“I’llgrab something before I leave,” I fibbed. This was becoming a habit.
Pushingmyself through the motions of getting ready, I unzipped the garment bag andlistened for the sound of his footsteps walking away. But I never heard them. Ibegan to wonder, as I pulled out the pencil skirt and frilly top, if he hadinstead levitated down the stairs. When my curiosity had gotten the better ofme, I walked to the door and swung it open. I wasn’t surprised to find himstill standing there, his back pressed to his door across the hall.
“Oh,hey,” Sebastian said with a casual grin, but there was no hiding the concern inhis eyes. “I figured you’d have to leave eventually. Didn’t think it’d be in atowel, though.”
Hegestured to the fluffy, dark blue towel wrapped around my body, the end came tojust my middle thigh.
“Iwas just about to get dressed,” I explained, wishing I had brought my robe and puttingon my most effective irritated face. “Why are you waiting outside my room?”
“Becausewe should talk,” he stated plainly, crossing his arms over his chest.
“No,we really shouldn’t.” I made a move to close the door, when he stepped forwardand shot his hand out to press against it. With an impatient sigh, I shook myhead. “Sebastian, I have to get ready for work, okay? I need to go.”
“Youkissedme,” he reminded me, ignoring my protests, “and whatever you wantthat to mean is totally fine with me. I don’t read into shit like that. If allyou want is to make out with me on occasion, or if you never wanna touch meagain—it’s all cool with me. But I want to know why you’re now avoiding me.”
Hewas an infuriating mass of man, blocking me from closing the door to my roomand stopping me from getting ready to leave for work. The audacity of thisdisplay of immaturity was proof enough as to why kissing him was a very badidea. He was a man-child without any sense of responsibility.
“Why?”I snapped, pinching the towel to keep it from falling, and he nodded. “Becausewhat happenednevershould have happened at all,that’swhy.”
Sebastian’slips quirked with amusement, correlating with the crinkles at his eyes. “So,you think that avoiding me is going to make me forget that your tongue was inmy mouth. I gotcha.”
“That’snot what I said,” I disputed, shaking my head and pinching my eyes shut. Words quicklyfilled my mouth and I spat them out before thinking. “I never should havekissed you. I was caught in a moment of weakness, not to mention the fact thatI’d had a glass of whiskey, and then acted on it. I’m having a difficult timeprocessing it, because Iknowit was wrong, but I’m also afraid that ifI look at you, I’ll create all of these reasons why itisn’twrong.”
“Isee.” I opened my eyes to find that his hand had left the door and his armswere now crossed over his chest. “Why can’t you just let it be what it is?”
“Whatdo you mean?” I asked impatiently, ready to shut the door and be on my way.
“Yousaid it yourself; it was a moment of weakness. You don’t have to complicate itby thinking about right or wrong or whatever else.”
“Butitiswrong,” I felt the need to clarify.
“No,”Sebastian insisted with a blunt edge. “It’s not anything. Don’t label it. You could’vejust said to me, ‘Hey, shitface, I know I was dry-humping you last night but Inever wanna do it again, okay?’ And I would’ve said, ‘Yeah, no problem,’ andthat would’ve been it. But then, you went andmadeit something byavoiding me. No need to do that with me.”
Ithadn’t occurred to me that I was the one making it weird, and then all at once,I realized I’d been the reason it’d gotten weird in the first place. He hadn’tkissed me. He was flirty, yes, but he wasn’t the one shoving his tongue down mythroat. Still, the fact remained, that I didn’t do this type of thing. I’dneverdone this type of thing, not like my sister.
“Ididn’t realize that was an option,” I admitted, dropping my gaze.
“Thehell, Tabby? You think, since you kissed me, it means we’re bound to someunspoken laws or something?”
“Well,I don’t exactly do this kind of thing, do I?” I didn’t mean for it to soundlike an accusation, but wasn’t that what it was? This was whathedid,it’s what mysisterdid. Still, I shook my head, pressing my fingertipsto my forehead. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like—”
Sebastianchuckled. “Kissing me doesn’t automatically change who you are, contrary topopular belief,” he said in a low, gravelly voice, reading my thoughts.
Myresolve to be a stony, unrelenting statue melted as one lithe finger curledunder my chin to tip my head up and back. His eyelids fell to half-mast, grabbinga hold of the green in my eyes to melt into the brown of his, before bending todust his lips over mine. So quick, I might not have registered that it happenedat all, if it weren’t for the lightning strikes against my heart and thethundering of my pulse.
“See?”he whispered, his sweet maple syrup breath hot against my skin. “Still you.”
Andjust like that, he stood back and declared that I needed to get ready for mymeeting, as though I hadn’t told him several times since opening the damn door.He walked away and down the stairs, casually calling to Greyson and asking ifhe wanted to jam later. Acting so nonchalant and as though he hadn’t refresheda memory that’d only just begun to lose its vivid luster.
Hewas wrong, I realized, as my fingertips moved from my towel to my buzzing lips.Iwasdifferent. Changed with a kiss. And I had no idea how I was goingto get through that meeting.
***
“Jess,what can you tell me about Roman Dolecki?” I asked through the Bluetooth in mycar. I had attempted some research the night before, to ensure I knew about thepotential new client, but the problem was my brain. It wouldn’t focus onanything but the drummer across the hall.
“Uh,well, he’s secretive as fuck,” Jess snickered. “I couldn’t find many decentpictures of him, which is strange, given the stature of the projects he’s beeninvolved in. A lot of big stuff; the rebranding of sports arenas, the brainbehind a few up-and-coming social media outlets, and a business shareholder ina few restaurant chains. His name isn’t exactly well known, but he’s a prettybig deal apparently.”
“Interesting,”I muttered, letting loose an exhausted sigh.
