48. Sebastian
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
SEBASTIAN
Lily: I’ve arrived. Jan’s home now so heading straight there.
Sebastian: Let me know when you get there.
L: I will.
S: And let me know how Jan is.
L: I will. Love you.
S: Love you too.
Yesterday 20.31
L: I’m home. Jan is exhausted but okay. Her wrist is in a cast. I feel better seeing her for myself.
S: I’m glad. Tell her I’m asking for her.
L: I did. How are things there?
S: Zac just told me he invited a bunch of people here tomorrow. They’re flying in from all over.
L: How do you feel about that?
S: It’ll be a distraction from missing you, I suppose.
L:
Today 09:22
S: Morning, Sawyer. How’s Jan?
L: Grumpy but fine. Annoyed at me for leaving you to rush to her side. The gratitude is overwhelming, I tell ya.
S: LOL. Secretly she’s pleased. I’m not. I missed waking up with you this morning.
L: Me too. What are the plans for today?
S: Apparently, I have a bunch of guests to welcome, remember. You?
L: I might as well study. Jan’s grumpiness is making me long for you and the villa. Remind me I love her.
S: You love your sister.
L: Thanks. Go have fun. We’ll talk soon.
S: Love you, Sawyer.
Today 22.23
L: So how did your day go?
S: It has been one long party. The place is packed with people. My parents might kill me if they ever find out.
L: Who are all these people?
S: Uni friends. School friends. People we know from the area.
L: Well, try to have fun. Go enjoy yourself. We’ll talk tomorrow.
S: Night, Sawyer.
L: Night, Thorne.
I stared down at the string of texts between me and Lily, wanting her with me for multiple reasons.
Truthfully, I was glad January was okay.
She reminded me a lot of Juno, so I’d grown rather fond of Lily’s younger sister.
If Juno had been in an accident, no matter how major or minor, I would have gone home too, so I understood Lily’s decision to leave.
But right now, she would have been the perfect buffer.
Last night, I’d locked myself in my room, avoiding Colette who came over as per Zac’s invitation.
Now, however, with all our old friends and acquaintances filling up the place, I didn’t feel like I could or should abandon the party.
Colette, as it turned out, wasn’t a problem.
She’d shown up again but was all over Zac.
The problem was Gisele Martin.
Gisele was the daughter of a family friend.
Her mother was English, her father French, and we’d run in the same circles for years.
We’d slept together casually over those years.
Since she was on spring holiday from Oxford at her family’s chateau a mere half an hour from here, she’d taken up Zac’s invitation and appeared with three of her friends.
The drunker she’d gotten, the more she attempted to drape herself all over me.
An edge of panic and guilt followed me around the party with her. No matter how many times I told her I had a girlfriend, she merely laughed like I’d said something funny.
“You look like a hunted animal.” Sierra appeared at my side, holding out a fresh beer.
“You saw?”
“Oh boy, did I see. Who is she?”
I explained my history with Gisele. “I’ve told her multiple times about Lily,” I promised. “It only seems to make her come-ons worse.”
Irritation tightened Sierra’s features when she caught sight of Gisele strolling into the kitchen with a drunken sway to her hips.
“Leave it to me.” Before I could speak, Sierra marched across the room and halted Gisele’s travels.
I couldn’t hear what was being said, but Sierra’s body language was aggressive and Gisele’s defensive.
When Gisele said something with a haughty lift of her chin, Sierra suddenly put her face in hers and said something that made Gisele blanch.
She raised her arms in a surrender gesture, threw Lily’s friend a huffy sneer, and whirled around on her six-inch heels, departing the room.
I slumped with relief. “Thanks,” I said with genuine gratitude when Sierra returned to my side. “What did you say to her?”
“I told her I’d give her a reason to get another nose job if she didn’t back off my friend’s boyfriend.”
I sniggered. “You didn’t?”
“That girl is already an entitled spoiled brat, something I can tell from having only met her for a minute. Add in too much alcohol and she needed some serious incentive to back off. You actually slept with her?” Sierra wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“I didn’t really care if she was nice.” I shrugged. “I wasn’t looking for a relationship.”
“Well, no wonder you fell for Lily if all you did before was surround yourself with the Giseles of the world.”
“It’s not all I did. I’ve hung around with some very nice women. Smart, sexy, funny women. But none of them felt right. Because they’re not Lily.”
Sierra clinked her bottle against mine. “That’s how I feel about her friendship. Never had a friend like Lily. I’m going to miss the hell out of her.”
At the trembling of her mouth, she took a pull from her beer bottle to cover up the emotion. I drew her into my side and pressed a quick kiss to her temple. “She’s going to miss the hell out of you. But I promise I’ll take care of her.”
Lily’s friend gave me a grateful nod. “Do you need me to stick around? Play bodyguard some more?”
