Maya
IT SMELLED LIKE SALT AND VINEGAR, A TRACE OF MEN’Scologne, and Guerlain Shalimar, my grandmother’s favorite perfume.
A weird combo, but I was too drowsy to question it.
I sighed, snuggling deeper into my pillow and—
Wait a minute. What happened to my fluffy, ultra-soft bedding? It felt like I was sleeping on a brick wall—a warm, muscled brick wall that wasn’t uncomfortable per se, but it definitely wasn’t silk and goose down.
I cracked my eyes open. A blast of sunlight scorched my retinas, and I slammed them shut again.
I always closed my blackout curtains at night. I also always lit my favorite candle before bed, and that smelled like jasmine, not Guerlain.
Something was very wrong.
I braved another peek. This time, there was no direct sunlight because there was a face shoved right in front of mine, blocking out the rest of the room.
“Aaaahhh!”
“Aaaahhh!”
I bolted up into a sitting position, my heart racing. “How—what—why are you screaming?” I had so many questions, but I opted for the simplest one first.
“You screamed first,” my grandmother said, her ruby earrings glittering in the morning light. She wore a bright blue coat, a curious expression, and enough jewelry to fill a Tiffany’s. “Why are you sleeping on a yoga mat with your childhood nemesis?”
“What are you…” I followed her gaze to the spot next to me, where Sebastian lay sprawled with his forearm covering his eyes. One of his legs tangled with mine, and I realized with horror that the “brick wall” I’d been snuggling washim. Our screams didn’t appear to have woken him.
“Aaaahhh!”
I yanked my leg away from him and scrambled to my feet. My grandmother chuckled as Sebastian finally stirred. He lowered his arm and squinted up at us. His gaze flicked over my sleep-rumpled frame, and his eyes flared with something dangerously close to heat before they cooled.
The entire moment came and went so quickly that I must’ve imagined it. There was no heat. Why would there be heat?
“I hope you don’t wake up screaming like that every day. It’s quite off-putting,” he said before giving my grandmother a charming smile. He seemed to be taking her unexpected appearance much better than I was. “Good morning, Mrs. Gupta.” Gupta was my mother’s maiden name.
My grandmother smiled back. “Good morning, dear.”
She’d always had a soft spot for Sebastian, which proved that her exquisite taste in jewelry didn’t translate to equally exquisite taste in people.
I ground my teeth as Sebastian rose leisurely to his feet. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned, the lazy movementresembling that of a big cat after a nap. Despite his sleep-mussed hair and rumpled clothing, he still looked gorgeous. There were people who spenthoursmastering that effortlessly casual look, and he’d nailed it by rolling out of bed or, in this case, a yoga mat.
It was so annoying.
He reached down to roll up our mats. My eyes dipped involuntarily to his forearms, and a hint of something velvety brushed my heart. A flutter? No. That was ridiculous.
Our brainstorming session for the pop-up had been fun, but that didn’t mean anything. The only thing Sebastian Laurent had ever induced in me were ulcers.
But there was something so… intimate about seeing him right after he woke up, even if he was fully dressed and we were in an office. I was convinced he’d had a nightmare when he’d dozed off the first time last night, and that tiny glimpse of vulnerability shook me more than I cared to admit.
I preferred when Sebastian was some untouchable god. It irritated me, sure, but it didn’t create cracks in what was supposed to be my rock-solid opinion of him. I’d formed my opinion of him after decades of forced acquaintanceship, and I didn’t like being proven wrong.
Which I wasn’t. Sebastian was Sebastian, no matter how endearing he was when he got excited about the pop-up menu or how nice his body warmth—
A delicate cough interrupted my musings.
I jumped, my face heating when I met my grandmother’s shrewd gaze. She plucked Sebastian’s jacket off the back of a chair and held it out to him. “Perhaps you should put this back on lest people get the wrong idea,” she said without taking her attention off me.
“Ah.” Sebastian cleared his throat. “Thank you.” He took the jacket, a wash of dull red darkening his cheekbones.
