Page 54 of The Final Rose

14.

Callie

Spinning lies.

He’s between my legs, his hand placed possessively around my neck as I gulp from the dark tone of his voice. Nice, agreeable Sebastian is gone, and the man left behind is something else.

“I always say the truth–” I start, but he’s tsking before I even have a chance to finish the sentence.

“No.” He growls. “You knew there was something between us. That’s why you worked so hard to avoid me.”

I swallow, grateful for the darkness. “I avoided you because we were crossing a line.”

“What line?” he pushes. I’m paralyzed in his hands. His body is hot close to mine, he’s hard as steel between my legs and I’d be lying again if I said I wanted us to part.

“I never got that close to an Eligible,” I say lamely.

His chuckle is husky. “Probably because you never wanted to shag them.”

“Sebastian…” I groan.

I’m at my wit’s end. I’m angry at him for kissing Isla, angry because I can’t shout at him like I wanted. Angry because he’s not mine. Except he is.

He’s mine.

“I never want to kiss another person ever again, Callie.” He promises, reading my mind.

“You will.” I insist on trying to bring us both back to reality. “At least at the finale, you must.”

“No one can make me kiss anyone.”

“You signed a contract…”

“I signed a contract saying I’d finish the season, and I will. No one can make me fall in love with them. Not even you.”

“Fuck, Sebastian, this is not good. My job, I–”

He silences me with a kiss. I hate how easy it is. He gets me to melt for him with just a kiss. Makes me forget my reason and the job I was hired to do.

I’m not a romantic person. I have told myself that for years. It’s the perfect explanation of why I avoided relationships; I’m just career-focused. But then Sebastian nips on my lower lip and calls my name with a growl and I can’t… I can’t deny this anymore.

The showrunner is dating the casting director. Many members of the crew went out with eliminated girls before. How hard could it possibly be to believe that one day someone would be interested in the Eligible?

Well, I barely believe it myself.

Not the Callie Sosa with a laser beam focus. Not the Callie Sosa with short words and a bright future.

I have a future in this network. How hard is it for a girl from the wrong side of town to get where I am now? I know how much I worked for this, and I beg myself to put a break on us, but…

Don’t I deserve happiness, too? Don’t I deserve to have it all?

I’m a scrambling mess when I put a distance between Sebastian’s lips and mine. He feels the change and lets me go, even though I’m still pressed between his chest and the wall, my legs still wrapped firmly around him.

His fingers leave my neck, and if I think I couldn’t breathe before, now is even worse. I suck in a breath when he brings his hand up to my cheek, caressing with the back of his hand in such an intimate gesture, a lump forms in my throat.

“I know I’m being selfish, love.” He whispers over my parted lips. “I looked at this at every possible angle, but…”

He doesn’t say it out loud and neither do I. He knows it is wrong, just like I do. And still, we can’t help ourselves. I stepped back from him for no good reason because I could feel in my bones we were going to cross a line.

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