“These look good,” I tell him, looking over the options laid out on the granite countertop.
Ben glances at Mae and they exchange a look, before she faces Sebastian. “Is there anything you’d like to change, dear?”
“Nah, you know I’m easy, Aunt Mae,” he replies, his attention fixated on the phone clutched in his hands.
“Fabulous. Everything is already cleaned up, I’m going to head home for the night.” Ben gathers his laptop and notebook before turning to exit the kitchen.
“Thank you, Ben,” I call out.
Mae wraps an arm around me as Sebastian lowers his phone and hooks an arm around her. “Okay, I’m going to bed. I will see you two in the morning.”
I lean in to kiss her cheek. “Sleep well.”
Sebastian gives her a tight squeeze before she slips from our embrace, but before she turns in for the night, she focuses her attention on me. “Oh, and River, the board confirmed for the next bimonthly meeting.”
“Yes, I saw you add it to my calendar.” I nod, acknowledging the next meeting I need to check in with Thompson Innovations.
“Don’t forget to—”
“Promise, I won’t,” I toss back as she waves us off and heads toward the south wing, her personal space on the property.
Once Sebastian and I are alone, he tucks his phone into the front pocket of his pants. He glances up at me with a questioning look on his face, and I have a feeling I know what he’s about to ask me, but I won’t admit it. Some aspects of my life I’m not willing to discuss.
“What is it?”
“Where are you going tonight?” he asks with an accusatory tone. Sebastian’s the only person who knows me almost as well as I know myself, and sometimes that can be a bad thing.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I challenge, narrowing my gaze.
“I’m not stupid,” he quips. “You can’t keep anything from me.”
I scoff at him off, and start to walk away, hoping to create distance from his probing.
“River.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Sebastian,” I grit out, losing my patience with his persistence. By the time I make it back to my office, my cousin is hot on my heels.
“You’ve been to her house every night this week. She’ll figure out you’ve been watching her.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I sneer, shoving my hands into the front pocket of my pants, keeping my focus trained on her on the screens in my office. She’s still not asleep.
Sebastian comes to stand at my side. “We dropped her off and now it’s time to return to business.”
“She isn’t sleeping,” I tell him.
He rolls his eyes, huffing with frustration. “I told you we shouldn’t have installed those cameras in her house. You’re becoming obsessed.”
“I only want to make sure she’s fine,” I say, staring as she flips around and stares at the ceiling above with an arm tucked behind her neck. I can tell she isn’t scared because she’s attempting to return to her daily activities. I glance over at him and give him a pointed look. “And I am notobsessed.”
Sebastian cocks his head. “Sure, keep telling yourself that.”
I ignore him, turning my attention back on the screen as I hear him take a seat at my workstation.
Lux holds herself with a confidence I haven’t seen in previous people we’ve helped and I’d be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t attracted to her.
“We’ve been doing this for years. You and I have helped and rescued a lot of women, none of whom have shown up at their house every nightto guard them.” He pauses. “Let alone install cameras in their homes to watch them like a creep.”
I whip around and find him leaning back on my chair, with his shoes resting on the glass top. “First, get your fucking boots off my desk,” I warn, the sight of dirt from the bottom of his shoes near my keyboard irks me. He immediately brings them to the floor with a huffed laugh, his hands raised in mock surrender. “And like I’ve told you a million times already, there’s something different about her.”
