Page 101 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“Why?” she asked incredulously.

“Because I’m fucking this up. I don’t know how to date a woman in her twenties.”

“Seb.”

“I’m making you pack for me, for fuck’s sake. Like what the hell is that? And then I say the wordsbreak upand you look totally freaked out. Which is fine. Because I’ve obviously committed some sort of dating faux pas. But the problem is, I haven’t dated since my twenties, honestly. Cora and I weren’t even really dating when she got pregnant.” He lowered his voice, aware that Matty was awake and playing in his room down the hall. “We were just kind of regularly messing around. And then we were getting married. Nothing in between. And before that, there hadn’t been anyone serious in—God—years. So yeah. Basically, I haven’t done something like this,” he gestured between them, “in fifteen years, and—”

She cut him off when she crawled between his legs. He looked down at her. He was so big and she was so small that his bent legs pretty much surrounded her, and when he rested his elbows on his knees, well, she was completely inside Sebastian world.

“Seb,” she said as she leaned forward and messed with the buttons on his old blue work shirt. “I think we just freakedeach otherout.”

“So I did mess up with the breakup thing?”

“No.” She shook her head. “You didn’t mess up.”

His hands looped behind her as she gathered her thoughts.

“I was just surprised was all. I think because you have to be, you know, together to break up. And Evan didn’t consider us together for, I don’t know, half a year. I didn’t even know if he liked me for months after we started sleeping together and—”

The look in Seb’s eye had the words dying in Via’s mouth. He looked like he could set paper on fire with his mind.

“Seriously, if I see that kid again, I’m punching him straight in the dick.”

Via’s mouth dropped open and she threw her head back to laugh. “I don’t think that’s necessary. Cosmically, you kind of already did.”

“What?”

“I mean, I broke up with him because...” She paused. Wow. Sitting here in this warm little Sebastian cave was making her all kinds of comfortable and she was apparently just spilling all the tea. The words were tumbling right out of her.

“Because...”

The look in Seb’s eye told her he’d already guessed exactly what thebecausewas. Via took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to skitter away from this moment. She wanted stability in her life? That meant leaning her weight against something that was strong. Things with Evan had been predictable toward the end, sure, but there’d been no substance. No strength.

“Because I realized I had feelings for you. And it wasn’t fair to him or to me to pretend like I didn’t.”

The cave of Seb’s arms and legs got noticeably smaller as he pressed her into his chest. She tilted her head to one side, and he mirrored her, following the nervous path. “I have feelings for you, too,” he told her in that low, low voice of his that reminded her of thunder in the distance. “In case you haven’t noticed.”

He leaned in to kiss her but paused. “Just to be clear, I’m not dating anyone else right now. I have absolutely no desire to do that.”

“Me either,” she replied immediately, and made him smile. He tucked her in a little closer.

And then he did kiss her. His hands linked behind her back, and her hands stayed on his shoulders. But somehow, it was still the dirtiest kiss they’d ever shared. Maybe it was the scent of fabric softener on the sheets at Seb’s back. Or the blue walls that made Via want to blink her eyes lazily closed. Or the fact that he’d just made that confession so much easier than it had ever been before. But Via was starving for him.

Her mouth was open before the kiss even started, her tongue lining his lips and then pressing viciously against his. Their teeth clacked, and she made a little sound into him. She changed the angle of the kiss, and he followed her. She was pressed so firmly against him that she could feel the hard length of him growing against her, and she couldn’t help but press harder.

“Mmph.” He tore his mouth away from hers and looked at the clock on the wall. “I’ve gotta—we’ve gotta—ah. Bath time. For Matty. Not for you and me. I mean. I wouldn’t say no, but—”

He stopped rambling and came back to her mouth. She sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and needled it with her teeth. Pressing her forehead to his, she attempted to catch her breath. “Go put your son to bed. I’ll deal with this mess.”

Twenty minutes later, when Sebastian trekked back into the room with a damp and pajamas-clad Matty, Via was almost finished packing. His clothes were neatly folded in the suitcase. All she had left to do was refill the travel bottles.

“G’night, Miss Via,” Matty said, crossing to her, his arms extended. She was already sitting on the ground, so he slid right into her lap, his arms around her neck.

“Good night, you sweet, perfect, little person.” Via couldn’t help the swelling of affection for the sweet kid in her lap.

“I’ll miss you when I’m in White Plains.”

She blinked at him. He’d said it with so much fact in his voice, so little trepidation. “I’ll miss you, too. Eat some green stuff for me, okay?”

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