"I have been looking for you everywhere, Genevieve." Sebastian Voss sat on the barstool close to her.
Genevieve could only nod, slowly recovering from the bit of shock she had experienced.
"What can I get for you, sir?" The bartender asked.
"Just scotch." He dismissed him and faced her holding her in place with his steel coloured eyes.
He was a fairly attractive man with mid length hair which he pulled into a man bun. He was tall and had good muscle mass.
What were the odds of seeing her soon-to-be ex-husband's biggest enemy in the Bed and Breakfast joint she was hiding in after a scandal?
Her gut told her that this wasn't a coincidence.
And the fact that he had mentioned that he had been looking for her everywhere, he wanted something from her.
They waited for the bartender to serve Sebastian Voss before starting their conversation.
"You said you have been looking for me. Is there a particular reason?" Genevieve asked, sipping from her glass of cocktail. The almost syrupy taste glided through her tongue and down her throat.
"I heard about everything that happened. I'm sorry for your loss." He started by sympathising with her on her misfortune.
"Thank you." She frowned, taken back by his thoughtful words.
Genevieve didn't really know much of the back story between Sebastian Voss and her soon to be ex-husband, Nicholas. But she knew enough to know both men disliked each other greatly to the point of hatred.
"Now you might have been wondering why I had been looking for you?" He smiled, noticing her frown.
"Yes I'm." She really wanted to know what he wanted.
"Now both of us have something in common. Something or rather, someone that has caused us both a great deal of pain." Sebastian's smile was deliberate.
Genevieve's chest tightened. Nicholas. Of course.
"You mean my husband?" she asked carefully, her voice betraying only a fraction of her unease.
"Your soon-to-be ex-husband," Sebastian corrected smoothly, lifting his glass of scotch to his lips. His eyes never left hers as he drank, the amber liquid catching the dim light of the bar.
"Nicholas ruined me, and I don't believe for a second he hasn't ruined you too."
Genevieve bristled, instinctively defensive. "That's not something I should be discussing with you."
"But it's something you must have thought about." His voice was low, persuasive, the kind of tone that felt dangerous because it slipped so easily into the cracks of her doubt. "You see, Genevieve, Nicholas may have underestimated me. He may even believe he's broken you. But I think he's wrong about both of us."
She looked away, focusing on the condensation trailing down her cocktail glass. His words were digging under her skin, scratching at truths she hadn't dared voice aloud.
"What exactly are you proposing, Mr. Voss?" She asked him directly, not bothering to beat around the bush. She was right he wanted something.
Sebastian leaned in, the faintest curl of amusement tugging at his mouth. "A partnership. You and I, aligned against Nicholas. It will drive him mad, Genevieve, to see us together."
She blinked at him, momentarily at a loss. "Together? You mean?"
"Marriage." The word rolled off his tongue as though it were the most natural suggestion in the world. "You want revenge from him. I want revenge. Together, we can have it."
Genevieve's pulse thudded in her ears. She couldn't have heard him properly.
"Did you just propose marriage?"
"Yes." He affirmed, watching her.
"You're insane," She whispered, more to herself than him. Marriage, again, to a man who despised her soon to be husband with a venom that it showed in the way his lips curled in disgust whenever he said Nicholas
"Perhaps," Sebastian said, his smirk widening, "but insanity might be the only weapon sharp enough to cut Nicholas Voss down to size."
Her lips parted, but no words came. Because deep down, as much as she wanted to dismiss him, something about his proposal didn't sound like madness. It appealed to her zeal to have revenge on Nicholas.
Genevieve forced out a laugh, brittle even to her ears. "You must be joking. Marriage? That's your brilliant idea?"
She was just barely out of marriage that had taken a lot from her and he was suggesting she get married to him? Her soon-to-be ex-husband's greatest enemy?
Sebastian tilted his head, studying her like she was a puzzle he wanted to solve. "Do I look like a man who jokes about strategy?"
Her frown deepened. "That's the problem. You make it sound like I'm some pawn you can slide across the board. I've already lived as Nicholas's pawn. I won't do it again for you."
"You wouldn't be a pawn, Genevieve." His voice dropped, steady and cutting through her protest. "You'd be a queen. With me, you'd have the power to corner him, to destroy Nicholas."
She shook her head, heart beating real fast. "Or I'd be caught in the crossfire of two men who hate each other. I don't know you. I don't trust you."
She knew she was right when Sebastian leaned back, letting the silence stretch between them.
Then, casually, he said, "And yet you're still listening. That tells me you want what I'm offering, even if you're afraid to admit it."
Genevieve's fingers tightened around her glass. She hated that he was right. She was listening. Because Nicholas had stripped her of everything. And now, here was Sebastian, offering her a way to strike back, to get everything back.
"What's in it for you?" she asked finally. "Besides revenge. Men like you don't move without calculating the risk and what you would get in return."
He smiled faintly, as if pleased she'd caught on. "Nicholas took something from me that can't be replaced. You would be leverage. And more than that, an ally who knows how he operates behind closed doors."
"And if I refuse?" That was also a possible choice in this whole scenario.
Sebastian shrugged, but there was an edge in the gesture. "Then Nicholas wins again. People like him never stop taking and taking from people till they're stopped."
Her throat tightened. "And if I accept, I shackle myself to another man. Again. Forgive me if that doesn't exactly sound like freedom." She knew it would be hard to trust another man again after what the previous one had put her through.
His eyes softened, just a fraction, breaking through his cold . "You're not wrong to fear me, Genevieve. But Nicholas won't remain in your past. But you don't have to be scared, this marriage would just be a business arrangement."
The weight of his words pressed down on her chest. She wanted to say no, to end this dangerous conversation before it pulled her deeper. But a part of her, the part that burned with resentment toward Nicholas, whispered that Sebastian Voss might be exactly the kind of madness she needed.
Genevieve swallowed hard, her mind spinning. "You make it sound so simple. But nothing about this is simple."
Sebastian's lips curved, not in mockery, but in the quiet confidence of a man who always played the long game. "Simple? No. Necessary? Absolutely."
Her hands trembled around the stem of her glass. "I can't just decide something like this on a whim. Marriage isn't a contract I can rip up when I change my mind."
Even though he had said it will just be a business arrangement.
"Exactly," Sebastian said smoothly. "Which is why Nicholas will never see it coming. He'll believe you've chosen me over him, not out of desperation, but out of conviction. It will be the one move he can't counter."
She shook her head, torn between fear and fury. She wasn't stupid, he wasn't interested in helping her because he wanted to but because he had something to gain. "You want me to destroy him for you. That's what this is really about."
Sebastian leaned in just enough for his steel gray eyes to catch hers, unblinking. "No, Genevieve. I want us to destroy him together."
The words hung in the air, heavy, intoxicating, dangerous.
Then, just as quickly as he'd closed the distance, he leaned back, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket. He slid a sleek black business card across the polished bar top toward her.
The silver lettering gleamed under the low light: Sebastian Voss.
He tapped it once with his finger, eyes locked on hers. "Call me if you change your mind."
And with that, he downed the last of his scotch, left a crisp bill beside the glass, and rose from his stool. Without another word, he walked away, leaving Genevieve staring at the card with conflicting emotions.
She had a lot to gain and also to lose if she indulged in this insane partnership with Sebastian Voss.