by Tara Wyatt
Okay, fine. So maybe he was feeling ten percent less enthusiastic about this plan today than he’d been yesterday. Stupid Lane. Why’d she have to get in his head with all of her talk about not really wanting revenge on Kayla and just wanting Kayla, period?
Because she didn’t plant that idea in your head. You’ve always wanted Kayla.
Pushing his thoughts aside, he made his way through the conference center and into the tech booth at the back of the space. He’d been to enough conferences and corporate events over the past several years that he generally knew how things were set up and how they ran. Sure enough, there was a Silver Stream laptop hooked up to the AV system, ready to display a video or a Power Point presentation. Perfect. Rubbing his hands together, he opened it, relieved when he saw that it was unlocked for the AV person who’d be running the booth.
Later this morning, all of the retreat guests would be in this auditorium, watching a presentation coming from this laptop. With a few clicks, Sebastian found the Power Point file with that day’s date on it and opened it. Skimming through it, he could see that it was pretty standard stuff. Financial forecast for the coming year, updates on projects in progress, new initiatives, etc. At one point, there was a link to a video, an interview with Stammler talking about the company’s new partnership with the city to provide low-income housing. With a few quick clicks and keystrokes, he replaced the link to the video with a different link, this one to a recruiting video from the Followers of Light, a total nutjob cult. He wasn’t sure if people would be offended by it or think it was a joke, but either way, it would make Kayla look bad since this was her presentation.
His work done, he saved the updated Power Point, closed the laptop, and then quickly left the conference center and headed back outside. Tomorrow, the company would be having their scavenger hunt, and Sebastian needed to go switch up the prizes with what he’d bought yesterday at Hanky Spanky. Grinning to himself as he walked, he pushed away the little pebble of guilt trying to settle in his stomach. He didn’t want to feel guilty about what he was doing to Kayla, because if he felt guilty, then it meant that Lane was right. That this wasn’t about getting revenge, but about Kayla herself. And that…that was complicated. Not just because she hated him, but because he wasn’t in a position to offer a woman much of anything right now, so…Not that he was thinking of offering Kayla anything or wanting…
He shook his head and walked faster, pushing everything away. It was time to sex up the scavenger hunt prizes.
Kayla strode across the auditorium’s stage, her heels clicking on the wooden floor. She pressed the small silver button on the remote in her hand, transitioning to the next slide and moving into the portion of her talk about ongoing projects. To her right, Stammler, along with a few other top execs, sat on tall chairs, sipping water, eyes on her and occasionally their phones, which she was trying not to take personally.
When she was a kid, she’d been on the shy side and had always hated public speaking, but not being good at something wasn’t an option for a girl depending on scholarships to see her plan through, so she’d forced herself to join the debate team in high school, facing her fear and discomfort head on. By the time she’d reached senior year, she’d been the captain because that was just how she did things. She pushed herself outside of her comfort zone and then got good, fast. And if she couldn’t get good, fast, she moved on to the next thing.
The ache in her muscles reminded her that she was not getting good, fast at snowboarding. Pretty much the opposite actually. And the worst part was that she couldn’t decide if she wanted to take another class with Sebastian or not. Her brain was in staunch disagreement with pretty much the rest of her body parts, leaving her a tangled knot of emotions who didn’t know how she felt or what she wanted. It wasn’t a feeling she was used to.
With a smile, she concluded her talk and then pressed the button again, moving to the next slide where she’d inserted a link to a video of Stammler talking about community partnerships. The screen went dark as the video cued up, giving Kayla a chance to grab a sip of water, which she nearly choked on when the video started playing. This was not Stammler’s interview. The screen was filled with a completely crazy-looking old man staring directly at the camera with his wide, wild eyes.
“I’m here today because you want to know the truth,” he said, his tone earnest yet edgy, like he was barely holding it together. “Planet Earth will no longer exist in the very near future, and you, my friends, my companions, have two options before you. You can accept your meager mortality and perish along with this planet, or you can open your eyes to the truth and the way of the Light Keepers, for we are the ones who hold the key to the Great Procession into Stellar Heaven.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she muttered through her teeth, frantically pressing the button on the remote to go back to the previous slide. She wasn’t sure if because the video was in full screen mode or the remote had chosen that exact moment to stop working, but it continued to play. She stomped down off of the stage as voices rose around her, people laughing and mumbling and pointing. She pressed her lips together, her chest tight as she marched up the aisle of the auditorium and toward the AV booth at the back.
“Your only chance to survive is to leave Earth with us, where you can fulfill your true purpose among the comets.”
Despite the irritation tensing her muscles, she had to bite back a smile. As far as pranks went, it was actually kinda funny, especially as the man droned on about extraterrestrial garbage trucks coming to claim the refuse of humanity. It was funny and also a little sad that Sebastian thought these kinds of juvenile pranks would actually get a senior executive like her fired. Unlike him, she was actually good at her job.
And you didn’t get him fired, she reminded herself. That’s on him. Not you. You didn’t cause his years of poor job performance.
She pushed open the door to the AV booth and immediately closed out of the Power Point presentation, shaking her head. The corner of her mouth hitched up in a smile, but it promptly dropped away when she saw Stammler, standing with his hands on his hips, glowering at her with thunder in his eyes.
