The Coldest Man in the Room Melted Only for Me novel Chapter 411

Sebastian replied a moment later.

Riley opened the sleep diary he sent over. As she read through the logs, her frown deepened into a severe scowl. She quickly typed back: [Can you take a call right now?]

Less than two minutes later, Sebastian called her. Riley answered and immediately demanded, "Your broken sleep from last night doesn't even add up to a full hour! How is it this bad?"

He just offered a low, indifferent, "Yeah."

Riley was frantic. "Don't just say 'yeah'! Tell me what happened. Did you skip your meds? Was there some external trigger that kept waking you up?"

The line went dead silent for two seconds before he dropped a single word. "You."

Riley didn't understand. "How did I..." The words died in her throat as the realization slammed into her. He meant she was the trigger.

She had spent the entire night at the hospital babysitting Pierce. And after their disastrous phone call, he had been furious.

He had stayed awake the entire night because of her.

Guilt and heartache twisted violently in Riley's chest. "I'm so sorry."

"It's my own issue. It has nothing to do with you. Don't blame yourself."

How did it have nothing to do with her?

She was literally the cause.

If she had known it would ruin him like this, she would have called him back immediately to figure out why he was mad. She would have explained everything, or even driven straight to him the second she left the hospital. She shouldn't have waited until the morning.

"Does your heart ache for me?"

The low, magnetic rumble of his voice sent a shiver down her spine.

Riley didn't try to hide it. "Yes."

"Do you want a chance to make it up to me?"

"How?"

"Sleep with me at noon."

Riley's brain immediately jumped to the dirtiest possible conclusion, but she knew he meant literally taking a nap with him. Still, the phrasing made her face instantly catch fire.

But there was a major medical problem with his request. In cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, stimulus control was the single most critical pillar. No matter how terrible the previous night was, the patient had to wake up at a fixed time, never linger in bed, and absolutely never nap during the day.

It was a brutal, anti-human rule. Especially for a man like Sebastian, who had suffered for fifteen years. He survived by sleeping erratically during the day whenever his body finally crashed. Ripping that coping mechanism away from him so suddenly was going to be pure torture.

She needed to ease him into it. She would let him take exactly a twenty-minute power nap today. And she would monitor him personally to make sure he didn't oversleep.

But then a practical issue hit her. "Where are we supposed to sleep? The staff on-call room is full of people at noon. It's not private."

"I'll book a hotel room nearby."

Sleeping together. Booking a hotel room.

The more they talked about it, the more scandalous it sounded.

Riley's ears burned bright red. If a man and a woman booked a private hotel room together, was it really just going to be innocent sleeping?

Riley belonged to him.

He couldn't crush Sebastian in a head-to-head war, but he had plenty of ways to sabotage them from the shadows. If Sebastian could steal his wife behind his back, he could certainly return the favor.

He looked up at Scott, his eyes cold and sharp. "The company's expansion into the Statenbury market is being pushed forward immediately. I will be operating out of Statenbury indefinitely. Activate every single contact we have here. If there is a single project, deal, or opening in this city's social circles, I want to know about it instantly."

He was going to stay in Statenbury and build his empire. He would climb high enough to wield the power necessary to crush Sebastian St. John. And when he did, he would make the man pay in blood for stealing his wife.

Seeing the ruthless ambition burning in Pierce's eyes again, Scott finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Understood."

Pierce thought for a moment before dialing Arthur. He quickly briefed his grandfather on his decision to accelerate the Statenbury expansion.

"Are you doing this for the company, or are you doing this for Riley?"

Pierce didn't lie. "Both."

"Pierce..."

Knowing exactly what Arthur was going to say, Pierce cut him off. "Grandpa, I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm not going to act recklessly. You told me yourself that a man has to stand at the absolute peak to take whatever he wants. I won't disappoint you."

The line went quiet for two seconds. "As long as you know your limits."

"Serena has been begging to move to Statenbury. Let her come."

"Why would I send her there? She's an idiot. She'll only cause you trouble."

That was exactly the point. He wanted her to cause trouble. Just not for him. "Sebastian has zero feelings for the Spencer girl. Since Serena is so obsessed with him, let her take a shot at him."