Page 120 of Late Nights & Love Lines
My mind is still in chaotic disarray hours later when my door cracks open and Sebastian slips in.
I hold my breath as he silently closes it behind him before crawling into bed with me. He doesn’t wait for me to say anything, he just wraps his arms around my middle and tugs me across the bed to press my back into his front.
We touch from shoulders to toes while he holds my center in a viselike grip, and finally, finally, I feel as though I can breathe.
“I tried to stay away, to give you time to think tonight,” he whispers into my hair. “But this, right here, with you is where Ibelong. I decided it’s only fair that if you’re fighting to figure out where you belong that I get a chance to fight for you to stay.”
The remaining tension that had coiled into my body slowly melts away, taking all the noise in my mind with it.
“Todays and tomorrows.” He says it like a prayer, a promise, and an omen.
Together, wrapped as one, I fall asleep, not fighting to get away from my past but fighting for the hope of a future.
29
FEET SWEEPING
SEBASTIAN
“Nick’s in New York,” Alexei says without looking up from his computer screen.
“We knew he would be.” Beck grunts. He too is focused on the screen in front of him.
“What are the chances of him getting into the gala?” My voice is eerily calm for someone discussing the possibility of running into the man who attempted to ruin my life.
“He’s not on the guest list,” Elijah says. He has two screens going, and his eyes scan from one to the other and back again. “But that doesn’t mean he won’t be a guest.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I tell this group of men who have become more of a family than I’ve ever had. “Mya’s father won’t back him if he doesn’t have his own capital, and when I stripped him of the shares of my company, he lost any chance he had. He wasn’t born into money the same way we were.”
“Speak for yourself,” Alexei grumbles. But I know damn well he wasn’t destitute growing up.
Nick was. It’s what made him dangerous. He has a thirst you can never understand unless you’ve had to fight for everythingyou’ve ever had, but somewhere along the line, he lost the compass that told him right from wrong.
“He’s not going to roll over and go away though.” Beck taps the end of his pen on the table while staring at the wall behind me.
“No, he won’t.”
Alexei slams his fist down on the table. “You gave that fucker everything, Seb. You trusted him completely even after I told you not to.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” The words are quiet but sharp as knives. “You don’t think I own the pain he caused my children every goddamn day?”
Remorse flashes across his face. “That’s not what I meant. I’m pissed at him, not at you.”
“I know.”
“That shit won’t happen here,” Beck says, pointing at each of us. “From here on out, we’re family. We have each other’s backs.”
“Do you want that in a blood oath?” Elijah asks. He smirks while waiting for Beck’s response. He loves to get under Beck’s skin the same way Alexei does with me.
“Fuck right off,” Beck says without looking up. “There’s been enough betrayal in our lives. I won’t stand for that shit ever again—we won’t stand for it.”
My phone rings, and the smile their comradery lit is instantly wiped away.
“Fuck,” I hiss.
All three faces turn my way as I hit the accept button.
“Mya.”
