Brilliant Bastard

Chapter One

SEBASTIAN

You're too smart for your own good.

I've heard that saying my whole life. The first time my dad said that to me was when, at three years old, I dismantled my playpen and built a ladder to climb to the top of my shelf and get my favorite stuffed elephant toy, Mr. Snuggles. The nanny had forgotten to give it to me for nap time and I remember still today being pretty pissed about that. The nanny was a bit of a bitch and didn't really take good care of me. Not a like a mother would.

I had always slept with that elephant. It was the last toy my mom had given to me before she died in a plane crash, traveling to Africa for some world hunger organization. My mom had been a huge humanitarian. She'd also been involved in several local charities. It's a path I've tried to follow in my life. I'd heard her favorite saying was "Charity is a measure of a man."

The second time I remember hearing it was in the sixth grade. The principal, Edgar Miles, had said it to me, with a sly grin on his angular face. I was only nine having been bumped up a couple grades and small. Truth be told I didn't fill out until I was fifteen and graduating high school. So you can imagine I didn't get a lot of play in the hallways. Often I was the target for bullies; two in particular—Monty Richards and Luigi Moretti. They were bigger, meaner boys who thought making a weaker person suffer was the measure of a man, but they were also dumb. Like can't rub two brain cells together kind of stupid. Which was the reason I'd been able to set them up for the biggest counterfeit test ring Beverly Hills Middle School had ever seen.

After that I heard it every few years after I'd done something that no one should've been doing or been able to do. Taking a small tech company and turning it into a billion dollar industry, was one of those things.

Now my mate, Barnaby (yes that's his name, but I don't raze him for it since he's six three and over two hundred fifty pounds of Welsh muscle) told me a variation on that.

"You're too cocky for your own good, Bas."

It pretty much amounted to the same thing. Except we weren't talking about building something, or making money, we're talking about a woman. A woman I had full intention of taking home with me despite Barnaby's jibes that I was out of my league. I didn't have a league. Not anymore. The Club had taken care of that.

I saw her the moment she entered the room. No small feat considering there were over three hundred people milling about in the Beverly Hills Wilshire Ballroom for the BookLove charity event. There were a few celebrities and supermodels. She was the latter. I recognized her from a spread in Vanity Fair. Yes, I read fashion magazines. I liked to know what women were craving each season. It's good to have a prepared gift list ready. Just as this season, I craved her--Sasha Brantov.

She wore a tight silky red dress with a slit all the way up her thigh. She had great legs, long, lean, silky-looking, kissed by the sun. And I wanted to feather my fingertips along them all the way up to swell of her hip and that special sensitive spot near the peak of the hip bone women possessed but didn't acknowledge. The spot that when touched, when kissed, when licked, sent shivers of rapture up and down their bodies. A rapture so powerful it melted a woman into putty in my hands. I knew that spot well. I'd trained for months to learn how to exploit it.

I smiled at Barnaby, ordered two vodkas neat, and started across the room toward Sasha. She was standing and talking with two actresses, one the current IT girl and the other a former IT girl. Smiling, I stepped up next to them and handed her a drink.

"Here you go."

She frowned at me. "I didn't order this."

"Oh, my apologies." I reached for the glass, but she pulled it slightly away, sniffing it.

"What brand?"

"Tovaritch, of course." Naturally, I knew the best brand of Russian vodka.

She eyed me up and down and I could see the interest in her dark blue eyes. "You don't look like waiter."

"I'm not."

Sasha smiled and took a sip of the drink.

The two actresses took that as a cue to leave. Smart ladies.

For the next two hours, I devoted all my attention to her. She was the most beautiful woman in the room and I made sure she knew that. Every word, every look, every soft touch was a worship of her. By the time midnight rolled around, she had her hands wrapped around my arm and we were heading outside to pick up my Aston Martin.

I handed my ticket to one of the valets, plus a hundred dollar bill. "Make it quick."

"Yes, sir."

While we waited, Sasha leaned into my ear and whispered something so naughty I nearly blushed. I was not a blusher so you could imagine what that must've been. I leaned down and brushed my lips against her cheek. She giggled.

Then she swore in Russian. "I left my purse inside."

"I can get it for you," I said, ever the gentleman. "What color is it and where did you leave it?
She shook her head. "No. You stay, get car ready. I will only be a moment." She turned and sashayed back into the hotel. I fully admit to watching every slight sway of her hips as she walked, as did every other single man waiting on the sidewalk for their car.

While I waited for both my car and my date, I checked messages on my phone. There was one from my CFO, Megan Armstrong, asking me about some financials I needed to see. And another from my buddy, Dover, wondering if I wanted to catch some waves tomorrow morning. As I typed a response to him, I noticed a black sedan with tinted windows pulling into the semi-circle drop off. I'm not sure why I noticed the car; there was nothing remarkable about it, nothing that stood out. And maybe that's what bothered me.

Before I could do anything about that unease, the car picked up speed and raced directly toward me. I didn't hear the shouts of concern and caution around me. All I could concentrate on was the two bright headlights glaring like twin pools of hate into my eyes.

Hey Clublanders! Hope you enjoyed chapter one of Brilliant Bastard.  I'll be updating every two weeks, so expect another chapter on July 7th, and you can find out what happens to Bas.  Leave a comment and let me know what you think about our smart boy here.

Make sure to join the secret facebook private group to get in on all the behind the scenes stuff with the Cheater's Club and the authors.

Much love and stay sexy....

XOXO

Tawny