28. ~Sebastian~

"We really don't have to do this, Bastian."

"Of course we do."

"You're missing a class because of this. If we head back now, you can still make it."

"We're not heading back."

When she didn't respond, I shot a look over at her in the passenger seat of my Lexus.

So damn beautiful. She was decked out in the exact same outfit from back when I'd first laid eyes on her in the Luxe parking lot.

The studded blue leather jacket with a silver tank underneath that had a metallic look to it, just like the butterfly chain belt looping through her bootcut pants. Her blue and silver hair was down, those gorgeous loose curls flowing down past her shoulders.

She looked sexy as all fuck and it took me a moment to move past it—and the sight of her actually being in my car with me. For the first time.

Because of all the secrecy and doing everything I could to keep her out of the spotlight, we'd never traveled together. Even when we'd been photographed getting it on down that backroad, she'd ridden on her motorcycle and I'd come in my car—in two different directions too.

Today I'd made an exception, though.

I'd picked her up a couple of blocks from Luxe, outside of the view of anybody and then where we were headed there were a load of backstreets. I'd mapped it out and I could drop her half a block from our destination, park the car, then meet her moments later through the side entrance. And once we were inside it wouldn't matter because it would just be us. I'd seen to it. Well, with a little help from Cas.

She knew where we were headed, so I'd expected her to be stoked.

But here she was slumped in the seat and staring pensively out the window as she curled a lock of her hair around and around her finger over and over—a clear stress response.

Looking between her and the road, I reached out and rubbed her thigh. "What's wrong? Don't you want to see the place? I thought this surprise I sprung on you earlier would be a good one? Did I… miscalculate?"

She turned from the window to look at me and smiled, but it was only half-hearted. "No, sweets. It's a great surprise. Thank you."

"Is this about your mom's reaction?"

"A little," she admitted.

"Sky," I pushed.

Proving just how far we'd come, she didn't get defensive or evasive to hide her vulnerability, and instead she told me, "To say she didn't react well is an understatement. So, yeah, it's bothering me. More than a little."

Yeah, she'd told me all about it. It probably hadn't helped that they'd had the conversation in the middle of the night where cooler heads weren't exactly known for prevailing. But it had still been a bitch of a reaction even with that factored in. Not only hadn't her mom been happy that Sky had found her way again, she'd laid a whole guilt trip on her about being flaky and just flitting from thing to thing without any direction. She'd even accused her of wasting her time and that of Maria's peers, those involved in an apparent internship that Maria had gotten her without her knowledge, and then a bunch she'd had Sky connect with at that stupid-ass, overly stuffy convention.

Apparently, Maria's reaction, especially the fact that she was still freezing Sky out days later, hadn't gone over well with Frank Bennett either. The two of them weren't talking and he was even sleeping in one of their spare rooms.

"She was wrong, baby. You're not moving from thing to thing. You're just moving back on the path you were previously on before all that shit with that motherfucker derailed things for you. You have clear direction, you have since you were a teenager from everything you've told me and, yeah, from Cas's research on you too."

"I appreciate you saying that, but—"

"But nothing. She's just pissed that you're not following in her footsteps. People like them, like our moms, they're all about the legacy, but it doesn't always fit, doesn't always work like that. We're not all carbon copies of our parents. Not all of us want to be, nor are we built to be."

A smile spread over her face and then she was grasping my hand on her thigh. "You know just what to say, huh?"

"Well, it took me long enough to get to this point of actually saying the right thing, didn't it? I'm glad I finally made it."

"You have. You've gone beyond."

"So, let's focus on the positive. You're moving forward again—in all areas. Your career path, Onyx, and us. It's all good. Don't let external factors fuck all over that. Believe me, I'm the leading authority on how to handle that shit. I spent so long allowing it all to get to me, to dictate my life, to rule me. All it ever brought me was pain, Sky. I don't want that for you."

She leaned across and kissed my cheek. "You're right. Thank you."

I smiled out at her. "To cheer you up further, I'm gonna let you in on the surprise a little earlier than I'd intended. I was gonna wait until we got there, but, screw that."

"Isn't the surprise you taking off a whole class to come down here with me after I mentioned I was gonna take a tour of this design school? We're going to have lunch together at a secluded spot you're familiar with, one that will keep us off the radar, right?"

She sounded all nervous now that I was hinting at an alteration to our plans.

I'd noticed that she didn't like that, as a rule. She liked to know what was coming and when. She needed things to be locked down and definitive.

And I got that, but if that was the case all the time, there'd be no room for surprises or spontaneity.

I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, then revealed, "I'm not just going to be waiting a couple of blocks away while you take a tour of the place. I'm gonna be right there alongside you, taking it all in."

"What? How will that be possible? They'll be eyes on us—on you—all over the place. Camera flashes galore. It'll be chaos. This place isn't the lap of luxury with extreme security and protection for all the elite-type students like at Luxe. They'll be no protection or shielding from that at all."

"Already taken care of. Outside of the Dean, herself, we'll have the place to ourselves." Off her confused look, I told her, "Cas pulled some strings."

"Wow, every time I think I've gotten a good understanding of how far his power and influence reaches, something else comes along that kicks that up another notch."

