Filed to story: Once Upon a One Night Mistake Book PDF Free by Simone Shirazi
The next thing Taliana knew, his hands were on her waist, and his face was only inches from hers.
“I’m going to do something you’re going to hate,” he murmured, eyes locked on hers. “Just don’t freak out, okay?”
She frowned, worried about what he was going to pull. “Seb, what are you-“
But Taliana never got the chance to finish her sentence, since his lips were currently crushing hers. The first emotion that registered was shock, followed closely by disgust, and then an unfamiliar feeling of her heart skipping a beat. It caught her so off guard that she instantly brought her hands up to his chest to push him away, but the realization of why he was doing this hit before she could put any force behind it.
Of course, a kiss was the one thing that could simultaneously annoy their exes and prove to all that they were in love-or at least kind of liked each other. Either way, it was brilliant. Slightly sickening, yes, but still brilliant. And Taliana would be damned if she didn’t make the best of it.
Just as he made a move to pull back, prepared to either apologize for the revolting act or just smirk down at Taliana, she made a split-second decision. In a last-ditch effort to get the point across to everyone in the vicinity, she slid her arms around his neck and pulled him back down for another.
It was his turn to be shocked.
Their lips met again in a kiss that was nothing like the chaste one he’d just planted on her. To his credit, Sebastian was quick to respond, easily getting over his initial surprise. The small space that had been between them quickly disappeared as his tongue traced Taliana’s bottom lip, his arm tightening around her waist.
For a moment, she lost herself in it, almost forgetting about the audience they were playing to. But when his hand came up to cup her cheek, she snapped back to reality, finally comprehending what happened.
She had just willingly kissed Sebastian Phillips.
Holy shit.
She pulled back a moment later, trying desperately to catch her breath as she stared slack-jawed up at him.
“That was- Wow,” she breathed out a second later, barely noticing she was still trapped in the circle of his arms.
Sebastian blinked a few times before cracking an awed half-smile. “Yeah. Wow.”
“I can’t believe you? kissed? me.” She tried to ignore the way her stomach was doing somersaults, but it was all in vain. “Warn a girl next time, would you?”
“Sorry,” he chuckled, loosening his grip on her. “It was for the benefit of our onlookers.” He once again glanced over Taliana’s shoulder, and his smile widened. “Zak is livid-his friends are literally holding him back.” Sebastian swung his deep-blue gaze back to Taliana. “What does Blair look like? Just as unhappy, I would hope.”
Taliana looked toward Blair, taking in her hard eyes and scowl. She glanced away in disgust when she found Taliana staring, her fingers curling into the grass beneath her.
Taliana couldn’t help but grin as she met Sebastian’s eyes again. “Looks like we’ve figured out the one thing that gets to her.”
His face lit up. “I wish we’d known this sooner.”
Taliana snorted and gently slapped his chest. “If you’d tried to kiss me a week ago, I would have kicked your ass halfway to Moscow.”
“And now?”
“If people weren’t staring at us, I would have hit you? much harder.”
His grin was borderline smug as he brushed his fingers over Taliana’s hip. “Hey, it’s an improvement.” His touch disappeared a moment later as he took a step back, glancing toward their group sitting around the tree. “Go talk to Jude. I think he might have a heart attack if you don’t explain what just happened.”
Peeking over her shoulder, Taliana saw that Jude did indeed look like he was going to keel over any second. Knowing she was going to need him alive if she wanted to survive another day at Trinity, Taliana said goodbye to Sebastian and made her way in his cousin’s direction.
Before she could even lower onto the grass, Jude reached out to grab her wrist and tugged her down to his level. Taliana let out a squeak of protest as she fell onto the grass next to him, probably flashing half the school in the process.
“Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or did I just see you kiss Sebastian?”
“I think you’re just going crazy,” she teased, patting his cheek. “I would never do such a thing.”
“The Talia I know certainly wouldn’t. I’m not sure who that girl was with her tongue down my cousin’s throat.”
“There was hardly any tongue involved,” Taliana pointed out. “Had there been, I’d be gagging right now.”
“And here I was thinking you’d be gagging anyway.” Jude’s mouth settled into a pout as he watched her. “There’s something wrong with this picture.”
“There’s nothing wrong, Jude,” Taliana sighed. “The only reason that kiss even happened was because we wanted to piss off Blair and Zak. You know what she did, right?”
He snorted. “Yeah, me and everyone else around here. I knew you were a troublemaker, but not that much of one.”
“I’m really not though.”
“Honey, you’re a badass,” he said, playfully poking her in the ribs. “I’m certainly glad to have you with me and not against me.”
“Say another thing about that kiss between me and Sebastian, and you might have to watch out.”
“My lips are sealed,” he promised, but he looked too curious for his own good. “Though I am wondering how in the world you even let Sebastian get that close to you.”
His guess was as good as hers.
22
Guess Who’s Ruining Dinner
After suffering through three straight days of gossip, dirty looks, and laughter all at her expense, Taliana was ready to jump off a cliff.
News of her not-so-innocent past had spread through the school like wildfire, somehow managing to trickle all the way down to the lowly freshmen. She couldn’t go more than ten minutes without someone stopping to ask if she’d truly done everything the record said, or if she was ashamed of getting into so much trouble. Taliana’s usual response to those questions was a well-practiced eyeroll and a stiff middle finger. Most got the message and stuck to whispering, shooting glares at her as if they couldn’t believe she had the gall to show her face. But there were others who stared at Taliana in awe; she’d even received compliments from a fair few.
Luckily, it was Friday afternoon, and Taliana had a glorious, gossip-free weekend to look forward to. All she had to do was make it through the last brutal half hour of school and she would be free for two whole days.
It was just a shame that Headmaster Hawthorne had decided to torture the entire upper school with his annual speech on school rules. They’d been corralled into Trinity’s sprawling auditorium-which had been generously paid for by the Stanton-Phillips family, as the placard outside the heavy double doors proclaimed-over forty-five minutes ago, and Taliana had somehow ended up separated from Sebastian and his friends.
So while those four had the luxury of sitting together, Taliana was stuck between two junior girls who were keen on finding out who she had assaulted, why she wasn’t in prison, and what her sex life with Sebastian was like. Had Taliana not wanted to murder them for asking the first two questions, she probably would’ve gotten a kick out of the third.