Chapter 41

"Man, don't ever, ever do that to me again. Your parents scared the shit out of me so bad, I almost ran away too."

For the first time in his life, he'd fallen in love with a woman. He didn't just think about fucking her or touching her. He didn't just look forward to getting surcease and then getting her to leave. There was a physical and emotional yearning for her. There was a slight squeeze in his chest whenever he thought of her. There was a constant throbbing in his cock when thoughts of how deep he'd been buried inside her entered his mind. And now? Now there was a painful feeling in his heart because he'd lost her.

When she'd told him she had a fiancé, he couldn't help but think about himself. He'd had one too. It was the reason he'd left for Stormbrooke. The betrayal he'd left when she'd bared herself open to him was like a knife in chest. A knife that squeezed even deeper when she'd told him she didn't love him.

Sebastian didn't know what to think. Had she meant it? If she had a fiancé, then what had she been doing in Stormbrooke? A final vacation as a single woman before she tied the knot?

Unlike himself, he doubted she was being forced. She loved him. She loved her fiancé and that was why there wasn't any place in her heart for him.

"Mitch, shut the fuck up and get out." He said, throwing his head back and downing the yellowish liquid into his throat.

"Like hell I will." His cousin said. "You leave for about ten days and now you're waltzing in here like nothing happened? Like you hadn't gone completely MIA, leaving me in a very uncompromising situation and you don't even have an explanation for it?"

He'd gone back home. There was nothing left in Stormbrooke for him. When he'd gone back to the diner, her room was empty. Mrs. Rose had said she'd left with a slightly older looking man and a younger girl. Her husband, he figured. He'd come to get her. Just barely minutes after Sebastian had his cock inside her.

The betrayal was sickening and he felt it to his stomach. She'd made him fall for her and then she'd left.

After the rage he'd felt, he'd taken some time to think about it all. He had to leave. He couldn't stand the smell of her everywhere. Her smile, her laugh, the fire that burned in her eyes when she toughened up. Her pleasurable moans and sweet sighs.

Fuck.

"I'm sorry, man. That what you want to hear?"

Mitch massaged his temple. "What I want to hear is what the fuck happened to you, Seb."

"I found a woman."

There was silence for a few beats. "Hmm. And what of it?"

"She's getting married."

Mitch's laugh boomed. "Oh, fate. You fucking bitch."

Without meaning to, Sebastian let out a laugh. The irony was not lost on him.

"Do you love her?" Mitch asked more quietly and Sebastian stood, walking to the in-house fireplace in the wall. Did he love her? More than he knew. How was he supposed to live without her?

"What do you think?"

The room was so quiet he could have heard a pin drop. When he'd got home, his mother had been hysterical. The woman had cried and cried and hugged him. His father had made a little grunt in his throat, nodded and left for his study. He was thankful they hadn't pestered him because he didn't know what to tell them. He didn't want to talk at all.

But when he'd gotten to his room, Mitch had been up there with the questions and looks that told him he couldn't lie, not to his cousin and best friend.

"I'm sorry. That's fucked up."

"It is what it is." He shrugged.

"Do you know how to find her at least? It doesn't have to end there. We could—"

"We can't do anything. She doesn't love me."

"How do you know that?"

He turned around to face him. "Because she said so herself."

"Do you believe that?"

Sebastian held his gaze. He knew why Mitch was pushing. It was the first time he'd ever told him about any woman, ever. "I don't know what to believe. I wouldn't even know where to start. She never told me her last name."

"So what now?"

He had no fucking idea. What was he supposed to do now? If he couldn't have Jane, he didn't want anyone else. No one else would do. Definitely not the woman he was supposed to marry. His mother had done her part in informing him that the wedding was still holding. Running away hadn't done anything but postpone the inevitable.

Jane would marry the man she loved and he would settle. Maybe this was how fate wanted it. Maybe he wasn't meant to be happy. After all, the person he'd cherished above all other, Estelle, had died. He'd been alone for the longest time before he'd gotten stuck with Mitch for college. Life was finding new ways to fuck him in the ass.

"I guess we'll just have to see."

She was never his to lose but he lost her all the same.