Page 66 of Sebastian's Secret

“You agree that you’re mean?” Her lips twisted with amusement.

“I agree that I’m falling in love with you, as well.”

An incredible sense of liberation washed over him as he confessed his feelings. He probably shouldn’t tell her so soon after meeting, but every fiber of his body vouched for the sentiment. She was the missing piece of his life, and he would not let her slip away.

“Wow.” Twisting to face him, she placed her hand over his. “Is this really happening?”

“Yes.” He noticed the tears in her eyes, and hoped they were because she was happy and not sad. “You’re mine now, little girl.” He gave her a fake leer.

“Oh no!” Her growing smile reassured him, despite her feigned distress. “How will I get away?”

“You won’t get away.”

He met her gaze as he stopped for a red light. He had intended to take her back and topple her over the edge of ecstasy, but recent events at the Monroe house had steered him in a spontaneous new direction. Sensing how rattled the encounter with her father and brother had left her, Sebastian knew there would be a better time to ratchet up his little girl’s desire again. It wasn’t this moment. Now instead, he wanted to share with her, to reveal who he really was.

As the light changed and he pulled away, his father’s voice echoed caution in his head.

‘Sebastian.’

‘Father?’ Sebastian’s brow creased at the odd experience. Why was he hearing his dad’s voice in his head? Michael had been dead for years.

‘Be careful what you share, my son.’

It was definitely Michael Vaughn’s voice.

‘The woman is a Monroe.’

‘I know who she is,’ Sebastian snapped, both irritated and confused in equal measure. ‘But you don’t decide what she means to me.’

A joyful surge of triumph flooded him as the thought cemented.

‘No one does.’

Pushing his father from his mind, Sebastian winked at Rebecca.

“I hope you never want to.”

***

Rebecca

“I won’t.”

Caressing the top of his hand, Rebecca studied his profile. Sebastian was so impossibly handsome, but something about his demeanor revealed conflict, as if he was agonizing about a decision. She hoped the turmoil wasn’t due to her. “I won’t ever want to.”

It was a preposterous assertion to make about such a short-lived romance, but deep in her soul, Rebecca knew it was true. She would never regret the choices she had made about Sebastian. Whatever came next was filled with passion and possibility, and if she had learned anything it was that there were no substitutes for those sentiments. She would forever be thankful.

“I want to take you somewhere,” he announced.

“To bed?” she asked, half-jokingly.

It was true that she needed him to put her out of her sexual misery, but since they’d left the Monroe house, Rebecca sensed a shift in both of their priorities. They already knew their chemistry was off the charts, but there was more to their connection than only sex. Sebastian had never only been a one-night stand. Even when she had tried to pretend it was true, she hadn’t succeeded.

“Later.” He offered her a ridiculously sexy smile, and all of the muscles of her sex contracted at the gesture. “But first, there’s something else.”

“Something… else?” Her heart picked up its pace at the sudden strain his voice. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” he reassured as he pulled his hand back to the wheel. “But I want to be entirely honest with the woman I’m falling for.”