Chapter Five. #2
“Get dressed and get out of my suite,” Beth ordered as she gathered his clothes and chucked them at him.
Sebastian blinked, confused. “Are you serious? It’s past one in the morning.”
“As a heart attack. Out!” she replied.
Sebastian swung his long legs over the side of the bed and began dressing, confusion written across his face.
“You are throwing me out?”
“You like your space, remember? You can’t stay the night.”
“Elizabeth, what’s really going on?”
“You wanted sex and you got it. Now you can leave.”
“You know damn well I didn’t come here for that,” he growled. “I came here to talk.”
“About what?”
“About why you disappeared. About us, and the future.”
“There is no us,” she said. “This is the final goodbye. I want a divorce.”
Sebastian froze and simply stared at her, his jaw tightening as a sharp spike of anger flared in his chest. “No.”
Beth let out a soft, amused laugh, shaking her head as if he were a silly child making unreasonable demands.
“Well, isn’t it just great that it’s not up to you?”
Sebastian closed the distance between them, towering over her as he tucked his shirt into his trousers. He felt a sudden urge to re-establish his ground.
“Then what was this, Elizabeth?” he asked, waving a hand toward the ruffled bed sheets. “We just fucked each other stupid. What was that if not a clear sign that our marriage isn’t over?”
Beth met his intense gaze without flinching. “It was just sex,” she answered.
“I need it from time to time. You should know, I used to fuck you senseless during our marriage, so you shouldn’t be too surprised.”
She paused, her eyes narrowing slightly as a sharp glint flashed within them. “Though, to be honest, I am amazed that you could get it up tonight despite the fact that you find me so disgusting.”
Sebastian felt the blood drain from his face as he was reminded that she’d overheard him and his friends talking badly about her.
“I didn’t say that,” he said defensively, his usual eloquence failing him.
“You called me fat and laughed along as your friends called me ugly,” Beth countered.
Sebastian swallowed hard, feeling guilty. While she was projecting calm and confidence, he could tell she hadn’t gotten over the hurt. He was responsible for her anguish, and that was something he would never forgive himself for.
“I’m sorry. What I said was inexcusable,” Sebastian offered, though even to his own ears, the apology sounded pathetic and nowhere near enough.
“I regret that I hurt your feelings and neglected you during our entire marriage. But there will be no divorce,” he said with a finality that left no room for debate.
“I want children, Sebastian. I want a family and we both know you cannot give me that.”
Sebastian’s posture stiffened instantly.
He thought back to the vasectomy, to his deposit at the fertility clinic, and felt another wave of deep shame wash over him. But he quickly pushed it down, his desperate desire to keep her overriding his pride.
“I can and I will,” Sebastian insisted fiercely.
“I can reverse the procedure, Elizabeth,” he bargained, his voice tight with desperation. “I’ll book an appointment and we can start trying for a baby the second it’s done.”
Beth looked at him and for a second, Sebastian thought he saw a flicker of the old, loving Elizabeth in her eyes. But then her face hardened, and the moment was lost.
“Too late,” she said softly. “You blew your chance, Sebastian. Now please leave. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep. I have a date tomorrow.”
Sebastian felt as if he had been struck across the face by her words. A date? Not a chance in hell, he vowed silently, his blood boiling.
“A date?” he echoed, his voice low and dangerous.
“Oh, honey,” Beth purred, a wicked smile returning to her lips as she tilted her head. “You didn’t think you would be the only man lining up to court me, did you? The new Elizabeth has quite a long list of admirers.”
Then she added, “You know my date in fact. His name is Julian.”
The thought of Julian or any other man on a date with his wife, sent a violent rage surging through his entire body.
“Over my dead body,” Sebastian snarled, stepping into her personal space, his eyes flashing with a terrifying, possessive fury. “You are my wife, Elizabeth. You belong to me.”
“We’ll see about that,” Beth answered smoothly, unbothered by his dramatic outburst.
Deep down, she was pleased by his reaction.
She turned away from him and began gathering the rest of his things, his jacket, tie and designer shoes.
Before Sebastian could comprehend what she was doing, Beth marched straight toward the suite’s front entrance, pulled the heavy wooden door wide open, then casually dumped his stuff out into the hallway.
“Get out,” she demanded.
Realizing he’d lost this round, Sebastian gritted his teeth and stepped outside. He scooped his discarded clothes off the carpeted hallway and turned back to meet her gaze.
“Fine,” he growled. “But don’t think for a second that this is over.”
Beth slammed the heavy door straight in his face.
Alone in the dimly lit hallway, Sebastian stood clutching his tuxedo jacket and shoes against his chest, his pride stinging. He was unaccustomed to defeat.
He took a slow, deep breath, trying to steady his pulse.
After slipping his feet into his leather shoes, he threw his jacket over his broad shoulders and walked down the long corridor toward the elevator, his mind spinning in a thousand different directions at once.
As the elevator whisked him down to the main lobby, the initial shock began to wear off, replaced by curiosity and intrigue.
For five years, he had believed he knew every single thing about Elizabeth Murray. He had categorized her as weak, uninteresting, dutiful, spineless and plain.
He had treated her like she was insignificant and replaceable.
He had been wrong. So spectacularly wrong.
The woman upstairs was not a pushover. Nor was she uninteresting or replaceable.
She was a siren and a mastermind who had executed a flawless disappearance, transformed her body into perfection, and then returned to Miami to prove her doubters wrong. Him included.
She possessed a backbone, sharp wit, and an intoxicating sexuality that had overwhelmed him.
As he reflected on how the evening had unfolded, Sebastian soon came to a realisation that she had played him like a fiddle.
She had used him for sex, taking physical pleasure from his body, and then used his own rules against him to throw him out. Now, he cursed himself for ever having insisted on separate bedrooms, under the guise of “needing his space.”
Now he understood what it must have felt like for her, all those years.
He decided right then and there to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. He would win her back, and he would do it strictly on her terms.
But one thing remained non-negotiable: He was never going to give her a divorce. Not in five years, not in ten years, not in a hundred years. Sebastian knew what he wanted and that was Elizabeth. He wanted her back in his bed, back in his life and firmly under his name.
If she wanted war, he would give her one and if she wanted to be courted, he would do so with a terrifying efficiency that would inevitably lead her back to him. He was going to chase her, woo her, and make it impossible for any other man to even breathe the same air as her.
Starting with Julian.