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Chapter Eleven
– Lilly -
He either had the bestmattress in the world or waking up in the same bed as Sebastian St. Valentine was the closest to heaven I’d ever been. It wasn’t like those movies where people sleep in each other’s arms all night. No one really does that, do they? It was just the comfort of knowing he was just a foot away, close enough that I could feel his presence, but not too close, not on top of me, not suffocating me. I had the space to breathe, but the warmth of his body wasn’t far away.
Heaven.
Hell.
More like trapped in some purgatory between the two where peace and joy were on the other side of a burning void you couldn’t reach through.
Sebastian rustled in his sleep, and I turned to face him with my head cradled in the crook of my arm.
He was every bit as handsome when he was asleep as he was when awake, just without the knitted brow that gave him that slightly intimidating look. His presence was commanding, yet he had an irreverent sense of humor that made me giggle like I was fifteen again.
He was a constant source of heated attraction and roll-your-eyes moments when I wanted to let him know he wasn't my boss.
And then there were the moments, like last night when I was wrapped in diamond-laced cuffs, that I desperately craved his dominance.
I wanted to sleep in his bed all night and avoid him all day.
So far, I've done nothing to make him regret his decision. Not about this sad excuse for a kidnapping, but about the way he’d walked away from me and left me to deal with his absence. I hoped for too much. I thought he’d fight for me.
I understood. He was standing up for his sister and making a stand against whatever had happened between Suzanne and Gabriel.
Had she told him? Did he know what the hell that was all about? It was another secret Gabriel kept from me. He made it very clear when we’d returned home that day that the subject of Suzanne St. Valentine was completely off limits.
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. The room was barely brightening as the sun began its ascent in the sky. I looked around Sebastian’s room, decorated with the same air of masculinity and sparseness as the rest of the house.
This man needed a little color in his life.
He was too confident, too cocky. Things came too easily for him.
I bit my lip and slowly sat up. He said this situation wasn’t permanent. He had a few so-called “things” to take care of and then we were returning to Connecticut “together” to get the boutique ready for its grand opening. He hadn’t explained what “together” meant. Would I still be his captive? It was one thing to go along with his charade, so as not to make my mother worry, but what was the end game? He thought Dante was trying to kill him for some unknown slight.
Maybe everything would make more sense to me if I wasn’t always being treated like an afterthought. I was a hindrance to everyone’s plans or a tool to help them get what they wanted. Sebastian thought having leverage over me would keep him alive. I wasn’t sure about that.
But I knew that as much as he aggravated me, as much as he’d hurt me in the past, I didn’t want him dead. He only shared a bit of information with me, like judging the entire cake by what one finger swipe of the icing tasted like. My cooperative behavior led him to think this plan of his would work.
Maybe it would.
Or maybe it wouldn’t.
Even if I couldn’t actually escape, I deserved the right to try, a right he fully awarded me. I mean, how boring would it be if I didn’t at least try?
I grabbed my dress from the floor and quickly put it on. I picked up all other signs of my presence in the room and made a quick sprint down the hall and up the stairs to my room—or rather, the room that was assigned to me.
I rummaged through the closet and found a gray velour track suit and some running shoes. A quick shower, my hair in a ponytail, and the game was afoot.
Good morning, Sebastian.
By the time I finished a brief exploration of the rooms in the house, at least all the ones without locked doors, the sun was up. I hadn’t seen anyone except the chef and another staff member in the kitchen.
As if I were just another houseguest, the chef asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee and some breakfast. It was too early for me to eat, but I took a mug of coffee along on my journey outside. I wanted to talk to the two of them, but more importantly, I wanted to take an uninterrupted tour of the outside. I couldn’t make any escape plans, half-hearted or not, if I didn’t know what the possibilities were.
Like the interior, the exterior of Sebastian’s Adirondack home was massive, but simple, with a large stone exterior, the plainly decorated patio area where we had dined by the pool last night, and a long, paved driveway leading from the garage at the side of the house to a gate off in the distance. Far. But not too far. I didn’t run into anyone else while I was walking around the house, but I knew there had to be people around.
I just had to find them.
