Whatever I was to them, as individuals and a unit, they cared for me, and they didn’t want me to be unhappy or unsafe.
It even seemed, just a little bit, like love.
When Adam pulled away, he cupped my cheek and rubbed his thumb through a tear streak. I hadn’t realized I was crying at any point until then.
“You’d like that?” he confirmed.
“Very much,” I agreed, pressing my hand over his on my face. “Thank you, Adam.”
There was a deep-seated satisfaction in his gaze, an almost smugness. If I hadn’t realized it before, I would have known then that both of these men had the kind of hearts that were happiest taking care of others.
“We’ll move you and Miranda in tomorrow,” he declared, shifting away slightly to dig his phone out of his pocket so he could make the necessary arrangements. He paused, frowned at something, and then shifted one of my legs so it was draped over his thigh as if he couldn’t bear the fact that we hadn’t been touching anymore.
I swallowed thickly and turned to Sebastian to find his eyes soft as melted butter as they gazed at Adam.
“That’s him,” he said softly to me. “The man I loved.”
I could more than understand why.
“We’ll stay with you tonight,” Adam declared after he sent off a few texts.
“Here?” I asked, eyebrow raised as I gazed around the little living room. “But there’s no spare bedroom. Just my double bed.”
“Not ideal,” Adam agreed, then shared a sly look with Sebastian, something flirtatious andeasythat made Sebastian grin. “But I don’t mind sharing with the right crowd.”
“We can finagle something,cara mia,” Sebastian agreed, winking at Adam. “You leave the setup to us. Why don’t you take a bath or a shower? I’ll see what I can make for dinner in the kitchen, and we can settle in for a little movie marathon.”
I blinked at the two superstars sitting on Miranda’s nineteen eighties velvet couch and wondered dazedly what my life had come to.
“What’s your favourite film?” Adam asked as he stood to take off his blazer, laying it carefully over the back of Miranda’s chair before he set to work unbuttoning his cuffs to roll back his shirt.
He was getting comfortable. Why that was so sexy and profound to me, I couldn’t exactly be sure, but I thought it had something to do with the fact that Adam Meyers never seemed comfortable.
Not unless he was with Seb…andme.
“Casablanca,” I admitted, then frowned as Sebastian laughed at me.
“Of course,” he replied to my look and slid a hand under my hair to cup my neck. His eyes were dancing as they swept over my face before lingering on my mouth.
He kissed me, then. Just a soft, open-mouthed press of lips that lasted for a handful of seconds.
But it slid through me like a knife, cutting me to the quick.
I could feel Adam watching with some kind of primal approval and felt Sebastian’s own pleasure against my body. When he pulled back, he got to his feet as if kissing me in front of Adam was an everyday occurrence.
He clapped Adam on the shoulder and grinned, “Let’s get to work.”
22
SEBASTIAN
Iwasn’t the type of man to get or stay angry very easily, but in the wake of the paparazzi staking out Miranda’s house, I felt electric with it as if I might spark against the velvet couch and set fire to the house.
It helped to have a purpose.
I took a few deep breaths as I surveyed ingredients from the old, humming refrigerator and decided to make a lemon, parmesan pasta with chicken for dinner. The Hildebrand/Kai house did not include something as fancy as a pasta machine, but I could easily make hand-rolled orecchiette using a rolling pin and my thumbs.
There was a small portable speaker on the windowsill over the sink, beside a row of potted herbs, that I connected to my Bluetooth so I could play some familiar songs from home. It made me slightly homesick, for Napoli or my family I wasn’t entirely sure, as I dug my hands into flour, salt, egg, and water to mix the dough while I hummed along to Umberto Tossi.
