Strings Attached

CHAPTER ONE

The bittersweet taste of gin-tonic rolled down my throat as I observed the imposing crowd on the dance floor. It made me realize one thing; most of the people were living for the moment and having fun like tomorrow would never come to break the little bubble they'd been living in. I was not one of those people. Nothing in my life was a product of luck or chance.

The words relax and take a break didn't exist in my dictionary. Even though I came from one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in New York, I'd always been taught to work hard for everything I wanted to achieve and without false modesty, I could tell that I was good at what I did. When it came to handling business, nobody could surpass me. I've brought millions to The Goliath Holding, making deals and building imposing structures all over the world. In my domain, everybody knew my name and they both feared and respected it.

The bass of the ridiculously loud music started thumping in my ears, annoying the life out of me and I had decided to head home and call it a night. Coming to this place had been a mistake as it was. But it seemed that I wouldn't be lucky enough to leave that easily, because the moment I got up to leave the booth, my good friend Jared who had somehow managed to convince me to join him for the night in this shitty club, decided to reappear with two drunk bimbos hanging around his neck.

"Where d... do you think you're... going?"

He was slurping and barely standing upright. It pissed me off when people lost control like that, especially since my good friend had been engaged for quite some time and I bet his fiancé would enjoy reading about her future husband's night escapades in the first issue of some crappy magazine the next day.

As I pictured the mess his life could become in a matter of hours, Jared didn't seem to be worried at all.

"I'm leaving this place and you are joining me." I glared at him, completely ignoring the two women who suddenly seemed to stare at me in wonder.

They probably recognized me and now they were busying their minds with a good come up line. Even though I consciously avoided meeting their eyes, I knew what I would see if I looked at either one of them; the tornado of rolling green dollar signs.

"Sebastian, will you relax for once in your life? We're not going anywhere. Can't you see I've brought company?!"

Smiling a wide smile, he winked at me and motioned towards the cleavage of the drunken blond girl who was barely standing on her legs. I shook my head at him and raised my eyebrows to openly demonstrate my annoyance at his behavior and Jared burst into laughter.

"I told you he'd be like that didn't I, ladies?" He made a joke, but I didn't find it funny. "I present to you the one and only...Sebastian Everett in the flesh," he said in an absurdly theatrical voice and one of the girls even gasped and faked to be shocked by the discovery.

Rolling my eyes, I had the need to scowl at myself and not Jared. I should have known it would end up like this.

Taking my eyes off of my wasted asshole of a friend, I looked towards his everything but lovely female entourage and I couldn't suppress a chuckle when I noticed they were glaring at each other as if it were a fucking competition and the winner got to talk to me first.

"Tell you what," Jared's slurry voice interrupted my moment of fun. "I'll let you pick. Which one do you like better? The brunette..." My eyes darted towards the girl who all of the sudden stroke a laughable pose, trying to make herself more presentable. "Or the beeeautiful... blonde?" His head fell down, but he lifted it back up in the record time, narrowing his eyes at me as if he was trying to emphasize that the blond was the choice I should go with.

For a short moment, I took in her appearance from head to toe and found no surprise there. I was staring at a live copy of a playboy cover and she looked as fake as they get. Platinum hair stood in contrast to her artificially tanned skin that was accentuated with way too much make - up for my taste. One look at her face and it was clear that she had been paying more than one visit to a plastic surgeon. As my eyes roamed lower, I inwardly laughed at the thought that somebody got rich on doing the work on this piece of art. She seemed to thrive on the fact that she got my attention when my gaze paused at the edge of her revealing skirt. If she could read my thoughts, I bet she wouldn't be smiling the way she did, but fortunate for her, she didn't have any psychic abilities and she probably busied her shallow mind with the idea that she could somehow wrap me around her conniving little finger. I couldn't blame her. All of them wanted exactly the same, but I knew better that to associate myself with women of her caliber.