Free One Condition (The Lust List: Kaidan Stone #1) by Nova Raines Page B

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