A small smile played at his mouth, but he rubbed it away with his hand as if he didn’t want to embarrass me.
“May I?” he asked, gesturing with his hand.
I nodded, but didn’t step back as he walked through the doorframe into the house. It was a large opening, but Sebastian and I were large men, so our shoulders brushed as he moved by, and electric sparks erupted through me at the contact.
I followed them inside, closing the door so I could take a moment to ensure all my walls were sealed shut and my hatches were battened down.
I would not be charmed by the fresh blitheness of Linnea Kai.
I would not be drawn in by the nostalgia and charm of Sebastian Lombardi.
10
LINNEA
Adam sat behind a palatial desk wearing a bespoke navy-blue suit that perfectly complemented his golden-haired handsomeness. His expression was stony, his hands clasped over the leather folio on the tabletop, as if he were an executive about to discipline unruly employees.
It was ridiculously attractive, and I found myself rubbing my thighs together as I sat quietly in my seat across from him.
The room was crowded with Adam’s manager, agent, lawyer, and crisis management representative alongside Sebastian’s agent and lawyer, both of whom had graciously agreed to represent me.
Even though the agreement was about me, I had yet to say a word the entire meeting.
The legalese and structure of outings, leaks to the press, and scheduled interviews being arranged were well above my pay grade.
Adam hadn’t looked at me once.
Sebastian, on the other hand, had reached for the arm of my chair and dragged it across the carpet to be closer to him the moment the teams started going at it.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked me quietly now, leaning closer to whisper.
“Like I’m hungry because I forgot to eat breakfast after surfing this morning,” I whispered back. “And like these guys need to relax a little bit. We don’t need every single thing scheduled. It’ll be too obvious.”
Sebastian nodded as he slid his arm along the back of my chair, his fingers tangling gently in the ends of my hair.
“Adam,” he said, and the word had the same effect as a bomb, silencing everyone at once.
Adam, who had done an amazing job of ignoring us both, finally looked over with a coolly raised brow.
“Linnea thinks this is overkill, and I have to agree,” Seb continued, gesturing to the women in the room who all had their calendars pulled up on their phones. “There needs to be some spontaneity and casualness to your relationship, or the press will sniff out the lie.”
“There will be rumours that she’s a beard,” Mi Cha Lee agreed. “But they’ll be drowned out by the narrative of the love story.”
“It won’t be a convincing love story if you plan to act like this when you take her on a fucking date,” Sebastian snapped.
And suddenly, the tension in the room was a palpable pressure on my chest.
I wasn’t the only one who looked between the only two men in the room with wide eyes.
Adam’s jaw clenched. “Why don’t you leave that up to me, mate?”
Mate, he said.
Like an insult.
Mostly because everyone there knew they were not mates anymore.
They were almost strangers except for the pile of baggage sitting in one corner of the room.
