Page 256 of The Enslaved Duet

The doorbell trilled throughout the house, causing everyone to pause in the revelry.

We were all together, not a loved one forgotten, so it was curious that anyone would arrive on Christmas Eve to the closed estate.

I was surprised the guard had let whoever it was through the gates without permission.

That was until my wife smiled like the cat who was about to eat the bloody canary.

“Topolina,” I drawled dangerously. “What have you done?”

Her smile was wicked as she ducked out of my arms and scurried away to answer the door, impatiently shooing away Riddick as he tried to take the duty from her.

I caught eyes with Sebastian as he stood with his mother in his arms, and we shared a moment of apprehension.

We both had an inkling who Cosima might have invited into our home.

Notwho, butwhom.

A moment later, a male and female voice sounded from the Great Hall, and a moment after that, Giselle and Sin’s daughter and son were dragging in two people by the hand with Cosima following in the rear.

“Look,Papa,” Theo crowed to his dad. “Adam and Linnea are here!”

The air in the room went flat, the jovial atmosphere doused with gasoline before it lit on fire a second later when the tall, admittedly gorgeous woman holding Theo’s hand said softly, “Hi, everyone.”

I didn’t have to look at Sebastian to know he was bursting with rage and run through with hurt. Everyone else unfroze from their shock and gave in to their impulse to be polite despite the awkward situation. I remained standing in the door as the others greeted Sebastian’s ex-best friend and ex-lover, offering my solidarity to the brother-in-law I’d grown to respect and love.

His eyes cut to me, and he tilted his head slightly in thanks.

“Sebastian,” Adam Meyers said, his voice strong and confident as he stepped forward after exchanging hellos with the rest of the family, eyes locked on the man across the room. “Come here and greet us.”

“We just came to wish you a Merry Christmas, Seb,” Linnea said in her soft, lyrical voice, beseeching where Adam was commandeering.

They made a striking couple standing there. Adam’s regal, stern bearing a result of his British aristocratic upbringing, whereas Linnea was faintly exotic and entirely beguiling with all that blond hair and bombshell physique tucked in a cashmere dress.

Sebastian’s dark looks were a perfect foil and complement to the two, but standing across the room as he was, it was impossible to tell how physically or emotionally compatible they could have been together. Then or—if the two newcomers had anything to do about it—now.

“Sebastian.” Adam’s voice cut clean through the air between them like a bullwhip. “Come here.”

Instantly, Sebastian moved forward even though his posture spoke of recalcitrance and humiliated anger. He reminded me of Cosima when I’d first brought her to heel, defiant and noble but deeply drawn to domination.

I looked for her behind Adam and noticed her twin expression of bewilderment.

Adam and Sebastian clearly had a greater history than we’d previously understood.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” I mouthed to my wife.

She bit her lip and shrugged.

Sebastian reached Adam, stopping toe to toe with him in belligerent defiance. They stared at each other for a long moment, energy crackling in the room so profoundly even the triplets were quiet in their crib.

Finally, Linnea stepped forward, placing a hand on each of their vibrating chests like a lightning rod grounding them both.

“Stop,” she ordered quietly. “You’re both making a scene, and this is Christmas. Give me a kiss, Sebastian, and then a tour of this gorgeous house.”

The men stared at each other for another long second before Seb’s shoulders rounded slightly in defeat, and he turned to press a brief kiss to Linnea’s cheek.

“Start with the east wing,” Cosima suggested, sweeping closer to place a comforting hand on her brother’s arm. “I’m sure they’ll both enjoy the chapel.”

Sebastian gave her a tight nod and then made forward with Linnea’s hand tucked into his arm. Adam reached out and clamped his fingers on Sebastian’s shoulder so that he froze in his tracks. Without looking back at him, Seb stepped slightly out of the way and let Adam take the lead even though he didn’t know his way through the Hall.