CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SEBASTIAN
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L eaning against the bar, I swirl dark liquid around in the bottom of my glass as Mason and Colt head my way. We don’t normally meet this early in the week—all of us busy with sports, women, or business events—but I need to update my friends on my engagement.
Real or not, they deserve to know what’s going on.
I already know how this is going to go, so I’ve prepared myself.
Drew and Zander were unavailable, so I’ll call them.
Colt nods to his bartender and two glasses appear on the bar. The guy pours twenty-five-year golden Macallan into them. Our regular drink of choice.
“What’s going on?” Mason asks, sitting on a stool.
Colt rests his arm between us and turns.
“I’m engaged,” I say, deciding to just lay it all out there.
Mason sprays his whisky across the bar and wipes his mouth along his forearm, while Colt lifts his glass to his lips and sips, all cool as a cucumber.
It’s an act.
But one he does well.
“Ah, so the sexy passenger/PA did actually get pregnant from sucking your cock.” Colt places his glass onto the polished bar.
Idiot.
I remain quiet, waiting for all the ribbing to take place. It’s better to get it over with.
“Oh god, is there video footage? Please tell me there is.” Mason keeps laughing so hard he has tears.
“Finished?” I ask.
“Not really. But I’m curious, so...explain,” Mason takes the napkin handed to him by the bartender and wipes his eyes.
“The sheikh pulled his funding, so Brandon came up with a plan for me to fake an engagement.”
I deserve all they throw at me. It’s the stupidest fucking idea ever. If it wasn’t for Emily, I doubt I would’ve gone along with this. Truth is, I was looking for an excuse to fuck her.
I’m not sorry at all.
If it kills two birds and all that, then Brandon might just get a fucking raise.
Mason shakes his head. “I’m sorry, how do those two things connect? Did I fall asleep and miss the middle?”
Right, he has a point. I did leave out a few things.
“He thinks I was groping his daughter in Dubai so—”
“Were you?” Colt asks.
“No. Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
The two men share a look.
Fuckers.
“No. I. Didn’t,” I reply, taking a long drink and letting out a loud sigh.
“ She grabbed my cock, and someone saw me remove her hand. Still, this is about pride for Khalid, being able to say it could never have happened because I’m a happy and in-love engaged man saves face for him. Shit works differently there.”
“Is it?” Mason lifts a brow. “Helping?”
I’m not sure.
“Hard to know. On Sunday night, Emily—”
“Wait. Emily? As in the girl from the flight, who is your PA and now your fake fiancée?” Colt stares, his brows high up his forehead.
Mason, the fucker, starts chuckling again.
“It sounds bad when you say it like that.” I slide my glass onto the bar and lift my finger to order another.
“Because it is bad. It’s a terrible fucking idea.”
I know.
If I could’ve kept this from them, I would have. I know exactly how ridiculous this entire thing sounds. Is. Since meeting Emily, my life seems to have tipped on its axis.
“We’re going to meet her tomorrow night. Is that what this is about?” Colt takes another sip.
That’s exactly what this is. I can’t have them meet her tomorrow night for the first time and act surprised. It is well publicized that we are friends.
I need to make sure the sheikh is not spooked.
Especially after the news I got just before leaving the office.
The zoning permits were denied. That has never happened before. Not in dozens of developments. We will need to update our funders in the next report. The one going out this Friday.
“Ring the DOB,” I told Brandon, referring to the Department of Building. “Find out what’s going on. This is bullshit.”
He scratched the back of his head. “It is. I’ll get in touch with our contact.”
Something has been nagging at me for weeks, but it’s time I started paying attention.
“Yes, you will see Emily tomorrow night, and I need you all to pretend that seeing us in love is normal and not amusing...like now. Wipe your goddamn smiles off your faces.”
They try. Fail. And burst out laughing.
“Jesus,” I mutter.
I glance across the bar to a table where Emily sits. She’s waiting for me to call her over, but I need these five-year-olds to get their shit together. I don’t want her to be embarrassed.
It's a good thing Zander and Drew aren’t here.
“Just follow our lead. Can you do that?” I rub my forehead.
“Why is she going along with this? Is she in love with you?” Colt asks.
“No. Fuck,” I reply too quickly, and because I don’t want to discuss my feelings for her, I wave out to Emily.
They both spin around as Emily climbs out of her chair and walks toward us.
“Jesus fuck,” Colt mutters into his drink after turning back. “She’s hot as hell.”
I growl low in my throat. “Hands off.”
His brows shoot up as he finishes his drink and then glances down at Emily, who steps right up beside me. My arm lifts and drapes around her without thinking.
“Wow.” Mason stares at Emily and then at me.
Shit.
We aren’t pretending right now, so there is no reason to do that. I straighten and wipe my hand over my jaw while Emily takes a half step away.
“Hi,” she says in her sexy accent.
“Colt Winters.” He shakes her hand.
“Mason Kingsley.” He waves from Colt’s other side. “Congratulations on your...engagement.”
“Fuck me.” Colt takes her hand and stares at her engagement ring. His eyes snap to mine, then glide slowly to Josh, who is standing a few feet away with his arms crossed. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
“Is that the Hope...no, the Oppenheimer diamond?” Mason and Colt share another look.
My jaw grinds.
“It has to look the part,” I tell them firmly.
Emily blushes. “I’m looking after it. Plus, I’ve got this big buy protecting me, and at night I’m with Sebastian so—”
“You’re living together?” Mason gasps. Then he starts a slow smirk and tosses back the rest of his drink. “That’s very nice.”
Dick.
“Well, he’s grumpy in the morning.” Emily glances at me and Jesus , if I were Colt or Mason, I’d think she was in love with me too.
Stop talking, Emily.
“Focused. Not grumpy,” I reply.
For a moment, as our eyes lock, I remember how she woke up in my arms this morning and I slid into her hot pussy. How, all day, I’ve been thinking about her seductive moans and the fire that blasts down my spine when I come inside her.
Only once have I fucked a woman bareback and I’m sure that’s what makes it different. But then, I spent a good seven or eight minutes watching her eyelashes flutter as she dreamed last night, the moonlight washing across her beautiful face.
That’s not normal.
I’m a little obsessed. But it will wear off.
“It’s because he doesn’t drink coffee.” Emily laughs and leans into my side again.
“Okay, you.” My hand slides over her hair, smirking before I can stop myself. “Let’s get home. I’m hungry and need a workout.”
“I bet you do,” Colt mutters into his glass.
“Ooh, can I join you?” Emily asks, oblivious to the double meaning.
Mason smirks as I nod and say sure , then slide some money onto the bar. “See you fuckers tomorrow night.”
“Goodnight, Mr. and Mrs. Remington.” Colt waves.
“They know it’s fake, right?” Emily asks as I tug her hand.
“Yeah, babe.”
Fuck. Don’t call her babe.