Page 43 of Late Nights & Love Lines
“Well now, this is interesting.” Lottie’s voice bursts our overly erotic bubble like an explosion in a silent night.
I gasp and scramble to right myself while Sebastian takes his time unfurling himself to his full, upright position.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I got in this afternoon and was in the office with Leo. He got a notification that Sebastian had unlocked the infirmary, but it never said he left, so when we finished there I decided to come see how things were working out with you,” she says, but her eyes miss nothing as she scans the situation she’s found us in. “It appears I had nothing to worry about.”
“She’s injured,” Sebastian says. How the hell is his voice so calm? “I’ve been working on her back for an hour plucking these little fuckers out.” He holds up a pair of tweezers as if that explains it all. “But, as I was explaining, for the sake of professionalism, we should call in someone to help her with a more delicate area.”
He walks toward Lottie and hands her the tweezers.
“Rowan,” he says my name when he’s at the door but waits until I lift my gaze to his. “I’m really.” His throat works to swallow. “Really glad I could be the one to help you. I understand why you don’t trust easily, but you can always come to me.” His jaw ticks, and his gaze darkens as it sweeps overme one final time. “For anything. I’ll wait outside to carry you home.”
Then he exits, and the door snapping shut makes me jump. My mind is a battlefield, and I don’t know which side of the war I’m on anymore. It takes several minutes for me to realize Lottie’s talking.
“Are you okay?” Her question finally registers in my brain.
“Mm-hmm. I slid in some burrs. I have some poky things in my ass. Can you get them out?”
“It’s a good thing I love you, Rowan Ellis. But don’t for one minute think you’re going to get out of discussing whatever the hell that was with Sebastian—your client, I might add.”
Guilt turns my stomach. She’s worked so hard to build this company, but at the same time, far too many of her nanny matches have ended up with the title of wife. I know it’s just not for me, and something about that makes my insides tremble violently.
“It’s nothing,” I mumble.
“Don’t give me that when it smells of sex and happy endings in here.”
I scoff.
“Not that kind of happy ending. The kind that ends in a white dress and a picket fence.”
“No,” I nearly scream. “That’s not what this is. At all. I just—he’s Pappy’s grandson.”
She freezes with the tweezers held in the air. “Your Pappy? The one who showed up to graduation? The only other person on this planet that you talk to regularly. That Pappy?”
“Mm-hmm.” Words are getting twisted between my mind and heart, so I simply hum. One drunken night with Lottie, I spilled a lot of my secrets. I’ve never regretted it before now though.
“Whoa. So, how long have you known Sebastian?”
“I don’t. Not really. I knew him, past tense, from the age of eight to thirteen. But we weren’t really friends. It’s more that he felt the need to babysit me. I haven’t seen him since that last summer at Pappy’s.”
I hear a thud and lift my head to find that she’s dropped heavily into the chair beside the table. I recognize that starry-eyed gaze, but I want nothing to do with it.
“This is not a fairy tale or those spicy love stories you read, Lottie. It’s not some second-chance—or even a first-chance romance. I’m leaving in a few weeks. It’s what I know. It’s how I protect myself, and I’d rather be safe than live my life waiting every day for someone else to leave me. I can’t go through that again. I can’t.” My voice breaks, and so does her happy expression.
“Oh, hon. You’re beyond fucked up, huh?” She sniffles and giggles at the same time. It causes a very similar, but snotty reaction from me.
“I am,” I admit.
She nods, but I can almost hear the gears of her imagination spinning this tale into something fit for a princess. What she doesn’t understand is that sometimes it’s the princess who has to hurt the prince to survive—and that’s something I’d never want to do to Sebastian.
“Let’s get this over with then. You do have an amazing ass, but this is the very last thing I was expecting to do tonight.”
I lie down, and she swings the towel to expose one cheek. She gasps. “Holy crap, Rowan. What the hell did you do to yourself?”
“It’s a long story. Just do what you can, and I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
With a throaty chuckle, she gets to work on my butt. That’s an image that will need to be bleached from my mind in the morning.
