Betrayal Read Online Free

down over his neck. He was just wearing a tank-top, revealing the tight, lean body underneath.
    “Ho- ly cr-ap,” Elaina whispered.
    “Be good.”
    Sebastian turned to them. He smiled, as though expecting her, and the smile gave Kali chills.
    “Hi,” she said awkwardly.
    “Hi.”
    “Um, I just wanted to come by and thank you for everything yesterday.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    Elaina glanced from one of them to the other. “Hi, I’m Elaina. I’m here too.”
    Sebastian’s eyes didn’t move from Kali’s. He placed his brush down and glanced up to the painting. “Have a look.”
    Kali stepped into the room. She came close to him, but not too close. The painting was large, perhaps ten feet by eight feet. It was of a family at dinner. The men were dressed in suits and the women were in elegant evening gowns. Their fa ces, though smiling, held melancholy. It was extremely subtle and if you weren’t studying it closely you’d miss it.
    “A family in New Hampshire commissioned it,” he said. “ What’dya think?”
    “They look sad.”
    He glared at her. “You’re the first person that’s said that. I see that, too. But I wanted to capture how they really are. This is how they really are. Though they’ll probably be pissed that I showed it to them.” Gently, he brushed aside a strand of her hair, looking at the cut on her head that was healing now. “How’s your head?”
    “Fine.”
    Elaina cleared her throat. “Um, maybe we should head out?”
    “Yeah,” Kali said, her eyes not moving from his. “Yeah, she’s right. I just wanted to say thanks. We should go.”
    He didn’t move. Kali could hear her heart beating so forcefully she was afraid he might hear it. With what seemed like a feat of strength, she pulled herself away and took a step back. Then another, and another before she was standing next to Elaina.
    “I’ll see ya around,” she said.
    Sebastian didn’t say anything. He held her gaze until she turned and walked out of the studio. Neither of the women spoke until they were on the elevator heading down.
    “What the hell was that?” Elaina said.
    “I was in that accident yesterday. He just helped me out. He was driving behind me or something.”
    “That’s not what I’m talking about. What was that between you two?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

7
     
     
     
     
    Kali made dinner for her family. Chicken and pasta with vegetables. As she stood in the kitchen and cooked, her thoughts drifted. She thought of her life before Adam, about what she was like. About what he was like and why she’d fallen in love with him.
    Adam had been charismatic and, truth be told, unusual. At least for her. She was living in an apartment split with four other artists and someone like Adam, who had it all together and had a real career, who wasn’t just drifting through life, seemed like a unique curiosity. They met when she was taken to the ER for a severe flu. She was worried because she didn’t have any money to pay for an emergency room visit. Adam, then only an EMT and making twenty grand a year, saw her there and paid for the entire thing himself. He looked up her number on her chart and called her, and they went out.
    Tha t seemed like a lifetime ago. She couldn’t even remember what that person was like, either her or Adam. They were just stupid kids in love. Rushing around like the rest of the world didn’t matter.
    Bu t life had settled in. Kids, bills, couple friends, anniversaries and holidays… that spontaneity they had wasn’t there. She remembered once when she was bored at work, Adam got someone to cover for him and picked her up and they went down and spent the night in Mexico. They drove up and down the coast, hitting every small village they could find. Now, something like that would be unthinkable.
    Unless, it was with him .
    As much as she tried not to think about him, to push him out of her thoughts, she couldn’t do it. He would push his way back in. That