An amused look passes between Chase and Ronan.
“Whatever you tell yourself to help you sleep at night, little buddy.” Ronan slaps my back before strolling to greet Ryder and the girls.
Chase grins at me as we follow the giant action star. “Face it. You’re going to fuck up. Because you’re human. But also, you’re a golden boy. Your challenges are also your strengths. You’re Sebastian Blake. Use your power for good. Apologize. Sincerely. And figure out how to use your almost-unlimited resources to make it right.”
We make our way toward our friends. “Em,” I call, eager to be near her again.
She whirls to face me, but the smile dies on her face as she stumbles and lists to the side. Before I can reach her, it happens.
One minute, she’s staring at me with oddly unfocused eyes, and the next, she crumples to the ground. Her head hits the concrete with a sickening sound.
“Em!” I cry, tight and panicked.
I fall to the ground next to her. “Em,” I whisper, touching her face. I will her to open her eyes and tell me to stop overreacting.
But she doesn’t.
She doesn’t open her eyes at all.
CHAPTER 21
Emma
“Sebastian,I fainted. I didn’t die,” I say, lying back on a couch in some back room of the theater with an ice pack on my head. My movie-star boss is pacing back and forth.
“Stop running your hands through your hair. Antony’s going to be pissed if you ruin his style,” I grumble, wincing because it low-key hurts to talk.
He ignores my warning. “We need to call an ambulance,” he growls, looking all hot and fierce.
“I’m fine.”
Okay, maybe I’m not strictly fine. But there’s no way I’m going to be taken out of this packed event by ambulance. That would cause even more of a fuss. It’s bad enough cameras got shots of me passed out on the ground of the premiere.
God, how embarrassing.
“You heard the medic. He thinks you have a concussion and says you need to be seen by an actual doctor. We don’t know why you passed out. Do you remember fainting?”
I shift to sit up straighter, attempting to appear normal, but the world spins again. I squint in concentration and try to remember. One second, I was standing there, and the next, I was in Sebastian’s arms, his eyes stark with fear. He was talking, his mouth moving, but the memory is foggy.
I fight through the haze.
And then it all floods back with the strength and suddenness of a tidal wave. His words. His panic.
“Talk to me, baby. You hit your head. Don’t move. You need to be okay. I can’t handle it if something happens to you.”
He called me baby. He said he couldn’t handle me being hurt.
I close my eyes against the most dangerous feeling that flits through my heart.Hope.It tries to land, but I bat it far, far away. And then mentally squash it.
In those beginning years, I used to read into Sebastian’s actions, interpreting what I thought was an admiring look, a confusing comment, a shared laugh, an intimate moment passing between us as more than it was. Yes, I’d hope. I’d dream. Only to realize I was wrong.
He didn’t mean anything by his words. He was just worried, like he would be for any employee. Like he’d be for Marie. Or Matt. Well, maybe not Matt. But only because he hasn’t been working for Sebastian long enough.
I try to remember the rest. I recall lying on the cold, hard ground and trying to stay awake, though my eyes wanted to close against the faces peering down. People were arguing, insisting I go to the hospital. I tried to tell them no. That I didn’t want a fuss made.
Everything started spinning when I attempted to sit up. That was when Sebastian swept me up in his arms and carried me through the crowd. I knit my brow and recall begging Sebastian to tell everyone not to follow us as he made his way with unnerving accuracy into this quiet space. I wanted the otherstars of the movie to stay and distract the paparazzi so him whisking me away didn’t become some big deal.
We made it into this room, and soon after, the medics arrived.