Okay, so maybe Sebastian’s prank had done more damage than she’d realized. She frowned, chewing on her lip as she made her way back down to the stage.
“What the hell was that, Kayla?” he spat at her as soon as she approached. She shot him what she hoped was a placating grin.
“Just a technical glitch. I’ll make sure to play your video when we have everyone gathered for dinner tonight. Sorry about that.” She shrugged and smiled. “You know how technology can be sometimes.”
Stammler didn’t seem convinced, his glare still firmly in place. “See that it doesn’t happen again. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I had higher expectations for this retreat than what you’ve delivered so far.”
“I’m so sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”
“It better not.” And with a grunt, he turned and made his way off the stage. A few others milled about, some of them not even trying to disguise the fact that they were gossiping about her with their staring and gesturing in her direction. Her stomach hardened into an uncomfortable, cold lump, and she pulled her phone out of her bag, throwing out the only Hail Mary move she had at this point.
Kayla: Hey, Theo. I have a favor to ask you.
Theo: Sure. What’s up?
Kayla: Whatever your brother’s up to, could you please convince him to cool it? I know he’s pissed at me, but this isn’t funny anymore.
Theo: Yeah, I’ll talk to him. You okay?
Kayla: I will be once this retreat is over and I don’t have to deal with your asshole brother anymore.
Theo: I’ll call him ASAP.
Kayla: Thanks, Theo. I really appreciate it.
“Whoa, dude. This is like the biggest dildo I’ve ever seen!” said Bodhi, holding up the donkey-dick sized tube of fake flesh, wobbling it in his hand. “Ha. Floppy.”
“How many dildo
s have you seen?” asked Sebastian, sorting through his bags from Hanky Spanky and dropping condoms and samples of flavored lube into the retreat’s scavenger hunt prize bags.
Bodhi grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “Enough to know that they modeled this one off of a freaking horse, dude.”
Laughing, Sebastian glanced over his shoulder to make sure the door to the storage room where the retreat’s scavenger hunt gift bags were being kept was still closed. He rifled through the bags, surveying the classy, normal things Kayla had filled them with. White ball caps with the Silver Stream logo on the front, earbuds, a metal water bottle, chap stick, hand sanitizer, little bags of gourmet popcorn, a phone charging cable. Sebastian had to admit, she’d done a good job with these. They were nicer than anything he’d ever been given while he worked there.
“Oh hey, check this out. Everyone had a twenty-dollar donation made in their name to the New York Food Bank,” said Bodhi, pulling out a glossy postcard embossed with the Food Bank’s logo. “That’s really cool.” He dropped the postcard back into the bag and tossed in a pair of edible underwear after it. “So what did this chick do to you?”
He was tired of rehashing the story, so he just shook his head, dropping a light-up penis necklace into the bag in front of him. “She ruined my life, man.”
Bodhi stopped what he was doing. “Really? Your life seems pretty okay to me.”
“It’s a long story and not one I want to get into right now.”
“Gotcha.” Bodhi just nodded and resumed his work. Sebastian reached into his bag and pulled out the armful of flyers he’d taken from the store, adding one to each bag. He grinned to himself, wishing he’d be there to see the look on Kayla’s face when she saw this stuff. Would she blush? Would she be disgusted?
Would she be intrigued?
His eyes skimmed down the flyer and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from imagining using every single toy and gadget he saw on Kayla. Would she like it if he fucked her while holding a vibrator against her clit until she fell apart? Would she like it if he wore a cock ring so he could last forever, living inside her, not getting enough? Or what about if he used that silky blindfold on her, teasing her until she begged…
His eyes landed on a jeweled butt plug, and just the thought of slipping that inside her, of parting those round, perfect cheeks and claiming her with something so pretty had him hard as fucking steel in a matter of seconds. He ground his teeth together to prevent a groan from escaping.
Just then, his phone started buzzing from his pocket, ripping him from his filthy fantasies about Kayla. He blew out a breath when he saw his brother’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Theo. What’s up?”
“Whatever the fuck it is you’re doing to Kayla, you need to stop. Now.”
He froze. “How…what?”
“In case you forgot, she’s close with Lauren. I’ve been hearing all about your immature little pranks. What the hell, man?”
“In case you forgot, she’s responsible for getting me fired.” Even though it was his first line of defense, he realized that he didn’t actually believe that. Not anymore. But she’d crossed a line when she’d gone to Patrick and insinuated he shouldn’t be working here, either.
Theo laughed. The asshole actually laughed. “No, she’s not. That’s on you and your trainwreck of a life. So just leave her alone, man. She’s really upset.”
“She is?” Sebastian scrubbed a hand over his face, suddenly feeling like crap. He’d wanted to piss her off. He’d wanted to get her in shit with Stammler. Not…not hurt her.
“Yeah. So grow the fuck up, man. Enough.” Theo sighed and Sebastian could picture him shoving a hand through his hair. “You know, if you’d just stop and think about what you’re doing for like two fucking minutes before plunging ahead, you’d probably avoid a lot of trouble.”
