37. Mila
Sebastian and I cool it for a few days, but when everything settles down after the Chef Monique situation, we’re back at it.
As the weeks pass, we feel invincible. We’re like addicts, sneaking together whenever we can. It’s part of the thrill.
It’s half-dark in the unused staff apartment, which I sometimes like to think of as ours. We discovered it three weeks ago and it became our go-to location.
But it’s our last day to use it, as Havannah hired a new social media coordinator. He’ll be arriving over the weekend to take it over until he can find an apartment.
I’ll miss having this space, which is easier to sneak into than empty guest rooms. No hall cameras. Nobody monitoring the door lock scans.
We have such a long way to go until Havannah chooses her event manager and we can go to HR with our relationship. Four months at least.
Sebastian’s hair tickles my skin as he leisurely makes his way down my body.
Neck, chest, belly, thighs.
He lifts a knee and dives in.
I clutch the bedspread and arch my back. He knows exactly what gets to me. He always did, but after almost two months of paying attention, he’s a master.
I’m getting better, too. There’s this place I can touch that makes him crazy. I looked it up after I discovered it. It’s called the perineum.
He likes it.
I suck in a breath. He’s got me, the world starting to spin. I live for this. I can’t believe I was twenty-two and graduated before I got to do it. Next month I will be twenty-three. Sebastian will turn thirty-three one week later. We’re both Scorpios.
His finger shifts, and that’s it, I’m there. My breathing is wild, and that familiar pulse begins to throb.
Then I freeze at a strange sound.
Voices.
Close.
The front door pops open.
“Make sure it’s all ready,” Raya says, then stops cold. She’s seen us.
She stares at me, as there’s a direct sightline from the main door into the bedroom. God, I’m naked, with Sebastian’s face down below.
Sebastian notices a heartbeat later than me. He throws the bedspread over us, but it’s way too late.
Raya steps back into the hall. “You know, let’s come back after lunch,” she tells someone we can’t see. “Out we go.”
The door clicks.
My entire body flashes so hot, I feel like I’m incinerating.
She saw us. Saw me. Naked. Having sex.
I can’t deal with it.
I roll away from Sebastian and race to the bathroom. I don’t have time to get the toilet lid up, so I throw up into the sink. I’ve skipped lunch, so there’s nothing but sticky fluid that I have to spit to get out of my mouth.
He comes up behind me, but I wave him away. As if Raya seeing me wasn’t mortifying enough, now he’s watching me puke.
I rinse out my mouth a half dozen times, although it doesn’t take the acid taste away. I catch sight of myself in the mirror and grimace. My hair is everywhere. My mascara has smudged.
My boobs are saggy despite my age. My belly has a fold in it when I bend over that gives me a terrible pouch. I’m blotchy and gross, and I can’t bear any of this one minute longer.
I let out a sob, and Sebastian’s there. He wraps his arms around me. “Hey. This was always a possibility.”
I can’t stop crying. I’m so humiliated, like all my secrets were just announced at a school assembly. I want to run away and hide.
I know exactly why Brooklyn wanted to leave after the Chef Monique fiasco. It’s too horrible to think of facing people who know about your mistakes, your misdeeds.
But she stayed.
And Maverick got put permanently in the barn to keep him away from the offices. He’s been building a whelping pen for the pregnant donkeys to give birth in.
Things had calmed down.
We got complacent.
And now this.
“What do we do?” I ask.
“I’ll call a meeting with Havannah and Raya and Jessie. I’ll officially report our relationship. You’ll be called in and asked about it, too.”
“What do I say?”
“The truth. The truth is the best. We met before you started. We intended to avoid seeing each other again, but we are in love.”
I suck in a breath and look at him. “We are?”
He smooths my hair across the top of my head. “I’ve been feeling it for a while. I know being a couple is new to you. I didn’t want to say anything to rush you.”
He…loves me?
He kisses my hair. “We’re going to be okay, Mila. We will. Let’s imagine the worst-case scenario for a moment. The absolute worst.”
“Okay?”
“We’re both fired. You move out of the castle. You stay with me. I look for a new job. You look for a new job. We work somewhere else. Maybe it’s not the castle, but we’re happy together.”
I like this. It’s not the castle, but it’s still pretty great. “Okay.”
“We’ve got this, Mila. We’re going to be okay.”
We walk out to the bedroom and slowly dress.
My fingers tremble as I pull my ID over my head.
He takes my hands in his. “I don’t like leaving you, but I’m going to have to call this meeting.”
I nod. “I know.”
“Why don’t you check if Brooklyn can do lunch? You’re in security, and Hank won’t notice how long you’re gone.”
“Okay.”
“Take a minute.” He kisses my head again.
He’s about to leave when I grab his hand. “Can you say it?”
He tilts his head quizzically, then he realizes what I’m asking.
His smile is big and broad. “I love you, Mila Simmons, my raven-haired beauty, watcher of stars, keeper of secrets. I love you.”
Despite everything that’s happened in the last ten minutes, my heart absolutely soars. “Thank you.”
He kisses my hand, then slips out the door.
I sit on the end of the bed. He loves me.
Sebastian Young loves me.
I press my hands to my cheeks. I want to write it on all my notebooks, surrounded by hearts. I want to wear his letter jacket. Sit on the bumper of his car in the student parking lot. I want to dance with him at prom and tuck our picture in my mirror.
It happened late. But it’s happened.
Somebody loves me.
And not anybody.
Sebastian Young.
Now we just have to get through this terrible part.