by Mari Carr
She nodded appreciatively then glanced at Sebastian. “You have your back to them, Seb. I don’t think she can get a clear shot of you,” she said, as if concerned he would be upset about being seen with her.
“It’s fine, Elle.”
Elle. Seb. Grant was feeling a bit of that same jealousy he’d seen on Sebastian’s face in the hotel room. Even if it was rocky, these two shared a history. They had a knowledge of each other built on years of acquaintance. He felt like the blind guy in the room, stumbling around trying to figure out where everything was.
She nodded. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
As she walked away, Sebastian’s expression darkened. Was he always this brooding?
“I don’t like people taking pictures of Elle. She’s entitled to her privacy. She should be able to go out to dinner without worrying about who’s watching.”
Grant nodded slowly, delighted to hear Sebastian shared the same concern. He glanced at the woman who’d taken the picture. She kept sneaking surreptitious peeks at them. It was annoying. “I agree.”
Sebastian lifted his chin, covertly pointing out something behind Grant.
Grant turned and watched the bartender put a pitcher of margaritas on a tray with two glasses as the waitress waited.
“I’ve got an idea.” Sebastian stood as the waitress picked up the tray. “I think I’ll pay a visit to the restroom too.”
As Grant watched, Sebastian started toward the men’s room, pacing himself so he was only a couple of steps ahead of the waitress. Then, in a move worthy of an Oscar, he pretended to have forgotten something and turned back abruptly, bumping into the waitress. Utilizing the most dexterous actions—all while appearing clumsy—Sebastian managed to send the margaritas exactly where he wanted. The glass pitcher smashed as it hit the table of the woman who’d been snapping pictures, landing directly on top of her phone. Glass and alcohol splashed all over her and the man she was with.
Sebastian apologized profusely, offering to pay for the drinks. Then he made his way back to the table, grinning widely.
Grant worked hard to hide how much he’d enjoyed the show, not wanting the woman to realize the accident hadn’t been an accident at all. She’d only just discovered her destroyed phone and was complaining loudly to the waitress.
“Not bad,” Grant said, a smile slipping despite his best efforts. “Not bad at all.”
Elyse glanced at the commotion as she returned from the restroom. “What happened over there?”
“Just a little spill,” Sebastian said, dismissing the uproar without another word.
And just like that, Grant knew the Grand Master had gotten it right. This trinity was going to go the distance.
Chapter Four
Sebastian rolled over after the deepest sleep of his life and glanced at the clock. It was three in the afternoon. After almost two days of very little sleep on the plane followed by a huge plate of food and a flight of tequila, he’d run out of steam.
They’d returned from the restaurant around six last night, settled comfortably in the living room, and while Sebastian had tried to keep the conversation going, his continual yawning and nodding off caught Elyse and Grant’s attention. They bid him good night, each of them claiming a different room in the suite. Sebastian had been asleep seconds after laying his head on the pillow.
His first thought was that he felt better than he had in weeks. Stress over Juliette discovering his secret, anxiety about her reaction, the shit storm that had erupted at work over a shipment of arms to Libya and then the invitation to the altar had nearly put him over the edge.
Now that things had been resolved at work and with Juliette, he felt more like himself than he had in ages. After his conversation with his best friend about his “mission” for the next month, he’d come to the suite determined to earn her trust back. He would discover the truth about the purist sect, and then help Juliette deal with whatever fallout may result.
He worked for the CIA. He could do this. Though to be perfectly honest, as a CIA asset rather than a trained agent, he specialized in uncovering information instead of doing James Bond, chasing-after-the-bad-guys sort of stuff.
Information was what was really important—which was why it was called intelligence work. In his role as an aid worker, he fed the CIA information about at-risk regions. Finding out that a rural area in southeast Turkey was facing a famine, and therefore vulnerable to infiltration by extremists who promised them not only food, but revenge and a way to fight back against a world that would let them starve, meant the U.S. had a chance to intervene.
In the past, he’d never had trouble separating his emotions from the work. According to Devon, it was one of the things that made him a great asset.
Sebastian had assumed that ability would carry over to this job. That he’d be able to keep up appearances while maintaining his distance from Grant and Elyse.
That part of the plan was failing miserably.
It was Elyse’s fault. Seeing her again had brought up every single emotion he’d tried to tuck away since high school. He thought back to graduation night, his chest tightening with the memory…
The parents of the senior class always paid for a fancy party at the Four Seasons after graduation. It was an annual event where a band was hired, expensive hors d’oeuvres served, and rooms reserved for the night. Most kids had managed to sneak beer, liquor and pot in, so the evening was clearly about to devolve into a bunch of rich eighteen-years-olds getting wasted or high and causing a bit of mayhem.
Sebastian had been watching the door for half an hour waiting for Elyse. He nearly gave himself away to Juliette when she finally arrived with her brother, Elliot. She wore a short black skirt that showed off her tanned legs perfectly. The skirt was paired with a low-cut sequined shirt and spiky heels. Her outfit triggered every single male hormone he had…and then some. Juliette shot him a funny look when he gasped, but he played it off with a cough, pretending the spiked punch had gone down the wrong way.
