Page 48

Still not opening my eyes, I felt around. The cookies. Tamilee must have grabbed them from my bag. A little bold of her to go into my things without permission, but whatever. “Thanks.”

“Having fun?” an amused male voice asked.

Not Tamilee. Seb. I should have known Tamilee wouldn’t invade my privacy like that. I wouldn’t have thought Seb would, either, but men didn’t understand the sanctity of a woman’s purse.

I opened my eyes to glare straight into his green ones. “Don’t go through my things. That’s rude.”

“I didn’t.”

I waved the bag in his face. “These are my cookies.”

“I found them on the kitchen counter next to your water bottle. Figured you’d meant to take both…” He let his shrug finish the sentence for him, then handed me my water bottle. “Here.”

“Oh. Thanks.” My brow furrowed as I took a long gulp of water. I wasn’t a flaky person. And I definitely didn’t forget snacks. Ever. “You didn’t have to bring them here. I appreciate it, though. I’m not usually so scatterbrained.”

He cocked his head. “I know you’re not. The kind of stress you’re under would make anyone forgetful. And I’m not going to let you face Tamilee without snacks. The woman is a tornado.” I was still frowning, so he gently took the cookies from me, opened the baggie, and pushed one against the seam of my lips. “Bite, Lila.”

I obeyed without thinking, my mind still occupied with how I had left my snacks and water behind. I could have sworn I put them in my bag. I could see it all so clearly: my bag on the counter, the cookies next to it, me tightening the lid on the bottle I had just filled with ice water. I chewed, perplexed.

Then the sugar hit my bloodstream, and my brain turned back on.

Seb had walked out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. He’d paused in the hallway doorframe with his abs out and glistening with water droplets and said, I’ll drive you to the health center if you give me a minute to get dressed.

I’d grabbed my bag and fled.

His brows furrowed. “What?” he asked, and I realized I was glaring again.

Fucking Seb and his fucking abs.

“Nothing,” I mumbled. “Thanks for the cookies. I really do appreciate it.”

He handed me my water bottle, and I tipped it to my mouth, letting the icy water cool me from the inside out.

“Seb!” Tamilee greeted him as she pushed open the door. “I was hoping you would come by tomorrow, but since you’re here now, we might as well take advantage of it. You got a minute to be our attacker? I’m stronger than Lila, but she’s got a few inches over me in height. I want her to know how it feels with someone bigger than her.”

Seb held my gaze as he turned his face to holler back over his shoulder, “Does Lila get to beat the shit out of me?”

“Sure does,” Tamilee said cheerfully.

I arched an eyebrow at him. His eyes glinted.

“I’m in,” he said.

I wondered if he thought I would go easy on him. He had brought me cookies, after all.

“I’m not going to go easy on you,” I informed him.

He leaned into my space. “Baby, I want you to come at me with everything you’ve got.”

The way my old nickname sounds on his lips, the look on his face when he said it… Even picturing those damn suitcases was no use when he called me baby. It was everything we were. Everything we lost. I let out a low, frustrated growl. “Stop calling me that.”

“Make me. Baby.”

He didn’t wait for instructions from Tamilee. He didn’t wait for me to prepare. He came right at me. He grabbed my wrist and squeezed hard enough to hurt, forcing my fingers to release the water bottle. It clattered to the ground.

I stared at him, open-mouthed and furious. Forgetting the lesson that Tamilee had drilled into my head only ten minutes ago, I tried to tug my arm away—Tamilee groaned in disappointment—but he only tightened his grasp. “You’re hurting me.”

“What are you going to do about it, baby?” he taunted.