time and more patience than I’ve ever needed before.
But he’s confirmed the one thing I need to know to make the struggle worthwhile—he loves me, too.
“I love you, Hayden.” It’s all I hear as I drive through the dark night after leaving her. I’m too wound up to sleep or work, so I go to the one place where everything always makes sense to me—Club Quantum. Located in the basement of our Los Angeles office building, access is granted with a palm scannerthat admits me to a special elevator that leads only to the basement.
The doors open into the club, which is busy for a weeknight. I wave to Kristian and Jasper, who are entertaining guests in the main room. At the bar, I pull up a stool and shake hands with Sebastian Lowe, who manages the LA club for us. He’s tall, dark, muscular, scarred and ruthlessly intimidating. He also has a heart of goldand a loyalty streak a mile wide. Sebastian is one of my oldest and closest friends, and he’s on that short list of people I love.
“Pappy?” he asks.
“You know it.”
He puts a glass on the bar in front of me and pours. “Rough night?”
If you count having to tell the love of your life that you can’t be with her a rough night, then yeah, it’s been pretty bad. But I don’t tell him that. I can’ttell anyone that. “Not so much.” In some ways, it had been a fantastic, magical night. I’ll live off the memories of what we did for the rest of my life.
“Something’s up,” Sebastian says with the wisdom of someone who’s known me a long time. His mother worked as my father’s housekeeper for years. Sebastian and I grew up together, albeit on different sides of the Beverly Hills tracks. I credithim—and his mother—with bringing some normalcy to the chaos that was my life. They credit me with saving him from the lure of gangs by giving him a job at Quantum.
His mom has no idea what he really does for us, and she never will. Sebastian and Graciela Lowe are family to me, and as my brother from another mother, Sebastian knows when something’s not right.
“Is it your mom?” he asks, painfullyaware of the ongoing struggle of my mother’s addiction to anything and everything addicting—booze, drugs, sex. You name it, she’s hooked on it.
“All quiet on that front for the moment.” I live on the razor’s edge with her, constantly teetering between disasters. We’ve had three months of relative peace and quiet, mostly because she was in rehab for most of that time.
“You got eyes on her?”
“Yep.” We both know having eyes on her hasn’t prevented past disasters, and it probably won’t prevent future ones either. But knowing someone is watching out for her allows me to sleep a couple of hours every night. The time I spent with Addie is the first peace I’ve gotten from the hell of that situation in ages. While I was lost in her, I wasn’t thinking about my mother or worrying about when thenext disaster will strike.
I think that’s why I gave in so easily the other night. It’s why I gave in again tonight after going there to smooth things over with her. I didn’t go there to do what we ended up doing, which is further proof that I need to keep my distance or lose my resolve. Now that I know what it’s like to touch her and kiss her and fuck her, I can’t go near her again. My legendarycontrol is nonexistent where she’s concerned. She’s my kryptonite.
“Is this seat taken?”
I glance over to see Cresley Dane, my close friend and frequent scene partner. “It is now.” I lean in to accept her kiss to my cheek. I’ve touched every inch of her delectable body, but I don’t feel anything more than friendly affection when I look at her world-famous face. “I didn’t know you were in town.”
She accepts a glass of the Belvedere we keep on ice for her, gifting Sebastian with the smile that’s made her millions. He’s not unaffected, but only I can tell that. The icy vodka is in sharp contrast to
But he’s confirmed the one thing I need to know to make the struggle worthwhile—he loves me, too.
“I love you, Hayden.” It’s all I hear as I drive through the dark night after leaving her. I’m too wound up to sleep or work, so I go to the one place where everything always makes sense to me—Club Quantum. Located in the basement of our Los Angeles office building, access is granted with a palm scannerthat admits me to a special elevator that leads only to the basement.
The doors open into the club, which is busy for a weeknight. I wave to Kristian and Jasper, who are entertaining guests in the main room. At the bar, I pull up a stool and shake hands with Sebastian Lowe, who manages the LA club for us. He’s tall, dark, muscular, scarred and ruthlessly intimidating. He also has a heart of goldand a loyalty streak a mile wide. Sebastian is one of my oldest and closest friends, and he’s on that short list of people I love.
“Pappy?” he asks.
“You know it.”
He puts a glass on the bar in front of me and pours. “Rough night?”
If you count having to tell the love of your life that you can’t be with her a rough night, then yeah, it’s been pretty bad. But I don’t tell him that. I can’ttell anyone that. “Not so much.” In some ways, it had been a fantastic, magical night. I’ll live off the memories of what we did for the rest of my life.
“Something’s up,” Sebastian says with the wisdom of someone who’s known me a long time. His mother worked as my father’s housekeeper for years. Sebastian and I grew up together, albeit on different sides of the Beverly Hills tracks. I credithim—and his mother—with bringing some normalcy to the chaos that was my life. They credit me with saving him from the lure of gangs by giving him a job at Quantum.
His mom has no idea what he really does for us, and she never will. Sebastian and Graciela Lowe are family to me, and as my brother from another mother, Sebastian knows when something’s not right.
“Is it your mom?” he asks, painfullyaware of the ongoing struggle of my mother’s addiction to anything and everything addicting—booze, drugs, sex. You name it, she’s hooked on it.
“All quiet on that front for the moment.” I live on the razor’s edge with her, constantly teetering between disasters. We’ve had three months of relative peace and quiet, mostly because she was in rehab for most of that time.
“You got eyes on her?”
“Yep.” We both know having eyes on her hasn’t prevented past disasters, and it probably won’t prevent future ones either. But knowing someone is watching out for her allows me to sleep a couple of hours every night. The time I spent with Addie is the first peace I’ve gotten from the hell of that situation in ages. While I was lost in her, I wasn’t thinking about my mother or worrying about when thenext disaster will strike.
I think that’s why I gave in so easily the other night. It’s why I gave in again tonight after going there to smooth things over with her. I didn’t go there to do what we ended up doing, which is further proof that I need to keep my distance or lose my resolve. Now that I know what it’s like to touch her and kiss her and fuck her, I can’t go near her again. My legendarycontrol is nonexistent where she’s concerned. She’s my kryptonite.
“Is this seat taken?”
I glance over to see Cresley Dane, my close friend and frequent scene partner. “It is now.” I lean in to accept her kiss to my cheek. I’ve touched every inch of her delectable body, but I don’t feel anything more than friendly affection when I look at her world-famous face. “I didn’t know you were in town.”
She accepts a glass of the Belvedere we keep on ice for her, gifting Sebastian with the smile that’s made her millions. He’s not unaffected, but only I can tell that. The icy vodka is in sharp contrast to
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