Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
He heaved a sigh and shut off the shower, slowly toweling off before pulling on a pair of boxers and moving back into the bedroom. He hadn’t bothered to turn on the light, but there was enough moonlight coming in through the balcony doors that he could safely make his way to the bed. However, when he pulled back the sheets and slid between them, he quickly realized he wasn’t alone.
“Talia?” he murmured in surprise, reaching out to touch her shoulder. When his fingers slid across her soft skin, Sebastian knew he wasn’t imagining things. It really was her. “What are you doing here?”
She stirred at the sound of his voice, shifting so her back was no longer to him. She rolled onto her side, smiling sleepily from just a few inches away, and although her smile had his heart racing, it was the liquor on her breath that kept him firmly rooted in place.
“Oh shit,” she giggled, lifting a hand to her mouth as if it would help stifle her amusement. “This isn’t my room.”
“No, it’s not,” he agreed but wasn’t surprised by her mistake. After all, the last time they’d been in the Hamptons, she’d spent a considerable amount of time in this room with him. “Are you-are you drunk?”
“Of course not.” She took a moment to reassess, lips scrunching to one side. “Okay, well, maybe a? little .”
Sebastian couldn’t help but chuckle, relaxing slightly knowing that she at least had a valid excuse for this mistake. Not that he minded having her lying beside him in the slightest.
He was tempted to touch her again, to run a hand down her bare arm, but held himself back. The advance probably wouldn’t have been welcome at this stage of their reconciliation, no matter how hard he’d been trying over the past couple weeks. She was also clearly wasted, and he wasn’t about to take advantage of that vulnerability.
“Do you want me to take you back to your room?” he offered, knowing it would’ve been in both of their best interests to have that slight bit of separation tonight, no matter how much he didn’t want it.
“No.”
Her answer was blunt, delivered unflinchingly as she stared up into his eyes. Her gaze held his for a few long moments, but Sebastian forced himself to look down, focusing on the sharp line of her collarbone instead.
“Then…what do you want?” he asked, watching the slow and steady tick of her pulse at the hollow of her throat.
But he was forced to look back into her eyes when she lifted a hand to his jaw.
“I just-” she began, pausing momentarily to dampen her lips before continuing. “I just want to lie here with you and pretend nothing is wrong.”
Sebastian said nothing, too many things racing through his mind to string together a coherent sentence. Between her palm on his cheek and the deep, gut-wrenching knowledge that he’d ruined this, there really wasn’t much he could’ve done.
“I’m still? so mad at you, Seb,” she whispered, nails gently dragging down his face before her touch dropped away. “I don’t think you understand just how much you hurt me. All the lies, the secrets… But I miss you.”
Her hands were pressing at his shoulders a moment later, forcing him onto his back. When she curled against his side, Sebastian couldn’t help but pull her closer.
“You have every right to be mad.” He sighed, lifting a hand to stroke her hair. “I’m sorry, Talia.”
Her voice was small when she spoke again. “I understand why you did it, you know. That’s what hurts the most.”
Sebastian moved to ask her what she meant, but it clicked a moment later.
Blair. She knows why you went to her that night. Even if you don’t.
“You do?” he asked instead, a strangely hopeful hint in his voice.
Taliana nodded, lifting her head enough to look at him again. “I told you I didn’t love you, so you ran to the one person you knew still did.”
The realization felt like a punch to the gut, but not a single bone in his body could deny it.
“Talia, I-” he began, preparing to apologize, but she cut him off before he could finish.
“I get it. I probably would’ve done the same thing if I had someone who loved me like that.”
I love you like that, he wanted to say. Instead, he mumbled, “Blair didn’t love me. She never did.”
“That’s a lie and you know it. She loved you so much.”
Sebastian moved to protest yet again. “That’s not-“
“But she doesn’t love you more than I do.”
All the things he’d been trying to say before dropped away, leaving his mind clear and heart set on only one thing. Drawing her closer, he pressed a kiss to the top of her head and let his eyes slide shut.
“Go to sleep,” he murmured, not wanting to lose this moment. With as drunk as she was, there was a good chance she wouldn’t remember any of this in the morning.
But he would. And he would hold on to it for as long as he could.
51
The Hamptons (IV)
Michael Richardson wasn’t unused to waking up beside beautiful girls. There’d been plenty in his past, and certainly more to come in his future, but this was one girl he hadn’t woken up to in years.
In sleep, she was returned to an innocence he hadn’t seen on her face since childhood. She’d been beautiful then, and she was beautiful now, endowed with a certain allure that few came by naturally. She was exquisite and she knew it, a dangerous combination Michael had never been able to resist.
Blowing out a quiet breath, he disentangled himself from her and rolled out of bed, pausing momentarily once he was on his feet to make sure she hadn’t awoken. Blair shifted slightly to compensate for his disappearance, hugging a pillow close to her chest and curling around it, but her eyes didn’t open. Considering it a fate he wasn’t about to tempt, he pulled on his boxers and gathered the rest of his clothes from the floor before sneaking out of the room.
Without a doubt, this was his biggest fuck up in ages. He’d worked hard at pushing Blair from his heart years ago, but here she was again, slipping her way back in as if she still had a key.
And maybe she did.
Once upon a time, he’d loved her. But that affection had died years ago, back when they’d decided they were better off with other people. She’d started dating Sebastian not long after. He’d told her to go after Seb-after all, they’d never even officially been a couple-and that he was sick of her anyway, but there was no way he’d ever stop wanting her.
Jesus, he’d just crawled out of her bed and he still craved her.
But this was wrong on so many different levels. Blair had been off-limits the second she’d started dating Sebastian, and no matter how long those two had been broken up for, there was no going back to what she and Michael had before. It would’ve been the ultimate betrayal to his best friend, the one person he could honestly say he loved more than anyone else.
So even though he’d never been one for guilt, there was a sick sensation in his stomach that he couldn’t fully contribute to being just a hangover.