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“I know. That’s just how it felt.” He pulls away from me, combs his fingers through his hair, and sits on top of that fateful stack of drywall sheets, staring at the plywood subfloor beneath his boots. I jump up to sit beside him, my own feet dangling just above the ground.
“My father always told me I’d amount to nothing. The ranch was getting more expensive. Big corporations were buying up all the nearby land. Feed was getting expensive. Fertilizer was even worse. Profits were in a perpetual nosedive. We were struggling, Georgia. Even from the time I was ten or twelve, I knew my parents’ finances were in bad shape. My dad took out his worries on me.”
I curl my hand over his, but Sebastian just shakes his head. “I’m not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me. You met the man. He was a mean old bastard and a bully. When he had his accident and wrecked his knee, I was a cocky seventeen-year-old.”
“You were very cocky,” I agree.
He snorts. “I had visions of taking over the ranch, saving it, and proving to my father that he was wrong about me. You’d be there by my side, beautiful and smart, helping me save my family’s legacy.”
A hard rock lodges itself in my throat.
“It was selfish. I knew you wanted more than to be someone’s wife. I knew you had dreams that were bigger than some run-down farmhouse on the edge of a dusty town, but I was so wrapped up in my own family drama that I didn’t even consider them. I loved you, Georgia.” He grins, glancing at me. There’s something in his eyes that’s hard to read, some tenderness I haven’t seen before. “I should have loved you enough to know you’d never be happy there, but instead I took it as an insult when you said no.”
“I loved you too, Sebastian.” That rock stays in my throat, making my voice croaky and weird. “It wasn’t easy to walk away.”
He uses the back of his hand to stroke my cheek, run his thumb along my jaw, trace the shell of my ear. “The damnedest thing is, I lost the ranch anyway.” A bitter smile. “Felt like a failure all over again, and when I saw you here, in your nice house and fancy clothes with that same beautiful face, I took that bitterness out on you.”
I hum. “You have been a bit of a jerk.”
He grins, and it’s devastating. No one should be that handsome. His smile fades, and his fingers curl around the back of my neck. I want to wilt into his arms, let him catch me against that broad, strong chest.
“There’s something between us,” he says, echoing my feelings.
“Unfinished business.”
“I’m not going to be able to stay away from you, Georgia.” He stares into my eyes, serious. “If I’m here, I’m with you. I won’t be able to share.”
My heart races. “Share?”
“If there’s something between you and that Desmond guy, tell me now. I know I’ll be able to leave, but I won’t be able to watch you with another man.”
The intensity of his gaze scares me, yet at the same time, it fills me with breathless anticipation. “There’s no one else.”
A bit of tension ekes out of him. He pulls me closer and kisses my forehead for one long moment. When we pull apart, a new connection exists between us. It’s fragile and full of hope, like the first spring shoot poking above the ground.
“What now?” I ask.
“Now we get your gallery up and running,” Sebastian says. “And when we’re not here, you spend every available minute tied to my bed.”
“You are such an arrogant jackass,” I say, smiling.
His eyes spark. “You’ll pay for that.”
I try to jump off the stack of drywall sheets before he can catch me, but Sebastian’s arms band around my waist and haul me over his lap. Squealing, I laugh and try to escape, but the more I struggle, the tighter he holds me. I end up lying across his thighs, my dress rucked up to my waist. I’m breathless, laughing, and a little turned on.
Okay, a lot turned on.
A sharp smack lands on my ass, sending a thrill shivering over my skin. I gasp, then blush. His palm soothes the stinging skin, gently tugging my panties up and out of the way, wedging one side of them between my cheeks.
“I can’t believe you just spanked me,” I say, trying to sound offended. It comes out breathless. My hips writhe and I feel an unmistakable bulge in his pants beneath me.
He’s as turned on as I am.
“You’ve been very bad,” Sebastian answers reasonably. “You pushed me away. You called me an asshole and a jackass at every possible opportunity. You tried to walk away from me, and you used another man to make me jealous.”
“I didn’t—”
Another hard crack of his palm against my bare bottom, and everything inside me turns liquid. I moan as his palm strokes and soothes the reddening skin.
