A Second Look: A Forbidden Second Chance Romance

by Lexi Aurora

  “Yes,” I said to her. “It’s dangerous. You could go to prison.”

  “Sebastian,” she said softly. “I’m not giving you a choice.”

  I had to laugh then, despite my frustration.

  “You really want to come with me?” I asked, staring at her face. She nodded seriously, looking into my eyes.

  “Take me with you,” she said.

  “Why?” I asked her curiously. She didn’t answer, but went up to her room. Five minutes later she was dressed and ready, pulling a suitcase behind her down the stairs. I watched her as she went to her front door, gesturing for me to go out.

  “Where are we going?” she asked. “Right now.”

  “To my airport,” I said to her.

  “You have an airport.”

  “I have a plane,” I said to her, grinning. She rolled her eyes.

  “I’m not impressed.”

  “Of course you’re not,” I said. “You’re never impressed.”

  “Oh, I am,” she said, a small, teasing smile on her lips. “Just not with you.”

  “How can I charm you?” I asked her.

  “You can’t.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She didn’t respond, but got into my car.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” she said. “Fleeing the country. It’s crazy.”

  “I’m the crazy one? I have a reason to go. You don’t.”

  “So you don’t get arrested,” she said. “Because you’re a criminal.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Even if they can’t pin those murders on me—that detective starts looking into me and my business, I’m going to prison for a long time.”

  “How exactly does your business work?” she asked, no judgment in her voice, only curiosity.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you make your money from your legitimate business or your—empire?”

  “I make more money doing my side job,” I said to her. She laughed and shook her head.

  “You talk like you work at McDonald’s or something.”

  “Not McDonald’s, no,” I said, chuckling.

  “So what do you do? You steal things and sell them?”

  “I have people who steal things—”

  “What kinds of things?” she asked.

  “Art, artifacts, jewelry—beautiful things. Like that dagger.”

  “You stole that dagger yourself. Do you do that a lot?”

  I smirked at her.

  “Yeah, I guess I do.”

  “So you’re like a bad Indiana Jones.”

  I laughed. “I’ve never heard it put that way.”

  “Do you have one of those stupid hats? A whip?”

  “No whip,” I said to her.

  “That story you told me before, about how you made your money—was that a lie?”

  “Yes and no. I lifted that original necklace from the antique store you followed me to.”

  “But you went back?” she asked, a puzzled look on her face.

  “I went back after I made the money and paid him most of what I’d made, minus enough to buy more jewelry to sell legitimately. Now he works with me moving my product.”

  “This is crazy,” she said. “You’re some criminal mastermind—”

  “And you’re a private detective,” I said to her. “Which I was equally surprised to find out about, by the way.”

  “I’m not going to apologize for doing my job,” she said in a quiet voice.

  “I don’t expect you to apologize,” I said to her, pulling up to the gate to the small air strip and port. “I don’t expect anything from you.”

  “Good,” she said, but her voice didn’t sound convincing. We boarded my plane and a few moments later we were off. I kept my eyes on Eve as she looked around, an unreadable expression on her face as she studied the plane.

  “This is ridiculous,” she said, perched on the edge of her recliner, refusing to settle in.

  “Are you going to be this tense throughout the whole flight?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Great,” I said to her. “It’ll be fun.”

  “I—don’t like flying,” she said. I reached forward and took her hand, warming it between my palms. Her eyes studied my face.

  “I’ll take your hand when you get too tense, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said with relief in her voice. I held her hand in mine then, our fingers lacing together for a long time before she fell asleep, still holding my hand. I gently let go of her and got up to cover her with a blanket from the storage closet. Then I sat back down and waited, worrying about Eve, wondering if I had just made the worst decision of my life.

  Chapter 14: Eve

  I woke up to a gentle hand on my shoulder but scrambled away anyway, nearly falling out of the chair I was sitting in. I wasn’t able to catch my breath until I saw that it was Sebastian who had woken me. He had a concerned look on his face as he knelt down in front of me.

  “We’re here,” he said. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” I said to him. “I’m ready.”

  “I’ll have your luggage carried in,” he said. “Let’s go inside. You need a real bed.”

  “Okay,” I said, yawning as we got off the plane. I lost my breath the moment I saw what was outside—I had never seen anything near as beautiful as the vision before me. We had landed close to the beach, and the blue water stretched out endlessly with no other land in sight. The trees and plants were lush and green around us, and in the distance I could see a rocky cliff with a waterfall cascading downward. I didn’t see any sign of a house, and looked up at Sebastian as he came up beside me.

  “Where does your friend live?”

  “Through this strip of trees here. They have a path built. You’ll see it when we get past the tree line.”

  “This is incredible,” I said, looking away from him. We started to walk along a stone path that had been carved through the trees from the strip to the house. I looked all around as we walked together, drinking in the luxurious sights around me. I could hear the waterfall getting louder as we drew to the middle of the island, and I wondered how close one could possibly get to it. I hoped that we could get close enough to feel the spray—the weather was balmy around us, warm and all-encompassing. I started to sweat as we walked and realized only then that I was dressed for an Illinois winter.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t think to tell you to get changed,” he said. “You’ll have to get out of those clothes—”

  I shot him a look to cut him off and he grinned in a way that made something blossom in the pit of my stomach, a heat that spread through me, the same one I felt every single time I felt his skin against mine.

