Chapter 42
Chapter
Forty-Two
My head turned in time with Sebastian's at the high-pitched female voice, shouting ecstatically down the corridor. My jaw tightened as I fully absorbed the sight of the radiant woman rushing towards us.
The woman, who I assumed was Samara, was devastatingly gorgeous.
Her hourglass figure managed to make her battle leathers look like damn formal wear, and her silky, black hair swung as she ran, brushing the tops of her perfectly curved hips.
Her bright brown eyes lit up as she pulled Sebastian into a squeezing hug that made my teeth clench so tightly I thought they may crack.
“Sebby, it’s so good to see you!” she squealed as she released him, her bright red fingernails scraping down his upper arms.
Sebby? Sebastian actually let her call him fucking Sebby?
To avoid rolling my eyes, I looked down to my feet, my eyes snagging on her high heels instead of combat boots.
Alright, Seb. What the fuck?
When he was free from Samara's perfectly toned arms, Sebastian hurriedly stepped back. “It’s nice to see you, too, Samara,” he lied—that much was evident by the way his, nice, had a tone you would use when saying something miserable.
Samara made her rounds, greeting Kohen and Sawyer, then introducing herself to Kade and Pia before stopping directly in front of me.
She held her dainty hand out to me. “Samara Ballok. Nice to meet you.”
Reluctantly—very reluctantly—I gave her my hand, which instead of sporting perfectly manicured talons, had stubby, bitten down fingernails and shredded cuticles. “Maeve Willawood. Nice to meet you as well,” I said through gritted teeth.
Her eyes widened upon the recognition of my jewels, her spider-like lashes tickling her eyebrows. “Oh. I’ve heard of you.” Her gaze switched to Sebastian. “Is she the reason you’re here?”
“Not exactly,” he answered.
Samara nodded slowly, then finally loosened her grip on my hand. She cleared her throat in a way that somehow managed to sound lyrical. “Well then, shall we go to the archives? I know you know your way Sebby, but I’m happy to take you there.”
Jealousy raged up inside of me. I managed to shove the boiling heat of it down, but if she kept using that horrific nickname, it wouldn’t be long before it bubbled over.
Sebastian swiped my clenched fist from my side, curling his fingers around mine. “I can find my way. Glad to see you and Azain are doing well. I imagine I’ll be seeing you at dinner this evening?”
Samara’s eyes lingered on our hands. When she finally looked up, her expression had sunken just enough that it was noticeable. “See you tonight, Sebby.” She spun on her heel, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she strode off.
Upon her exit, I exhaled a breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
No one spoke a word as we began our route to the archives up a flight of steeping stairs.
I leant into Pia’s ear. “She’s…”
“Hot?” Pia quietly suggested.
I flashed her a warning look. “A lot. She’s a lot.”
Her forearm held me back, forcing me to lose my grip on Sebastian’s hand. He looked back, but upon my nod of approval, kept walking.
“Don’t tell me you're jealous of her?” Pia asked, her eyebrow raised.
“Fuck yeah, I’m jealous of her. Did you see her? She’s frickin’ perfect.”
“Seb is with you. Not her. He never wanted to settle down with anyone until you. You have nothing to worry about,” she assured me, the look in her eyes a force to be reckoned with.
I knew that. I mean, the man bought me a damn beach. How he managed to do that was beyond me, but I supposed royal family plus royal funds equaled royal privileges.
Kade and Sawyer surpassed us on the steps and my voice fell to a whisper. “He never had a girlfriend?” That surprised me. Sebastian was so…flawless.
“No. Samara was the woman he saw for the longest. But as far as I know, it was never anything more than sex.”
I cringed at the thought of that. “I hate that he was with other people before me. I mean, of course he was, just look at him. But I still hate it.”
“I know. But like I said, you have something that none of the others before you had. And it’s not like you didn’t have partners before him.” Pia’s eyes narrowed on me. “Right?”
I struggled to speak. This was not a conversation I was keen on having right now. Or frankly, ever. “I did. But not like that.”
We resumed our ascent up the marble staircase that the rest of our group had already climbed.
“You never had a one night stand? Friends-with-benefits? A blackout-drunk, middle-of-the-night hookup in the back room of your village's dive bar? Bonus points if it was with another girl.”
I shrugged innocently. “Uh. No. I had one serious boyfriend for about a year, but that’s it.”
“Seriously?” Pia froze mid-step, scoffing in disbelief. “Well damn, Maeve. Maybe you should take Seb up on the threeway with Kade.”
