Page 44 of The Bargain

Leaving Courtland Enterprises would be a good thing, because I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking the rules by dating Sebastian. If I could find a good job as a middle manager at another firm, I’d make more moneyandbe able to date the very sexy Sebastian Courtland publicly.

I would miss him, though. Our days together at Courtland Enterprises were some of the greatest of my life.

But just as I’d been turning my brain to focus on the next stage of my career, Sebastian had dropped the bomb on my head that my proposal to help save the company wasn’t any good. Clearly, I was fooling myself. There was no way I could sell myself as a manager for any company. My ideas weren’t good enough. I didn’t have enough experience managing anyone. Yes, I’d hired, trained, and managed Kaylan, but we were a department of fucking two. Big deal.

Between my financial frustrations and my failure with the proposal, I felt like I was swimming in an endless black sea. Right now, I was paddling desperately simply to keep my head above water, but I wasn’t making any headway. There was no getting ahead. If I were lucky, I’d be able to improve my brother’s and my mother’s lots in life, but it depended on me never making a mistake, never having something bad happen.

Regardless of my frustrating situation, I shouldn’t have bailed on Sebastian like that with such a lame excuse. I should have talked to him, explained how I was feeling overwhelmed. And as an employee, I should have asked his advice on how to be a stronger employee. Maybe how I could have improved my proposal.

The first step was to apologize.

That was what a mature adult did. It didn’t matter if Sebastian decided that dating me was more hassle than it was worth.

Swearing at myself, I shoved to my feet and hurried to the closet, where I grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that didn’t make me look like a bum off the streets. I’d go to the office first to see if he was still there. Sebastian often worked late, particularly if he didn’t have other plans. If he wasn’t at the office, I’d go to his house. Calling wasn’t an option. I’d insulted him to his face. The least he deserved was an in-person apology.

I snagged my wallet, phone, keys, and rushed to the stairs. In my mind, I was already trying to work out what I would say as I jogged to my car. It was nearly seven. Rush-hour traffic would be mostly finished by now. It wouldn’t take me more than twenty minutes to get downtown.

“Byron?”

Sebastian’s voice jerked me to a stumbling stop. I twisted to see him getting out of his car. Carl was standing by the rear door, holding it open for his boss. Sebastian was missing his suit jacket and tie. His hair was messy, as if he’d been running his fingers through it and pulling on it, something I’d seen him do plenty of times when he was frustrated. In one hand was a plastic bag with an unmistakable bucket of fried chicken, and in his other hand was a bottle of wine.

“What are you doing here?” Those weren’t the first words I’d wanted to say to him, but I was so surprised to see him.

“I was coming up to apologize to you.” His expression was so pained, I swore my heart was breaking just looking at him. I’d done that to him. I’d hurt him. This needed to be fixed right now.

“Why do you need to apologize? No, I’m the one who needs to apologize.” I shook my head as I changed direction and hurried to him. This was all fucked up. None of my words were coming out right. “I mean, I was heading to the office to apologize to you.”

As I reached Sebastian, the hand holding the wine shot out and his arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me in so that I bumped against his chest. He set the chicken on the ground and used his now-free hand to cup my cheek, tipping my head up toward his face as my breath caught in my throat. Then he stole it away completely as he kissed me. But that was every kiss I shared with Sebastian—soul-stirring and all-encompassing. It took less than a heartbeat for me to hand myself over to himcompletely, my relief almost choking me as I placed my arms behind his neck, pulling him even closer.

He hadn’t given up on me.

The warm scent of his cologne drifted around me. His powerful arms fought off the last of the insecurity twisting in my gut, reassuring me that everything was going to be okay.

Except someone was clearing their throat behind us.

I broke off the kiss and took the hand holding my cheek before scooping up the bag of chicken and sides. I peeked past Sebastian’s shoulder at Carl, who was still standing beside the car. “Go home. I’ll bring him back when I’m done.”

Carl’s lips twitched in a barely suppressed smile, but he said nothing as he closed the door and walked to the driver’s side.

“Really?” Sebastian asked, drawing my attention to him.

“You’re coming inside with me. We need to talk.”

His smirk disappeared, and I pulled him to the apartment building. We walked silently up to my place, some butterflies returning to my stomach, but not as big as the condors that had lived there minutes ago.

“Byron—” Sebastian stated as soon as I had the door closed.

“No, please. Let me start.” Squeezing the hand I was still holding, I brought it up to my lips, kissing his knuckles while gazing into his worried brown eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was so flighty, useless, and a general pain in the ass all day. And I’m sorry for bailing on our date tonight and not giving you even a basic explanation as to why. All day, I felt like I was short with you, because I was just…”

“Hurting,” he finished for me.

“Yes, but that’s not an excuse. My problems don’t give me the right to treat you poorly.”

“No, I understand,” Sebastian said, brushing his lips across mine in another soft, sweet kiss. He led me to my futon and put the food and wine on the floor. The poor thing creaked under ourcombined weight as we sat, and I sent up a silent prayer for it to not collapse. My hands held in his, Sebastian stared into my eyes, his gaze filled with worry. “I also failed you as a would-be boyfriend. I could tell something was off with you all day, and I did nothing about it. What I should have done was call a halt to everything and sat with you, giving you the time you needed to tell me what was bothering you.”

My heart squeezed at his words. “Darling, that’s sweet, but you can’t do that.”

“Of course I can.”

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