You stayed.
A heavy weight began to grow in my belly. It had been selfish of me to ask that of him. And looking into his eyes now, I wasn’t even sure he remembered.
“You’re acting like everything is black and white, and it’s not. I—”
“I was in love with you.” His eyes grew shiny. “I told you so many times how much you meant to me. How I couldn’t do this without you. You never once said it back. You were my first everything, Evie. Do you know what that did to me?”
“I—” Tears welled in my eyes, obscuring my vision.
“Did I mean anything to you?” His voice cracked as he asked, and suddenly, he wasn’t the man I’d met this afternoon. The charming, cocky movie star. He’d reverted back to the boy I knew and loved all those years ago.
“Yes, you did,” I whispered. I pressed my lips together tightly. Him close to tears had me close to crying as well. “Sebastian, that night changed me.”
“I’m not talking about your mom. I’m talking about me. About us. What we did before we went to the studio. Forgive me if I don’t believe you when you say I meant something. You left a few days later and never looked back. Tell me, Evie. How long did it take for you to forget me?” He pushed off the wall and stepped toward me, raising one arm to pin me against the doors. As he leaned into me, I could smell the whiskey on his breath. It mixed with his cologne in a delicious, dangerous concoction. My breathing quickened as I tilted my head to look up at him. “A month? Maybe two? We saved ourselves for each other, but we never made promises past that night. Tell me, who was the next guy you fucked? Did he look like me?”
“You’re drunk,” I said but didn’t push him away.
“So? Answer me.”
“No,” I said firmly. I lifted my hands to his chest to push him away, but when my palms fell against his muscles and I could feel the hard lines of his chest, my resolve fluttered. He must have caught my reaction, because he chuckled.
“That’s all because of you.” He moved back just slightly, and I breathed in relief as my hands dropped from his body. He reached for the top of his shirt and began unbuttoning it, pulling it open to reveal a spectacular set of abs decorated with tattoos. They were all movie themed, but the one that caught my eye was a large chainsaw on the side of his ribcage, with a bloody ribbon that said,Groovy. It was fromEvil Dead. One of my all-time favorite movies. My vision glossed over the rest of his ink and focused on the muscles. I stared, counting each pack.
Eight.
“With you gone, I stopped fighting this town. I threw myself into work, made sure I could cry on cue. When I wasn’t on camera, I was in the gym, molding my body into what they wanted. And man, did they want me. Your rejection did wonders for my career, Evie Reyes.”
I tore my gaze from the V leading beneath his pants. “I was in a bad place mentally, and I needed to cut ties with everything in this town.” I was this close to telling him the complete truth about why I was here, but he interrupted my thoughts.
“But now you’re back.” He reached out, his knuckles grazing my jaw.
Delicious shivers slid down my chest, through my stomach, and settled between my legs. I tightened my core and inhaled deeply, trying to steel myself.
This was bad. I turned my head toward the doors. When was someone coming to help us?
He leaned back in, and reflexively, I tilted my face up as he nuzzled his nose against my cheek. “Evie, this feels like a dream. It’s been five years, and the moment I saw you across the lot, time went away. It could have been five days or five decades, I won’t stop feeling how I feel about you.” His hand brushed my hair back behind my ear, and I gasped as he whispered in my ear.
“And I can tell by the way you stare at me that you feel it too. Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?”
My heart had slowed, but each beat screamed in my ears. His head moved, inky black hair falling over his eyes. His lips hovered an inch from mine. If I moved even a fraction...
A pounding on the doors rattled the metal, bringing me back to what was about to happen. I shoved Sebastian back and moved away from the door.
“That’s from the book, not the movie,” I said lamely as Sebastian glared daggers at me.
“Are you okay?” a man shouted from the other side.
A low growl came from Sebastian as he leaned forward and pulled the emergency button back out. The doors opened a moment later, revealing two security guards and a maintenance man.
“It’s fine. Button got pushed by accident,” Sebastian muttered. The men looked from Sebastian, with his unbuttoned shirt, to me with my flushed cheeks, and embarrassment flooded me. I put my hands over my face.
“Everything good?” the maintenance man asked again.
“Yes, thank you,” Sebastian said.
The men left quickly.
Sebastian exited the elevator then turned to me, reaching his hand out. “Come on. Let’s go to your room so we can keep talking.”
