Take Me Again (The Knight Brothers 1)

Was it the friends she’d made in England, but who she didn’t feel particularly close to? Because she’d never been a girl to make a BFF. Yet when Sierra had walked away after their talk, Ashley had had the distinct feeling that she could be close with her now if she gave the other woman a chance.

Or was home Sebastian? The man who filled the empty pieces inside her. The man who made her smile when she was sad, who understood her past, who she’d always been able to talk to and confide in, from the time she’d been sixteen years old? A man who made love to her so tenderly he held her heart in his hands?

“Ashley? Where in the world did you go?” Jonathan asked loudly, bringing her back to the present. “I said your name quite a few times.” He looked at her, concern on his face.

A face she found good-looking, but not pulse-pounding, life-alteringly handsome. He didn’t make her question everything she’d ever believed about sex and love. Sebastian did.

“I’m sorry, Jonathan. I won’t be coming back to London because it isn’t home. It was a place to live, to stay when I thought I didn’t have anything for me here. But I was wrong.”

“This is about Sebastian.” He sounded defeated.

“In part, yes,” she admitted. “But it’s also about me. And during my time here, I’ve come to realize that I stayed away from these people too long. I didn’t give them a chance to be my family. And they are.”

Shoulders slumped now, he nodded. “I really do hear you now,” he said. “I understand and I wish you well.”

“I wish you the same,” she said. “And I hope one day you find a woman who will make you question everything you ever believed was true about life.”

He looked at her quizzically, confused. She really did hope he figured it out one day, she thought, as she walked him to the door and said goodbye.

Because thanks to Sebastian, she understood so much more now. It had been easy to tell herself she didn’t want a forever relationship, that she didn’t believe in love before she’d experienced those emotions.

Now she couldn’t imagine living without them.

She couldn’t imagine being without Sebastian.

* * *

Sebastian spent a few hours at the office, which was quiet on a Saturday. Nobody was in and he had the place to himself. After going over some paperwork and killing as much time as he could manage, he decided to go home. Throughout the day, he hadn’t heard from Ashley on his phone, and the thought made his stomach churn.

He didn’t know what to expect when he saw her next, but he knew he needed an answer to one very important question. Was she staying in New York or returning to London? Up until now, she’d been adamant about going back.

But last night she’d told him she loved him. Either that changed things for her or it didn’t. But he couldn’t go on living with that uncertainty hanging over his head.

He promised himself that if she told him she was leaving, he’d let her go like a man, without begging her to stay. Because one thing he knew for sure, she had to be the one to come to him on her own. No pressure.

He wouldn’t be like her ex, begging for scraps.

He’d handle rejection like a man.

* * *

When Ashley went to Sebastian’s apartment and found he wasn’t there, she was disappointed. And nervous. Where had he gone after she’d sent him away so she could be with Jonathan?

She didn’t know what was going on in Sebastian’s mind, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. She went to Ethan’s and talked him into letting her into Sebastian’s apartment so she could wait for him.

When time began to pass and the afternoon headed toward evening, she decided she’d make him dinner so they could talk when he returned. But since she hadn’t thought things out, and going through his cabinets she didn’t find much, she had nothing to cook for him but spaghetti and jarred sauce. It would have to do.

She found wine he’d obviously gotten from Sei Bellisimo and poured herself a glass of red, reliving the moments they’d spent together at the vineyard. She realized she was making herself at home in his apartment without being invited. At that thought, she took another long sip and stirred the sauce in the pan.

She had music playing from her phone, soft love songs, to torture herself with as she waited. Finally, she heard the sound of the key in the lock, and her heart began racing in her chest as Sebastian let himself inside.

She shut the stove top off and rubbed her hands on her jeans, blowing out a deep breath.

“Who’s here?” he called out, just as she met him in the entryway.