Upon her exit, I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
No one spoke a word as we began our route to the archives up a flight of steeping stairs.
I leant into Pia’s ear. “She’s…”
“Hot?” Pia quietly suggested.
I flashed her a warning look. “A lot. She’s a lot.”
Her forearm held me back, forcing me to lose my grip on Sebastian’s hand. He looked back, but upon my nod of approval, kept walking.
“Don’t tell me you're jealous of her?” Pia asked, her eyebrow raised.
“Fuck yeah, I’m jealous of her. Did youseeher? She’s frickin’ perfect.”
“Seb is withyou. Not her. He never wanted to settle down with anyone until you. You have nothing to worry about,” she assured me, the look in her eyes a force to be reckoned with.
I knew that. I mean, the man bought me a damn beach. How he managed to do that was beyond me, but I supposed royal family plus royal funds equaled royal privileges.
Kade and Sawyer surpassed us on the steps and my voice fell to a whisper. “He never had a girlfriend?” That surprised me. Sebastian was so…flawless.
“No. Samara was the woman he saw for the longest. But as far as I know, it was never anything more than sex.”
I cringed at the thought of that. “I hate that he was with other people before me. I mean, of course he was, just look at him. But I still hate it.”
“I know. But like I said, you have something that none of the others before you had. And it’s not like you didn’t have partners before him.” Pia’s eyes narrowed on me. “Right?”
I struggled to speak. This was not a conversation I was keen on having right now. Or frankly, ever. “I did. But not like that.”
We resumed our ascent up the marble staircase that the rest of our group had already climbed.
“You never had a one night stand? Friends-with-benefits? A blackout-drunk, middle-of-the-night hookup in the back roomof your village's dive bar? Bonus points if it was with another girl.”
I shrugged innocently. “Uh. No. I had one serious boyfriend for about a year, but that’s it.”
“Seriously?” Pia froze mid-step, scoffing in disbelief. “Well damn, Maeve. Maybe you should take Seb up on the threeway with Kade.”
On that note, I started to jog up the rest of the stairs, ditching her at the midpoint and surpassing Sawyer and Kade. At the top, I nudged Sebastian with my shoulder and stole his hand again.
“Everything okay?” He tightened his fingers around mine.
“Mhm.”
“Such a bad liar, love.”
Allowing my confidence to go slack, I muttered under my breath, “She’s beautiful.”
A snort of laughter shot out of his nose. “She’s a raging bitch, that's what she is.” When my expression remained glum, he added, “She hasnothingon you. You are beautiful in every possible way known to man. You are beautiful in your looks. Beautiful in here,” he tapped my forehead, “beautiful in the way you care for others.” He stopped in the corridor to dip his lips to my neck, skimming his teeth across my ear lobe and creating a cascade of lust within me. “Beautiful when your eyes roll back as you come.”
My steady posture faltered as my thighs clenched. Though the feeling vanished quickly as my mind intruded on me, imagining him saying those same things toher.
“Gods I hope they show us to our rooms quickly so I can get away from all the horny you two are expelling. I swear, do you guys evencarethat people can hear you?” Kade sneered from behind us.
“Not our fault you have good hearing, Lyrise. But then again, no one else ever seems to overhear, so maybe you are justhearing what youwantto,” Sebastian effortlessly shot back, his sly smirk on full display.
Kade decided that speed-walking was his best way out of this.
“You just love to antagonize him, don’t you?” I chuckled as Kade shoved past us.
