“We’re European, Sin,” I reminded him. “It’s basically blasphemous to eat before eight.”
Humor tightened his lips but he didn’t smile and I wondered if it was because he could feel Elena’s anxious energy pulsing like a warning beacon.
“You’re right, of course, Daniel. Happily though, Sebastian should be here shortly and we can start with some drinks and appetizers,” Elena said. “I’ll just go change.”
“Boys you follow me into the living room for drinks,” Mama ordered with the grace and confidence of a woman who has been beautiful all her life.
Santiago and Cage happily complied, each already trying to charm her with stories from their childhoods living abroad.
When I turned around, Sinclair was leaning against the island counter, his shirt stretched taut between his lean shoulders and his russet head hanging low. I stepped up behind him to place a gentle hand on his back.
“It will be okay,” I said, despite my nerves and despite my resolve to treat him with indifference.
“On a des casseroles au cul,” he muttered without turning around.
I pursed my lips to buckle in the pain. “You really think our affair is haunting you?”
He sighed. “It is the haunting I take issue with, Elle, not what I did to warrant it.”
We were silent for a long moment. I didn’t have anything new to add to the conversation. The affair had happened and arguably, was still happening. It was deeply immoral, not only to deceive another person – in fact, my entire family – but because we were actively, consciously betraying my sister. I loved Sinclair with a severity that obliterated all obstacles in its path and he, at least, was enchanted enough with me to heed my siren’s song over the practical call of reality. Apparently, he had even voiced his reservations to Elena.
I knew the components, I just couldn’t make out the full equation.
Sin spun around, one hand plunged into my hair and the other on my hip, pressing me up against the fridge. He pressed his forehead hard into mine. “I’m not going to do this anymore. Do you understand?”
I didn’t, so I remained quiet.
“I will not put the people I love through this for one second longer. Regardless of you and me, what kind of person would do this to their partner?”
Again, I didn’t know, so I remained quiet.
He sighed heavily, ran his thumb across my cheekbone to take the sting out of his anger and impatience. “I’m not going to do this anymore, Elle. Do you understand?”
This time, I nodded even though I still wasn’t certain what he meant.
The delicate chime of the doorbell sounded out and Sinclair’s jaw clenched fiercely when I moved to answer it. His hands flexed against my skin painfully before letting go.
I answered the door to find Sebastian speaking with a young woman who was delivering the alcohol Elena had ordered. Sebastian was speaking to her easily, taking the bags from her and handing them off to me so that they could take a selfie together. I watched as he whispered something in her ear that made her burst into unattractive and beautifully genuine laughter. Mama and I smiled at each other as they said their helloes.
“You charmer,” I teased Sebastian as he leaned down to give me the customary kisses.
“Yes, Seb, are all the older ones taken?” Elena said as she breezed into the living room, now wearing a lovely black sheath dress. I could smell her Chanel perfume as she swooped in to give him a kiss.
“Elena,” Mama chastised while embracing Seb herself.
She shrugged one delicate shoulder. “It was a joke.”
“It’s all right, Mama, Elena has never had a very good sense of humor,” Sebastian said as he swung off his leather jacket, tossed it onto the side table and grabbed my hand to tug me further into the apartment.
“Hang up your coat, you ape,” Elena called after us before we disappeared around the corner into the kitchen.
Sinclair was still there, decanting the mandatory red wine while he listened to someone on his phone.
“I want at least three options by the end of next week, Margot,” he was saying as we swept into the kitchen.
Sebastian grabbed the extra bottle from Sin’s hand and poured himself an overfull glass.
I raised my brows. “Tough day?”