  “I can change when we get inside.”

  “There will be plenty of clothes for you to wear. Joseph’s wife is about your size. She has a full closet of stuff she never wears because she never comes here.”

  “I don’t know if we’ll have the same style,” I said to him. “But we’ll see. I brought clothes.”

  He looked over at me as we walked.

  “How long do you think we’re going to be here?” he asked. “I’m just wondering. How long are you willing to stick this out?”

  “Until it’s over,” I said to him vaguely. He didn’t take his eyes off of my face, and I licked my lips nervously and looked up to meet his eye.

  “Why?”

  “I like to follow through on things,” I said to him, knowing it was a weak answer.

  “You know I’m a criminal. You have evidence.”

  “Not since someone destroyed it. Which I’m still not convinced wasn’t you, by the way.”

  He laughed in exasperation.

  “I didn’t even know you were tailing me.”

  “About that,” I said. “You’re a terrible criminal. How do you have someone following you for two weeks, and—”

  “Two weeks?” he asked. “That’s how long this has been going on?”

  “I was watching you b
efore we—”

  “What, showered together?” he asked. I felt myself flush.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Before that.”

  “What was that all about, Eve?” he asked. “Why did you do that for me?”

  “It was—the right thing to do,” I said.

  “I see,” he said. I looked ahead to see a building then, a massive house that was at least four stories, made of mostly glass. I could see people bustling around inside, most of them hanging out in a room at the front of the house.

  “Wow,” I said breathlessly, staring in wonder at the house.

  “Listen,” he said, stopping me. I looked at him again but found it hard to hold his gaze.

  “We’re going to have to do this again. Pretend to be together,” he said. “And we’ll have to be pretty convincing.”

  “Why?” I asked him. “Why do we have to be convincing?”

  “I don’t think you realize the magnitude of what you’re about to join,” he said. “These are—”

  “I’ve been to these parties before, Sebastian.”

  “Not like this one. This isn’t a party. This is a meeting.”

  “A meeting.”

  “Yes,” he said. “And if anyone here knew you were anything other than a very trusted partner—if they found out that you were a detective—”

  “What would they do, stone me to death?” I asked him. “I’m not afraid of these people.”

  “You should be,” he said, giving me a serious look.

  “What does that mean?” I asked him.

  “I can’t tell you too much. It wouldn’t be safe. The plus ones usually do their own thing while we get together.”

  “And what do you do when you get together?”

  “It’s nothing,” he said. “But, like I said, we’re going to have to continue to pretend to be together.”

  “And we’re going to have to make it convincing,” I said, feeling lightheaded just thinking about what that meant, how close we would have to get to each other.

  “Yes,” he said. “Think you can do that?”

  “Pretend to like you? I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know how long I can keep up that charade.”

  He chuckled, winked at me.

  “There’s my girl. Mean as hell.”

  “Not your girl,” I said to him.

  “For now, you are,” he said as we drew closer to the house. Those words made me feel warm inside out. I stared up at the house to distract myself from that light feeling.

  “This place is beautiful,” I said as we went up to the door. Sebastian knocked on it sharply and it swung open to reveal his friend Jeremy, whose eyes widened in surprise.

  “Seb!” he said, pulling Sebastian into a tight hug before letting him go. “I am so sorry about Eddy. I should have called, but—”

  “I wouldn’t have answered. It’s fine. Thank you, Jeremy.”

  “I didn’t think you’d be at this one.”

  “I didn’t think so, either.”

  “So what are you two doing here?” Jeremy asked, looking between us curiously.

  “Joseph didn’t tell you anything?” Sebastian asked. Jeremy shook his head.

  “Not at all. We haven’t heard from him.”

  “It’s a long, long story,” Sebastian said in a tired voice. “Can we find our room first?”

  “Of course,” Jeremy said. “I’m sure there’s something free around here. Maybe you can take the room next to Viola Bancroft.”

  “No,” Sebastian said. “And if you put me there, I’ll kill you.”

  “What’s wrong with her?” I asked.

  “She snores like all hell. You can hear it through the walls,” Sebastian said. “I’m not sleeping near her.”

  Jeremy laughed, clapping his friend on the back.

  “Sure, no problem. You want to just go to bed? Skip talking to anyone tonight?”

  “Yes,” Sebastian said gratefully.

  “Please,” I said in an eager tone. All I wanted to do was lay down in a bed and fall asleep again, without having to meet any new people on the way.

  “We’ll get you something in the back of the house,” Jeremy said. “We can go through the back door.”

