Unraveling Read online

  Unraveling

  BOOK 2

  The Unhinged Series

  Timberlyn Scott

  SL Independent Publishing, LLC

  PO Box 806

  Hutto, Texas 78634

  www.slipublishing.com

  Copyright © Timberlyn Scott, 2014

  All rights reserved.

  This is a self-published title.

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Unraveling, Book 2 – An Unhinged Novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Image: © Artem Furman - Fotolia.com

  Cover Design: © Nicole Edwards Limited

  Editing: Blue Otter Editing

  ISBN: 978-1-939786-32-6

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  This book is dedicated to:

  My daughter.

  To have you in my cheering section

  means more to me than you will ever know.

  Chapter One

  Sebastian

  Saturday night

  I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t sure how things went south so quickly, but one minute Payton was lying in my arms and I was mustering up the strength to tell her who I was. And then bam! In walked Aaron, slamming shit around in the other room, and Payton was gone.

  As much as I wanted to say I was disappointed, the truth was … I wasn’t.

  My nerves were shot, there was no doubt about that, but the guy’s timing couldn’t have been better, to be honest. There could’ve been plenty of other times when Aaron’s volatile arrival would’ve put a damper on things that might have been going on between Payton and me in her bedroom, but not today.

  Didn’t matter that I had no idea why Aaron was there in the first place.

  Regardless, he had actually just saved the day as far as I was concerned. I had almost spilled my guts to a woman I was hoping to hang on to for longer than a fucking minute. Damn near spewed the thoughts that I had never spoken to anyone before. Not Leif, not Toby. No one. The secret that I’ve kept locked up inside me was one that would change the life of many, and not in a good way, either. So Aaron’s interruption was welcome.

  As it was, I had informed Payton that I was related to her boss, although I had done so without giving her the disturbing details. Telling her that I was Conrad Trovato’s son hadn’t freaked her out, which I was a tad surprised by, but I also considered that a good thing. But the earth-shattering revelation that had nearly followed likely would have. Okay, there really was no “likely” about it, she would have freaked.

  But I hadn’t shared my deepest, darkest secret, and here I was, following Payton into the small living room of her apartment while she yelled at her friend Aaron and he yelled back.

  “What the hell is going on?” Chloe shouted when she joined the rest of us in the living room dressed in some sort of form-fitting pink yoga pants and a black T-shirt, her hair wet and dripping down her back.

  And now there were three.

  I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. Everyone was yelling, but the only thing they seemed to be saying was “Why is everyone yelling?”

  Counterproductive if you asked me.

  But no one did because … well, because they were too busy shouting at one another.

  I glanced over at the tall blond guy who’d accompanied Payton to Conrad’s party last week to see him standing in the kitchen, his head hanging down, palms planted firmly on the counter. His muscles were tense, the skin on his face pulled tautly, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he was shaking.

  He looked pissed, but then again, that could have been his happy face.

  I didn’t know the guy.

  “What’s wrong?” Payton asked Aaron again, her voice significantly lower.

  “Mark.”

  That was the only word that Aaron said, yet Chloe and Payton both nearly crumbled as they ran to Aaron’s side, throwing their arms around him.

  I fought the growl that rumbled deep in my chest. Watching Payton put her arms around another man wasn’t something I would ever enjoy seeing, I realized right then. Clearly she cared for this guy, but to watch her hugging him went miles past my comfort zone. Instead of interrupting, I leaned against the doorjamb and continued to observe quietly.

  “What did he do, honey?” Chloe asked Aaron, her wide green eyes intently focused on him.

  “The bastard cheated on me,” Aaron grumbled.

  Ahh. So it went like that, did it?

  Hug away, Payton. Hug away.

  Could I say that I was happy that this Aaron guy was pissed off? It wasn’t all that enjoyable to watch, so no. However, finding out the guy was gay pretty much made my whole fucking day. And at this point, after the fight I’d had with my father earlier, I’d had a pretty shitty day.

  Aaron was gay.

  You’re probably asking how I know his sexual preference based on his reaction. Well, it all made sense now, and it really didn’t have anything to do with his outburst. First off, any guy would have to be gay not to look at Payton with lust in his eyes, and aside from a severe possessive expression when he’d approached us on the veranda the night of Conrad’s party, Aaron hadn’t looked at her like he was ready to toss her on the bed and have his wicked way with her. That had been one of the first things I’d noticed that night. And hell, even my two best friends had shared their desire to “do her,” although I’d been ready to string them up by the balls at the time. Second, the guy’s hair was too fucking perfect, as were his clothes. I mean, seriously, he had an emblem on his navy blue polo. Dude had to be gay.

  Sure, I guess it was possible that this “Mark” person was really Markanne or Markella, but I highly doubted it. After all, the guy was a bastard, according to Aaron.

