Page 71 of Just a Heartbeat Away

Grim chimed the staff meeting to order, and Sebastian struggled to pay attention to a single word that was said.

It was either his imagination, or Via was especially wiggly today. Usually, she sat completely still, the picture of stoicism. But today she crossed one leg over the other and then switched back. Every time her weight shifted, her shoulder knocked into Seb’s. Frankly, he wasn’t even positive that she could feel it under all that coat, but every touch was kicking his heart into his ribs like the smash of a piñata at a children’s birthday party. Her hands were jumpy, too. She touched her hair, the back of her neck, her fingers dancing over the knee of one leg, tracing the herringbone pattern.

He had no idea what was going on with her, but frankly, wiggly Via was apparently a turn-on for Seb, and he didn’t need to be popping wood in the middle of a staff meeting.

“Are you hot?” he leaned over and whispered. He’d miscalculated the distance and he felt the light, fragrant brush of her hair over his lips. Whoops.

“What?”she asked him, her mouth dropping open and a half-scandalized expression blooming on her face. Half-scandalized and half...something else. The reality of the situation hit Sebastian like a sack full of baseballs to the face.Oh. She thought he meant a different kind of hot. An inappropriate kind of hot. To Seb’s thinking, there was only one reason that her mind would have taken her there so quickly.

Because shewashot. The inappropriate kind.

Extremely, painfully aware of their surroundings, Seb attempted to defuse the situation. “Your coat. You’re acting like you’re overheating.”

“Oh.” A flush crept up her cheeks and her eyes were just a little unfocused.

Hold the phone.Had she just looked at his mouth?

“Right. Yeah. You’re right,” she muttered.

She quickly unzipped her coat and let it loll off the back of her chair. Seb immediately, deeply, regretted prompting her to remove it because her warmed scent lifted off her skin and into the air. She smelled herby and sweet at the same time. Had he ever really noticed that before? Like rosemary mixed with almond. And maybe, yeah, just the sexiest little touch of girl-sweat in there, too.

Christ.He needed to scream into a pillow. Preferably Via’s pillow. That smelled exactly like her. Did he say scream? He meant huff into it while he dreamed of every dirty-sexy sex position on the planet.

Was this the longest staff meeting in the history of all time or was it just him? He shifted his hips in his chair and glared at the clock on the wall. Good God, they were only fifteen minutes in. He didn’t know what the hell was going on with Via, but he didn’t know how much more of this superheated charge he could endure.

She seemed horny.

Fuck. He realized what it was. Evan, the dumbass-shiniest-hair-having, luckiest-SOB-in-all-of-history, was probably still upstate with his family. She probablywashorny.

And Seb had to endure the sweet torture of her wiggly nearness, and then whenever she saw her boyfriend next, Evan got to reap every single benefit of a hot little Via DeRosa. Great. Just great.

He couldn’t think of a single other reason why she would be damn near combustion in the middle of a staff meeting.

Her knee started to toggle up and down, jostling his chair slightly, and Seb prayed for sanity. His hand sliced out and pressed her knee into stillness. He felt her eyes snap to the side of his face, but he didn’t look at her as he took that hand back and jammed it into his pocket. He pretended to be riveted to whatever the hell Principal Grim was yammering on about.

Finally, finally, the meeting was over, and Sebastian stood up so fast his seat scooted back a few inches. “I’m gonna run and check your heating real quick before I grab Matty from aftercare.”

“Sure,” she said faintly, looking as dazed as Seb felt. “I’ll come with.”

Seb said a few goodbyes and then they strode together toward her office. They were walking fast and far apart from one another. It felt weird. She held her coat in front of her like a Roman Catholic nun with her hands in her sleeves. That was weird, too. Seb felt very much like he was playing a game and no one had bothered to explain the rules, or even to tell him that the starting gun had gone off.

They turned in to her office, and Seb immediately got to his knees in front of her heating unit. Luckily, the ornate iron gate lifted neatly off. He started inspecting it, trying very hard to ignore her heated, glowing presence behind him.

“You, uh, got a haircut,” she said quietly.

“Oh. Yeah. Yesterday. It was time.”

“It makes your hair look darker.”

“Yeah. Both Matty and I have hair that can’t make up its mind. Dark when it’s short and blonder when it’s long or in the sun.” He attempted to twist a few knobs on the piping and realized he needed a better angle.

“It looks nice.”

“Thanks,” he grunted, lying on his back and trying like hell to twist the rust off a handle that wouldn’t budge.

“And you’re wearing a new shirt.”

She sounded nervous as hell. He glanced up at her and realized that she was standing just about as far away as the room allowed. She’d also put her coat back on and zipped it clear to her throat. “Nah. It’s an oldie. I just bring it out when the weather gets cold.”

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