"I went to him."
The words came out rough. Broken.
"When?"
"After the first dinner. The night we—" He stopped. Swallowed hard. "Before everything."
Before everything. Before the locked room. Before the beach. Before he'd told me about Caroline and I'd told him about Jonathan. Before I'd let him into my bed. My heart.
"What did you say to him?"
He turned to face me. His eyes were wild. Desperate in a way I'd never seen.
"I thought I was going to lose."
"That's not what I asked."
"I was sure of it. You had everything. The history, the connection, the—" He made a sound. Half laugh, half groan. "I panicked."
"What. Did. You. Say."
The words came out one at a time. Each one a blade.
Sebastian's jaw worked. He looked at the ceiling. The floor. The window. Anywhere but at me.
"I told him if he didn't sell to me, I'd go to his brother. Buy the restaurant out from under him." His voice was barely audible now. "Turn it into something he'd hate."
The words landed.
One by one, they landed, and I felt each impact like a physical blow.
He'd threatened an eighty-three-year-old man. Threatened to destroy his legacy, his family's work, everything he'd spent his life protecting.
And then he'd kissed me on the beach. Held my hand under the stars. Told me he wanted me. Made love to me like I was the only thing that mattered.
While this was hanging over everything. While he knew what he'd done.
"You forgot."
The words came out flat. Dead.
"What?"
"That's what you're going to tell me, isn't it?" I looked at him. Really looked. Searching for the man I thought I knew. "That you forgot. That so much happened between us that it just slipped your mind. That you threatened to destroy an old man's life's work, and then you forgot about it."
"Aria—"
"Did you forget? Or did you just hope it wouldn't matter?"
He didn't answer.
The silence stretched between us. Long. Terrible.
And in that silence, I felt something change inside me. Something that had been soft and open and trusting was slowly turning to stone.
"Was this the plan?"
"What?"
