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“Then it shouldn’t be difficult to tell me all about it,” Mikey said with a syrupy-sweet smile that had him narrowing his eyes on the little brat.

“Fine. I’ll tell you what you want to know if you tell me what you said to my parents this morning,” Sebastian told her, curious to find out what she could have possibly said to convince his parents to stop trying to push therapy on him.

“I’m not sure that’s really going to work for me,” Mikey said with a helpless shrug.

“And why’s that?” Sebastian asked, unable to help but notice just how beautiful she was when she was trying to be devious.

“Because I have something that you want more,” Mikey pointed out as she continued to roll the baseball between her hands.

“You really don’t though,” he drawled, hoping that it was enough to convince her to start talking.

“I really do, which is why I think it would be in my best interest to negotiate a better trade.”

“We could do that…” Sebastian said, sounding thoughtful before adding, “or I could drag you upstairs and shove you in a closet, and leave you there until you finish that book.”

Slowly nodding, Mikey said, “I liked the first deal better.”

“I thought you would,” Sebastian murmured, gesturing for her to get on with it.

With a heavy sigh and an adorable grumble that had his lips twitching, Mikey said, “I told them that they expect too much from you,” making him frown.

“That’s it?” Sebastian asked, because there had to be more to it than that.

For the past three years, he’d told them that there was nothing wrong with him and that he didn’t need therapy, but they’d refused to listen and now…

Now, he wasn’t sure what to think.

“Well, that and I told them that they should beat you,” Mikey said, nodding.

“Of course, you did,” Sebastian murmured absently as he glanced back to find his father laughing at something Uncle Jason said and…

“Honestly, I think you took them by surprise with that freak comment,” Mikey said, drawing his attention back to find her gesturing with the baseball in her hand to get on with it.

For a moment, Sebastian considered changing the subject, but he knew that she’d just go to his brothers or one of his cousins and ask them. Knowing that he didn’t have much of a choice, he said, “Have you heard about the Bradford curse?”

“Does it have something to do with your inability to stop stealing my food?” Mikey asked, looking thoughtful.

“No, it has nothing to do with that,” Sebastian said, waving that off.

“Okay, so then what is it?” Mikey asked while he sat there, debating the best way to explain this without making things weird between them.

That led him to wondering how she’d managed to be around his family for three years without learning about the Bradford curse. Then again, that probably had something to do with him, Sebastian thought as he glanced over at Jonathan, wondering why his brother hadn’t told Mikey about the curse just to screw him over. Probably because Jonathan knew that he would kill him, Sebastian thought as he shifted his attention back to Mikey.

“Sometime back in the 1800’s, my great-grandparents grew up on neighboring estates in England and from what I’ve been told, they took great joy out of tormenting each other. They’d made each other’s lives a living hell. It got so bad that they were forbidden to be in the same room when they were little, but that apparently wasn’t enough to stop them. They found ways to torment each other until they’d finally had enough and began avoiding each other.”

“They didn’t see each other again until they were both forced to attend the same ball. From what I’ve been told, they hadn’t been able to take their eyes off each other. When they realized who they were, they were furious and that probably would have been the end of it if fate hadn’t thrown them together. They continued making each other’s lives a living hell as though they’d never stopped and fell in love in the process. Since then, every Bradford has met the same fate,” Sebastian said, carefully choosing his words.

“And what fate is that?” Jonathan asked around a hot dog as he dropped down on the chaise lounge next to them.

“Nothing,” Sebastian said with a glare that told his brother to leave it alone since he had no plans on telling Mikey everything. He knew better than to tell her anything that she could use to torture him with later, and he knew damn well that she would torture him if she ever found out more about the Bradford curse.

“Sebastian was just telling me about the Bradford curse,” Mikey said, moving over to make room for him.

“Oh, and why were we doing that?” Jonathan asked in a deceptively casual tone as his eyes danced with amusement while Sebastian sat there, inwardly cursing himself for not putting a stop to this when he had the chance.

“Because she asked,” Sebastian bit out.

“And what did you tell her?” Jonathan asked.