Bait for a Gentleman novel Chapter 57

Zachary smiled and chimed in, "Yeah, Waldo is getting impatient."

He wrapped an arm around Audrina's shoulder and looked at Sebastian. "You should hurry up too."

The man's gaze shifted back to Audrina.

She had her head bowed, staring quietly at the ground like a shy, devoted fiancé.

Sebastian said coolly, "Congratulations."

He looked exactly the same as always—refined, polite, and flawlessly composed.

But after he shut his car door, Audrina instinctively looked back at him.

It was as if she had failed to catch some entertaining expression on his face, leaving her feeling slightly disappointed.

Truthfully, she could have used a dozen different excuses to brush him off, but for some inexplicable reason, she wanted to provoke him.

Yet, actually watching him walk away entirely alone, an unfamiliar emotion instantly washed over her heart.

It was like accidentally spilling a bottle of ice-cold orange soda on a scorching summer day. The cool, fizzy bubbles were still popping, but that sweet, sour taste had already flooded her entire chest.

She didn't quite understand what that feeling was.

...

The moment he shut the car door, Sebastian felt his fingers trembling.

He pressed his hands hard against the steering wheel, his fingertips digging in just to suppress the furious, burning agitation surging up from his chest.

He knew she was just humoring Zachary. He knew there was zero chance she was actually trying to have a baby. He even knew that her saying it right to his face was eighty percent deliberate.

But he still couldn't stop thinking about it.

Thinking about the way she smiled next to Zachary, the way she clung to his arm, the way Zachary had slung his arm over her shoulder the moment those words left her mouth, showing her off like a prized possession.

He squeezed his eyes shut, his Adam's apple bobbing heavily.

...

Audrina went to work for two days, and her phone remained dead silent. No texts, no calls.

She opened their chat window, scrolled through her contacts a few times, and finally locked the screen.

She even went out of her way to look up Everest Law's recent updates, but everything was perfectly normal.

Sebastian's schedule on the official website was packed full. He wasn't sick, he wasn't injured, and he wasn't out of town.

That just meant he genuinely didn't want to talk to her.

Right before she got off work that evening, Zachary finally sent over Monroe Industries' financial reports.

[I twisted my ankle, can you come pick me up? ]

She had barely hit send when her phone started ringing.

Audrina answered it. "Hello?"

"Where?" The man's low, magnetic voice held not a single unnecessary word.

Even though she was smiling brightly on her end of the line, she put on a pitiful, wronged act, her voice turning soft and fragile. "Outside the station."

"Wait there, don't move."

Sebastian hung up the phone sharply.

Audrina stood by the curb, pulling her scarf tighter.

From the moment she sent the text to the second he called her back, barely two seconds had passed.

What a faker.

She didn't even realize the smile in her eyes had grown deeper.

A gust of freezing wind blew past, and Audrina shrank into her coat, taking a step back under the warm glow of the streetlamp.