Page 4

Kennedy

W hat the hell am I doing?

I had cried through hours of therapy, alone, assuming my leaving was irrational just because Sebastian worked a lot.

Finding out, I wasn’t completely off the wall, and knowing he’d never change, I then cried to a lawyer and asked for a basic divorce with a third party appointed to divide the assets.

Since there was, well, a lot of money at stake.

Seb’s father Charles Hart had handed me and Seb close to a billion dollars of The Sterling’s investment capital. Every account some financial planner opened up to spread that money around had my name on it. I’d said it didn’t feel right, but Seb had looked at me like I was insane.

He really never thought we’d break up. But that made him complacent thinking we were so damn bulletproof. His money looked the furthest from his mind as he strutted over with two coffees and my favorite cupcake.

“My teeth hurt looking at that sugar frosting.” The thick layer of icing doubled the size of the monster cupcake. “And thank you.” I took the coffee from him.

“No need to thank me. What’s mine is yours. I always said that.” He took a spoon and tunneled out some frosting.

Wearing a devilish smile, he dropped the spoon and dipped his finger in the whipped-up swirl instead. Bringing it to my mouth, he drawled, “You know you want it.”

Seb? Yes. Of course, I wanted him. I loved him and despite being with him for ten years, I was still so damn attracted to him. Painfully so. My body hurt wanting him to hold me. But when the loneliness soared, my pleas for him to scale back his patient-load had been ignored.

Figuring what the hell, I licked the whipped cream off his finger, a fire rising up in his green eyes and deep down in my core.

I shouldn’t have had to leave to get his attention. And no way would I have done something so serious as a bluff. Him not prioritizing me over his work told me that despite loving me, he loved his job a little more.

Loved the limelight a little more.

“How’s Cal?” he asked me.

Case in point. Always thinking of his patients, even after I just sucked on his finger.

Sebastian Hart was the real Good Doctor. And I felt like shit for hating him for it. “The nurses at Mercy are kick ass. He’s being taken care of.”

Nodding, Seb sipped his coffee.

“How’s the new surgery center out west?” I asked.

His eyes turned sad. He’d not waited for me after all. He opened up another center and from what I’d heard through the grapevine, he planned to practice out there for a year to make sure it ran to his standard of excellence.

Last nail, meet coffin.

“Ribbon cutting on Jan one.” He put down the cup and picked at crumbs from the cupcake I now devoured despite needing to squeeze into a skin-tight bridesmaid dress in a week. “Ward’s staying in the townhouse. Just easier. I grabbed an Airbnb.”

“Right.”

“Do I have to say it, Kennedy? Come with me.”

“Quit my job and follow you?”

“You’re an anesthesiologist. You can work anywhere. You think that makes you dispensable or replaceable, but it gives you flexibility, and that gives you power. Wasn’t that the plan for when we had kids?”

“You have to be home to make those kids, Seb.” I had lived a very scheduled life being a surgical anesthesiologist. Only, I’d come home every night to an empty townhouse. Woke up to grunting in the second bedroom, Seb running on the treadmill covered in glistening sweat.

Instead of making me sweat with his cock the way we used to enjoy morning sex. I’d felt forgotten about.

He threw down his napkin. “You know the last two years have been crazy because I had to keep going out west to operate.”

“Now you’re gonna live there.”

“It’s temporary. You left me before we could make proper plans to deal with this.”

“What plans? You want me to quit my job to be with you. End of story, Ralph Kramden.”

He bit his lip. “Or, I could have commuted back and forth.”

I stood up, furious. “When? You didn’t have time for me when I was in the bed next to you. Where would that time have materialized if I were three thousand miles away?”

“I don’t know. But I get it now, Kenna. You made your point. Come with me and—”

“No.” I’d gotten a job as head of the department at Memorial Hospital. Double my salary at Mercy. I wasn’t giving that up to follow the rockstar surgeon around like a groupie. “I have to go.”

Seb kicked his chair out, standing too. “No. We’re talking. That’s a step.”

“A step to what? I want a divorce.”

“No, you don’t.”

Okay, no I didn’t, but who was he to tell me that? Even if I were still madly in love with my husband. I’d just been mad for so long...

I choked back a sob, not knowing how to let go of the anger. Not in one day, anyway.

“Kennedy, why didn’t you answer my texts? We’re shoving too much into one conversation over coffee and a shitty cupcake because you wouldn’t take baby steps with me. If you feel like a tidal wave just hit you, then so do I.”

Fury kicked up even more. He didn’t know why those texts had gone unanswered.

“You were a husband via text for two years. You did everything via text. We planned a trip to Cancun, which of course you told me to cancel via text. So, texting me to get me back, meant I still wouldn’t have a husband.

I had a chime on my phone and words on the screen.

I wasn’t worth the time or energy of a phone call, even.

” I grabbed my purse. “I deserve better than that. And I thought you were smart enough to figure that out. I’m sorry I let it go for six months, I’ll own that, but I’ve been wrapped up with your sister’s wedding and doing my own damn job, Sebastian.

I work a lot too. I’m important too, damn it. I’ll see you Friday.”

“No!” He held my arm. “Please. Sit. Please .”

We’d both made mistakes. I should have been stronger and saved Sebastian from himself, as I watched him turn into a greedy surgeon, playing God, acting like he could walk on water.

My head pounded and I got into blurt-mode, pushing my emotions down. “Tristan is putting us up in a villa next weekend.”

“Is he now?” Apparently, he’d not been told any specifics of the wedding.

“It has two bedrooms. I’m counting on you to respect me and let me sleep in one by myself.”

Seb shook his head. “And you think no one will wander into our room for something , see your clothes in there and ask questions?”

My legs felt weak. He was right. Now I’d stress over who’d see a damn dented pillow.

I had to sleep in a bed with him. Or kick him to the couch.

“I’m meeting with the events manager and Tristan to finalize everything Thursday night.”

“Mind if I tag along? It is my sister’s wedding.”

“Of course. It’s a free country, Seb. And it’s your cousin’s hotel.” I wondered if he still did happy hours there. Had he taken anyone up to one of the rooms? The thought of him with someone else made me want to vomit. “I’ll see you Thursday night.”

Only, I didn’t get very far. Sebastian gripped my hand and pulled me into his lap.

His mouth landed on mine again in an aggressive kiss this time, his hold more demanding, his lips more punishing.

I ached to feel passion from him again. Why had it taken six months, or heck, me moving out to kickstart the hunger I always relied upon?

His tongue swirled in my mouth, his grip tight on my waist. “Please,” he groaned.

“Seb,” I managed in a hoarse whisper. “This is a public place.”

“I don’t care. Come home. Right now. Stop this madness.” He sounded sincere, but he’d never give up his drive to operate on athletes. Leave that limelight.

“I have to go.”

Seb stood up. “Tristan’s Town Car is right outside, let me take you home.”

I shuddered, afraid he’d find out where I was living. Not that I’d kept it a secret. And being in a limo with a lethally gorgeous man I missed so damn much? I shook my head. “I’ll grab an Uber, or just sit on the train.”

I rushed out of the bakery in search of a stinking subway to get the smell of Sebastian’s sexy cologne out of my throat.