Page 19 of Sebastian

“I’m glad you like it. My brothers are thinking about purchasing it. They want to expand their business to the west coast and asked me to check this place out for them.”

“Wow. Really? It’s incredible. How many brothers do you have?”

“Four. I’m smack dab right in the middle. My older brothers, Declan and Wyatt, always wanted to own a distillery. So, while I was overseas, I gave them a little money to start up their own company. A few years after they started, my younger brothers, Cooper and Sawyer, joined the business.”

“Wow. Mama Montgomery must be an angel. Five boys. I can’t even imagine.”

“She absolutely is a saint. But you’re the one who looks like an angel tonight.”

“Smooth,” Emma laughed.

“Thank you,” Seb’s eyes sparkled in the setting sun and there was something in the way he was looking at her that stirred up her emotions. “Shall we continue this chat as we walk to our dinner?”

Emma nodded, accepting his arm for stability as they walked across the grass and dirt. “What was it like growing up in a big family?”

“Amazing and yet, just pure chaos most of the time. I don’t know how my parents survived us. My brothers and I were wild.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“What about you? You mentioned your mom on the plane, was it just the two of you?”

“Pretty much. No brothers or sisters. I loved it though, our relationship was very much Lorilai and Rory.”

Sebastian looked at her with an eyebrow raised in confusion and she laughed. “Gilmore Girls, Suits. That was a Gilmore Girl’s reference.”

“Do I even want to know?” he asked.

“Probably not, but now that I know you don’t know anything about one of the greatest shows of my youth, I’ll be needing to fill you in on the whole series.”

“Sounds like a great idea for date number two.”

“We’ll see.”

“I had to try,” he laughed.

They came to the end of the grape vines and Emma gasped. There, in a small clearing, was a beautiful candlelit table waiting for them.

“Sebastian, this is amazing. How did you pull this off so quickly?”

“I told you, Sprinkles, I already knew what I had my sights set on for the auction. I’m just glad I’m the only billionaire in Clarence County, because I would have bid against any other man until I had spent every last dollar I had to have this date with you.”

Fuck. Her whole body was on fire, again. Those gray eyes held no secrets, and she could see just how true those words were.

She nervously cleared her throat as she tightened her grip on his arm. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

“Me too.” Something in the way he was looking at her made her feel like perhaps he wasn’t talking about food. And in a way, she knew she wasn’t either.

“So, all your brothers work at the distillery, but you don’t?” She brought the piece of steak up to her mouth and moaned as the flavors danced on her tongue.

Sebastian was staring at her, but she didn’t care. Well, maybe she cared a little, as the heat rose to her face. But it wasn’t enough to stop her from cutting another piece of meat and repeating the reaction.

“No,” he cleared his throat, taking his suit jacket off and placing it on the back of his chair. God, she needed to send a personal letter of thanks to whoever his tailor was because the way his chest and arms looked in his shirt should be illegal. What he was wearing would be on repeat in her mind the next time she found herself alone in the shower. “I’d rather stay a silent partner. My interests are elsewhere. But I’ve made good money from my investment in their business and it helped me form Montgomery Equities.”

“Ahh yes, the company where you buy up all the mom and pop shops in a town and make an outrageous profit from the rents you charge businesses.” There it was. The sobering reminder of why she’d held off from allowing his flirting to go any further. She didn’t understand how a businessman could be so heartless, all in the name of profit for himself.

“Emma, that’s not what I’m doing at all. I take over the mortgages, that’s true. But I lower the cost of rent for the businesses.”

“I didn’t know. Color me surprised, Suits.”

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