  “Thanks,” Sebastian said. I stared at the house as we went around the corner. I could see almost everything inside—the majority of the walls were simply glass windows that showed a view of the gorgeous surroundings around the house. We went in through a sliding glass door in the back and reached a glass elevator around the wide corridor. Jeremy pushed the button and I watched as the elevator came down, shocked by the luxury of it all—an elevator in a private house. We got on and I looked out the window as we went to the top floor. Jeremy gestured for us to get out of the elevator and we did, then followed him down to a room at the end of the hall. I was relieved to see that the bedrooms at least had solid walls and privacy. We went into the room to see a wide double bed, with a massive floor-length window looking over the waterfall. There was a balcony outside and a large, luxurious bathroom off to the side. I went to the bed and sat down, watching as Jeremy patted Sebastian on the shoulder.

  “I’ll tell everyone to leave you alone until you’re up tomorrow,” he said.

  “Thanks,” Sebastian said, shutting the door behind him. He turned to me, looking at the bed.

  “Lucky there’s a big bed.”

  “Yeah,” I said, nervously running my fingers over the soft cotton of the comforter. “Lucky.”

  “Do you want me to sleep on the floor?” he asked gently. “I will. I don’t mind—”

  “No. We don’t even know how long we’re going to be here. It’s a big bed,” I said. “We’ll be fine.”

  “Good,” Sebastian said. “Because I’m fucking exhausted.”

  “So am I,” I said as he went around to the other side of the bed and climbed in. I laid beside him under the blanket, my whole body tense and aware of him lying beside me. I could feel him beside me, still and tense as well, holding his breath.

  “Sebastian,” I said. “This is—just for show. You know that, right?”

  “Yes,” he said. “You’ve made that very clear.”

  “I just don’t want you to think—”

  “That you want me?”

  “Right,” I said.

  “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to touch you?”

  “No,” I admitted without thinking.

  “I didn’t think so,” he said. “The way you’re squirming over there—”

  “I am not squirming,” I protested.

  “I can feel you moving in the bed. Rubbing your thighs together, trying to find some relief for that need in your pussy,” he said in a smooth voice. “You can lie if you want.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  “No?” he asked, propping himself up on his elbow, staring at my face in the dark.

  “No,” I said, even as he pulled my body to his from the back. I squirmed back against him instinctively, his cock pressing against my ass. I closed my eyes when he wrapped his arm around me and slipped it over my stomach, lower and lower.

  “You sure you don’t want this?” he asked, kissing the side of my neck as his hand cupped my pussy, rubbing it in slow circles with his palm.

  “This isn’t professional,” I said, and he laughed.

  “I don’t believe you,” he said, breathing against my neck. “You’re telling me if I reach into your panties right now, I won’t find you wet?”

  “No,” I said, but at that point it was only teasing. I felt him smile against my neck, slipping his hand into my panties, down the front of my body. I shivered when he slipped the tip of one finger between my soaking pussy lips, rubbing my slit up and down.

  “Liar,” he breathed, pulling me closer, his fingers straddling my clit and rubbing on either side, as if he knew exactly how I liked to touch myself.

  “You want me to make you cum?
” he asked, lifting his face to speak in my ear. “You can think of it as a professional favor, if you want.”

  “A professional favor,” I said with a breath of laughter, which was cut off when he started to rub with more pressure, his hand moving faster than before. I didn’t realize that I was holding onto him, guiding his hand on my pussy, until I pushed his fingers inside of me and he let out a soft groan from behind and started to curl them inside of me, filling my pussy with his big, warm hands. My hips moved against him as he started his palm on my clit again, this time moving faster, bringing me closer to the edge.

  “Do you want it?” he asked, lips on my neck, his cock rubbing against me from behind.

  “Yeah,” I said with a gasp, then another as he sank his teeth into my neck, fucking me with his fingers.

  “So close,” I whimpered.

  “I know,” he said in a gritty voice. “God, I know. Cum for me, Eve.”

  I didn’t hesitate to do as he asked, erupting over his fingers with a long, loud noise of pleasure. I bucked against his hands and he held me still, continuing to rub me until I couldn’t take it any longer. I pulled his hand away and he brought it up to my lips, tracing them with his wet fingers. I was surprised at myself when I opened my mouth for him, sucking my juices off of his fingers. He stared at my face as I did so, a look of need on his.

  “God, you are perfect,” he said. “You’ve always been perfect.”

  “You didn’t like me,” I said quietly. “We never got along.”

  “That doesn’t mean I didn’t like you,” he said. “It was you who didn’t like me. I spent four years trying to impress you.”

  “Is that what you were doing?”

  “Yes,” he said. “That’s what I was doing.”

  “You sure play the long game when you want to get into someone’s pants,” I said to him, noticing his features change, a look of irritation passing over them. He pulled away from me.

  “I’m not this person you think I am,” he said to me coldly.

  “Do you or do you not have a different girl on your lap every night?” I asked him. “I’ve seen the tabloids—”

  “Fuck the tabloids,” he snapped, getting up out of bed. “How do I convince you that what I want from you is beyond sex?”

  “You can’t,” I said. “Not when every other minute, you’re trying to get me naked.”