Tess #2
“Didn’t you know? Irving Sebastian was so rich, he could even influence genetics.
” He was joking, but I could hear the hint of bitterness.
“In all seriousness, the abundance of boys is creepy. It continued to the next branch of the family tree. Henry, for example.” He drew five more lines below one of the lines on the level above.
“Besides Scott, he has Miles, Cole, and Zach. They stopped when they had Sydney. She gets doted on.”
Four older brothers? “Yeah. I can imagine.”
Brett went on to fill in all the branches on the tree, explaining who did what and who should be avoided (both Reynard’s sons) and who he liked (August’s line). About half of all the descendants had some sort of job with SIC or the News Corp.
“I almost ended up at the News Corp myself,” he said at one point. “Because I’d much rather work for Samuel and August, but I just wasn’t interested in the work. I don’t have to deal with Henry or Reynard personally anyway. And Scott can be hardheaded, but he’s really not that bad.”
Scott and the term hardheaded threatened to take my mind places it shouldn’t go. I shook off the dirty thoughts and thought instead about the severe-looking man who’d passed me as I’d left Scott’s office. “I saw Henry yesterday. Briefly. He did seem formidable, even at a glance.”
Brett shrugged. “He’s the man in charge of it all. I suppose that’s what it takes to work in that position. I sure wouldn’t want that pressure. I definitely wouldn’t want to be one of his sons.”
I looked over the family tree he’d diagrammed in the dirt and frowned. “Wait. Where do you fit into all of this?”
“Ah, yes. The Lessers.” He drew another line next to Irving at the top.
“My grandma is Ida, Irving’s little sister.
She got pregnant out of wedlock, total embarrassment in those days.
But Irving was protective and family-oriented, so he made sure to take care of her and kept the scandal hush-hush.
She kept the Sebastian name. All that stirred lots of rumors, naturally.
People saying that Irving was the father.
” Brett shuddered at the idea. “It’s a fun piece of gossip, but not true.
I think Grandma actually got knocked up by a grifter, though that’s never been confirmed.
“Anyway, she had twins, Luke and Luis. Luke is my dad.” He drew more lines on the tree. “All of us over here are The Lessers. We’re well off. Irving made sure both my dad and my uncle have jobs. We’ll get an inheritance when Irving dies. Nothing like what the Greater Sebastians live with.”
He put up a hand as if to emphasize his next point.
“I’m not complaining. At all. It’s easy to get seduced by all that the Greaters have in terms of luxury, but I’ve seen firsthand what all that money can do to people.
They’re too hardened. Too spoiled. Too difficult to get close to.
They exist in their own world, and even when you think you’ve been invited in, you never really are. ”
He didn’t mean it as a warning, but I knew if I were smart, I’d take it as one.
So why was I intrigued with Scott Sebastian more now than ever?
I’d just curled up on Kendra’s sofa, remote in hand, when my phone rang. It was Saturday night, so of course I wasn’t surprised to see the caller ID say RESTRICTED. Leave it to Kendra to have no regard for personal time.
I forced a smile before I answered, knowing she’d hear it in my voice. “Hey.”
Except it wasn’t Kendra who responded. “You were with Brett.”
“What?” I’d heard what he said. I was just flabbergasted about having Scott Sebastian on the other end of my phone.
“I know you heard what I said.” His voice rumbled, a bit like he was scolding me. A bit like he was sharing a secret.
My skin sprouted goosebumps in response.
And because oh-my-freaking-god Scott Sebastian had called me. Which meant he was thinking about me. Like I was thinking about him.
Maybe not that much. I was thinking about him at an awful embarrassing level. He’d probably just had a fleeting thought about me, and on a whim, the way bored spoiled rich boys do, he searched out my phone number on a Saturday night and called me.
Yeah, even if he wasn’t thinking about me at embarrassing levels, it was enough to be meaningful.
I had to play this cool. “Hello to you, too, Scott.”
“Hello, Tessa.” Oh, the things it did to me when he said my name. “Tell me why you spent today with Brett.”
Scott had a power over me, one that I hated admitting to, but real nonetheless. He gave me a command, my body wanted to obey it. It was why I’d already lost two pairs of panties to the man.
I was also a fool. A practiced one. Ready to pounce on any hint that I might have power over him as well. “How do you know how I spent the day? Were you spying on me?”
“I have my ways.”
