to make sure that I don’t mess anything up.”
“I know.”
“Your brother is important to me, and I know that he loves you very much. I don’t want to go about things in a way that will make him feel as though I’ve broken his trust.”
“I know.”
“Then you understand why I want to do things this way. I promise that we won’t have to hide it for much longer.”
“Okay.”
He leaned down, pressing his lips against mine, brushing away my worries as he rested his forehead on mine. His hands travelled down my back, pulling me close to him by the waist, and I sighed into his mouth. “You really are a dream.”
He laughed. “Is that so? I hope I’m a better dream than the ones you seem to be having.”
“Oh, you most definitely are. The best dream. The best dream I’ve ever had,” I said.
“Good.” He pulled me closer to him, hands gripping me tight, mouth claiming me as his. It was perfect, the perfect kiss, and I wished that it could have gone forever.
But some things are just not meant to be.
Perhaps I had left the door open, or maybe Sebastian hadn’t thought he needed to knock. Maybe he had overheard us and wanted to check on what was going on without alerting us to his presence.
Either way, the door had opened without either of us noticing, and Sebastian was standing in the doorway.
He cleared his throat, causing us both to jump apart and turn to him in surprise. There was anger in his eyes, the kind of anger that I’d never seen in him before. The kind of anger he reserved for only the worst betrayals.
“How long have you been standing there?” Grayson asked, seeming to have a difficult time finding the words to speak.
“Long enough to know all that I need to know,” Sebastian responded. His words were sharp and clipped. I could see that they wounded Grayson, and I wished I could take back everything that just happened, if only so that his face would never have that expression again.
“Sebastian, it’s not what it looks like.”
“Oh, really? Then why don’t you tell me what it’s like, Grayson.” Sebastian spat out his name like it was poison, bitter on his tongue. “Because from where I’m standing, it looked like you were kissing my little sister! Now, tell me how I managed to misinterpret that one.”
“Sebastian, I know you’re mad,” Grayson said, “but at least give me a chance to explain. I was going to talk to you about it tomorrow.”
“I thought I explicitly told you not to do anything with her,” Sebastian snarled.
“Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here!” I chipped in.
Sebastian whirled on me. “Serenity, this has nothing to do with you!”
I put my hands on my hips. “It has everything to do with me! I like Grayson a lot, okay? And we had agreed that he was going to talk to you about things tomorrow.”
“Can’t you see he’s taken advantage of you?”
“He hasn’t!”
“Maybe from your perspective. But we all know you’ve had a crush on him for the longest time. And I asked him not to do anything with you because I knew you would just get your heart broken again! Think about it, things just aren’t meant to work between the two of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re at two different places in your lives right now. And you know how much you need attention and reassurance. But he has a company to run. He doesn’t have time to be all the things you know you need.” Sebastian gestured at Grayson. “Can’t you see that I’m just trying to look out for you?”
“You don’t know what’s best for me, though. Who are you to say that this can’t work, or that the two of us can’t be happy together?” I didn’t get it, why couldn’t Sebastian understand that?
“Even if things could work out, even if the two of you were happy together, that still doesn’t change the fact that Grayson went about this the wrong way.” Sebastian turned to Grayson then. “You should have told me you were having feelings for her so I didn’t have to stumble upon things this way. The way things are, you betrayed my trust. That’s the biggest reason why I can’t approve.”
“Grayson, I was going to tell you—”
“But you didn’t! And I’m willing to bet that your original intentions weren’t wholesome either, especially for bringing her here. You lied to me! How could you do that?”
“Sebastian, I never