by Rowan Porter
Liam cleared his throat. “I just want to say it was a private conversation, and I was very tired when I said it.”
Sebastian waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. If the worst someone said about me is that I’m difficult and possibly arrogant at times, then I think I’m doing pretty well. There are far worse things, especially because it’s not an incorrect assessment.”
“Perhaps, but it was an unfair and rash assessment, made in the heat of the moment and born from frustration. I pride myself on being more moderate and measured than that, so no matter what I say, I can be confident in it,” Liam explained.
Sebastian chuckled. “Here’s something I thought I’d never see.”
“What?”
“You, beating around the bush instead of simply saying what you think.”
That gave Liam pause, and he found he could only stare at Sebastian for a moment, nonplussed. It was true, Sebastian’s question had caught Liam off-guard, and he was scrambling for an answer. He already knew what the answer was, but he was afraid to speak it aloud, to Sebastian anyway.
He could only ask himself, why? Why it mattered if Sebastian knew his answer had changed. That, and he could only wonder at the twist in his gut as he gazed into the man’s confident smirk. It was always an expression Liam had disliked, yet it suited Sebastian, and somehow made his handsome face even more attractive.
Liam cleared his throat again. “Well, I think it’s safe to say my opinion has changed. Or at least, it doesn’t bother me like it once might have.”
“So, I’m still difficult and probably arrogant?”
Liam couldn’t help his laugh then. “Alright, you’re still just as confident, but I don’t think you’re as difficult as I did in the beginning. If anything, it’s nice to have someone with more vigor, and outward passion, moving things along. I wouldn’t have said it before, but you’re a good balance to how I do things. You keep things moving, whereas I might just take my sweet time.”
“Funny, I would have said something similar about you,” Sebastian said.
Liam scoffed. “Never would have thought of myself as a balancer.”
“If you see me as someone who keeps you moving forward, wouldn’t it follow that you would keep me steady?”
“Hard to say after a couple of weeks of working together,” Liam said slowly.
“True. I suppose I see the potential for that to happen, because you’ve already managed it a few times as it is,” Sebastian continued.
Again, Liam found himself at a loss for words. The whole dinner had felt a little strange from the start, and the more personal they became, the stranger the dinner became. It felt almost like a date. The thing was, the strangest part of all, was that Liam found he didn’t mind the thought too much, even if he knew it was wrong to think that about his boss.
Sebastian eyed him, shifting in his seat. “I’m going to level with you.”
“Haven’t we been level this entire time?” Liam asked.
“Perhaps, but I suppose I mean I’m going to sink to a more personal level than we have so far. Now I’m telling you that while I don’t want you to look at this as your boss asking, but as someone who wants to have a better personal relationship with you. Which means you’re not obligated to answer it if you don’t want,” Sebastian explained in a rush.
“Um, okay.”
Sebastian nodded. “I’ve noticed it a few times, and I can’t help but wonder. You seem to have this opinion that you’re…bothersome, or an issue. And honestly? You seem surprised that someone seems to enjoy being around you personally, why is that?”
“You weren’t kidding, that is pretty personal,” Liam said with a nervous laugh.
Sebastian turned his palms up, still smiling. “As I said, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
For a moment, Liam almost opened his mouth to take the offer and bow out of the conversation. Despite what so many people who’d met him thought, he wasn’t so disconnected from his emotions to not know what was going on in his heart. It wasn’t an easy story to tell, even with the years spent healing and moving on. Yet, Sebastian had told him an intimate story, one he held deep in his heart, and Liam supposed if there were anyone who might understand what it was like to carry hurt around, it would be him.
“It’s…well, it has to do with that two-year break you saw in my schooling,” Liam began.
Sebastian tilted his head. “Oh?”
Liam nodded, speaking carefully as he continued. “There was a lot going on during that time. I’d taken on so much with school, too much for me to keep up with. It uh, put a strain on the rest of my life, including my relationship with this guy I was seeing, Oscar. As things grew worse between us, we began to fight more and more, seemed like that’s all we did after a while. Then my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer.”
Sebastian’s face softened. “Oh. Oh, Liam, I’m so sorry. I should have never tried to press you to explain that gap.”
Liam shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, how could you know?”
“I suppose by not automatically assuming you’d taken two years off from school because you were slacking off.”
Liam smiled. “Apparently even believing that was possible, you didn’t think it was enough not to hire me.”
“No, I suppose not. Doesn’t hurt that you were the only one I interviewed who didn’t try to kiss my ass, as a matter of fact, you were the only one who showed up and seemed actually prepared to interview for a position.”
“Even if I was twenty minutes late?” Liam asked.
Sebastian snorted. “Even if you were twenty minutes late.”
Liam’s smile fell, looking down at his lap. “It was…more than that. My relationship wasn’t just falling apart, it was…horrible. There were signs in the beginning, but I chose to ignore them. Oscar was what I thought I wanted, so I was willing to ignore the warnings.”
Sebastian peered at him, going still. “Warnings?”
