Chapter Thirteen #2
His hands ball into fists as he begins to pace, and it feels like he’s a bull ready to charge. “Quinn Prescott ran her mouth about… seeing me in New York… with you.”
I gasp, and my heart begins to accelerate. “You said she wasn’t going to say anything!”
“I didn’t think she would!” he says, responding with equal exasperation.
“Oh, I’m sorry, have you never heard the phrase hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? She’s pissed you rejected her. Of course she was going to fuck you over!” I exhale, trying to calm my nerves, but I’m already feeling defeated. “What does all of this mean?”
“My team is a little… worried about the optics. We have a few huge deals in the works, and they want to make sure nothing interferes with that.” He shakes his head. “But I’m not doing what they want.”
“Which is?”
“They think I should start dating someone… publicly.”
I blink at him, stunned. “What? That’s a thing?
Companies actually ask people to ‘fake date’?
If that’s the case, I don’t like my part in this potential romance novel,” I respond sarcastically although I’m very serious.
I’ve read this scenario enough to know that fake dating can become real dating at any moment.
Wild rolls his eyes. “I’m not doing it.”
“Do you have a choice?”
“I own the company.”
If he’s this bothered by their request, it means they do actually have some say in this decision. “My question still stands.”
“I’m not doing that. I belong to you in every scenario, real and fake. I don’t even like doing role-plays where I might potentially belong to someone else,” he says just before he takes my glass of wine from me and downs the rest of it.
“I’m assuming the idea to ‘date’ someone else is to discredit any idea that Quinn’s information was accurate.
But… it is accurate? So what would that even mean for us long term?
Again, I—we would just be reduced to the shadows?
We’d only be together in private?” I wince, thinking about a life where I’m only in a relationship with Wild behind closed doors while he has another relationship out in the open. I hate this idea.
“Fuck no,” he grits out, and then he’s grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the staircase.
“Where are we going?” He’s pulling me faster now as I trail him slowly.
“Privacy.”
“Here?” I ask as we make it to the top of the winding staircase.
The hallway is long and is lined with a few doors as if there are offices up here.
Wild opens a door and closes it before doing it to two more down the hall.
I follow him, listening for anyone else who may be up here.
When he opens one toward the end, he motions for me and pushes me into what I think is a coat closet.
It’s pitch-black, but I put out a hand and touch what feels like various types of wool and cashmere.
“Saint, I said I wasn’t doing it. I’d never do anything to jeopardize things between you and me. I’d never entertain another woman.”
My heart is pounding from this situation and from being at my stepmother’s engagement party, and I’d really hate to be caught in a coat closet with my stepbrother. “How bad is it if she goes public? I mean… What's stopping her from doing that now?”
“I think she already has. That’s why they were hoping my denial of it and me dating someone else would shut all of those rumors down.”
“Did you deny it…?” I ask before holding my breath because I’m not sure which answer will make me feel worse. Him denying us to protect me, or not denying us, and hearing about the fallout over the truth.
“To my PR team? I said my relationship was none of anyone’s business. They didn’t agree with that.”
“So you avoided the question?”
“I was caught off guard, and I wasn’t ready to tell them yet. So, no, I didn’t explicitly admit it, but they probably read between the lines.”
“What's the worst-case scenario, then? We come out as a couple, and your company suffers because people are no longer interested in working with you?”
“Or maybe they won’t care. My team is only speculating over some of the more conservative businessmen.”
“You said you’re in the middle of a few right now? Could it negatively impact those?”
“I don’t care. Fuck those deals.”
“You do care, and you’ve worked so hard—”
“So I would be good enough for you.” It’s too dark for me to see him, but I still know what facial expression crosses his gorgeous features.
Soft, yet stern and honest. “Everything I’ve always done has been so I could be good enough in your eyes.
Even if we were never together, your opinion and how you see me have always meant the most to me.
” Tears prickle in my eyes while he continues, “I wanted to be successful so you’d be proud of me.
So I’d always be able to take care of you, even if you weren’t mine to take care of. ”
I let out a shaky breath, wishing I had my drink still. “Well, congratulations, you’re very successful to the point that your relationships are everyone else's business.”
“Fuck,” he whispers before letting out a sigh of what sounds like defeat. “I may have to fly back tomorrow.”
