Chapter Five

Sebastian

"Public sentiment is as scary as it is amusing," Amelia says, turning around to look at me with a cheeky smile, her phone suspended in the air over her face.

It's a lazy Sunday evening, and we're both lounging on the floor of her apartment's living room, our naked limbs deliciously entangled. She'd invited me to her apartment earlier with a promise of the best homemade lasagna I've ever had, but the moment I walked into the door, we'd immediately gotten lost in a frenzied rush of lust and passion. And now, after several rounds of orgasms, we lay sated on the living room floor with a half-empty bottle of some expensive French wine and thoughts of dinner long forgotten.

"Can you imagine?" Amelia asks, looking from her phone to me, her eyes brimming with a brightness that warms my heart. "They suddenly went from writing mean comments when they thought I was having an affair to writing congratulatory messages after I announced my engagement."

There's something about her flushed skin and her kiss-swollen lips that make my chest swell with an exhilarating possessiveness.

This unbelievably gorgeous woman is mine. All mine.

I hum in response, distracted by the sensual feel of her body snuggled up cozily against mine. She fits perfectly in my arms. Like she was always meant to be there.

I can feel a familiar stirring in my groin even though I'm not sure my body is ready to take another staggering orgasm. Sometimes, I am shocked by this insatiable hunger that I feel for her but I don't mind it.

She turns around in my arms so she's half lying on my body, carelessly draping her right leg over my torso.

"Anyway, I'm just glad the noise about the affair has died down," she says, absently drawing invisible shapes on my chest. "Of course, I still have eyes on me, but my company's stock isn't in danger."

"And that's all thanks to your ability to think on your feet," I say, smiling into her eyes. "Things would have spiraled out of control if you hadn't acted fast enough. You rock, butterfly."

"Why do you call me butterfly?" she asks, raising her head slightly to look at me.

"Because you're gorgeous, colorful, bright, and sweet."

"I didn't know butterflies are sweet."

"No, silly, they carry sweetness," I reply, kissing the tip of her nose.

She chuckles and snuggles closer to me. There's something so ordinary yet so intimate about this moment: lying naked together and talking about mundane things. There are no pretentious walls, no need to be someone else… Just two people who aren't afraid to be vulnerable with each other.

"May I ask a question?" I ask after a while.

"Sure."

"Have you always wanted to run a cafe?"

She snorts quietly, an almost self-deprecatory sound. "No. I wanted to be a rapper, then a flight attendant. The I wanted to join the army. I had several passions in different shapes and forms, but I never stuck with one long before I found another. I was restless, and quite frankly scared for my future. I was worried I'd end up being a professional heiress.

"Then, when I was eighteen, my maternal aunt passed away from cancer. Aunt Rachel and I were never close, but then she left me Sunshine Cafe in her will. She saw something in me, a potential I never dared attribute to myself. At first, I ran the cafe out of obligation. Then, as time went on, it started to mean so much more to me. I expanded over the years, but Sunshine Cafe is my anchor. It's the one place where I feel like really I'm somebody. And that's why I run it myself; it means so much to me."

"Your Aunt Rachel must be so proud of you," I say, forcing the words past the lump of guilt in my throat.

"I can only hope," Amelia says. "You know… sometimes I wonder what I would have done, what would have become of me without Aunt Rachel's intervention. I always come up blank. It scares me, the thought that I might have come to rely on my family's wealth, that I would have been known just for the things other people did… And that's why I dissociate myself from it so much. I envy people like you, Seb. People with a passion who dared to pursue their dreams."

Except I'm none of that…

Of course, I used to have fancy things like dreams and passion until Dan died from that damn motorcycle accident. He was supposed to carry on the family's legacy as the first son while I was free to be anything I wanted. But then he left me alone, and I had to step in his shoes.

But I can't tell Amelia any of that. To open up myself to her is to show her the beast in me. I wonder how she'd look at me then… Would she still have that beautiful sparkle in her eyes when she talked to me? Would she still smile so brightly at me or moan my name with unabashed passion?

Probably not.

I suddenly feel a tightening in my chest. Something foreign, yet distinctly familiar. It's a lot like the feeling I had when my brother died. The doctor had declared him brain dead and encouraged us to take off the life support. Standing there in the hospital hallway, surrounded by the stringent smell of disinfectant, I suddenly couldn't breathe.

I recognize the feeling now. Panic.

Faced with the possibility of losing Amelia like I lost every damn good thing in my life, I feel an overwhelming rush of emotions that I've held in all these years: fear, guilt, regret, and sadness… emotions that I didn't allow myself to feel.

These past few days with her, I've felt a sense of inner peace I never knew I craved. I've felt whole. How could I ever live without that feeling?

"Seb?"

What if I came clean right now? What if I explained that although my intentions weren't pure in the beginning, I've come to care for her greatly in the past few days, and I can't bear the thought of losing her? Would she understand? Would she forgive me?

"Seb?" Amelia calls again, searching my face with a. concerned frown. "What's wrong? You seem disturbed."

"I think…"

My phone rings, intercepting what would have been a confession right there and then.

It's Cole.

"Excuse me," I say to Amelia.

I place the phone over my ear, keeping my expression neutral despite the urgency in Cole's tone as he asks me to meet him at his house.

Amelia doesn't object when I inform her I won't be spending the night, but I see the questions and silent worry in those beautiful gray eyes.

"I'll see you later, my butterfly," I say to her on my way out, leaning over to kiss her briefly.

The moment I step into Cole's condo, he's rounding on me. "What the hell are you doing, Knight?"

"Can I at least have a glass of whiskey?" I ask, dropping to the couch with a weary sigh. "Something tells me I'm going to need the fortification."

Cole looks like he's going to say something, but then changes his mind and heads over to the mini bar. He comes back with two glasses of whiskey and holds one out to me.

"Thanks," I mutter, downing it all at once.

Cole settles on the couch opposite mine and takes a small sip from his glass, his expression pensive.

"Coral Groups are threatening to pull out of the merger since we aren't upholding our end of the deal," Cole says after a while, looking squarely into my eyes. "What's the problem, Sebastian? Why haven't we bought out Sunshine Cafè yet? It's the only thing standing in the way of the expansion. We need that location. You know what we went through to get Coral Group to bend; we've come too far, mate."

"I'm working on it," I say flatly.

"No, you're not," Cole replies with a dismissive scoff. "Sunshine Cafe would have long been rubble if you were. It doesn't matter how hard Amelia Farrell fought, she would have bent to your whims in the end."

I close my eyes with a ragged sigh. When I open them, Cole is studying me with a thoughtful expression, his luminous brown eyes slightly hooded in suspicion.

"It's just… Sunshine means a lot to her," I say, feeling a need to fill the silence. "I can't just take it away."

Cole sighs and leans back against the couch, his mouth curving up in a knowing smirk. "You're in love with Amelia, aren't you?"

It seems useless to deny the obvious. Even though I haven't allowed myself to consider the possibility in the past few days, deep down inside of me, I know that I fell in love with Amelia Farrell the moment I set my eyes on her.

"Yes, I am."

"Does this mean the deal with Coral is off?"

"Not on my watch," I reply, my tone hardening. "We'll have to approach with another method. This time, they're going down hard. No negotiations."

Cole snickers. "And here I thought the great Sebastian Knight had been humbled by love."