Liam smiled sadly. “I was drawn to him because he was this…big, shining light. He was so passionate and enthusiastic. Everything about him was larger than life, his body, his dreams, his…anger. We’d fought a few times before I started getting busy with school, and sometimes he would just, I don’t know, the things he would say. Basically, he would find ways to put me down, keep me down, and bend to what he wanted.”
It had taken Liam quite some time after he’d ended it all between him and Oscar to see those early days for what they’d really been. Before everything had escalated, Oscar had been steadily chipping away at Liam’s reserves, at his will, bringing him down.
“For the most part, I gave in, but when it came to school, I refused. It drove him crazy that I was putting something other than him first. The fights got more frequent, angrier, heated. Until finally, one day he…well, he hit me.”
From the look on Sebastian’s face as he opened his mouth, it was as if someone had struck him. “He hit you?”
Liam swallowed hard, glancing around. “It wouldn’t be the first time. I stuck around because I thought there was something special there to hold onto, and told myself it was just a bunch of accidents, but each excuse was lamer than the one before. When my mother’s diagnosis was known, it was like a wake-up slap for me. I ended it.”
After that, Liam dropped out of school and moved in with his parents to help out. When his mother’s cancer had finally been fought off and gone into remission, Liam had been left with a choice. If he wanted to continue his degree, he couldn’t possibly go back to the same school, the thought had made him ill. Finally, with a heavy heart, and a few tearful goodbyes, he’d moved across the country to finish his degree.
“Don’t do that.”
The terse response brought Liam’s head up sharply. “What?”
Sebastian’s eyes blazed. “Don’t blame yourself, or call yourself stupid for what happened.”
Liam glanced around, stumbling a little over his words. “I should have known what it was, wh
at was happening, I guess. I’m smarter than what happened, but I fell into a trap and covered up for him. It shouldn’t have gone on that long.”
Sebastian’s pupils stretched, becoming serpentine. “Don’t. He was the monster, he was the bully, he was the one abusing someone who loved him. You deserve better than to blame yourself for the sins of someone else.”
Alarmed, Liam realized he could see scales sprouting around Sebastian’s face. His clenched hands were beginning to blossom with red, as his growing nails poked through his palms. The man was losing control and beginning to shift in the middle of a restaurant.
Without thinking, Liam snatched out his phone and pretended to answer it. “Yes? Absolutely, we’ll be right there then.”
His voice was firm and even as he looked at Sebastian. “Turns out James wants to renegotiate after all, so congratulations are in order. We should head out and meet him while the getting is good.”
What attention they’d started to attract waned as soon as Liam could be heard talking business. In a room full of businessmen, lawyers, and doctors, someone’s pressing need to leave was both understandable, and completely uninteresting.
Liam waved the waiter off, remembering Sebastian had a tab of sorts with the place as he took hold of the struggling dragon shifter and pulled him outside. The cooler air hit him, making him shiver as he continued walking with Sebastian in tow. Once they were clear and out of sight of anyone else, Liam turned around to see Sebastian’s transformation had faded almost completely away.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Liam asked. “Are you okay?”
Sebastian looked down at his feet, features shadowed. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I just wasn’t expecting it.”
Sebastian gave a shaky smile. “It might sound stupid, but when I heard about someone hurting you like your ex did, it just…infuriated me. I know I haven’t known you long, but I know enough to say you deserve so much better than that, hell no one deserves that, but especially you.”
Liam felt his face warm again. “I…thank you, Sebastian.”
Sebastian placed his hand over Liam’s as he spoke evenly. “And if anyone ever tries to harm you again, you tell me, okay? They’ll have one hell of an angry dragon to deal with if they even think about laying a hand on you.”
The logical portion of Liam’s mind told him the offer was not only unnecessary, but perhaps a little too soon as well. Liam was capable of taking care of himself, especially after having learned his lesson. He and Sebastian were forming a bond, there was no doubt about that, but that same portion of Liam’s mind said that it shouldn’t have been so close, so soon.
Instead, he smiled, taking Sebastian’s hand in his. “Thank you, Sebastian. Let’s say we get us a greasy slice of pizza and a big, sugary drink? It always makes me feel better.”
Sebastian’s smile was warm. “Lead the way.”
SEBASTIAN
A s his eyes traced over the information being fed continuously to the screen in front of him, Sebastian couldn’t help a small smile. Another week, and another victory for Sebastian, performed as a result of another expert act on Liam’s part.
Once again, Liam had used the media to their advantage. Sebastian still wasn’t sure how Liam was managing to convince reporters to stick to the intended story, rather than trail off into something personal, but he wasn’t going to complain either. For a full interview, Sebastian had been able to talk about the advances in both the improvements to distribution of medical technology and the technology itself.
He’d even gone back and watched the interview himself, something he’d never done before. Sebastian had been pleased to see just how excited he’d been to talk about the subject, how animated and passionate he’d been about the progress Glass Inc. had made in only a few years. It had gained a lot of attention, with both his PR department and the rising stock prices telling him they were making excellent gains.
A knock at his office door brought his attention up, and his smile stuck on his face as he saw Sarah. “Heading out?”
She nodded, looking him over. “It’s well past office hours, which is pretty normal around here. Don’t you think you should be doing the same?”