On that note, I started to jog up the rest of the stairs, ditching her at the midpoint and surpassing Sawyer and Kade. At the top, I nudged Sebastian with my shoulder and stole his hand again.
“Everything okay?” He tightened his fingers around mine.
“Mhm.”
“Such a bad liar, love.”
Allowing my confidence to go slack, I muttered under my breath, “She’s beautiful.”
A snort of laughter shot out of his nose.
“She’s a raging bitch, that's what she is.” When my expression remained glum, he added, “She has nothing on you. You are beautiful in every possible way known to man. You are beautiful in your looks. Beautiful in here,” he tapped my forehead, “beautiful in the way you care for others.” He stopped in the corridor to dip his lips to my neck, skimming his teeth across my ear lobe and creating a cascade of lust within me.
“Beautiful when your eyes roll back as you come.”
My steady posture faltered as my thighs clenched. Though the feeling vanished quickly as my mind intruded on me, imagining him saying those same things to her.
“Gods I hope they show us to our rooms quickly so I can get away from all the horny you two are expelling. I swear, do you guys even care that people can hear you?” Kade sneered from behind us.
“Not our fault you have good hearing, Lyrise. But then again, no one else ever seems to overhear, so maybe you are just hearing what you want to,” Sebastian effortlessly shot back, his sly smirk on full display.
Kade decided that speed-walking was his best way out of this.
“You just love to antagonize him, don’t you?” I chuckled as Kade shoved past us.
“It’s almost better than reading.”
Sawyer took a note out of Kade’s book, groaning in annoyance as he made his way to the front of the pack.
“Guess he heard me, too,” Sebastian conceded with a touch of amusement.
Following Sawyer, we stepped through a set of clear-glass doors. “You aren’t as quiet as you think,” I purposefully lowered my voice when we stepped into the archives that put Caelestis’ to utter shame.
The walls were lined with glass shelves, not an inch to spare as every spot was home to a piece of literature.
The bookkeeper's desk was a cylindrical piece of crystal that centered the room and was undeniably the focal point of the space.
The dim white lighting shimmered throughout, held in small orbs that floated midair.
“Incredible, right?” Sebastian noticed my admiration.
“That it is, Sebby,” I taunted, receiving a furrowed eyebrow look from him. “What? You really let her call you that and expect me to not hold it against you?”
He chewed the inside of his cheek to fight his laughter. “I always hated that fucking nickname.”
We settled into a set of chairs on the second floor, where we’d wait until our rooms were ready. Although it was a library, the silence that overwhelmed our group was unusual, which made the lingering rigidity between half of us painfully obvious.
“This place is nice,” Kohen admired, his eyes ogling around the space. “These archives are damn luxurious compared to Caelestis.”
“Lumosia’s are nice too. Smaller, but arguably even more exquisite,” Pia countered.
“I dunno, Pia. Do Lumosia’s archives have a fish tank?” Kohen pointed to what must have been a thousand gallon aquarium to our right.
“This place makes Draemor look even trashier than it is,” Kade added his two cents, tossing his neck back in his chair.
Sebastian, Sawyer, and I stayed silent, allowing the awkwardness of our situation to build up further.
“When was the last time you were here, Seb?” Kohen asked.
“Don’t remember,” Sebastian replied, his eyes staying focused on the text he held in his palms.
“With your father?” Pia questioned.
“No,” he growled under his breath, a clear attempt at a plea for them to shut the hell up.
He was here with her. Sleeping with her no doubt. Making her scream his name. Stroking her hair after he finished inside of her.
I swallowed down the acidic nausea in my mouth.
“Hey, Sinclair, what does this Stella girl look like? Trying to scope her out so I can warn her that you’re here,” Kade quipped, the obviousness of his joke shining through his tone.
He received nothing more than an eye roll from Sawyer, who normally would have had a snide response lined up and ready to go.
If only he knew that when Sawyer said he had no interest in Stella, he meant it.
I fiddled with my thumbs, trying to focus on the poetry book Sebastian was reading. Trying to focus on anything other than the overwhelm of dissenting energy between myself, my boyfriend, and my best friend.
Kohen’s eyes shifted repeatedly to where I sat in Sebastian’s lap and Sawyer’s miserable expression. “What the hell is going on?”
Sebastian looked up from his love poem. “What do you mean?”
“The three of you are being…weird.” Kohen pointed between us.
Sebastian shrugged, squinting his glasses-less eyes back to the text.
When none of us elaborated, Kohen got to his feet. “Hello?” He snapped his fingers in front of me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said simply.