An Innocent, a Seduction, a Secret

Sebastio felt intense satisfaction and not a little triumph. Things he wouldn’t usually associate with women. When he’d seen Edie on the street, walking back to her drab-looking house on a very pedestrian street, he’d had to battle the compulsion to open the door, grab her, pull her into the car and take her far away. He’d had to force himself to be civilised.

He had her now. That was all that mattered.

He smiled, feeling a sense of lightness pervade him. He almost didn’t recognise what it was. Then he took out his phone and made a call to his assistant, issuing a curt instruction to ‘Go ahead with the plan as soon as possible.’

‘What plan?’ Edie asked when he’d terminated the call.

‘You’ll see,’ he said enigmatically, before setting about removing her coat so that he could put his hands on her slender curves with nothing in the way.

* * *

By the time they reached Sebastio’s Mayfair apartment dusk was falling. Edie struggled to sit up from where she’d fallen asleep, all but draped across Sebastio’s chest. She remembered he’d been kissing her to the point of dizziness before his phone had rung and he’d reluctantly stopped, saying he needed to take the call. He’d sat up straight, clamping her to his side, and his deep sonorous tones speaking in Spanish had lulled her into sleep.

She realised now with a little jolt how safe she’d felt. Truly safe—as if nothing could harm her. But she knew all too well how much danger there was, and that it wasn’t always something she could be protected from. Not even by a man as seemingly invincible as Sebastio Rivas.

He got out of the car now and bent down, extending his hand to Edie. ‘Come on.’

She hesitated for a second, her sense of self-preservation kicking in very belatedly. But then she pictured herself refusing to go with Sebastio. Taking the Tube back home. Going into her small, bare apartment. Curling up and feeling cold...

His hand was so close. His sheer vitality reached out to her. She wanted him. She couldn’t walk away.

She put her hand into his and let him lead her up to his penthouse apartment.

* * *

Edie had never been in a top-floor apartment before. She’d rarely ever been at the top of any high building—unless she counted a school trip to the London Eye when she was fourteen.

But as she walked in behind Sebastio, holding her coat over her arm, the breath left her body. It was beyond spectacular. Every wall seemed to be made of glass, giving a 360-degree view of London.

The furnishings were modern and low-key, with abstract art dotted around the space. The dark grey colour scheme and dark wood furniture was unmistakably masculine.

She walked over to one of the main windows. The rooftops of Mayfair were spread out on one side, and Buckingham Palace looked close enough to touch. She could see the London Eye, and she was pretty sure they were higher. The Thames snaked through London. St Paul’s dome pierced the sky in the far distance.

Sebastio stood beside her. She felt more than a little overwhelmed, and tried to say as lightly as she could, ‘You know how to pick your properties.’

She felt him shrug. ‘It was the best on offer at the time.’

She dragged her gaze off the view to look at him. ‘You really couldn’t care less, could you?’

There was a flicker of something so fleeting across his face that she almost missed it. It had looked like pain. ‘No. Surroundings don’t interest me too much.’

She knew he meant it. He would be as dominant and as at home in a ground-floor duplex. But he would be expected to be in a place like this. Just as people would expect to see his house beautifully dressed for Christmas in Richmond.

She thought of his sparsely furnished bedroom in the lodge and how it had felt like some sort of punishment. Like when he’d been under cold water in the shower. She felt intuitively that this behaviour was a direct result from the crash, almost as if he’d put his life on hold. Not allowing himself to live.

Interrupting her thoughts, he asked, ‘Why did you leave before the party?’

She looked away again. A million and one things flitted through her head, but in the end she could only be brutally honest. ‘Because I wanted to stay too much. Your world is very seductive. But it’s not my world. I thought it would be better to make a clean break. I didn’t think you’d notice.’

Edie would prefer for him to think his world had been more seductive to her than him.

He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. ‘Well, I did notice. Very much.’

Edie thought of the dress and felt a pang of regret. ‘I know this isn’t going to last, Sebastio—’

He put a finger on her mouth, stopping her. ‘Do you still want me?’

She fought not to roll her eyes at how obvious that answer must be. She just nodded.