Sebastian motioned to his computer. “I’m basking in the good things that have come our way at the moment. Well, that and Liam and I are supposed to go over more of his plan in a little bit.”
“I thought he went home already.”
“I let him off early so he could go deal with some things, he deserved a little him time after all he’s done in the past few weeks.”
Sarah sighed, flicking a lock of hair out of her eyes. “You know, I wasn’t all that for him being a member of the team.”
Sebastian leaned back, snorting. “I would have never noticed.”
Sarah rolled her eyes. “But I’ll admit I was wrong. His first impression wasn’t the greatest, but even I’m not too stubborn to give the man his dues. He’s been putting in a lot of time, and he’s been working his ass off. I’m glad you didn’t listen to my doubts.”
“Yeah, so am I.”
Sarah winked. “Doesn’t hurt to have something worth watching move around here either.”
“Go home,” Sebastian said with a laugh, waving her off.
Still chuckling to herself, Sarah turned and walked out the door. While it was true he’d let Liam off early to deal with some things, Sebastian had expected him back sooner. Liam had insisted, even as Sebastian all but shoved him out the door, that he’d come back because there was still more to discuss about the upcoming weeks. Possible deal or not, Liam wasn’t going to let them rest on their successes, and was apparently already thinking several steps ahead.
Sebastian frowned at his phone, realizing that Liam also hadn’t answered his latest texts. Liam, while prone to getting lost in his thoughts and losing track of what was going on around him, didn’t tend to miss when his phone alerted him to new messages. It probably had more to do with the harsh and sharp noise Liam had assigned to his message alerts, something Sebastian suspected was intentional.
Grunting, he plucked the phone from his desk and dialed the front gate. “Hey, Thomas, have you by any chance seen Liam?”
The security guard, who forever seemed to have a cold, sniffled. “He came back a little bit ago, hasn’t he come up your way yet?”
Sebastian frowned. “No, he hasn’t.”
“Probably stopped at the cafeteria or something,” Thomas offered.
“Yeah, probably, at least I know he’s heading my way,” Sebastian said, thanking Thomas before ending the call.
Once the phone was in its cradle, his eyes fell to the cellphone sitting silently on the desk before him. If Liam had been back on the premises for some time, it would have made sense for him to respond to Sebastian’s messages. Worried, he unlocked his phone and dialed Liam’s number. He wasn’t surprised when it rang its way to voicemail, the message both direct and informative, before he hung up.
For a few minutes, he sat in the silence of his office and tried to tell himself he was overreacting. There were any number of reasons Liam wouldn’t be answering, and not all of them had to result in loss of life and limb. Liam had only been working for him for a short time, and it was possible Sebastian hadn’t learned quite all the relevant ticks and quirks the man had.
When trying to soothe himself didn’t work, Sebastian pushed away from the desk, and then left his office. With Thomas’ idea in mind, he took the elevator down to the cafeteria floor. At this time of night, all the restaurants were closed, though the vending machines and self-service machines were still lit and operational. Only a few people from the building lingered, eating quietly as they poured over their work, but no Liam.
Sebastian stood in the cafeteria for a moment, wondering if Thomas had been mistaken and accidentally signed in the wrong person. They’d switched to an automatic system a few years ago, requiring only a key card to swipe at the front gate, which would be automatically recorded in th
e system. The only reason Sebastian kept Thomas on in the early mornings and late evenings, when there were fewer people coming and going, was that he liked the man. The system still did all the work, but Thomas was a pair of eyes and ears, and a friendly face for those going about their business.
Not willing to let his gut feeling go, or completely doubt Thomas, Sebastian made his way back to the elevator and punched the button for the parking garage. The only other place other than the cafeteria Sebastian could imagine Liam had gone. Perhaps the man, exhausted from the long hours he kept and excessive amount of work he did, had fallen asleep in the car.
The idea made him smile. Since, when he had insisted Liam take a company car to use until he could buy one of his own, rather than rely on public transportation, he hadn’t expected Liam might fall asleep in it. That at least, was a far nicer idea than all the horror stories his mind conjured up in the time it took the elevator to reach the parking garage.
He stepped out into the shadows once the doors swung open, swiveling his head in each direction. Much like the cafeteria, the parking garage was nearly barren of any signs of others. It didn’t take long for Sebastian to spot the car he’d loaned Liam, parked a few dozen feet away.
Frowning, Sebastian strode toward it, approaching from the passenger side. From his angle, it didn’t look like anyone was in the front seat. The doors were closed, and everything seemed quiet. That was until he spotted a familiar hand beneath the trunk of the car.
“Liam!”
Sebastian darted around the car, where Liam lay in a crumpled heap beside it. Blood ran over his face, the blood-stained pipe that had fallen from above lay next to him. Sebastian dropped to his knees, carefully turning Liam so he could feel for a pulse. A breath escaped him when he felt a strong pulse against his fingertips, and watched as Liam’s chest rose and fell.
As if awakened by the sound of Sebastian’s voice, Liam began to stir. Sebastian scrambled for his phone, holding it out as he dialed 911.