I chuckled. "It's hard to wrap your head around, I know. It was the same for me when things started changing with all that a year or so into him taking over King."

"Your whole world is a lot to wrap my head around."

"I know, especially because you didn't grow up around any of it, with your parents keeping you far away. But you're doing amazingly well with all of it. If it ever gets too much, though, tell me, yeah? We can figure it out. Don't bury it behind that I-can-handle-anything hard outer shell." I smirked. "I mean, we all know you can handle a whole lot. From all of us."

She laughed. "Innuendo received loud and clear."

"In all seriousness, make sure you do tell me, okay? Or at least one of us. This life we live here… being who we are… it's a lot sometimes. And it can just creep up on you too… that negative aspect to it, that burden."

"That works both ways."

I cocked an eyebrow.

"Tell me too—or one of us—if things get too much," she clarified.

"I'm all good, baby."

"You seem that way right now, but not long ago, you were off… not yourself, not what I've come to know of you. For a while after what happened at the fight club with Damien."

I gritted my teeth at her referencing that.

"And this is the first time we've spent time together one-on-one since then," she went on.

Shit.

There was a reason for that.

I hadn't wanted to fuck up things between us by getting too close, just her and me with no buffers and distractions of Cal and Cas there to soften things and take direct attention off me. Not while I'd been in a state, while I'd been struggling for control.

Of course, I hadn't been able to keep away from her entirely. I'd been around her with them present, we'd been together as a foursome.

There was just no feasible way that I could stay away from her for long.

I was damn well addicted to her.

I'd stopped being able to deny that a long time ago.

And I didn't want to.

I wanted to revel in it, in every moment of finding somebody like her, with everything she was and everything she brought to our lives… the passion, the peace and the balance, all of it.

"Well, things have been crazy lately, right?"

"Bastian," she protested, knowing it was more than that.

I sighed and kept my gaze fixed on the road ahead as I forced the words past my lips, and actually opened up to tell her, "I was struggling for a bit, yeah. Letting everything back in, feeling again… it was challenging. But I've got a handle on it now."

I was good now.

And I hadn't touched those pills since that day when we'd revealed The Jackals to her.

All right, fine. Once. One other time. Right after the convention.

But that had just been because I'd had to spend time with my mom, her latest boy toy, and be in the same vicinity as Damien while pretending for public perception—and her bullshit—that there was no bad blood between us, that nothing fucked-up had happened.

I'd needed them to calm down.

That was all.

"Yeah?" she asked, reaching up and stroking my hair. "You're sure?"

"I am, beautiful." Especially when she was right here beside me. And stroking me. I liked the soft and sweet with her as much as the hard and rough. Any way she touched me affected me like I hadn't thought possible. But so did just being with her when that wasn't a factor. Immersing myself in her. The understanding and gentle parts of her as much as the fierce and vicious. It didn't matter which part I got, which was prevalent at any given time, because it all connected to the beauty of her as a whole.

She smiled at me and eased her hand away with a contented smile.

Good. She was dropping it, my words having satisfied her that all was actually well.

Relief sung through me.

I didn't want her knowing that aspect of me.

The troubled part.

The broken.

The weak and struggling.

The guy who could barely hold his head above water.

As far as I was concerned, it was all long in the past.

Sure, I'd had a couple of slipups lately, but they'd just been brief, mild hiccups along the way, nothing more than that.

While I got that I'd need to let her in on that eventually, especially with us building this relationship between us, it wasn't yet time. It had taken a fuck of a lot to get her to let me in at all, and I didn't want to mar it with any bullshit, especially something that had no bearing on the here and now.

Besides, as she'd even admitted moments ago, being in our world was a lot to take. And she'd already endured some of that as it was. She was still acclimating, no need to pile it all on at once.

The universe didn't seem to get that fucking message, though, as I found out in the next moment when my phone started ringing via the handsfree setup on the dash.

Doctor Granger.

I grimaced at the sight of the call display. Seriously?

Not again.

This was the third time in two days she'd tried to contact me.

As I looked away and focused on the road ahead, and not missing the turn I needed to make down a specific side street, I felt Sky's eyes on me.

I just let it ring and ring. "Yes?" I asked her.

"You're sure everything is actually okay with you?"

I shrugged. "Just calling to schedule an annual physical, or something. Doctors, right?"

In my peripheral vision, I caught her shooting me a withering look.

"What, baby?"

"Jeez, Bastian. I know the name and the number. I know it's not a GP calling. My dad tried to get me to go see her when I first came back here because he was worried by it all."

I cursed under my breath. "Well, that makes sense, she's one of the best in the city."

"Nice try at redirecting."

Fucking Cas.

I knew it was him.

When I'd listened to her voicemails, she'd claimed that it was merely a check-in call, part of a new follow-up approach they had recently implemented to reach out to all patients who'd stopped going to therapy—or in my case, stopped needing it—and to follow up to ensure all was well.

What a load of bullshit.

Just up his alley.

He'd made her do this.

Because of the convention.

He'd obviously picked up on me being under the influence.

