Page 29 of The Sun & Her Burn

Something about that made his lips twitch. “Why don’t you go to Miranda, and I’ll pour us some lemonade? I’ll meet you outside.”

I swallowed thickly because I liked the familiarity of having him help himself in my house. Even if it was Miranda’s, I had made it feel like my own over the years as much as I could, repainting the outside, adding charm to the cluttered, fussy interior. I liked having Sebastian in this space even though he seemed too large and lovely for the little house.

I placed Miranda’s flowers on her side table and put onGeneral Hospitalfor her, turning on the baby monitor I’dbought so I could check on her when I wasn’t in the same room, and trailed out the back door after Seb.

He sat on the wicker loveseat, staring out at the little yard with its flowering bushes.

“You garden for her?” he asked.

I shrugged one shoulder and took a seat beside him, lifting one foot onto the cushion to hug my knee before accepting the glass he handed me.

“She likes having a pretty garden. In London, Wyndam used to surprise her with all these exotic varieties.”

Sebastian stared at me for a long moment, his gaze so penetrating I thought he could see through my skin and bones to the secrets and dreams I had written in invisible ink on my soul.

“You’re something else,trottolina,” he murmured. “Which is why I wanted to talk to you. You promised that if I had a reasonable offer to make your life better, you’d take it.”

I blinked. “I believe I said, if you had areciprocaloffer that would be good for both of us, I would hear you out.”

“I have one, only it’s not exactly for me,” Sebastian admitted. “Do you remember our conversation about Adam? I told you that he’d recently been the cause of some…speculation.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, trying to figure out where this could possibly be going.

“Well, without going into particulars before you agree to meet with him, he could use an image boost in the media. A contractual relationship with someone who would agree to be his girlfriend, be seen out with him going to events and dinners etc. until everything cools down.”

I crinkled my nose. “Like a prostitute?”

“Cazzo, Linnea, not like a prostitute.” His shocked and dismayed expression was so pure, it made me smile despite myself. “Like a fake girlfriend. It would help with the gossipsurrounding him, especially when he is on the precipice of securing a role he has always dreamed of.”

“The Daventry part?” I asked because while I didn’t keep up with celebrity gossip, I did track film news, and it had been all over the news that Adam Meyers was up for the role of the iconic British spy.

Seb dipped his chin. “Yes. He’s worked hard all his life, and he’smeraviglioso, a true generational talent. He deserves not only the role of a lifetime but to be free of this gossip about his sexuality.”

“Ah.” I was shocked by the idea that Adam Meyers was into men, if only because his marriage to Savannah and string of girlfriends since had been so well documented. “He needs a beard, then.”

“He likes women,” Sebastian said firmly, but the words carefully left room for conjecture.

He liked women, but he might also have been attracted to men.

Interesting.

“Do you have a problem with that?” he asked, his voice cooler than I’d ever heard it.

I met his eyes, noting the way his jaw clenched and his eyes went stale.

“Hardly. I hooked up with my best girl friend when I was eleven, and I’ve been attracted to all kinds of people my whole life. It would be hypocritical of me to judge others, wouldn’t it?” I asked with my own sharp smile.

I was used to defending myself. When Miranda found out about my first girlfriend in high school, she had insisted I move to England to live with her and Wyndam. She said it was to better my education, but Dad and I both thought it was to split Kaleigh and I up.

Sebastian blinked at me, obviously caught off guard by my blasé confession.

My smile softened and turned sly. “Are you imagining me with a woman, now, Sebastian?”

He swallowed thickly but returned his usual charming grin. “Would you blame me if I did?”

“Just as long as you know my bisexuality isn’t something performative to turn men on,” I allowed. “I may be a two on the Kinsey Scale, but I’ve loved women before, and I could again.”

“I do not think I have ever met someone so comfortable with themselves,” Sebastian said, a thread of awe in his voice. “You must teach me.”