Page 97 of Arianna

My jaw drops open at his touch, and he goes to brush that thumb across my bottom lip.

Fire.

Flames.

“Why did you kiss me?” It is the first thing my lust-fueled brain can come up with.

He ignores it, though. “So sweet,” he whispers. We get held there. Just…staring at each other.

Want.

Need.

Discovery.

I saw it in a fraction of a second, gone when he ripped himself away, and every line of his gorgeous face went rigid. Pure, unrelenting steel. “She won. She wanted a reaction, and you gave it to her.”

Ice slicked down my spine, and my knees nearly buckle with the sudden change in his demeanor.

My chest squeezed tight.

Tied in jealousy and confusion.

I couldn’t help the way my entire body felt as if it’d come alive.

Sparked into existence after I’d been numbed into nothingness for so long.

“If you ever feel the need to run away again…” Sebastian pulls away from me, suddenly making me feel emptier as if that’s even possible. “Run to me.”

With that bombshell, he turns his back to me and walks towards his garage, leaving me behind feeling confused, angry, and more than that… alive.

And with the sweet taste of his lips still lingering.

There is no doubt in me that this man is my sanity’s demise.

Because fuck.

I got the sense Sebastian Kenton might undo me.

If I allow it, he will obliterate the fortress I’ve had to build around myself to survive all these years. Because unbeknown to him, little by little, he has managed to unravel all the dirty threads that were barely holding me together.

Without realizing it, he is making a broken girl whole again.

Feeling eyes on the back of my head, I turn toward the mansion and find Celene behind one of the windows, staring daggers at me.

Did she witness all that?

The spectacle I made outside.

The kiss between the object of her obsession and me?

I hope she did.

I hope she saw how he held my face and kissed my lips. I hope she sees that image every time she thinks of him. Because he is not hers to think of. To obsess over.

Not hers in any way.

And because my inner bitch has a mind of its own, I smiled triumphantly her way.

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