Page 16 of His Secret Addiction

“Yes, I asked why you kept the relationship a secret from us. Do your parents know?”

Oh right, now I have to lie to my parents too about this relationship. “I…um…we… Sebastian asked me to keep it a secret. I didn’t want to, but he made me promise not to tell anyone. Not even you guys.”

The second the words are out, I scramble to grab my glass of juice and gulp down half of it before slowly lowering the glass back to the table. It’s probably unfair to throw the man under the bus, but he got me into this mess by lying in the first place, and it’s only fair that he bears the brunt of blame. Mrs. Foster glares at her son before turning back to me.

“Elizabeth, do you love my son?”

Silence. Deafening silence fills the room after her question, and I open my mouth to tell yet another lie, but this time, it’s the truth that slips out.

“I do. I love Sebastian.”

The fool that I am has been in love with this man for as long as I can remember. When I wasn’t trailing after him and my older cousins, I would be seated under my window, listening to him strum his guitar, daydreaming that I was in his room, seated on the bed next to him. Sebastian would be mortified if he knew how many times I imagined his lips on mine.

And now I know how they feel pressed against mine. I have felt them on my skin, on my most intimate parts.

Do I love Sebastian?

It’s not even a question I need to ponder. My heart races when he’s near and I miss him when he leaves. The distance and time apart did little to nothing to kill my infatuation for this man. And now that we’ve spent time together as adults, it’s so much more intense.

“Good,” Mrs. Foster says, bringing me back to the present. “You are a sweet girl, Elizabeth. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect girl for my son.”

But I am not his, not really.“Thank you, Mrs. Foster.”

I offer the older woman a smile, pushing back the sad feeling that threatens to surface. In the future, Sebastian will fall for a girl he actually likes, and he’ll bring her home. He will hold her hand like he’s holding mine, and all the things he did to me, he’ll do them to her too.

“You are welcome, love. Now how about you join me in the kitchen, and you can tell me all about your relationship with my son as I finish up on making dinner.”

Finally, the interrogation is over!I think as I shoot up to my feet, except in my hurry to get up, I knock over her glass of juice and spill it all over my sweater. I move back, the chair scraping behind me when I do so, but there is no evading it. The mess has already been made.

“I’m so sorry,” I cry as I look around for something to clean the mess with, but Sebastian beats me to it. He grabs napkins from a coffee table close by and uses them to wipe the table. Mrs. Foster rushes out of the room and comes back with a clean cloth, using it to finish cleaning up the mess. I stand uselessly as everyone works to clean up the mess I just made. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, sweetheart,” Mrs. Foster says, patting my shoulder assuringly. “I’ll finish up on dinner. Why don’t youlet Sebastian take you home so you can get changed into fresh clothes? Dinner will be ready in about an hour.”

My eyes widen in alarm at her words. Sebastian? In my home? “N-no, it’s fine. It’s just next door. He doesn’t need to accompany me. Besides, you probably need to catch up with him since he’s been gone for so long.”

“Nonsense. He will go with you,” Mrs. Foster says, urging her son to stand, and I expect him to fight her on it as well but he simply climbs to his feet and nods to her.

Wait! No! Do I not have a choice in this? My parents are away on a trip so the house will be empty. I can’t walk into an empty house with the man I am in love with. Every time we are alone, something happens and it’s messing with my brain.

I can’t afford to get any closer to this man than I already am.

Even so, I am left with few options. I let him place an arm over my shoulder and guide me out of the house. The walk to my house takes all of three minutes. My hands are trembling as I take out the keys to unlock the door and let us in.

“Stay here,” I tell Sebastian once we’re inside. “I’ll go up and get change then meet you down here.” He smirks at my instructions and I stupidly think he’s going to follow them, except he follows behind when I start for the staircase. “Sebastian!”

“Hey, I just want to see your room. I bet you have a poster of some boy band on your wall.” My eyes widen in alarm at the memory of a teenage me putting up a poster ofhisband when they did their first tour. Christ, I was fifteen at the time, and I have never bothered to take it down. Oh my God, what if he sees it? I flush in mortification at the thought. He absolutely cannotcome into my room. At my obvious distress, he asks, “Wait, do you really have a boyband poster in there?”

“No!” I say too fast, and his eyes narrow in suspicion.

“You do.” There is that sexy smirk again. “Who is it? Is it a band that I know?”

“I don’t have a poster on my wall. That is childish and stupid. Now stay down here so I can go and change.”

“Fine, fine!” he says, raising his hands in surrender. He turns his back to me, and I relax. Trusting that he’ll keep his promise, I take the remaining steps up and walk to my room. I push open the door when I suddenly feel a presence behind me. I turn around to scold the man for breaking his promise, but he slips past me and into my room.

And there it is.

The massive DC poster next to my bed. The faces of the other members are unmarked, but there is a huge red heart drawn around the dark-haired man at the center of the poster. The same man currently standing in my room.

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