A Million Different Ways to Lose You (Horn Duet 2)

We were both quiet while he rowed. I pretended to be engrossed in the scenery when in truth I hid behind the absurdly expensive sunglasses he’d bought me, and surreptitiously thieved glances at him. I wondered if that was weird––to be so enthralled with one’s own husband. Did other women feel that way about theirs? Without any married female friends to ask, the question would remain unanswered. Maybe it was weird, I decided. But with him in the picture, there wasn’t anything on the planet that could’ve stolen my attention away.

“Do you think Charles was in love with your father?” Sebastian didn’t react at all to my question, which told me it had crossed his mind as well.

“Maybe…but it’s just an assumption.” Shrugging, he added, “I’ve never seen him with anyone.”

“How lonely that must’ve been for him––to be constantly near someone he loved who could never return his feelings.” Sebastian scoffed, his jaw tight, his mouth set in a grim line. “What?”

“Nothing.”

He was pissed––it was definitely something. “Spit it out.”

“Do you know how fucking infuriating it is to know that he was so accepting of everyone else?” Head shaking, he muttered something to himself. “I couldn’t even sneeze without incurring his wrath!” He raked his fingers through his hair. “If he noticed me at all.” He’d stopped rowing, the boat drifting aimlessly along the shoreline.

I knew which he we were discussing. His father. My heart ached for him. After the revelations at lunch, I was getting a pretty clear picture of the father/son dynamics, and it wasn’t pretty. Sebastian was fruit of the poisonous tree. The result of a marriage Heinrich didn’t want, to a women he didn’t love, because the one he did was stolen from him. And Sebastian was made to pay the price.

The man sitting across from me gazed out at a far away point, his countenance brooding, his anger doing a poor job of covering up the pain. “Look––your father took his once-in-a-lifetime love, his heartbreak, and turned it into something ugly and cruel.” The magnetism that existed between us, constantly drawing us together, would not quit. As if summoned by some invisible force, I got up and straddled his lap. My legs and arms wrapped around him while he watched me expectantly. “He took his disappointment out on an innocent child. And what have you done? You’ve taken all that pain and turned it into something good. You’re kind, and loving, and selfless, and generous, and…you’re––” His eyes were large in his face, drinking in every word. “You’re kind of a catch.” His lips twitched and twitched, an amused glint appearing in his eyes. “And I thank God every day that I’m the one that caught you.”

Turning sulky with lust, his gaze lowered to my lips. “Damn right,” he muttered. “What are you gonna do now that you got me?”

“Well,” I said, placing a soft kiss on his brow, on his temple, on his nose. “How much time do we have?”

He smacked a kiss on my lips. “The rest of our lives.”

“No need to rush then.”

With that, he proceeded to show me just how slow he could go.

We whiled the rest of the afternoon away in our bedroom. However, we couldn’t ignore that the time was fast approaching for Sebastian to confront Charles. I could feel an ominous cloud slowly descend upon him as the minutes passed, marked by the antique cuckoo clock in our room––as Orson Wells once famously stated, the only thing produced by the Swiss in five hundred years of peaceful democracy.

Sebastian didn’t argue when I told him I wanted to sit this one out. This was sure to become a very intimate moment for the two of them, and I didn’t need to add more stress to an already unpredictable situation.

He was super quiet as he dressed for dinner in his gray gabardine slacks, and a white cotton shirt. When his fingers tripped over the buttons, I got off the bed, pushed his hands aside, and did it for him. Blowing out a deep breath, he planted his hands on his hips while I worked. “I fucking hate this.”

There was nothing I could say or do that would assuage the pain of having to send the person he loved to jail. So I remained quiet and let my nearness speak for me. “Come find me as soon as it’s done,” I said, punctuating it with a kiss. A quick nod later, he was out the door.

By eleven I was on pins and needles. Impatience got the best of me eventually. I debated for all of a minute whether I should go in search of him. As soon as my feet hit the top of the marble staircase, I heard the unmistakable sound of two people arguing.

“Why?” Sebastian’s distraught voice drifted up from the ground floor. “My father trusted you.”