“Seb, what are you doing here?” she finally managed to choke out. “I thought you were in rehab.”
His shoulders sagged, and a world of hurt bloomed in those soulful eyes. “I got out yesterday. Alice, I didn’t know anything about what was happening to you until I got my phone back. They took it from me while I was in rehab, and the first thing I did was start looking for you. Alice, I amsosorry.”
He reached for her, but she stepped back, holding the flowers before her like a shield. She’d seen that soulful Sebastian Bell expression a million times . . . in every movie he ever starred in. It’s what had made him famous. Her blood began flowing again, her brain unlocked. Anger began to replace her shock.
“I got suspended from the college because of you,” she said, beginning to rally.
“I know and I’m sorry,” Sebastian said, one hand extended palm up as though begging her to take it. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“How?” Jack demanded. “She was less than a year away from tenure, and that stunt in the UK has ruined her chances in academia forever.”
Sebastian glanced between Jack and Alice. “Who is this guy?” he asked.
“He’s my friend,” Alice said.
“Boyfriend,” Jack corrected.
The news seemed to hit Sebastian like a physical blow. He recoiled at first, then swallowed hard, nodded a few times, then geared back up. “It’s nothing less than I deserve, I suppose. Alice, I messed up. Please give me another chance. Giveusanother chance.”
He sounded so desperate. It ought to be pathetic, but the earnest appeal in his upper-crust British accent sounded exactly like the climactic groveling scene in a million romance movies and she was only human. It got to her.
“It shouldn’t end this way,” Sebastian continued, his voice breaking with anguish. “All I’m asking for is a few minutes alone with you.”
Jack bristled. “I’m not leaving her alone with a coke head.”
The spell broke and Sebastian shot him an annoyed glare. “I haven’t done cocaine in 145 days,” he defended. “Or 144, if we take the time change into account. I am determined to be brutally honest in all things. Alice, I want to be a better man. You did that for me. From the day we met on that train to Berlin, I knew you were the right woman for me. When you’re near, I feel like I can conquer the world. I can certainly conquer drugs.”
Jack scoffed. “Didn’t look like it from what I saw on Twitter.”
Sebastian didn’t take his eyes off her. “I stumbled and I fell. I messed up, but I’m back. If you’ll have me, I will lay the world at your feet. You are my North Star, and together there’s nothing we can’t do.”
Anger began to unfurl, because it was a direct quote from one of his movies. She threw the flowers against his chest. Petals scattered, and Sebastian flinched.
“You messed up your life and got to do a stint in a luxury rehab center in the south of France; I got slapped with a restraining order,” Alice said. “There are pictures of me in handcuffs all over the web. Strangers all over the world have accused me of doinghorrible things. The people at my college want to fire me. Do you know how humiliating that is?”
“Guilty,” Sebastian said, holding up his hands in supplication. “It won’t happen again.”
She bit off a cynical laugh. “It won’t happen again because nobody in the world will hire me.”
“I would,” Sebastian said. “You could be my wife.”
The sentence knocked the breath from her lungs, but she recovered quickly. “Is that a marriage proposal?”
Sebastian muttered a curse under his breath, then leaned over to pick up the abused peonies. “I hadn’t meant to spring it on you like this,” he said. Sebastian sank onto one knee. “Alice, I love—”
“Oh, get up!” she shouted. “Do you seriously think I would consider any kind of proposal from you? I could get arrested for even being in the same room with you.”
Sebastian stood, looking sick at heart. “Really? I didn’t realize. Maybe British law doesn’t apply over here?”
“She shouldn’t have to risk it,” Jack ground out. “Why are you here? Is this some kind of trick? A scheme to fix your reputation?”
Once again, Sebastian didn’t look at Jack, just kept his gaze locked on her as he spoke. “Alice, it’s not a trick, I swear it. All that stuff that got leaked to the press, that was Graham’s fault. Please give me another chance to prove that I love you.”
He kept talking but it was as if his voice came from far away. Months of humiliation. Having her career yanked out from beneath her, enduring the snide looks and delighted whispers. The first issue of the student newspaper this semester had editorial cartoons about her, and student essays were exploring themes of female enablers and female stalkers.
“Seb, for the past few months I have been hanging on to my sanity by a thread. I’ve finally found a new purpose, and I won’t let you waltz in here and drag me back into the whirlwind.”
“Alice, please—”
