SYDNEY
I stare downat the phone in my hand. My other hand rests on my bedspread, my fingers drumming nervously on the duvet.
Not wanting to wait any longer, I take a breath and dial.
Maybe he’s still mad at me for going on a date. Maybe I’m still mad at him forcrashingmy date.
But he still picks up on the first ring, just like always.
“Good evening, Sydney,” Sebastian greets me, in a voice so dark and dirty it sends a shiver down my spine. He doesn’t even have the decency to pretend to be surprised by my call.
“I wasn’t sure you’d pick up,” I admit, drawing an idle pattern on my bedspread with my fingertip.
“Mm, why’s that?”
“The other night. I just… I haven’t seen you, and you haven’t called.” I would never have purposefully gone totheirclub, been so brazen about it. No wonder he was upset. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to talk to me after what happened.”
“There will never be a day I won’t want to talk to you, love.” My breath catches, but he continues. “You caught me by surprise, that’s all. Seeing you with another man. Him kissing you—” There’s a pause on the other end of the line. “If I ever seeanother man’s hands on you again, I can’t promise it won’t get violent.”
My thighs clench at that, my body betraying me. Hearing him be so possessive, it does something to me. I realize I’m turned on just by the idea that he would hurt someone to keep me.
“I need to ask you something,” I say, willing my voice to be steady. “And I need you to be honest with me.”
“Always,” Sebastian tells me.
I take a steadying breath. “Is Alec married?”
There’s no pause, none at all. “Yes,” he answers.
“And is she… What did it mean to him? What didshemean to him?”
A noise so low I can barely hear it. It might be a laugh. “Annika and Alec were never romantic. My brothers always treated her like a sister. Their marriage was never more than a piece of paper. One she asked for, for the record.”
They were telling the truth. Something loosens in my chest, hearing it.
“You were surprised I knew about her,” I remind him. “At the club, I mean.”
There’s a long pause before he answers. “I thought it was me,” he says. “I thought I… I thought I scared you away. In the stockroom.”
Lick it clean.
Heat floods my veins, my nerves suddenly alight. “No,” I murmur. “No, I wasn’t scared.”
A soft laugh. “What were you, then?”
I can’t answer him. I chew on my lip, pulse racing.
"You liked it, didn’t you?” Sebastian teases. “You wanted it.”
“Yes.” My voice is a soft sound, barely audible.
“You still want me, don’t you, love?”
I do. More than anything right now, I do. “Yes.”
“Prove it. Tell me what you’re wearing for me tonight,” he says. There’s something dark and dangerous in his tone, and I want more of it.
I wriggle back against my bedspread, sucking my lower lip between my teeth.
