An Acquired Taste (The Valentine Society)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I think I’m in shock. It’s hard to make sense of Sebastian standing in an LA apartment complex, dressed in one of his usual mouth-watering suits. I’ve never seen him outside of a vampire ball or his own estate before, and it’s like a man photoshopped into a painting he doesn’t belong in.

“Sebastian?” I turn toward him, away from Declan and my sister. “What are you doing here?” I pause. “How did you know where to find me?”

“Ellen told me that you left, and this was the address we had on file for you,” he says. “I’m sorry, I realize this is inappropriate, but I was afraid that you weren’t going to come back, and…” He takes a step toward me. His eyes flit around, almost as panicked as I feel, but then his gaze lands on me and steadies. “I wanted to apologize.”

I blink. Blink again. I still can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact this is actually happening.

“For leaving without warning,” he continues when I don’t speak. He takes another step forward. I can see tension in the line of his shoulders, and I know how much effort it must take for him to be doing this in front of strangers, considering his reserved nature. It melts my heart, despite his atrocious timing. “It was a foolish, selfish thing to do. When I was told you planned on leaving the estate, I thought… I wasn’t sure what to think. So I came looking for you to make sure you know…” He trails off as he finally seems to register that Maisy and Declan are both staring at him wide-eyed. He glances from them to me. “I’m… I’m sorry. I’m interrupting, aren’t I? Could we step outside…?”

“Absolutely not,” my sister butts in before I can get a word out. She steps forward, grabs my arm with one hand. “Amelia! Aren’t you going to introduce me?” Her fingers are trembling. She must have never been around a vampire before; I almost forgot the effect they have on humans. Still, she whispers, “Please tell me this is your new, hot boss-slash-boyfriend.”

“This is my sister, Maisy,” I say. “Maisy, this is my…” I shake my head. “This is, um. Sebastian.”

“How do you do?” Sebastian says with a formal little nod. “Lord Sebastian de Celeste.”

Maisy lets out a strangled sound like a kettle releasing steam. “You’re a… a…”

“A vampire ?” Declan’s disgusted words remind me that he is, for reasons beyond my comprehension, still fucking here . He puffs out his sad little man chest and takes a step toward Sebastian, though his hands are trembling at his sides. “Is this your new job, then, Amelia? You’ve become one of those bloodbags?” he asks, giving me a sideways glance. His lip curls. “Really? I didn’t know you were serious about that vampire kink bullshit.”

Heat flares in my face. I open my mouth, but before I can speak, Sebastian steps forward and places himself between me and Declan. He tilts his head to look down at my ex, his expression cold and imperious, summoning up the full force of his aristocratic nature. “And you are?” he asks in a low, dangerous voice I’ve never heard from him.

“I’m her boyfriend,” Declan says.

Sebastian’s icy mask falters.

“He is not!” I finally manage to find my voice and step forward, placing a hand on Sebastian’s arm. “He’s my ex, Sebastian. He’s nothing to me.” I glower at Declan. “And I’ve been telling him to get. The. Fuck. Out!”

Declan grits his teeth, turning red. I recognize that face, the one he makes before he’s about to say something cruel, and brace myself. “Fine,” he says. “If you want to whore yourself out to some undead freak—”

Sometimes I forget how quickly vampires can move. But in the small pause Declan makes to take a breath, Sebastian is on him. Cold white hands seize him by the front of his jacket and yank him off the floor while Dec lets out a yelp of fear.

“I believe the lady has made herself clear,” Sebastian says, the sibilants hissing out around his fangs. He marches Declan toward the door while my ex struggles in vain. “It is time for you to leave. And if you ever speak to my valentine again in such a manner—if you ever approach her at all without her explicit permission—we will have a problem.” He sets him down and gives him the tiniest shove, which sends Declan sprawling on his ass on the sidewalk. Sebastian is so strong, he must be exerting an enormous amount of restraint to not do more than that.

And still, as Declan scrambles to his feet with a green tinge to his skin, I note with glee that there’s a wet spot spreading down the front of his pants. He turns without a word and flees toward the parking lot.

Sebastian brushes off his sleeves as if ridding himself of any last traces of Declan and turns to face me and Maisy. By the time he does, his fangs have retracted and he is once again the image of a perfect gentleman. “I apologize about that display. I hope I didn’t overstep.”

“Oh, don’t apologize,” Maisy says, recovering faster than I can. She grins at him. “Please say you’re staying? I can tell we have a lot to talk about.”

Sebastian looks uncertainly at me.

I finally manage to start breathing again and form a coherent sentence. “Yes, please,” I say. I nod at Sebastian and then smile weakly at Maisy. “I have a lot of explaining to do. But maybe, um… can we go get something to eat first?”

