again. Then his hand returns to my shoulder and dips down, following the low cut of my dress, until his hand comes to a stop along the swell of my breast. He lightly caresses my skin, and I swallow, trying to keep my composure.

But my nipples harden against the thin silky fabric of my gown, and his gaze travels there. That little smirk I love appears, and now he keeps his eyes on mine as he takes his forefinger, tracing slow, light circles around my breast, spiraling in, touching everywhere but the hard, aching point of my nipple.

I suck in a breath, and the space between my legs is hot, throbbing, slick. I wish he would touch me already, wish he would press himself against me, so I could feel if he’s hard like the other night.

We stay like that for a moment, both of us breathing hard, him holding me against the column. He leans in, as if to kiss me again, but doesn’t. My nipples ache, and I arch my lower back, trying to make his hand close over my breast.

He smirks and drops his hand lower, preventing the touch. “I like this dress even better than the last one.”

“But you’d like it better on the floor?” I ask, breathless.

“Wouldn’t you?”

My lips part, and he leans in to kiss me again.

“Kaidan,” a male voice says.

Kaidan’s nostrils flare, and he steps away from me, turning toward whatever jerk just interrupted us. I grab my purse and cross my arms over my hard nipples, hiding them, slumping against the column.

The man steps into the low light where we’re standing. Devon Stone. He looks enough like Kaidan that I’d be able to tell they’re brothers even if I hadn’t seen Devon on
The Lust List
. He’s got a drink in hand, and he wavers on his feet a bit as he steps closer.

“What do you want?” Kaidan says, his voice threatening.

“Come on in for the speech. Accept your empire.”

“Dad send you out here?”

“I don’t take orders from Dad. Because
I’m
in control of my own life.”

Kaidan stiffens. “Yeah, you really look like you have your life under control.”

Devon leans around Kaidan to find me, and he lets out a low laugh.

“Ah. Peyton lookalike of the week. You really need to move on, Kai.”

My gut twists at that.
Ouch.
My body turns cold, and I suddenly want to escape, go back into the ballroom and get away from both of them.

“Fuck off.” Kaidan lets out a low growl and shoves his brother away, back toward the double doors. Devon’s drink sloshes over the edge of the glass, and he holds a hand up as if to protect it.