  “I’ll go over there and punch him in the nose,” Payton offered Aaron, her tone sympathetic.

  Damn. And now she was threatening physical violence. My dick was instantly hard again. Fan-fucking-tastic. Such a sweet face, so innocent and pure, was threatening to punch some asshole in the face. I think I fell in love with her right then.

  Aaron turned his head slightly to the left to look at Payton. From where I stood, I could see a small smile tilting his lips.

  “You wanna talk about it?” Payton asked him, and that was the moment Aaron must have noticed I was standing there, because he looked up, his tired blue eyes meeting mine.

  He wasn’t smiling anymore.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked me directly.

  I smirked. I had no idea wha
t the hell to say to that.

  Payton smacked him in the arm. “Don’t be rude.”

  “Sorry,” Aaron replied, but I knew he wasn’t apologizing to me. The guy was protective of Payton. That was obvious.

  Again, I couldn’t say that his brotherly response to Payton bothered me.

  Although I didn’t need help in the protective department, it didn’t hurt that someone had her best interest in mind. As long as he and I could get along, we’d do fine.

  “Fuck him,” I stated firmly. “This Mark guy, that is,” I explained as I continued. “You don’t need that cheating bastard.”

  All eyes turned to me, a little dazed and a lot confused. I fought the urge to laugh again. These three amused me.

  “What?” I pushed off the wall and took two steps into the small living room.

  A knock on the front door pulled me up short. We all glanced over, but no one made a move to answer. I turned back to Payton and cocked an eyebrow. She nodded, and I made my way to the door, gripping the knob and pulling it open.

  “Hey, dude. What’s up?” Toby greeted me with a cheesy-ass grin.

  With a smile of my own, I closed the door in his face and turned back to the others.

  Aaron laughed, Payton smirked, and Chloe glared at me.

  What did she expect?

  “Let him in,” Chloe instructed, her hands on her hips, head tilted to the side as if she couldn’t figure me out.

  No one could. I liked to think that was part of my charm. “He’s a big boy. He knows how to open a door,” I told her before dropping onto the couch to watch the show.

  And just like I’d predicted, Toby turned the knob and walked into the apartment, still grinning from ear to ear.

  A couple of good things about Toby: he didn’t get his feelings hurt easily and he rarely ever held a grudge. Hell, it wasn’t often that I even saw the guy in a bad mood.

  “No one mentioned there was a party,” Toby said, looking from one person to another, his gaze stopping on me.

  “No party. We’re consoling the gay guy,” I offered, propping my ankle on my knee and leaning back on the couch. Nodding in Aaron’s direction, I added, “His douche of a boyfriend cheated.”

  “No way,” Toby said, pretending to be serious. “Dude, you don’t need that shit. I say fuck that loser.”

  “Not a good idea,” I said in a mock whisper, looking directly at Toby. “The fucker’s already got that covered.”

  “Oh. Right,” Toby stated, his fist resting beneath his chin, his index finger tapping on his lips as though he was thinking. “String him up by his balls. It’s the only way to fix it.”

  I glanced over at the three still in the kitchen, waiting to see what they’d say to Toby’s words of wisdom.

  And just like that, everyone was laughing.

  That was what I loved about Toby. He didn’t take anything seriously. Well, most things, anyway. There was a time and place for everything, and Toby was mature enough to know that, but for the most part, he was a laid-back, good ol’ boy with a wicked sense of humor. And since I wasn’t all that fond of confrontation thanks to the constant battles I had with my father, I tended to try to lighten the situation when it got too deep, and Toby usually played along.

  Looked like it’d worked.

  “Are you really okay?” Payton asked Aaron softly when he stood up straight.

  “I will be. Don’t worry about me, doll.”

  Yeah, the guy was young, he’d be fine. But I knew that sitting around on a Saturday night stewing about shit like that was never a good idea, which was why I said, “Why don’t we get out of here for a while?”

  “I really shouldn’t leave him,” Payton told me, clearly assuming I was only talking to her.

  “All of us, Payton. I know a place we can go.”

  “He knows a place,” Toby smarted off. “I’ve heard that before.”

  Apparently, Chloe was satisfied with Aaron’s reassuring statement, because she joined Toby in the living room. She surprised the shit out of us all when she walked right up to him and put her arms around his neck, pulling him close and kissing the shit out of him.

  “Get a room,” Aaron grumbled, smirking.

  Toby wrapped his arms around Chloe, sliding his big hands down to her thighs, then easily lifted her off her feet and turned her toward her bedroom. With her legs wrapped around Toby’s hips, Chloe released his lips, slapping his shoulder and laughing.

  “But he said… No?” Toby asked, grinning. “Fine. If we don’t go in there, we go with him.”

