“Keeping me in line?” I gasp. “You’re the one who causes the trouble, not me.”
“Hmm, let’s think about it, shall we? Was it me or you who made an escape plan and did some minor surgery?”
Rolling my eyes, I ignore him.
“And was it me or you who tricked their stepbrother into pursuing their friend, pushing them together, while secretly orchestrating them falling in love?”
“That wasn’t just me, it was Sammy too,” I exclaim.
“Regardless, it’s you who has been misbehaving of late, not me. I’m a reformed psycho.”
A burst of loud laughter falls from my lips, and I slap my hand over my mouth to stifle the sound. “Reformed,” I choke out. “You’re the founding member of the freaking psycho club, you wouldn’t know how to reform.”
“Perhaps,” he concedes, his hand dipping down to palm my ass, his thumb managing to find the plug beneath my dress and press down on it.
“Oh god,” I pant, pressing my face into his shoulder.
I’m grateful for the reprieve when the waiter arrives with the bill and Sebastian is forced to stop toying with me. My legs feel shaky when he curls his arm around me and leads us out of the restaurant to where the car is waiting at the curb. Tipping the valet, Sebastian opens my door for me, then walks around to the driver’s side and climbs in.
A part of me is expecting him to demand I spread my legs or bend over the seat or something, but instead he drives us home, his hand resting softly on my thigh the entire time. When we get into bed, he pulls the plug from my ass, cleans me with a wipe, then eats my pussy and ass until I come so many times I fall asleep from exhaustion.
I wake up bright and early the next day to a dozen messages from a panicked Sammy. Her mom and my mom have joinedforces to throw her a baby shower, and despite it only being seven a.m., she’s already at her maximum stress levels and threatening to go into labor just to get the mom drama to stop.
Sighing, I roll to the edge of the bed, but a hand snaps out, grabbing my wrist and stopping me from sitting up.
“Sammy is having a meltdown. I need to go over there before she loses it,” I tell Sebastian.
“Is your mom there?” he asks.
“Probably,” I say, shrugging. Despite my mom’s and my relationship being in a shambles, she’s stepped effortlessly into the role of stepmom for my big bro Evan, even insisting on being Grandma to Sammy and Evans baby.
“Do you need me to come and run interference between the two of you?” Sebastian asks cautiously.
In the last couple of years, I’ve done my best to move past all of the events that happened in the past to bring us together. But I’m not over it—my therapist wholeheartedly agrees and she doesn’t know half of what actually happened—but I have tried to put my love for Sebastian above my hate for the things he’s done.
When Sammy and I came up with our plan to bring her and Evan together, I made the decision to try to forgive Evan. Of the four of them, he’s been the one most driven toward redemption and atoning for his sins of the past. As much as my mom’s and my relationship is gone, Evan and I have managed to find a weird sibling bond, and honestly having him as a big brother is the one thing I’m grateful to Cassidy for giving me.
Cassidy had a baby a few months back. Lysander is both mine and Evan’s half brother, and while Evan dotes on the baby and adores him, I definitely feel more reserved toward him. It’s not his fault that his mom is a fucking bitch who chose money and dick over her daughter, but being around him means being around my mom, who refuses to acknowledge that we don’t have a mother-daughter relationship anymore.
When Sebastian tricked me into coming to Kingsacre and we fell in love, my mom assumed our relationship would pick up where we left off, before she picked Sebastian’s side and chose to cut me out of her life. But as far as I’m concerned, when she chose him over me, her choice ended our familial bond. I was young and scared and begging for her help, and she chose to pick a virtual stranger’s word over her own child’s, and for me, that’s unforgivable.
Unfortunately, there are times when I’m forced to see her, and when I am, I’m polite, but that’s all. Sebastian hates that I can’t forgive her and that he’s the reason for our rift, so when my mom and I are forced to be in the same room, he does his best to keep Cassidy away from me.
“Yep. Cassidy is your problem for the day,” I tell him, tugging my arm out of his hold and heading for the bathroom.
As Sammy and Evan know they’re having a boy, the shower’s theme is pale blue and white. Blue isn’t really my color, but as the baby’s godmother, I’ll wear whatever color I’m told to, if it helps.
Slipping into the playsuit Sammy bought and had delivered to the house for me, I pin my shoulder-length hair half up, then attempt to curl the bottom, leaving my makeup for the makeup artist Sammy will no doubt have hired to do it for me.
“Evan just called, he asked if we’re ready yet, because he’s about ready to throw his mother-in-law in the pool,” Sebastian says with a grin.
“Well, look at you. Dressed like that, you look just like the trust fund nepo baby that you are,” I mock, smiling at his cream fitted pants, pale-blue button-down with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, and bright white sneakers.
“Hmm, the bigger plug I got has a blue jewel on it. I think it’d look perfect with that outfit,” Sebastian threatens, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
“No time for that. Let’s go rescue our friends from overbearing parents,” I announce, sliding my feet into sky-high pumps and striding out of the closet, while Sebastian chuckles dryly behind me.
It’s only a five-minute walk across the estate from our home to Evan and Sammy’s, but we decide to take one of the golf carts we brought for when we’re feeling lazy. The chaos is easy to see before we even pull up at the house, where caterers, florists, and someone carrying a cello are all milling in the driveway while Sammy’s mom, Elizabeth, flaps her hands like she’s conducting the entire debacle.
