Page 73 of Heart Break Her

“Baby, I gave my all, gave my best,

Gave you hope, laid my body to rest.

That’s how games are played, and you played them well.

But baby I was made and forged in hell.

So I’ll pull you close, steal your breath,

Rip you out, love you best.

And just when you rest your head, that’s when,

That’s when

That’s when

You’ll taste your own medicine.”

Paint hits the crowd, and the stadium goes wild. Neon streaks raining down, lighting up an otherwise colorless stage. The band is getting soaked, and they look savage. Uninhibited. I can’t tear my eyes away from Sebastian.

He belts out the lyrics like he’s bleeding them. Paint dripping from his hair, down his face. Streaks and splatters of color on his broad chest, defining the ripples in his muscles. If I thought there was no way he could be sexier, I’m proved wrong in this moment.

As the final chorus ends, the crowd goes wild, and the girls on stage empty their paint sprayers with the final pumps.

Adrian looks over at me with an impressed smirk, and I think, for the first time since I got on Sebastian’s plane, he doesn’t hate me.

The set ends with the girls leaving the stage before Sebastian’s usual banter and flipping off the crowd. Tonight, the band leads the way ahead of him with grins stretched across their faces.

“That was righteous,” Rome cheers. He walks over to me and wraps a paint covered arm around my shoulders, getting it all over, but he doesn’t let me wiggle away. “Awesome idea, Cassie. We need more shit like that on tour.”

“Seriously.” Eloise nods.

“Even El agrees. You’re a fucking badass, Cassie,” Noah says, slapping a wet hand on my arm and coating it with paint, before wrapping his arms around Merry and covering her in it.

“Get off me, jerk.” Merry swats at him.

“Just getting you all wet, beautiful.” Noah grins and rubs against her a little more.

“Seriously though,” Rome says still holding my shoulders. “I finally see the family resemblance. Myth would have gone crazy for that shit.”

A bubble of pride comes to the surface with that thought. Maybe I’m not an outsider after all. If only Myth could have seen it instead of hiding me away. Even if his intentions were good, I was always worried it might have also been because he was embarrassed of me. Or worse, because he thought I might judge him. If he would have just let me show him I’m capable of fun too, maybe things could have been different.

“Get the fuck off her.” Sebastian swats Rome’s hand away, and Rome frowns at him. But it doesn’t take long for him to cheer up when two girls in bikinis tuck themselves under his arms, and he follows them backstage.

A girl tries to grab Sebastian’s attention, but he turns his back to her and stands facing me, so close I have to tip my head back to look him in the eyes. He reaches a hand to my face and cups my jaw, streaking wet paint over my cheek with his thumb. It sends a flurry of butterflies kicking around in my chest.

“How did I do? Live up to your expectations?” he asks with a grin that tells me he already knows the answer.

“It was your best one yet.”

There are many sides to Sebastian. The fuckboy the media sees him as, the crowd pleaser at press events, the quiet asshole when he’s pissed off, the thinker when he’s texting with me or high. And then there’s the core of him, the part I only ever see in one place—on stage.

Ripped open and raw. Genuine. And tonight was…

Hewas everything.

“You’re a mess,” Sebastian says, running a trail of paint down my neck with his fingers and grinning.

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