  Chloe looked down at me. Her green eyes narrowed, her lips quirking slightly as though she was considering the implications of doing just that. And then she smiled. “Fine. I’m game. How bad could it be?”

  “You might wanna save that question for later, babe,” Toby told her, giving her a quick kiss on the lips before lowering her back to her feet and then smacking her ass.

  “Let me change,” Chloe said, giggling before darting to her bedroom.

  I stood, watching Payton. I could tell she was torn between staying with Aaron and going with us. I wasn’t leaving without her, so I said, “Grab a jacket. It’ll be cold.”

  Aaron started down the hall, and I figured he was planning to sneak off to avoid me, so I stopped him with my next statement. “That means you, too, Blondie. Where’s your jacket? We’ve got things to do tonight, and whining like a little fucking girl ain’t gonna work.”

  Aaron spun around and faced me, frowning. The guy really was too fucking pretty. We were probably ten feet apart, and I could see the annoyance in his eyes, but even I could see that he wasn’t really pissed at me. He probably wanted to be, but he wasn’t. He knew I was joking, even if he didn’t know me that well. Because if I hadn’t been joking, he wouldn’t still be standing there.

  “Fine,” he groused before turning away again.

  “It’s settled then. Five minutes,” I called after Aaron. “Then we’re out.”

  I glanced at Toby, and he nodded before dropping onto the couch.

  When Payton came to my side, I pretended Toby wasn’t still there watching us. I pulled her against me and pressed my lips to hers—I couldn’t help it. The woman had the most kissable lips. If it were up to me, I’d kiss her all damn night.

  I backed my way into her bedroom, fully intending to grab my jacket and something to keep her warm, but I didn’t release her lips. I didn’t want to.

  Stopping just inside her room, I cupped her face with my hands and drew back a little so I could look in her eyes. Her skin was so soft, her eyes reflecting her innocence. Just looking at her unhinged me, made me feel things I’d never thought possible. Rather than a constant state of chaos, the woman filled me with peace. I didn’t know how that was possible, but since I’d never experienced it before, I knew it was something about her. Just her.

  Remembering our conversation from earlier and the fact that we’d let it drop when Aaron had stormed into Payton’s apartment unannounced, I figured now would be the time to make sure she wasn’t ready to toss my ass out. Probably good to know before I went any further.

  “You okay with what I told you earlier?” I asked, keeping my voice low so Toby couldn’t hear.

  Payton briefly closed her eyes and sighed. “Conrad’s your father.”

  Her eyes slid open, and she met my gaze, obviously waiting for a reply. I nodded.

  “Why is it such a big secret?” she asked, her hazel eyes narrowing on my face.

  I really didn’t want to get into the details yet. My story wasn’t one you’d tell if you were expecting to have a pleasant evening. I was willing to tell her whatever she wanted to know, but I wasn’t sure now was the time to go into more detail. Especially not when there were people waiting on us.

  “That part’s not so easy to explain,” I told her, sliding my knuckles along her cheek. Damn, I loved touching her. When Payton started to say something, I put my fingers to her lips and continued, “But I will if you want me to.” br />
  I could hear Chloe’s voice coming from the other room. She was laughing at something Toby said. Payton glanced over her shoulder and then back at me. “Promise we’ll pick up where we left off earlier?”

  “I promise.” There was plenty more we needed to talk about where Conrad was concerned, especially since Payton worked for him, but now wasn’t the right time. “Does that mean we can put kissing back on the table?”

  “Maybe.” She touched my face with her hands, and I pressed my forehead to hers, relishing the smoothness of her skin against mine, the way her fingers left tingles in their wake.

  “Good. ’Cause I plan to do a lot of that tonight.”

  “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”

  I pressed a kiss to her nose and reluctantly released her to retrieve my jacket from the chair where I’d left it earlier. If we kept this up, I would forget all other plans in lieu of spending the night alone with her.

  Shrugging into my jacket, I turned to face her. She was still watching me.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she replied, looking sad. “It’s just… About Conrad, I don’t—”

  Two steps forward and I stopped her midsentence, placing my fingers on her lips again. “I know you’ve got questions. And I’ve got plenty of answers. But maybe we can table them for a bit. Let’s get out of here. Have some fun tonight.” I moved my fingers and kissed her gently before cupping her face and tilting her head so she looked at me. “I’ll tell you anything, Angel. Anything you wanna know. And if you want to close that door and bombard me with question after question, I’ll even answer them now. But I can tell you, it won’t be a fun conversation. For either of us. So what do you say we go out with them” — I tipped my chin toward the other room — “and we’ll pick up where we left off later.”

  “Promise?”

  “Swear,” I assured her.

  Payton nodded, and I took the opportunity to steal one more kiss, unable to keep my hands off her. I cupped her ass and pulled her against me, showing her just what she did to me. When I pulled back, we were both breathless and her face was flushed.