“I know. Shit. I know.” Guilt sat like a rock on his chest and right then, it dawned on him. It wasn’t that she’d gotten him fired. It was that he felt betrayed. She’d always been one of his favorite people at work, and he’d always tried to treat her well. Granted, his performance at work hadn’t been stellar, but instead of coming to him for help when she was in over her head, she’d gone behind his back. He thought he’d deserved better than that, but she’d shown him otherwise. She’d shown him that even the people he liked didn’t like him. That he wasn’t worth the simple courtesy and respect he would’ve given her if the tables had been turned. And hearing her talk to Patrick had dredged up those feelings of betrayal all over again.
He wasn’t over it, if the ache blossoming across his chest was any indication.
He’d liked her. Cared about her. Most definitely had a crush on her and some very unprofessional feelings for her. And she’d stabbed him in the back, like he was nothing. Because he was nothing to her.
Which, given the asshole that he was and the colossal mess he’d managed to make of his life, was fair. Shitty, but fair.
“You need to just let this go, man. Find a better way to work through whatever it is that you’re working through.” Theo’s voice dropped a little lower. “You’re doing so well, Bastian. I’m proud of you. Don’t let this derail you, okay?”
Sebastian blew out a breath. “Okay. Yeah. You’re right. You’re right. I got caught up, and…Okay. I’ll leave her alone.”
“Good. Lauren will be happy to hear it, and when Lauren’s happy, I’m happy. Take care of yourself, okay? Talk soon?”
“Yeah. Take care, man.”
He slipped his phone back in his pocket and turned to Bodhi, who was holding a neon blue vibrating cock ring. “Change of plans. We’re not doing this.”
“We’re not?” Bodhi scratched his head. “But I thought you wanted to mess with her for ruining your life?”
“Yeah, well. I changed my mind. Two wrongs don’t make a right, or whatever.” He handed Bodhi one of the nearly empty sex shop bags. “Start putting the stuff back in here.”
Bodhi took the bag and then tilted his head. “Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.”
“Wow. That’s deep, man.”
“It’s Pema Chodron.”
“What’s Pema Chodron?” asked Sebastian, scooping up a handful of strawberry cheesecake flavored lube samples and dumping them back into his bag.
Bodhi grinned. “Not what. Who. She’s this super cool Buddhist nun. She’s got all kinds of insight about kindness, facing your fears, getting through tough times. It’s good shit. You should read her books.”
“Cool. Maybe I will.” He slipped a vibrator disguised as a lipstick back in the bag, turning Bodhi’s—or rather Pema Chodron’s—words over in his mind. Maybe Kayla was back in his life for a reason. Maybe this was a chance for him to actually learn and grow.
Fuck. As usual, he’d been focused on all the wrong things. He’d gotten caught up in stupid antics so easily that it scared him a little. He still didn’t have the best handle on his impulses, apparently.
But he wanted to do better. To be better. And more than that, he wanted Kayla to see him differently. He’d wanted so desperately for her to just see him, period, but what did he want her to see?
He didn’t know. Because the old Sebastian was a fucked-up asshole, so he didn’t want her to see him. He was trying to be someone new. Someone better, but he didn’t know who that was yet. He was still figuring it out.
All he knew was that he wanted her to see him. He didn’t know why, but it felt like the first thing that had mattered—truly mattered—in a long time.
8
“Kayla!
The sound of her name being shouted in an aggravated tone brought her up short as she crossed from one side of the dining room to the other. The dinner was underway, and Stammler was happy now that everyone had seen his video. She’d made a copy of it and put it on a USB stick that she’d kept with her all day just to make sure a certain infuriating Prescott couldn’t get his stupidly sexy mitts on it and do something to it. Knowing hi
s level of maturity, he’d likely broadcast some kind of gross porn to the entire resort or something. Hopefully Theo had gotten through to him.
She turned, looking for whoever had called her name when Davis came striding up to her, impatience written all over his face. “Don’t you know that I’m allergic to eggs?”
“Um…” She pulled her tablet out and quickly navigated to the dietary restrictions spreadsheet she’d put together. She’d made extra sure to relay all dietary needs to the resort’s event coordinator, who had assured her they could accommodate everyone. “Yes?”
“Then why was I just served a Cobb salad with freaking egg all over it?” His voice had turned into something closing in on a snarl.
She squared her shoulders and met his eyes, her patience dangerously close to snapping. “I’m very sorry your salad was wrong, Davis. I’ll make sure you get a new one. In the meantime, I’d advise you to check your tone considering I am your boss.” She narrowed her eyes, refusing to blink or look away first. He flinched just the tiniest bit.
“I could’ve had a reaction,” he said, walking back to his table, shaking his head, as though she were the one who’d personally put egg on his salad. Not that she wasn’t tempted now after the way he’d just spoken to her. Her stomach growled and she wanted to get back to her own food, but first she’d check in with the resort’s event coordinator just to make sure everything was fine.
“Kayla! Kayla, there you are!” A woman approached her quickly. “I know you’re probably busy, but I just wanted to let you know that the waiter just told me there were no vegetarian options tonight? And, um, like, I haven’t eaten meat in over a decade, so…”