“Okay, well. You can use your ways to find the answer.” I’d been going for casual indifference, and I must have passed it off because he gave me what I wanted.
“Brett mentioned it tonight at this family thing. Someone’s birthday. Don’t ask who. I didn’t pay attention. Point is, there were too many nosy people around to probe him for more information, so I’m coming to you to get the answer.”
It was the perfect opportunity to tell him about the DRF. Explain the foundation, get him on board. At least I could warm up the conversation for Monday.
But my thighs still ached from wrapping around him the day before. My skin was tingling, my heart was pounding, and given the choice of talking business or flirting, I was very much interested in the latter.
“Why do you care?” I wanted to sound nonchalant, but I had a feeling it came across as eager.
“I think you know why.”
“I don’t think I do.”
A beat passed, and I worried I’d fucked up somehow. When he spoke again, his tone was more demanding. “Do I need to be concerned?”
“About Brett coming on to me?” I wanted him to be jealous about Brett, but I couldn’t believe he really was. Jealous over a Lesser? Over me?
Scott made a sound of annoyance. “You forget that I know Brett. He is too professional to make a move on a woman he’s doing business with.”
Either Scott was doubting what he knew, or he…
I suddenly saw this from his angle. He’d seen me get excited when I’d met “a Sebastian” at that party.
He’d witnessed my lack of professionalism when I’d let him kiss me.
When I’d fucked him in his office. Now he’d learned I’d spent the day with Brett.
Why wouldn’t he think I’d be like that with this man too?
Even understanding, I was offended. And hurt. “So the person you’re potentially concerned with is me.”
“I know you want to stay on the right side of the ethics line…”
I gritted my teeth so I wouldn’t say something equally as shitty. “That is a problem I only seem to have with you.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
“And you don’t need to worry about it being a problem in the future,” I added, his triumphant tone only adding fuel to my annoyance. Fuck him. Fuck me too for thinking there might be something between us, but mostly fuck him.
But then his voice fell low and serious. “It’s not out of my system, Tessa.”
“What’s not?”
“You. Not anywhere near.”
Whoa.
I had to work to keep breathing.
“Tell me you feel the same.” He was insistent. The natural urge to tell him whatever he wanted to hear bubbled up inside of me.
Despite the urge, it was because it was the truth that I answered how I did. “I feel the same.”
“Good. We’re getting somewhere.”
I couldn’t begin to imagine where it was getting us.
Strike that. I could imagine it too well. I was very good at imagining scenarios of happily ever after with men like Scott Sebastian. Men who very much only wanted happily for the moment. Ten times out of ten, those kinds of fantasies got my heart broken.
I could not let myself imagine anything with Scott.
My self-warnings were interrupted by voices in his background.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Still at the family thing.”
It definitely sounded like it could be a party. But there was one voice that was closer than the others. “Come on, Scott,” she said.
She. A familiar she. And it didn’t belong to anyone in the family, though she’d been at the last family party the Sebastians had thrown. “Is that Eden?”
The background noises grew muffled, as though he’d turned away for privacy. “Are you jealous?”
“No. I’m curious.”
“And jealous. You don’t have to hide that from me, Tessa. I like it.”
His gloating should have been a turnoff, but of course it wasn’t. It made me feel all dizzy and breathless and wanted, which was extra stupid considering he was with fucking Eden. “Why is Eden with you?”
“Now you see how I felt. Not fun, is it?” He was enjoying this way too much.
“See, but you forget that I’ve witnessed firsthand what kind of relationship you have with Eden.” I couldn’t believe I was giving him this much. Allowing myself to be this vulnerable.
“Brett brought her,” he said, taking pity on me. “They’re old friends. And no, I’m not going to touch her tonight, even if she begs. When she begs. Does that make you feel better?”
“I don’t know how it makes me feel,” I lied because there was no way I was admitting just how much better it made me feel.
He chuckled. “Keep telling yourself that, Tessa. It’s not ever going to make it true.” Eden’s voice sounded in the background again. More urgent. More annoyed. “It seems the cake thing is happening. I have to go.”
“Oh. Okay.” It was too soon. I wasn’t ready to hang up. I wanted to keep flirting and baring myself and hating myself for letting myself be so exposed. None of which I could say. I stuttered looking for something that I could. “I’ll...I’ll…”
Fuck. I’ll...what?
Scott stepped in for me. “I know. I’ll be thinking about you, too.”
For a long time after he hung up, I clutched my phone to my chest and grinned.