Page 11 of Belonging to Them

“Well, yes, Sebastian,” she says, amused.“She’s the one I want to talk to, because this is her business.As much as I admire you, et cetera and so on.”

“I feel so special,” I say in a wry voice.

“As you should,” she croons.“So…can I talk to Ella?”

“Oh, yeah,” I say.“Let me see if she’s available.”

I should’ve checked with Ella before calling, shit.I didn’t think that Helena would want to talk to her right now.Hopefully Ella won’t feel blindsided by all of this.

“Hang on a second,” I say to Helena, before muting the call.I open the bedroom door and call out, “Hey, Ella?Um…I have my agent here on the phone, Helena.She wants to talk to you.”

Ella’s jaw drops and she gives me a disbelieving look.“Helena.Helena Tran?”

“Yeah.I can tell her you’re busy?—”

“No, wait—I’m not busy!”Ella gets to her feet.The cat gives her an affrontedmrfffsound before settling back into the throw blanket.Then Ella’s in front of me, bouncing on her toes.She doesn’t reach for my phone, though, and instead whispers, “Is it on mute?”

“Yeah.”

“What do I say?What will she say?I want to talk to her, but what if I’m weird?”

I kiss her forehead.“She’s a human, just like you.All you have to do is talk to her.She might want to set up a meeting to chat in person.And remember, you already have one huge thing in common—you both love music.So go from there.”

It’s not quite the pep talk I had in mind, but it seems to calm Ella’s nerves, and she nods.

Unmuting the phone, I say into it, “All right, Helena.Here’s Ella,” and I pass the phone to Ella.

“Hello,” Ella says.

I turn to walk away and give her some privacy, but she snatches my hand to keep me here with her.I give her fingers a gentle, supportive squeeze while listening to her side of the conversation.

“It’s great to speak with you, too….Uh huh.Yeah.… I’m free tomorrow, sure, but not until one….Yes, that would be great, I can do that….Okay, thank you.I’m looking forward to it!Okay, bye!”

She ends the call and hands the phone back to me, looking dazed.

“It sounded good,” I say.“Yousounded good.”

“I can’t believe I have a lunch date with an agent,” she says.

“I can,” I say.“You’ve been working your cute little ass off, princess.It’s about time you were rewarded.”

Raising her eyebrows at me, she says, “Areyougoing to reward me…Daddy?”

I take step after step, forcing her to walk backward with my advance.Finally, her back hits the wall.I take each of her hands and raise them above her head, then nuzzle her neck.Keeping her wrists in place with one hand, I trail my other hand down her front, between her breasts, and to the waistband of her loose sweatpants.

“Yes, baby girl.I’m going to reward you.”

* * *

Ella

Morning dawns cooler than usual, with the May heat cut by a freak coastal fog rolling inland.I curl against Kingston’s chest, stealing his body heat.I don’t want to get up and go to work.It’s not that I mind it—in fact, I’m grateful to still have a job, and I’m thrilled I’m no longer working as much as I was.It’s just today I want to sleep in and enjoy Kingston and Sebastian being here in bed with me.

But Kingston rouses himself and slowly sits up, trying not to disturb me as he goes.

“It’s okay, I’m awake,” I tell him in a quiet voice so I don’t wake Sebastian.I sit up, too.

He leans over and kisses my cheek.“Good morning.Are you excited for your meeting with Helena?”