Sweet Seduction ✔︎

|20| 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓

So much for thinking that she’d never see Gavin again. She hadn’t considered the reality that they were part of the same circle, now more than ever with her event planning business well off the ground. They were bound to run into each other under professional circumstances now and then.

They might even have to work together again—although she’d received an email from one of his other security operatives about the bachelor auction plans. Maybe Gavin was planning to dump her off on someone else if actual collaboration was required.

Coward.

Annoyed with herself at the uncharitable thought—because Gavin Knight was anything but a coward, even if he couldn’t face the reality of his own damned heart—Freya took a sip of hot cocoa and forced her attention to her laptop screen.

In the three weeks since the wedding, she’d rearranged her apartment and turned half of her living room into a small but organized office complete with a sky-blue scalloped desk and wooden filing cabinet, a bookshelf filled with binders of event details, a wall calendar, and a bulletin board pinned with notes and photos.

With a few stumbles, she had developed an efficient organizational system to plan both the anniversary party and the Cream of the Crop auction, as well as a Christmas wedding and a child’s tenth birthday party. Though she still battled nerves at the idea that people were actually paying her to plan and execute their celebration of once-in-a-lifetime moments, Freya was beyond grateful for both their trust and for everything that had led her onto this path.

Especially Gavin. Even before seeing him yesterday, not an hour had passed when she hadn’t thought of him and his pained, “I need you” that still echoed inside her. She didn’t want him to hurt—not anymore—but she didn’t want herself to hurt either. And given their totally different approaches to life and apparent lack of ability to collaborate long-term, hurt was unavoidable unless they parted ways romantically.

Although parting ways had proven to be more than just hurtful. It was a pain gnawing at her from the center of her heart. She was able to keep it at bay while she worked, not wanting to give her new clients anything less than her hundred-percent focus and attention, but alone at night her longing for Gavin bloomed sharp and jagged.

Nothing, not even ice cream for dinner and all-night Princess Bride marathons had mitigated the simple, unbearably complex fact that she still loved him deeply. Maybe she always would. If Granny were alive, she’d tell Freya that falling in love was the most powerful way of creating beauty that she could dream of. Because what was more beautiful than love?

Being loved in return.

Which Gavin, the big stupid lug, did not remotely understand.

With a groan, Freya rose from her desk and opened the curtains. A bright blue sky skimmed over the rooftops, and a gleaming golden sun rose over the horizon. Just another perfect fall day in coastal California that brought her own cloudy mood into even sharper focus.

At least she had a meeting this afternoon with a florist to go over ideas for the anniversary centerpieces—flowers always made life brighter. Until the petals fell off, and they wilted and died.

Good lord. Too much more of this, and she’d have to go Goth with dyed black hair, tragic black clothes, and heavy eyeliner. That would never do.

She poured herself a bowl of cold cereal and ate it in front of her laptop as she reviewed her tasks for the day. Her phone buzzed with a text from Jupiter.

Can you stop by Rainsville Wild Child around 9—Ramona is making a delivery and I’m in Indigo Bay, just need help with the counter for about an hour.