At the time, I had noticed a couple of mistakes I'd made with my behavior and reactions, but I hadn't thought it would've been enough to actually confirm anything to anybody, to raise that sort of suspicion. Then again, my judgment wasn't exactly at its best when I was using. It numbed me too much to allow for that.

Fuck. He knew. He probably also knew I'd taken his meds then.

This was gonna be a very uncomfortable conversation.

I just couldn't actually believe he'd brought Granger into it, and in such a manipulative way too. Seeing as though he didn't like doing that when it came to me and Cal, that meant he was really fucking worried about it all.

Just what I didn't need.

And now, because of him, I was getting it from Skylar too.

It was gonna ruin everything!

I didn't want her looking at me like that, like I was an addict, like I was a fuck-up, like I was a goddamn problem!

"It's Cas," I told her.

She cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"He and Cal were worried about me opening up again, and my initial reactions toward you. Cas obviously called her and it's taken this long for her to fit me in. Ancient history with all that, right? Jesus."

The lie had come way too easily to me.

Just like the old days where all you were was lies.

I gritted my teeth. Shut the fuck up! Just shut up!

"That's really invasive."

"Well, that's Cas when it comes to those few he actually cares about."

She smiled. "It's another form of showing affection to him."

"Yeah, I guess it is. Although, times like this, frustrating and a real bitch of a thing too."

It looked like she was only partly buying my explanation. Partly because there was an element of truth to it, like all the best lies.

Fortunately, we reached the turnoff down the first side street and I was able to refocus things, telling her, "We'll be there any minute."

I made the turn, then navigated through the maze of little streets.

As the side entrance of the building came into view a couple of blocks from us, I saw Sky brightening, getting so excited.

Damn, that from her really did something to me.

I pulled over to let her out, before I parked down by the little pastry shop. As she unbuckled her seatbelt, I told her, "The side street entrance is open for you. I'll meet you there in five."

"Perfect," she said, leaning over and kissing my cheek. As she opened her door and moved to get out, she looked back and said, "Thank you, Bastian. Doing this… it's… it means a lot to me."

She was still having some trouble when it came to putting her feelings out there. It made it hard to gauge where she was at. There was still a barrier there with her, something she was still unwilling to bring down. The closest she'd come was her confession about feeling like she belonged with us, when we'd been about to reveal the whole Jackals thing to her. But since then, nothing more had come from her. At least not verbally. The last few weeks there'd been a lot conveyed through action—our nightly operations and a whole lot of dirty fucking.

I smiled. "I'm glad. It's gonna be fun."

She smiled back, then shut the door and off she went.

I watched her for a few moments, the sexy way she walked with a swing of her hips, one that wasn't even intentional, just all her. Then there was the confidence she exuded too. And the whole fearless thing she had going on. She was a real warrior in so many ways.

I was just about to pull away from the curb and get going when something caught my eye, stilling me.

I squinted, not believing my eyes for a moment.

But it quickly became apparent that it wasn't some sort of mirage, or some trick of my demented subconscious.

A horde of photographers were rushing around the corner, coming from the exact direction I'd been about to drive in—where the secluded pastry shop was located.

My phone buzzed and a text flashed across the screen.

Damien: Didn't know you had it in you, little bro. Props for the dirty talk too… hot as fuck.

What the—

I snatched the phone off the dash, then opened the message quickly. Along with his text was a link to a bunch of celebrity news outlets. I clicked on the first one and my breath caught in my throat.

There was a story all about me and Skylar and tons of stills of me fucking her down that backroad against her bike.

I clicked on another.

More of the same.

Another.

Us again as the top story.

No. No. No.

Damien: Oh, my bad. You need this for context.

In the next second, something else came through.

A video.

My fingers trembling, I opened it and saw what I was now expecting.

A full video of our sexcapades that day from start to finish. Every little thing.

Damien: Keeping it a secret wasn't doing you any favors, causing you too much stress. You're welcome.

Piece of shit!

Movement up ahead caught my eye as I saw the paparazzi were getting too close.

I rolled down my window and called out, "Sky! Back in the car!"

She spun around, startled. She looked at me, then the flashes of cameras and the sounds of way too many rushing footsteps took her attention.

"Sky!"

She didn't move.

She was obviously too shocked.

I pocketed my phone in my jacket, then ripped around the corner, my tires screeching in the process. I pulled up right beside her on the wrong side of the road—fuck it.

"Sky! Let's go!"

She turned toward me, but it was too late then, they were upon us.

I bolted out of the driver's seat, just as they swarmed around the car.

Using my body to force them back, I pulled Sky to me, shielding her with the sides of my jacket and easing her head down so her face was hidden and most of her hair too.

And then I pushed my way back to the driver's door. Flashes were blinding me, so many questions being thrown at me, so many demands and desperate pleas to pose for this shot and that.

"Go," I urged Sky, pressing my hand to her back and helping her into the car.

She managed to do it, climbing through to the passenger seat.

I tried to cover their view of her through the open door with my body—my heavily-tinted windows would do the rest—but I couldn't manage it entirely.

I climbed in and slammed the door shut and, in the next second, my Lexus was roaring away down the street.

"Motherfucker!" I yelled, slamming my fist into the steering wheel.