Sebastian wasn’t used to keeping secrets from Juliette, but he’d given Mrs. Rayburn his word that he wouldn’t tell anyone about the tutoring.
Of course, he also hadn’t told anyone that his decision to tutor Elyse hadn’t been a completely altruistic one. One benefit of spending time with Elyse was that it afforded him the opportunity to learn more about her twin brother and his friends. Elyse thought the sun rose and set on her brother’s shoulders, but Sebastian didn’t feel the same way about the cocky, arrogant boy.
Throughout the school year, several classmates had overdosed on N-bombs, a synthetic hallucinogen that, according to his dad, was one of the most powerful and deadly drugs to hit the market in years, and the epicenter was Boston. If it was drug-related in Boston, Seb’s dad was the one handling it. Therefore, Dad had been assigned to discovering where the drugs were coming from and who was distributing them.
Sebastian had launched his own little investigation at school, but given his limited contact with most of the kids in his class, it hadn’t been very successful. Sebastian was in all honors and AP courses, which meant his circle of friends was narrowed to the same handful of kids taking the same classes. He’d hoped through his friendship with Elyse he’d be able to learn more about Elliot and his clique, who were rumored to be fairly hard partiers.
He and his dad started discussing the case shortly after Christmas and at that point, Sebastian had shared some of his suspicions about who might be dealing the drug at his school. While it was his father’s task to uncover the distribution ring, he’d been hitting a brick wall. With Sebastian’s help, he’d determined to start by picking off some of the smaller fish, with the help of the Boston PD, in hopes of flushing out the entire syndicate.
However, as more time passed and he and Elyse got closer, Sebastian hadn’t wanted to betray her trust. Which was difficult to do, since it was his observations that had provided his dad with his first real suspect—Elliot.
&
nbsp; As Sebastian looked at Elyse, he felt like a jackass when he considered all the years he’d wasted, brushing her off as a ditz and a snob. She was so far from both of those things, he couldn’t believe how stupid he’d been. High school was ruthless and he was beyond grateful it was over. Elyse must be even more so.
Elyse caught his gaze within seconds of entering the room, even though the “bitch squad” had marked her entrance and surrounded her with squeals and loud giggles and a bunch of silly eye rolling that indicated they thought the lame party was beneath them. She’d confided in him that it had been easier to hang with that crowd, outshining the mediocre, only concerned about their manicure girls than to try to fit in with Sebastian’s gang of overachieving, successful students.
He’d been blown away when he realized how serious her learning disability was and how well she’d managed to hide it for so many years. His respect for her had grown over the past few months and he’d found it impossible not to fall in love with her.
Which made the fact Juliette didn’t know about Elyse that much harder. He told Jules everything.
Elyse smiled at him and he returned it with a covert wink. Then he spent the longest two hours of his life trying to play it cool, hanging out with his friends while attempting to find some way to get Elyse alone.
Finally, they wound up at the punch bowl together, out of earshot of the others.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered.
She smiled. “I have a gift for you.”
Sebastian instantly felt terrible. He never thought to get anything for her. “Oh, Elle—”
She waved away his guilt. “It’s a thank-you gift. For all your tutoring this year.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
She lifted one shoulder casually. “I know. But I wanted to.”
“Where is it?”
Elyse giggled. “Up in my hotel room.”
Sebastian had already been sporting an erection, brought on the second he’d caught a whiff of her perfume. Somehow, miraculously, his cock got even harder. “I’ll meet you in the foyer in five minutes.”
She nodded her consent and they both made their excuses, escaping their friends. He was already holding the elevator when she left the ballroom. Neither of them spoke as she hit the button for the eighth floor. That silence continued as they walked down the hallway to her room.
Sebastian had serious hopes for tonight, but he wasn’t sure how Elyse would feel about them. They stopped outside her door as Elyse dug around in her purse for the keycard.
She’d just pulled it out when Sebastian’s patience vanished. For eight months he’d sat next to her at the Boston Public Library, helping her with her homework, teaching her tricks he’d researched on his own about dyslexia to try to help her read better. And never, not once, had he kissed her.
That fact astonished him, considering he thought about kissing her at least seven hundred and twenty-eight times a day.
One minute she was holding the keycard up victoriously and the next he had her pushed against the locked door, his lips on hers. They opened their mouths at the same time, the kiss orbiting miles away from innocent and crash-landing on the surface of ravenous passion.
Her fingers clenched his muscles as she clung to his upper arms, while his tangled in her hair, ripping the pins out, allowing it to cascade over her shoulder in the sexy blonde waves he loved so much.
Sebastian pressed his cock against her. Elyse responded by lifting her leg, tilting her hips forward, allowing him to hit just the right spot. They could have been in the hallway for seconds or years for all Sebastian was aware of, but when she finally broke the kiss, he knew the night was going to end exactly how he’d dreamed.
“Are you sure?” he whispered as she turned to unlock the door. She’d revealed to him a couple of months earlier that she was still a virgin. He understood exactly what this night would mean to her.