I frown because I thought I was going to have one more day with him. “Okay.”
“I guess you can’t come with me?” he asks, and I hear the hope in his voice.
“I have class on Tuesday, remember?”
“I know,” he murmurs. “Can you come next weekend?” he asks, and I hear the desperation in his voice. “We are not taking a step back, Halle. We are together, and I’ll do anything to keep it that way.”
“I can probably come next weekend, but is that wise? For me to be out there?”
“I am not going longer than a week without you. So you can fly to Seattle, or I can come to you. I just know next week is going to be a shit show.”
“If you… did… agree to date someone publicly”—I swallow, already hating what I’m about to say—“what would that even entail? I mean… a couple of dates? Or do you have to be like… serious?” The thought of Wild doing any of this makes me sick, but I don’t want to be the cause of his company’s downfall.
I know some people will have firm opinions regarding us, and those people could cost him millions of dollars, I would imagine.
“I’m not doing it, Halle. The answer is no.”
The sound of his phone buzzing interrupts our conversation, and when it illuminates the closet, I get a better look at his face.
He looks irritated and anxious, and I know this means he’s going to need to fuck me really hard later.
“Hey, Mom,” he answers, and I can hear her clearly on the other side.
“Where are you?”
“I had to take a call for work.” I can tell he’s still annoyed but trying not to take it out on Sara.
“Ah, okay, I noticed Halle is missing as well, so… I wasn’t sure…” She trails off, and again, I’m left feeling like I used to all those years ago whenever I came up.
“You weren’t sure of what, exactly? That she was probably with me after Aunt Emily drunkenly accosted her?” I wince, because this is absolutely what I didn’t want. “And Mike’s little dig about us making more pragmatic choices? What was that about?”
“Sebastian, honey, I think you’re overreacting. And whatever Emily said to her was probably just her being a little defensive of me.”
“Defensive for what? What did Halle do to you that was terrible? What did she do to you today? She came here to be here for you. Not to mention, did you ever think that maybe this situation might be difficult for her as well?”
I shake my head vehemently at that, and mouth no, I’m fine! Because I didn’t want Sara’s night to be made about me. I certainly didn’t want to give Sara, Emily, or anyone else anymore ammunition that “everything was about me.”
“Well, I apologize if that’s been the case. Maybe if she ever talked to me, she could have communicated this to me herself.”
“Because you always made it easy for her to talk to you, right?” he says with a little bit of bite to his voice, and I sigh in response. I think this is probably the angriest I’ve ever seen him with Sara over this.
“Wild,” I whisper. “Can we not do this?”
“Are you really making this about what went on when you two were kids?” she asks. I really hope she’s alone for this conversation and not arguing with her son about me in the middle of her engagement party.
“It’s about all of it, Mom. You never made it easy for either of us to be honest with you—”
“Because I was just trying to get you guys to see what you were doing was wrong?” She interrupts.
“Well, I guess we are still wrong then because it’s been nine years, and we’re still in the same place we’ve always been.”
My stomach drops because of all the ways Wild and I discussed telling Sara, out of anger, while we were hiding in a closet during her engagement party, was definitely not on that list. Silence on the other end makes me think she hung up, but after a few moments, she speaks up.
“I’m not going back and forth with you about this right now.
This is not the time or place.” Her voice is calm and even, and I wonder if she had an inkling about this all along.
“Did you hear what I—”
“I heard you, Sebastian. And as I said, we are not doing this now.”
“Fine,” he answers plainly. “It was not the plan to tell you tonight.”
“I see. Well, we are sitting down to dinner shortly, so you two should probably stop whatever you’re doing and come sit with everyone.”
“I had a work call,” he repeats.
“Right, of course,” she responds, but the sarcasm is loud, and then the beeps indicating that she actually ended the call come through the other line.
Neither of us says anything, but I can hear his breathing, deep and labored and harsh. “Fuck this,” he growls, and then his lips are pressed to mine, and his hands are on my thighs, pulling my dress up around my waist because even in a pitch-black closet, Wild knows my entire body by heart.
This is the worst fucking idea, my mind practically screams at me.
He’s upset, and it’s making him feral and reckless, yet I can’t stop him. It’s just like it’s always been. We feed off each other’s energy, and his obsession with me makes me equally desperate for him.