“Oh, sugar,” he murmured. “If you think that feels good, how about this?”
Sebastian withdrew a bit, then surged back up inside me, deeper and harder than before. I groaned again, clutching at his shoulders. He grinned and drove himself into me again and again. I met him thrust for thrust, our moans shattering the silence, until I finally screamed from the pleasure of it all and let myself go as I never had before. Sebastian shuddered against me, finding his own release.
And when the world fell away, and the stars flashed before my eyes, and I finally came back to myself, I almost wanted to weep, knowing that this would be the first—and only—time that we would ever be together.
When we finished, Sebastian collapsed on the sheets beside me. For several minutes, the two of us lay there, panting and coming down from the intense high that we’d reached. Finally, I turned to face him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and started to draw his mouth back down to mine for another kiss, but Sebastian put his finger against my lips, stopping me.
“Let’s have a drink.”
He got up, grabbed my glass from the nightstand, and handed it to me. Then, still naked, he walked over to a cabinet on the far side of the room, pulled out a bottle, and poured himself a tumbler of Scotch. He came back over to the bed, sat down next to me, and clinked his glass against mine.
“To us.”
“To us,” I whispered back, my heart clenching, knowing that there wouldn’t be an us.
Not after tonight.
Sebastian threw back half of his Scotch, but I only took a small sip of champagne, grimacing at the taste. He noticed my sour face.
“You don’t like it?”
I shook my head. “Too sweet for me.”
“Take another couple of sips,” he urged. “You might discover that you like it after all.”
He polished off his Scotch. I brought the glass to my lips again, but I didn’t take another drink.
“Mmm,” I said, not wanting to hurt his feelings. “It does taste better than before.”
I quickly set the glass on the nightstand, sliding it behind the lamp so he wouldn’t notice how little I’d drunk. Then I reached up and pulled the few remaining pins out of my hair, since most of it had come undone already.
I lay back on the bed, thinking that Sebastian would come back over to my side, but instead, he moved around the room, getting rid of the used condom and cleaning himself up. When that was done, he grabbed his clothes from where they had fallen on the floor and started putting them back on.
One second, Sebastian was as naked as I was. The next, he was fully clothed again. I blinked, wondering where the last two minutes had gone and why I suddenly felt so tired. Sebastian had been an intense lover, but I wasn’t ready to conk out on him just yet—not when I’d have to leave him for good in the morning. But try as I might, I couldn’t make myself find the energy to get up off the bed. Instead, my elbows slid out from under me, and I hugged a pillow to my chest, even as I stared at Sebastian.
“Where are you going?” I finally asked, my voice sounding weak and far away to my own ears.
“Don’t you worry, sugar,” Sebastian said, shrugging back into his tuxedo jacket. “I’ve got a bit of last-minute business to attend to, and I have to make sure that all of the guests leave, but then I’ll come back for you, and we’ll spend the rest of the night together in bed. Okay?”
“Okay,” I mumbled, even though I knew that I needed to get up, put my clothes back on, go to the library, and search for the file while Sebastian was distracted with his other business.
But I couldn’t move. Every single part of me felt heavy and languid, as though it would take the greatest effort that I’d ever summoned simply to get off the bed.
Sebastian started to leave, but I made a small noise of protest, and he came back over to the bed. He let out an annoyed sigh, as if I was keeping him from something important, but he leaned down and started kissing my neck, his hands sliding over my br**sts again, and I forgot about everything else. But after another minute, I couldn’t even concentrate on that, and my body grew slack and still under his.
“That’s right, sugar,” Sebastian murmured, his voice sounding strangely smug to my ears. “You stay put until I get back.”
“Okay,” I mumbled again.
And that was all that I remembered before the world went black.
20
A sharp poke in my shoulder woke me sometime later.
At first, I wondered who it was, but then I realized that it was probably Finn messing with me, trying to make me get up before I wanted to.
But wait . . . why would Finn be in my bedroom? We weren’t kids anymore, even though he still teased me like it. And he didn’t even live at Fletcher’s house anymore . . . I started to slide back into the darkness . . .
The poke came again, a little more insistent this time.
“Go away,” I mumbled.
All I wanted to do right now was drift back to the quiet, black place where I’d been. It was nice there. Warm, safe, soothing, peaceful.
The poke came a third time, followed by a small hand gripping my shoulder and shaking me. My head snapped to the side, causing an ache to roar to life in the back of my skull and pulling me out of the dream that I’d been in. Or was I still dreaming now? I couldn’t tell, but I finally managed to open my eyes.
Charlotte’s face loomed above mine.
I blinked and rose onto my elbows, the room spinning around at that small, simple motion. “Charlotte? What are you doing in here?”
A cool gust of air-conditioning hit my body, and I realized that I was still sprawled across Sebastian’s bed, completely naked. I quickly grabbed the sheet and flipped it over my body. More pain spiked through my skull at the movement. I groaned. My head felt so strange, so fuzzy, as if I’d drunk far too much champagne, although I’d only had one sip.
Charlotte stared at me another moment, then bolted into action. She moved around the room, grabbing my silver dress and throwing it at me, along with my panties, purse, and shoes. I watched her, wondering what she was doing, blinking and still trying to clear the fog from my mind.
Charlotte saw that I wasn’t doing what she wanted me to. She shook her head, stomped over to the bed, and shoved the gown into my lap.
“You have to get dressed,” she said, her voice stronger than I’d ever heard it before. “You have to leave. Now.”
“Leave? Why? Did something happen? What’s wrong?” My words slurred together, and my voice sounded faint and far away, as though I were standing in a cavern and listening to my own echo.