My brow furrowed. I’d been around vamps more than any other paranormal, unfortunately, and nothing like that had ever happened.
“It happens if there’s a… strong connection. Like…” He scratched the back of his neck. “The day I first met you. At my mom’s center…”
“Oh,” I said, understanding hitting. “Like what we went through together, with Rico, you mean.”
“Uh, yeah, that could’ve contributed.” He shot me a sheepish grin that gave his big eyes an adorable shine. “I get it’s weird… and you may not want me in your head.”
I’d been too shocked that it was possible to think of it like that, but now that he mentioned it…
“I’ll try to control it,” he said hastily. “It’s new for me, too, though.”
“I appreciate it.” I finally sat down in the chair. “But don’t beat yourself up. I got in your head, too. Strange things do seem to happen in New Nebraska. And it’s… kinda cool, I guess. Like secret walkie talkies. I used to play spy with this one girl in my neighborhood, and we’d—”
The memory hit my sternum with crushing force. God, I hadn’t even thought of that in years. Where had Sarah ended up? Did she even remember me?
I cleared my throat to wrangle my looming tears and looked down at the newspaper to hide my face with my hair as I said through a fake chuckle, “I’m getting off topic.”
Scouring the page properly for the first time, I found the distraction I needed.
“Aww, poor Bryce,” I said. It was a photo of him stark naked, walking down the same patchy grass bank that Dagger and I had hurried up to try and help the tragic Fae girl.
The photo was poor quality, printed in smearable ink, but it couldn’t hide how perfect Bryce’s body was. I felt awful about lusting over what must have been such an embarrassment for him.
But I kept looking. All the muscles and skin on display was like a sexy trainwreck, drawing my eyes to the prize.
I looked up at Seb, hoping to keep down my flush, but the nervous mussing he’d done to his dark hair had tousled some waves intoit, and in the second before he realized I’d seen him, he was staring at me like I was a painting.
My heart flip-flopped, and I swallowed hard. “They wouldn’t be allowed to print this in the United States. That’s terrible.”
And hot.
Seb nodded. His voice was sympathetic as he leaned forward, motioning to take the paper away. “I know. Total invasion of privacy, and no journalistic integrity in the reporting either. There are photos like that spread all over the internet now too.” He cleared his throat, loosening his tie as some of his cheeks’ color resurfaced. “But I spoke to Mr. Harding about it. He just seemed to brush it off, said everything else about him was under exposure, so add that to the pile.”
I stole another peek at the photo and placed it into Seb’s hand.
His slender, artistic fingers brushed the back of my hand, spreading a tingle up my arm that only made my cheeks burn hotter.
“I’d die of embarrassment if that were me,” I said, mortified by how breathless I sounded. My admiration for Bryce was mixing with every tiny gesture from Seb until I couldn’t even tell which guy was causing which sensation. “I don’t think I’d leave the house again.”
“That’s the thing though, about New Nebraska. When it boils down to it, we’re quite different from the US about intimate matters and our physical forms. The media’s only jumped on that because he’s super rich and famous, not because he’s naked. I mean, maybe a little cause he’s naked.”
I snorted out a laugh, and a dreamy look washed over his handsome, sharp-angled face. He had a Renaissance statue look about him, I thought. Clean shaven, a little boyish, but carved in precise, beautiful lines.
… more gorgeous when she laughs…
Was he thinking about me? I tucked my hair behind my ear, self-conscious, and then felt heat hit my neck when another thought struck.
Had he heard me thinking abouthimwith this magical mind reading thing?
I quickly diverted my thoughts, scrambling for something else to say. “But, it’s not normal to have nudity on a news page, is it? At least not uncensored like that, right?”
Seb was breathing faster but feigned a casual shrug. “I’ve seen a few like that, of famous people. I don’t think it’s nudity, just obsession over celebrity. If that were my naked body on there, nobody would look twice.”
I found that hard to believe. My thoughts went straight to the unprofessional again. He had an Adonis thing going for him—slender but toned, with a great head of thick, black hair. I’d slide off those glasses and—
Knock it off, I scolded myself. He might… hear.
God, if she keeps thinking like that, I’m going to bow down at her feet and tell her to do with me whatever she wants.
