Take Me Again (The Knight Brothers 1)

He refused to tell Ashley where he’d been that night. “But when I heard, I rushed right over. That morning, I found out about Mandy’s drug problem – and that Sierra and Parker had already known. They hadn’t trusted me enough to tell me.”

“Oh, Sebastian.” Ashley cupped his chin. “Some people grow up at different speeds than others, but your family should have included you.”

He rolled his shoulders, leaning his head against the headboard. “I don’t know. I understand now they had their reasons. And when you told me what you’d overheard the night in my father’s study, I went home and really thought about not just who I was – but who I wanted to be.”

It’d hurt, too.

But she listened in silent understanding and also, he sensed, support, something he couldn’t say he’d ever had in quite this way before. She wasn’t judging him and that meant everything.

“I saw a guy who thought he took life seriously but who really wasn’t focused on business or family the way he should have been. I saw,” he said, drawing a deep breath, “a guy well on his way to becoming too much like his father.”

He looked into her soft gaze and didn’t see pity. Instead he caught both understanding and what he wanted to think was caring.

“It matters,” she said.

“What does?”

“The fact that you’ve been introspective. That you want to change and are.” She treated him to a warm smile, just as a knock sounded at the door.

She glanced at him with wide, panicked eyes because they were both stark naked. He grinned.

She dove toward the bathroom, giving him a nice view of her ass as she ran.

“One minute,” he called out toward the door. Then he grabbed a pair of jeans from the closet and slid them on before walking to the door and letting the waiter in with their food.

They ate and he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Sharing with her who he’d been, who he’d feared he was becoming and acknowledging his attempt to change had lightened some of the burden he’d been carrying – because he knew he was making those changes.

He only hoped they were enough to win the woman in the end.

* * *

First thing the next morning, Sebastian’s phone rang, startling him because he’d been in a deep sleep. Ashley lay wrapped around him, her head in the crook of his arm, her knee across his legs, her sweet pussy pressing against his thigh.

Annoyed because the phone had beat the alarm, he answered without looking at who it was. “This better be important,” he said gruffly into the phone.

“It is.” Parker’s voice sounded over the line. “Worth waking you.”

“What time is it?” Sebastian asked.

“Five a.m. your time.”

“Who is it?” Ashley asked, still sounding half-asleep.

“Is that Ashley? Are you two sleeping together?” Parker asked, sounding surprised.

She buried her face in his chest, and he could only imagine how red her cheeks now were.

He slid a comforting hand over her bare back. “It’s none of your fucking business, Switzerland. What’s going on?”

“Sierra and I did the digging you wanted on Jasper Nichols. I can’t believe what she found.”

Completely awake now, Sebastian pushed himself back up against the pillows. Ashley pulled the covers up over herself and leaned in so she could hear the conversation, as well.

“Jasper Nichols hasn’t been in business long, that much we know, which begs the question, why did Mandy do business with them? Not to mention, he spends most weeknights at a club called Marquee. Sierra looked into the place and it’s great if you want to score drugs,” Parker said, sounding disgusted.

“Shit,” Sebastian muttered.

“There’s more,” Parker said.

Sebastian glanced at Ashley. “Go on.”

“Check your phone. I’m sending you a picture Sierra found on Nichols’ Instagram account from about four months ago.”

“Hang on.” Sebastian lowered the phone from his ear, switched apps, and waited for the picture to load.

It took a while but eventually a photograph came up. A guy with shoulder-length brown hair sat in a dark nightclub with a very familiar woman on his lap. Bright red lipstick stained her normally pale, glossed lips. Her eyes were heavily made up and she wore a slinky black dress that showed off ample cleavage. But despite the overly done makeup and barely there dress, there was no mistaking the woman whose face stared directly at the camera with glazed eyes and her arms around the man’s neck. His fingers, meanwhile, dipped below the cleavage of her top.

“Mandy,” Ashley said, sounding horrified.

“Right,” Parker said, this time not commenting on Ashley’s presence in Sebastian’s bed. “And the guy in the picture is Jasper Nichols.”

There was no doubt there was more going on between Nichols and Ethan’s wife than purchasing orders.

“Dammit.” Sebastian’s hand curled into a fist.

Ashley grasped his hand and smoothed out his fingers in an attempt to relax him. “Ethan doesn’t know, does he?” she asked, obviously past caring that Parker knew they were together.