Page 161 of The Sun & Her Burn

I closed the door on her surprised face, breathing through my mouth in an attempt to calm my anger before I got into the car with Linnea.

It didn’t work.

I slid into the back seat and barked, “Drive.”

“What happened?” Linnea asked, pressing herself along the line of my body.

The feel of her unraveled some of the knots in my chest, and I turned to bury my nose in her hair as if the scent of her could burn out the remnants of Chanel lingering like smoke inhalation in my lungs.

“She sold it.”

Linnea tensed against me, then muttered, “What a bitch.”

The laugh startled me as it exploded from my lips. I curled her into my embrace as humor moved through me, so fucking grateful for her I finally understood why Tom Cruise would jump on Oprah’s yellow couch and shout that he was in love. I wantedto tell the world how fucking lucky I was to have this woman in my life.

“We’ll find another way to show him,” she promised, canting her head to kiss the dimple in my chin. “But I’m sorry that’s lost to you both.”

“For now.” I had every intention of hunting down Rupert Meinhardt and using bribery, coercion, or force to get that bloody watch back.

And use it to convince Sebastian that he was always meant to be mine.

31

SEBASTIAN

Iwent back to the hotel to shower and change after the award show before heading over to Adam’s. I also needed to call Elena, and I couldn’t do that where he or Linnea could over hear.

“Ohpatatino,” Elena murmured through the phone after I explained the situation. “I am so sorry.”

I huffed a weak laugh and rubbed my hand through my wet hair. “Yeah, yeah, me too.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“No,” I said instantly. “It’s not the money. It’s…”

Could I stand to lose Adam again?

Could I bear not to have Linnea’s light in my life?

My dream had been within my grasp, grazing my fingertips, only to have it be pulled so cruelly away from me, ripped to pieces and scattered in front of my very eyes.

“It’s losing them,” Elena finished for me. “Giselle told the family that she’s lovely. Like sunlight, she said. And Adam? Well, you’ve always spoken about him like he hung the moon in the sky.”

I laughed because she had no idea how on the nose those comments were.

“I feel as if someone reached into my chest and tore out my heart,” I confessed, tears clogging my throat. More than Mama, Elena was someone I had gone to for advice. Mama was the shoulder to cry on, but my eldest sister was the one who would pick up a sword and fight for me.

“I’ll make this contract so ironclad, Oscar Hampton will be obliterated from the face of the earth if he so much as breathes a word of the sex tape to anyone.”

I exhaled a sharp chuckle. “Have I mentioned you are beautiful and terrifying?”

“It’s a well-earned reputation,” she acknowledged. “Have I mentioned you are loving and deserving of the whole world? I’m not sure Adam and Linnea were that for you, but if they were, I am so sorry, Seb.”

“I recovered from heartbreak once before,” I joked lamely, but God, this felt different.

Adam seemed different this time, older and wiser, more willing to consider the options than act in a blind panic. Linnea made it different, us and the situation. She wouldn’t want to let me go. My girl was a fighter just like a Lombardi.

“Come back to New York when this is done,” Elena suggested. “Come visit Rora and the twins, they miss theirzioSebastian.”