Page 36 of Stay Toxic

She turns her rotating chair so I face her vanity’s mirror, and I blink in wonder.

I honestly haven’t ever had hair as perfect as this without spending two hours at a salon for a charity function or someone’s wedding. Ari truly could have been a hairdresser like her mom if she’d chosen that, given her skills.

“You’re incredible. Thank you. For all this. You’re sure you don’t mind me wearing your spare dress?”

She squeezes my shoulder. “Of course not. I’m just glad I brought two.”

There’s a knock on the door, and I immediately tense. A glance at the clock shows it’s six fifty-five.

Ari’s quick to chide her date. “What sort of a man arrivesearlyto pick up two girls for a gala?”

“You look ready to—” Sebastian doesn’t finish his sentence, his eyes finding me across the room.

I flush, shifting uncomfortably, and fussing with nonexistent lint on the tulle.

Fuck me sideways, that’s just not fair. The way that man fills his tux is criminal. He shouldn’t have thighs this strong, shoulders this broad, and the tailor in charge didn’t have to cut the fabric so perfectly.

“Are those for us?” Ari asks, unbothered.

She’s clearly used to hanging on the arm of the most beautiful man I’ve ever met.

She grabs the two black boxes in his hand with an excited squeal.

Sebastian clears his throat. “Yeah. Yours is the bigger one.”

“You know me so well,” she flirts, opening it.

She gasps, lifting diamond earrings to eye level.

Sebastian saunters to me—there’s no other way to describe the way he moves in the damnable gray tux, smooth and predatory. His jacket’s open over a waistcoat. The black shirt he wears underneath looks like it feels ever so soft. I’m dying to run my hands through the fabric. Just to check if it’s as silky as it looks. Not to check the muscles underneath.

“For you.” He hands me the other box. “Auntie M insisted.”

I blink. “Your aunt?”

Those are the only words I manage to croak, but by that I mean, how does his aunt know I exist? Let alone make him bring me things.

He nods. “Well, I had to explain to my mom why there was a last-minute addition, as well as the reason why the Raventhorn board has to address a thank-you to Ms. Cole. You donated ten thousand, by the way. Of course, Mom gossiped to her sister-in-law immediately, and here we are.”

Oh, right. That makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean, he said words. I think they string together in some sort of an explanation. Too bad my brain isn’t quite computing all of it.

I comment on the only part of the tirade that I did understand. “I’ll write you a check.”

He rolls his eyes. “It’s already paid, Hestia.”

As I haven’t made a move to grab the box, he flips the lid open, shocking me into speechlessness once again.

On a bed of velvet, there’s a platinum choker, with a deep blue sapphire pendant surrounded in tiny diamonds. It’s breathtakingly gorgeous. It’s too delicate and perfect, with the exact right shine, to be costume jewelry, but I find myself hoping that it is somehow a fake, because if it isn’t, it’s worth a bloody fortune.

“It’s only a loan,” Sebastian says. “It’s tradition for anyone accompanying a Goltz to wear something from the Goltz collection; and well, Auntie M never made the distinction between her children and her brother’s.”

Oh, a loan. Good. Great, in fact. Because he could not possibly have actually given me this.

“I…” I clear my throat. Words, Tia. “It’s…perfect. It’s really perfect.”

“Let me.”

And then he’s behind me, and his hands are touching the back of my neck.