Chapter 20
A Very Long Walk
Victoria tried to remember where she put her cellphone.
It wasn’t in her room. It wasn’t in the living room downstairs where she spent the hour before Benson’s lessons watching TV. It wasn’t with her during dinner.
She tried to recall if she brought it with her during the tutoring session, which they had outside at the gazebo on the massive grounds behind the mansion. It was a nice change of scenery, having the lessons outdoors instead of in Benson’s study. There was a copse of trees surrounding the gazebo, and a fountain a few feet away. She imagined this would be a great place to hold a party.
If she couldn’t find her phone anywhere in the house, she had to go back out there to look for it.
“It’s all right, Mrs. Sellers,” she said to the housekeeper who was on her own phone calling Victoria’s so they might be able to figure out where it was if they heard it ring. “I think I left it out in the gazebo.”
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Sellers said. “I’ll have one of the guards get it for you.” She reached for the kitchen intercom.
“There’s no need, really,” Victoria said. “I’ll go and get it myself.”
“Are you sure, dear? It’s a long walk.”
“It’s lovely outside. I don’t really mind.”
“Well, don’t stay out too long. It smells like rain tonight.”
***
It took Victoria a while to find her phone. It was lying on the grass outside the gazebo. She guessed it must have fallen from her pocket. She checked her messages and found one from Nicolette that was reminding her to get milk and sugar from the store on her way home the next day. As she typed her reply, she remembered Ardan sent her a message earlier that day that she hadn’t replied to yet.
Do you like sushi? I know a great Japanese place.
She smiled as she read it again. He’d been sending her messages every day since Sunday. One to greet her good morning, and one to bid her goodnight. Their date was the next day, Wednesday, and it was the first time he’d brought it up. She sent her reply.
I love sushi.
A drop of water fell on the screen of her phone just as she hit the send button. She looked up at the sky. It had started to rain.
Cursing under her breath, she started running back to the house. She had gone a few feet when she realized her phone was getting wet. But as she hurriedly tried to slip it into the pocket of her slacks while running, she lost her balance and fell forward.
Her knees hit the ground first, and she skinned her palms when she used her hands to break the rest of her fall.
She struggled to get up, but her feet slipped on the muddy grass and she fell once more, this time on her front. Laughing at her clumsiness, she rolled onto her back. She lay still for a while, eyes closed, as she let the rain fall on her face.
Come on, Slade. Just a few more feet and you’re back inside the big warm house.
She tried to get up again, wincing as she pressed her wounded hands on the ground to push herself up. But before she could get back on her feet, a pair of strong arms swooped her off the ground.
“Hey!” she shouted in panic, her arms flailing.
“Damn it, Victoria,” Sebastian growled, cradling her more tightly in his arms. “Do you want us both to fall?”
“What?” She froze, looking up at his face in shock. “Mr. Chase, what are you doing?”
“Trying to keep you from drowning,” he said.
“I can walk,” she begged, mortified. One of his arms was lifting her legs, the other was under her back, pulling her hard against his chest. His face was inches away from hers. “Really. Just let me down—”
“Ms. Slade, I’m already soaked to the skin, so you might as well accept my help,” he said, then his voice softened. “Do you really think this is the best time for us to get into an argument again, Victoria?”
“I’m sorry.” She felt she was going to melt from the heat from his body. His closeness made her dizzy. She crossed her arms over her chest, desperately trying to hide the pounding of her heart.
“Hang on to me.”
She hesitated a bit, before finally uncurling her arms to wrap them around his neck. The scent of his skin engulfed her senses, and she wondered if she could want any man as much as she wanted him now.
It felt like a mile, that walk in the rain. She wanted to run away, far away from Sebastian and these feelings she was tired of fighting. But she couldn’t do anything but lie there helplessly in his arms, wounded and vulnerable. Like her heart.
His long legs covered the distance in steady strides as he carried her toward the house. One of the guards was waiting, and he opened the door for them. “The first aid kit is over there, sir,” he said.
She heard the door close behind them. “You can put me down now,” she said.
Sebastian didn’t reply, and he did not put her down until he had brought her to the couch near a large pair of windows. Outside, the storm was bearing down in angry torrents.
He laid her down sideways on the couch, her back against an arm rest. He sat down facing her, and gently pulled up the hem of her slacks until they bunched up over her knees. He inspected her legs, cursing under his breath. Her right knee was bleeding, and both knees were bruised.
“It doesn’t hurt so much now,” she said. “Please don’t worry about it.”
“You’ll need antiseptic,” he said. He reached for a small grey bag on the coffee table. “This won’t hurt.”
“I can do it, really.” She leaned forward and tried to take the kit from him.
Sebastian’s hand caught hers, and she nearly gasped at the sudden skin contact. “Do you always put up a fight every time someone wants to help you?” he asked. “Or only if it’s me?”
