Page 57 of Mr. Aster
Sebastian: Well, if I get angry, our vacation in Mexico will suck as badly as if we were at your house with my parents. So, I’m reining in my irritation that the world thinks we’re getting married and focusing on the fact that no one will expect me to be on that auction block.
Darcy: We need to get out of this lie. We have to figure something out.
Sebastian: Relax. I’m the only one who will have to deal with hell about it, and I’m not bothered by it. Once we end our fake relationship, all this bullshit goes away. People like me get dumped all the time for being assholes, and it usually happens during the engagement, anyway. It’ll just be more believable.
He had a point. Countless people in his circle broke off engagements. His brother, Mark, blew his whole wedding in Monaco to hell when he skipped the event midway and took off to some tropical island, leaving his future bride crying in her dressing room with hundreds in attendance. It was more common for the crowd that Sebastian rolled in to break an engagement than for them to see it through and marry.
I smiled in relief.
Sebastian: I need to put a ring on it, though. So, before we meet Spencer and Nat, we need to find a place for me to purchase one.
Darcy: We’re flying to Mexico. Where do you think you’re going to buy a ring quickly?
Sebastian: I guess there’s always the beach…I hear they’ve got some tremendous nickel-plated, adjustable bands at reasonable prices. They even walk around and offer them to you while you’re laying out, getting a tan.
Darcy: Well, you’re adamant about flying coach, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you want to save money.
Sebastian: Hilarious, but do not worry. I’m sure Riviera Nayarit won’t let me down when it comes to the perfect ring. No nickel-plated beauties for you.
Darcy: Well, thanks. I’m not picky, but I prefer rings that don’t make my skin turn green. A few thousand dollars for a ring should get you off the hook. :P
Sebastian: Of course. As if this whole charade isn’t costing enough already.
I glanced over at him just to be sure that his dark side hadn’t returned and was pleasantly surprised to see a sexy smirk on his face. When he turned to smile at me, the fucking guy made my heart flutter again.
I didn’t want to spend a week in Mexico with Sebastian being the asshole I knew him to be, but I was beginning to feel torn about that now, too. It was scaring me that my body was absently reacting to the nicer side of him so noticeably. If he were a dick, there would be no chance I would find him attractive—like I’d been doing since last night—but he wasn’t behaving that way, and that was starting to seem like it might be a problem.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sebastian
Losing my shit on Darcy for announcing that I was her fiancé to all the weirdos filming us on our exhausting commercial flight wouldn’t get me anywhere. I was shocked the word would even cross her mind where I was concerned, but her mortified reaction diffused the bomb that’d nearly exploded inside me, and I couldn’t manage to react to her in any way but nicely.
Something about this made me enjoy the charade much more than I would if it were actually real. Something that surprised me most was how I felt after impulsively kissing her. I might’ve been faking everything else, but my reaction was quite real in the sense that it had awakened something inside of me that’d been dormant for many years, even when my wife was alive. I had to dismiss the electric current that shot through me, which was easy to do once I tapped into reality—it was just a simple kiss I initiated because I saw phones were recording. It was a means to an end. My lips being on another woman’s hadonly elicited this reaction because I’d been alone for too long. Putting that into focus was all it took to dismiss my hormonal reaction, something that I didn’t want in my way or affecting my senses when it came to Darcy Burke.
The bizarre part was that even though I shook the feelings off, my body seemed to crave those sensations again. Fortunately, my mind knew what my body didn’t, which was that Darcy was the wrong woman to havethosefeelingsfor.
I was battling these strange waves of emotions, which only added to the challenge of landing in a foreign country without having the luxury of my flight crew to handle the hassle that came along with going through customs at the airport.
I watched Darcy effortlessly go through all the tedium of baggage claims and passport control as if she did this every day. She was totally unaffected, but I was ready to shove everyone out of our way and demand the customs officer to hurry up because I had places to be. Luckily, I was able to restrain myself, but barely.
I’d booked the St. Regis Hotel in Punta Mita, and I couldn’t wait to arrive so I could take a fucking nap. After returning countless texts and emails about my private life, thanks to social media, I began working on a new financial budgeting system for the winery. I’d done all those things to keep my mind off the stupid kiss I never should’ve stolen, but it was exhausting, nonetheless.
Once loaded in the private van I’d hired to take us to the hotel, the faint smell of strawberries and coconut smacked my olfactory senses, giving my brain the green light to think about the softness of that berry gloss-flavored kiss again. I blinked a few times and pinched the bridge of my nose in growing frustration.
“Headache already, darling?” Darcy said, taking full privilege of using pet names again now that we wereengaged.
If you only knew,I thought, bringing my eyes to meet her sky-blue ones that seemed to brighten all of Mexico.I’m going to be in trouble if I don’t pull it together.
“Hunting for the perfect ring has forced my eyes to cross,” I smirked at her, knowing the driver wasn’t about to gossip about my personal life if he wanted to keep his job.
“Well, we could call off the engagement,” she shrugged, eying the driver as if he were rude enough to add his input.
He said nothing but brought his eyes to inspect us in the back seat through his rearview mirror.
“Why would I call off an engagement with the love of my life?”
“Because maybe it’s not meant to be. Last I checked, things like rings and stuff should come naturally when you’re in a relationship. If it’s not working out, maybe that’s a sign.”
