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Sebastian Lawrence said goodbye to his brother and his wife and got into his car. The happy couple had just returned from their honeymoon two weeks ago and Sebastian couldn’t help but notice how happy they were. Even Theo, who was such a buzzkill in Sebastian’s opinion and always serious about everything was too damn happy to be his usual self.
So that was what love did to you?
Sebastian sighed. He’d tried getting married before. Not for love exactly… He wasn’t even sure if he knew what that felt like, but he knew he wanted children. Finding love like the one his brother had with Camille was rare, and he sure as hell wasn’t planning on wasting his time looking for it. Not everyone was that lucky, and he’d accepted now that he was one of the unlucky ones.
When it came to marriage, mutual respect and understanding seemed enough for him, and that was why at some time, he’d thought Lily was the right woman for him. She seemed to share his views when it came to marriage. She wanted to be taken care of, and he had the means, so he’d given it a shot.
That was a mistake.
In fact he’d made a lot of mistakes in the past. Like kissing Camille in a moment of weakness… Or now that he thought about it, just plain stupidity.
He groaned as he remembered the incident, recalling how it’d almost ruined his not so strong relationship with his brother. He had to make some changes in his life, and since his brother and his wife had taken their sweet time enjoying themselves for months, now that they were back, it was his turn to leave the company in their hands for a while and take his own much needed break.
Although he knew he had nothing to worry about when his efficient older brother was in charge, and with Camille by his side, everything was in good hands.
He sped out through Chicago’s sprawling suburbs, oblivious of the second glances he received from most of the women in the cars he passed, and all of the women in the cars he was forced to idle next to when the lights turned red.
Only one woman occupied Sebastian’s mind these days. Only one woman did he crave to look at him as if he was a man worth looking at and not some prima-donna playboy with no substance at all.
For over three months he’d endured Angela Simmons barbs over the card table every Friday night, as well as at the races on a Saturday afternoon. Three months was a long time to tolerate such treatment. Too long. Yet he had to confess that till last night he’d enjoyed their verbal sparring in a perverse fashion, despite the fact that Angela usually got the better of him. When she’d temporarily subjected him to the cold-shoulder treatment a month ago, he’d hated it. Sebastian discovered during that difficult time that he’d rather have his buttons pressed than be ignored.
Still, Angela had pressed his buttons one too many times last night. Be damned if he was going to be on the end of that woman’s caustic tongue again today at the races. Enough was enough!
The lights turned green and he floored the accelerator. The Ferrari leapt forward, tyres screeching slightly as he scorched up the road. But, given the speed limit on that section of highway, and the regular traffic lights, there was no solace for Sebastian’s frustration in speeding, and no escape for his thoughts.
Soon he was idling at the next set of red lights, practically grinding his teeth when his mind returned once more to his nemesis. She’d be at the races by now, probably sitting at the bar in the members’ stand, sipping a glass of champagne and looking her usual cool and classy self, not caring a whit that he hadn’t turned up, whilst he was sitting here in his car, stewing away, already regretting his decision not to go. He loved the races. They were one of his passions in life. And one of hers, unfortunately.
That was how he’d bumped into Angela Simmons… Again. He’d known her when they were much younger. Although she was a completely different person now. Back then she’d been very nice to him. So nice in fact, that in school, she’d written all his history essays for him until the staff caught on. He could still remember how angry his father had been when he’d found out.
He’d bumped into her again three months ago, through their mutual love of horse racing, and she’d recently become the third partner in the syndicate he and his best friend, Charles, had formed with the help of Ward Jackman, one of Chicago’s up-and-coming young horse trainers.
Sebastian could still remember the day he met the mysterious Angela Simmons again. The three co-owners had gathered at the races to see their first horse race, a lovely chestnut filly named Flame of Gold.
Before that day, Sebastian had only known of his new lady co-owner’s existence on paper. He’d had no idea that she was also the Angela Simmons from way back. She was also the owner of Angela’s modeling agency and the widow of Joseph Selinsky, a very wealthy banker who’d been almost forty years his second wife’s senior, and who’d passed away the previous year. He did know she was a rich widow, but he’d pictured an overweight, over-groomed madam in her sixties or seventies with more money than she could spend in the beauty salon, and a penchant for gambling.
Nothing had prepared Sebastian for the sleekly sophisticated, super-stylish and super-intelligent thirty-year-old which Angela Simmons had grown into. And certainly nothing had prepared Sebastian for her instantly negative reaction to him.
He was used to being fawned over by the opposite sex, not the exact opposite.
Looking back, he’d been attracted to her right from first sight. How could he not, the nerdy girl who wrote all his essays for him so many years ago had grown into an enigmatic and striking woman.
It pained Sebastian to think that she found nothing attractive in him whatsoever. In fact, she obviously despised him. Why? What had he ever done to her to cause such antagonism? She once said something about him being a lover type, all hormones and no brains.
Sebastian knew there was more to himself than that. But not when he was around her, he accepted ruefully. Lately, whenever she turned those slanting green eyes on him and made one of her biting comments, he turned into the kind of mindless macho animal she obviously thought him. His ability to play poker suffered. Hell, his ability to do anything well suffered! The charm he was famous for disappeared, along with his capacity to think.
Aah, but he could still feel. Even as his blood boiled with the blackest of resentments, his body would burn with a white-hot need. That was why he was avoiding his nemesis this weekend. Because Sebastian suspected he was nearing spontaneous combustion where she was concerned. Who knew what he would do or say the next time she goaded him the way she had last night?
“Now, if you’d married someone like Elizabeth, Sebastian,” Angela had remarked after Charles announced his wife was expecting, “you’d have a baby or two of your own by now. If you’re really as keen on the idea of a traditional marriage and family as you claim, then for pity’s sake stop dilly-dallying and find yourself a nice girl who’ll give you what you supposedly want.”
Sebastian had literally had to bite his tongue to stop himself from retorting that lately, he ‘dilly-dallyed’ with other women in a vain attempt to burn out the frustration he experienced from not being able to have her.