She opened her mouth to protest, but the look he gave her made her heart stop. “I’m sorry.”
He was silent as he wiped the blood off her knee and palms with a wet tissue.
“We didn’t mean to intrude on you and your girlfriend,” she said. At his raised eyebrow, she added, “At the party.”
He took some iodine out of the first aid bag. “You didn’t,” he said. “I take it you saw the gossip blogs?”
“Yes.” She smiled faintly. “I don’t usually read them, but it’s not every day you get to read about your boss on TMZ.”
He took each of her hands to put iodine on the broken skin. “It’s all gossip, Ms. Slade,” he said.
“But... Erika Daniels is —”
“Erika is a lovely girl,” he said, cutting her off. He turned his focus on her knee as he applied iodine on the wound.
Victoria felt the air leave her lungs.
“But it was a mistake,” he went on, after a long silence. He pulled the hem of her slacks back down. He looked up, meeting her eyes. “Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, Victoria. Life is short.”
She nodded, casting her eyes down. Erika was just one woman that she knew of. How many more of his mistakes would she have to live with? And if knowledge of his casual lovers made her chest ache this badly, what of the woman he would ultimately fall in love with?
“You’ll need a shower.”
“Huh?”
He stood up. “Or a hot bath. Get all that mud off you.”
“You too,” she said. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, and it was the first time she noticed how his wet shirt clung to his torso. She averted her eyes almost immediately, the sight of his muscular chest stubbornly burned in her mind.
“Yes. Well.” He shrugged. “Can you walk?”
The pain of her banged-up knees had subsided quite a bit. She stood up. It was uncomfortable, but she knew she could manage. “I’ll be fine.” She forced herself to smile. “Thank you, Mr. Chase.”
“You’re welcome, Ms. Slade.”
***
The marble infinity tub was incredibly luxurious and comforting, if only Victoria could enjoy it. She would have to spend the entire evening in the hot bath just to recover from -well, everything that happened tonight. The memory of Sebastian’s hands on her legs. His hard, warm chest against her shoulder as he carried her. His strong arms around her body.
Her entire body ached with a longing she never knew was possible.
She had meant to make a quick call to Nicolette, then turn in early to be up in time for her morning shift at the Foxhole. But that was before Sebastian showed up. Now she didn’t know what to do with herself; she was almost sure sleep would not come easy.
Was she a coward? Perhaps she was just being realistic. Sebastian Chase was out of her league, that much was obvious to everyone. But when he wasn’t criticizing her lack of ambition or her clothes, he was surprisingly kind to her. Whatever friendship he offered her, she had kept at arm’s length because she was afraid of the feelings he stirred up inside her. And then there was that ridiculous offer of sex for pay.
She bit her lip. Why did she suddenly remember that now? He had the privilege of offering up hypothetical scenarios, while she was the poor waitress he was so ashamed to be seen with until he had dressed her properly in clothes whose brands she didn’t know how to pronounce.
Sebastian may have dared her to buy him for a night, but it was doubtful he even gave it another thought afterwards.
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, Victoria.
She closed her eyes, thinking about her life choices. She was not an incredibly successful woman, by any means. Her choices may have been unusual, but safe. She finished college and graduate school. She made sure to make enough money to support her mother in the nice retirement home in Florida. She tried to make it as a writer. Well, she was still trying.
Life is short.
Victoria clenched her jaw determinedly as she dragged herself out of the warm bath, her mind thinking a hundred thoughts. She hurried to change. Not sure what the appropriate outfit was for what she was about to do, she settled on a shorts jumpsuit made of a soft fabric with a bare left shoulder.
Her hair was still wet, so she shivered as she approached the intimidating double doors of the master bedroom. She knocked quickly, afraid she might lose her nerve if she stalled for too long.
For some reason, she expected Sebastian to be in a suit, the way he was dressed most times she had seen him. The man who opened the door had no shirt to obscure the view of his finely chiseled chest and abs, and he wore a pair of loose denim jeans that hung low from his hips.
He didn’t look happy.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
Victoria took a deep breath, and held up a twenty-dollar bill.
Life is short.
“Does the offer still stand, Mr. Chase?” she asked softly. Her nervousness gave her voice a slight shake, but she steadied her nerves as best she could.
Sebastian didn’t say a word. He stood staring at her, his expression indecipherable.
She stepped closer until she was near enough to feel his breath on her forehead.
He didn’t move.
Looking down, her eyes glancing over the magnificence of his stomach muscles, Victoria tucked the twenty-dollar bill inside his jeans pocket.
His hand gripped her wrist before she could pull her hand away. He yanked her roughly through the open door, and pushed her hard against the wall.
She had half a second to breathe before Sebastian’s lips came crashing down on hers.