* * *

It’s unbelievably strange, crowding around a diner table with Maisy and Sebastian. Sebastian still looks out of place, and too big for the tiny chair he’s seated in. He sits with his back rigid against the seat and his legs held stiffly together, like he’s trying to take up as little space as possible. Maisy can’t stop staring at him, and then at me, like she’s trying to make this make sense.

The wait staff also doesn’t seem to know what to do about having a vampire as a patron. The waiter attends to me and my sister with an anxious zeal and apologizes at least three times to Sebastian about not having anything vampire friendly on the menu. Sebastian, of course, is the picture of perfect poise and politeness, assuring the young man that it’s fine, thank you, and he’s already eaten, and he didn’t mean to cause a fuss. Still, the waiter’s hands tremble every time he comes to refill our water or bring food for me and Maisy.

I inhale my waffles and do my best to explain what happened between bites. I’m mostly talking to my sister, telling her about the breakup with Declan and my lies, but every so often my eyes drift over to Sebastian and I notice him listening intently, his dark eyes never leaving my face. All of this is news to him as well, I realize with a guilty twist of my stomach. Maisy doesn’t know anything about Sebastian; Sebastian doesn’t know anything about Declan and the circumstances of how I became his valentine. Nobody around me has received the full truth about my life. There’s something cathartic about finally laying it all out; I hadn’t realized how exhausting and lonely it was to not be able to tell anyone about everything going on.

But when I finish, the silence falling over the table makes me anxious. I gulp some water and push the remains of my waffles around my syrup-sticky plate.

“Oh my god.” Maisy sits with her face in her hands. “That is… nuts. Absolutely nuts.” She slowly lifts her head and gives me a hurt look. “You could’ve told me. You should’ve told me.”

“I know,” I say, my shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry. I just… I didn’t want you to worry. I knew you were already probably freaking out about moving away from Mom and Dad’s, and then…” I shake my head. “The longer it went on, the harder it got to tell you. But I came out here to admit everything.”

“So this has been your new job the whole time,” she says. “You’ve been lying to me about everything. For months . Months, Amelia?” To my horror, I see her eyes starting to well up with tears. “Everything about the writing retreat… the big project you were working on… that was all fake.”

“Most of it,” I say. I take another gulp of water and a deep breath. If I’m fessing up to the truth, I might as well say the whole truth. “I… have been writing a little.” I steal a guilty look at Sebastian. This is news to him too. But I guess it’s about time for me to come clean. “Some, um, nonfiction. You know that blog, the one you mentioned earlier…”

“No. Fucking. Way,” she breathes. “ Anonymous Confessions of a Valentine?”

Sebastian looks sharply at me. His expressions have been muted during my explanation, but now I see a flicker of shock. “What’s this?”

“Yeah…” I gnaw at my bottom lip. “I… I’ve been so isolated, not being able to talk to anyone about what’s going on in my life. It started as a personal thing, a way to vent about my day-to-day life, but it sort of… blew up.”

“Then… you…” My sister’s expression changes as she blinks. “Oh, God. Christ. But then…” She turns abruptly to Sebastian, and her face solidifies into anger. “You asshole!”

Sebastian stares at her, and then at me. “Amelia?” he asks, clearly at a loss.

“No, you look at me, not at her!” Maisy leans forward, jabbing a finger into his chest with a boldness that makes my breath catch. “How dare you treat my sister like that. She’s not some thing you can use for blood and sex and then leave—”

“You… wrote all that about me?” Sebastian asks, sounding winded. “Publicly?” He looks straight at me instead of the girl poking him in the chest, and his expression is so deeply wounded that it feels like my chest is going to cave in.

“It’s not like that,” I say. I know my sister with her over-the-top reactions, and I know she’s lashing out right now because she’s hurt and confused by all of this, but Sebastian doesn’t. “Maisy, please stop, let me explain—”

“No, he’s the one that needs to explain! What is wrong with you, man? Talk about emotionally constipated,” Maisy says. “You’ve got a real, live woman who clearly adores you, and—” She pauses, finger hovering in the air, and then recoils in sudden fear. “Wait, oh my god, you’re… you…” She leans closer to me and clutches my arm. “All of that stuff about Etta…”

I suck in a breath. No, no, no . I open my mouth to apologize, to plead, to explain myself, but before I can do any of that, Sebastian abruptly pushes his chair out and climbs to his feet. His expression is stricken.

Maisy finally seems to realize that she may have overstepped. “I—sorry,” she says, looking between me and Sebastian and shrinking down in her chair. “I’m sure it wasn’t how it seemed. I know you didn’t, like, kill your last valentine, or…”

I shut my eyes.

“Yes,” Sebastian says after a moment. “I did.”

Cold shock douses me. My eyes fly open. “Sebastian—”

Again, I forget how fast a vampire can be. By the time I get to my feet and reach for him, he’s already out the door in a blur of motion, leaving me grasping at nothing but air. I gape after him, and then back at Maisy, still staring at the table with her mouth half-open. After a moment, I, too, rush out the door in a panic.