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If I knew what was good for me, I would never have started on this mission of revenge in the first place.
“That’s not how this works, not anymore,” I snap back. “You can’t just order me around, without any explanation. Like it or not, we’re in a relationship here,” I add, advancing closer. “And that means you need to treat me like a person, and not some toy you can pick up and put down when it amuses you.”
“I needed my space.”
“Why?’ I demand, moving closer. “After everything we shared in Italy, why are you suddenly pushing me away?”
“I can’t do this,” Sebastian takes another gulp of whiskey. “Not today.”
“What’s so special about today?” I shoot back at him, and he looks over at me, his eyes like bottomless pools of darkness.
“It’s the anniversary of my father’s death.”
Fuck.
I stand there—and my heart aches for him. “Oh, Sebastian,” I say, reaching out to hold him. “I’m so sorry—”
“Goddamn it, Avery!” Sebastian suddenly roars, eyes flashing. “Why are you even still here? You should have left when you had the chance!”
I gape, shocked, as Sebastian paces angrily. “Just say what you’re thinking,” he adds bitterly. “I’m a fucking monster, and we both know there’s no chance of redeeming me, so what the hell are you sticking around for? I don’t deserve even a second of your time!”
He hurls the bottle to the ground, and even though it smashes all the way across the room from me, I flinch at the sound.
“Just go,” he growls in a low voice, turning away, and I start to do just that—but then I stop.
There’s something about the way he spoke, the broken and wretched look in his eyes. Like he was filled with self-loathing and despair.
“You know what? No,” I vow, stalking closer. “Telling yourself you’re just a monster is just taking the easy way out.”
He stares at me incredulously for a moment. “What are you talking about?”
“Monsters aren’t born, Sebastian. They’re made,” I tell him, determined. “By the choices you make every day. And you can choose to do better. I’ve seen that you’re capable of it, in the way you take care of your sister, and everything Bianca said, about your charity work and all the good it does,” I exclaim. “But you prefer to just go ahead and declare you’re irredeemable, because it lifts you off the hook of ever having to try, and fail, and fight to be better like everybody else!”
Sebastian shakes his head, still furious. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know the truth about me—”
“I know plenty,” I interrupt him, with a sharp laugh. “Believe me, I still have the scars to show for it. So the fact I’m telling you this should mean something. You know, it would be easier for me, too, if you really were rotten to the core,” I add bitterly, “But you’re not. There’s a part of you that wants to be better, even if you can’t admit it to yourself!”
Sebastian stares at me. “You don’t really believe that…”
“I do,” I vow.
“But why?” his voice is edged with desperation now, and he looks so unlike himself, so lost and full of anguish that my heart aches to hold him. To make it better.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, conflicted. Even as I say the words, I’m fighting it. He’s supposed to be my enemy, but here I am, desperately wishing he could become a better man. “I can’t explain it, I wish I could. But I do.”
We stay there a moment, our gazes locked. The air crackles between us, and then I’m reaching for him, pulling his face down to me in a tormented, fevered kiss.
Sebastian doesn’t argue anymore. He just kisses me back like he’s a dying man, with nothing to lose.
And I feel the same way: Yanking him closer, greedy for the taste of him, our bodies slamming together against the wall as we stumble back. The heat is all-consuming, the fire of lust between us blazing out of control.
I’m pulling Sebastian’s shirt open, as he tears my robe open, and hikes up my nightgown, lifting me up and setting me on his desk. He bends his head, kissing down my neck and palming my breasts as I moan, arching into his hands.
I want him, now.
Ineedhim.
Fumbling with his belt, I unzip his pants and free his cock. It springs, hot and hard in my hands. Sebastian sounds a groan, thrusting against me, as I part my legs wider and position him at my core.