She glanced over her shoulder and nodded. “So sure.”
He grinned and they entered the room together, still wrapped in each other’s arms. Sebastian backed her toward the bed as they kissed, only pulling away once they’d reached their destination.
Her fingers were working to loosen his tie, but something caught Sebastian’s eye. Something that stopped him in his tracks.
“What the fuck is that?”
He knew exactly what he was looking at. He was the son of one of the DEA’s top agents. Sebastian could identify every type of drug on the market, mainly because his father had taught him from the time he entered middle school exactly what to stay the hell away from.
Elyse turned to look at the bed. Her face froze as she took in the countless baggies filled with N-bombs.
“Smiles,” she whispered. It was the name their classmates used for the drug.
Time seemed to stand still as Sebastian tried to figure out what to do next.
Elyse wasn’t into this shit. Her shock at what they’d discovered was almost palpable.
“It’s Elliot, isn’t it? He’s the asshole who’s been pushing this shit.” Seeing all these drugs, recalling the way Jessica Kendrick and Niles Buckneill had almost died from taking these pills, infuriated him.
Sebastian felt zero affection for Elyse’s twin. The guy was a reckless asshole who spent more time suspended than he did in class. He’d heard the rumors Elliot was into some bad stuff and now he had the proof he’d hoped for, that his father had been searching for. Elliot wasn’t just using, he was dealing.
Elyse shook her head. “No. It’s not his.”
She was in denial. “Elle—”
“Just please, give me a second to explain.”
“Explain what? That your brother is a drug pusher. I knew it. Knew it all along. I just couldn’t find any evidence.”
It had been the wrong thing to say.
“Evidence?”
He blanched when she turned on him.
“Your dad is a DEA agent. You were using me.” There was no question in her voice. Nothing but angry accusation.
What could he say? It had definitely started that way. Rather than dig himself out of that hole, he felt his own anger building.
“You aren’t seriously going to try to defend him to me? Try to make me think this is okay?”
She raised her hands, agitated. “Of course I’m not. It’s wrong. It’s really wrong. But so is what you did. I thought we were friends. I…” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I thought we were more than friends. And all along you were just pretending to like me so you could destroy my brother’s life.”
“What about the lives he’s destroyed?” Sebastian yelled.
For the first time, he saw the slightest trace of fear in her eyes. “You’re going to tell your dad about this, aren’t you?”
He knew what Elyse’s friends thought of him. How they considered him too perfect to be any fun, to be cool. He didn’t give a shit what those girls said.
But he did care about Elyse’s opinion of him.
If he told his dad, he’d be a snitch. It was a title he could live with. What he couldn’t live with was what telling would do to her. He stared at her beautiful face, his heart racing, his chest tight. Finally, he found enough breath to give her the answer to the hardest question he’d ever been asked in his life.
“No.”
She blinked, disbelief in her eyes. “No?”
He shook his head woodenly. “I’m not telling.”
“I’ll talk to Elliot, Seb. I’ll make him stop selling. I swear it.”
He nodded slowly, though he held little hope she could do what she said. Everything inside him was shattering. Sebastian had lived his entire life trying very hard to do what was right. He hadn’t succumbed to teasing or peer pressure during school. Not once. Aunt Joyce had started teasing him about his thirty-year-old soul when he was only twelve years old. The joke hadn’t offended him because he understood it was a compliment, that she admired his strength, his ability to follow his own conscience, to al
ways do the right thing. Even if it wasn’t popular or easy.
He wasn’t doing that right now. He was going against everything he believed.
For her.
“I have to go.” He needed to get away from her, from the drugs, from the secret he was going to have to harbor for the rest of his life.
“Seb. Please. Wait.”
He shook his head. He couldn’t wait. But he couldn’t just walk away either. How many people would die from those pills? “Flush them.”
She didn’t move. It was as if her body had turned to stone.
Her reticence pissed him off. After what he was giving her, she owed him this. “Flush those pills, Elle. All of them!”
He hadn’t meant to shout, but his emotions were riding too close to the surface.
She jumped—in surprise and fear. But then she did as he asked. For several minutes, neither of them spoke as she carried baggie after baggie of pills to the toilet, flushing them away.
He stood and watched, too afraid to move. Worried he’d go back on his word and call his dad. Terrified he’d touch her, lose his resolve and fall onto that bed with her—pills be damned—as he took her, claimed her virginity, her body, her heart. Took all the things he wanted so damn bad.
Once the last of the pills had been disposed of, she turned to him with fearful eyes, tear-stained cheeks. “Okay?”
Her question could have referred to a million different things. But he only responded to one. He shook his head. “No, Elle. I’m not.”
And with those words, he had walked away from her. He’d headed to Europe for a summer abroad the next day, traveling with his friends. When he returned, he had gone straight to NYU where he’d double-majored in international relations and civics. He’d gone to work for an international aid organization, at the urging of the CIA, which had recruited him after graduation. Life had continued moving forward—and away—from Elyse Hunt.