“Are we having a tea party?” I asked, crawling inside. I still hadn’t found out who put it there but had my suspicions it had something to do with my roommate.
He followed me, shrinking the space to about a quarter of its size.
“The last thing I have on my mind when I’m with you is a tea party,” he said and leaned his back against one of the walls, pulling me into his side. I relaxed into him, my arm snaking under his shirt, caressing the soft skin of his abs.
“I want to talk to you without distractions,” he said, placing a kiss on my hair. “That’s why we’re hiding out here.”
I chuckled, my body vibrating with mirth. “You know Stella is going to show up out here in a few minutes. She’d have undoubtedly heard the bike pull up and seen us walk around to the backyard.”
“I know. But I didn’t want to wait a second longer to make this right. I want you—no, I need you to hear me out. If you still don’t want to give me another chance, then I understand.”
I sighed, the seriousness of his words sinking like a warm blanket around me. He took my silence as assent to continue.
“The initial plan was if Jim thought you’d shacked up with one of us, he’d do something stupid in response and come out of hiding. But only because that happened to be part of the plan doesn’t mean my feelings for you are any less real.”
I buried my head in his chest, breathing him in, reminding myself that he wasn’t pursuing any agenda right now. He didn’t have to say those things to continue staying with me. It slowly sank in that maybe—just maybe—his feelings for me matched my own.
“I volunteered for this job. Blade wanted to send someone else. Said he needed someone with a clear head who wasn’t obsessed with you. In a healthy way, of course.”
All my movements froze, my breath stalling.
Did he just say what I think I heard? Or have I fallen asleep and this is a dream?
“But we’d never spoken a word to one another before the first time I came to the clubhouse,” I said, lifting my head off his chest.
“Doesn’t matter. Not to me.”
“Sebastian—” I said, but he stopped me.
“My parents have loved each other their whole lives. In fact, they still love each other like they did when they first met,” he said. I shuffled closer, putting my hand on his cheek, and he turned into the gentle caress. “I always wanted what they have. My dad told me it was love at first sight for him and Mom. That when I saw the one who was meant for me, I’d know. And I always laughed at him. Told him he was crazy.”
His eyes held mine, showing me how much he meant every word he said. “And then I met you, and I finally understood what he was talking about.”
I crushed my lips against his, clawing my way closer, the need to feel him overwhelming. He met my tongue stroke for stroke, and soon we were panting, our hands gliding over every inch of each other’s body.
“If you’re trying to hide from me, you’re doing a terrible job because I can see your legs. And they’re way too close to each other,” Stella interrupted us. “No sexy times in the playhouse. That’s just wrong.”
I untangled myself from Sebastian, closing my eyes. His hand whispered across my cheek, and then he shuffled out before helping me.
Stella was waiting for us, barely holding it together, vibrating with the effort it took to stop the laughter that I could see was bubbling to the surface. She lost the battle and guffawed so loud, I was worried she’d wake the kids.
“I knew you had it in you,” she wheezed out once she’d calmed down.
“Shut up,” I said and rolled my eyes at her.
We walked back inside, the look on Stella’s face telling me I’d have to give her a word-for-word replay of tonight.
“I knew the kids loved their new play equipment, but I didn’t realize you were so fond of it as well.”
“It’s a pretty good tree house,” I said, eying Sebastian.
“Glad you like it, baby,” he said.
Ha, I knew it. He was the one who’d upgraded my backyard. “Did you put all the new stuff in my yard?” I asked.
“You said you wished you could give the kids a swing because they love it so much at the park.”
I’d mentioned it once, in passing, because I was too lazy to walk across the road. And he’d gone out and put a playground in my backyard.