“No. Go have fun.”
“Great. Because I have my eye on your old school pal Brendon.”
“Brendon Platt?”
“That’s the one.”
I grinned. Lucky Brendon. “Don’t let him get too drunk, then. He’s useless to anyone after four beers.”
Her eyes widened comically. “Noted. Bye!”
I waved her away and dug my phone out of my pocket. My fingers hovered over the text conversation between me and Lily. Yet it was late. She might be asleep. And surely, I should be able to enjoy a party with my friends without my girlfriend around.
We would not become one of those sickening codependent couples.
I threw back a swig of beer and ventured through the kitchen to find Harry.
For a while I had fun with Harry catching up with old friends.
An hour later, however, people were starting to break off into couples (throuples and groups in a few cases too), and the pool looked like the beginning of an orgy.
Harry seemed pissed at Sierra for making out with Brendon (I made a note to ask Lily if she knew if something had actually happened between those two) and had buggered off with some random.
Zac was hooking up with Colette again. And Maddie had disappeared into her room and locked it ages ago.
Deciding it was time to do the same, I locked the bedroom door on the primary suite and sank down onto the bed with a groan.
I’d turned down the music, but it still played softly throughout the house because of the wired sound system. There were trickles of laughter and groans coming from the pool area.
My parents would kill me if there was any damage to the house after this blowout. I was going to kill Zac for arranging this without asking.
The plan had been to drag myself up off the bed to change into something to sleep in, but I must have started to drift off because it took me a second to realize there was someone climbing over my body.
My eyes flew open as her face came toward me and her lips crashed down over mine.
The too-sweet perfume couldn’t mask the overwhelming smell of rum from the many rum and Cokes she’d downed that evening. Gisele groaned into my mouth, her fingers tugging down the zipper on my jeans.
What the hell!
There was a flash of white behind my closed eyelids and I put it down to the molten anger flooding me. It took everything in me to control it so I wouldn’t hurt her as I gripped her arms and shoved her away. Her taste on my tongue made me want to bloody spit all over the bedcovers. “Get off!”
Horror filled me to realize Gisele was straddling me without her shirt or bra on. She laughed, cupping her bare breasts with a ridiculous pout. “Oh, come, Sebby, you know you want to.”
“Fucking hell.” I pushed her with less gentleness this time and rolled off the bed.
The sliding doors out to the pool were half open, as were the curtains. I’d forgotten to lock them.
Gisele pouted, arching her back as she turned to huff, “You’re seriously rejecting me ?”
Grabbing the throw off the bed, I threw it at her. “Cover yourself up and get out of my room. In fact, find your clothes and get out of my house.”
“You can’t be serious?”
Rage bubbled beneath my surface. “If I did to you what you just did to me, it would be sexual assault. Do you understand that?”
“No, it wouldn’t because I wouldn’t have shoved you off!” Gisele pushed away the throw and jumped off the bed, moving past me to grab the top and bra she’d discarded. “I can’t believe this!”
“Really? Because I think I made myself clear all bloody night!”
“You don’t have to yell at me!”
I grabbed my head in my hands, my fingers tightening into my hair in agitation. “Get out before I say something I will regret.”
Gisele frantically pulled on her clothes, anger mottling her pretty face. “You’re a prick!”
“And you’re an entitled brat.” I gestured to the door. “There’s your exit.”
“Fuck you!” She fumbled with the bedroom door and flew out of it, slamming it so hard I think I heard a crack.
“Wonderful.” Shaking from the incident, I moved to close the sliding doors and lock them, pulling the curtains over. I still felt a bit dazed by the whole thing, but an edge of panic rode me at the thought of Lily ever finding out and assuming the worst.
She wouldn’t, though.
She trusted me.
I knew she had a history with men that made it hard for her, but she trusted me.
A loud banging on my bedroom door had me growling in renewed fury. If Gisele was back … I crossed the room and yanked it open.
Zac stood on the other side, his expression dark and sullen.
“What? What’s happened now?”
“I saw Gisele coming out of here.”
His accusatory tone had my panic rising to the fore. “It’s not what you think.”
“Really? Because I think you’re Sebastian Thorne, the biggest player I’ve ever met in my life.”
“I didn’t cheat on Lily. Gisele broke in here and tried to assault me.”
Zac scoffed. “Right. Well, I’m sure that was hard for you.”
“Zac—”
“You’re going to hurt her.” His face twisted with anger. “You don’t deserve Lily and eventually you will hurt her. So do us all a favor and break it off now before you mess up her life.” My friend turned on his heel and stormed off before I could respond.
My gut twisted with fear and dread.
I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong.
And yet, that insidious voice that had kept me away from Lily in the first place reawakened at Zac’s words. He was my friend, after all. He knew me well.
What if he was right?
What if I ended up hurting the one person it would kill me to hurt?