Chapter 15 #2
"I want you." His hand rose to cradle her jaw, and this time neither of them stopped it. "I have wanted you since the moment you dismantled my argument at that ball and refused to give me your name. Every single day since. I am done pretending otherwise, to you or to myself."
She closed the last distance between them before he could, her hands finding his lapels, and this time there was nothing waiting to interrupt them.
His mouth met hers, certain, unhurried, and when his hands slid to her waist and drew her flush against him, she felt the full, unguarded want in him, no longer restrained behind days of careful distance.
"Tell me to stop," he murmured against her mouth, "and I will."
"Do not stop." She was already working the buttons of his waistcoat, impatient, her breath already unsteady. "I do not want careful, Sebastian. I have had three days of careful."
He made a low sound against her throat and lifted her into his arms, carrying her from the study, up the stairs, past the blue room she had occupied alone for three empty nights, into his own bedchamber, and set her down only long enough to shut the door behind them both.
In the dim, amber glow of Sebastian’s bedchamber, the air felt thick, charged with a tension that had been stretching between them for three agonizing weeks.
When his hands returned to her, they weren't just touching her, they were claiming her. Every brush of his fingertips against her skin felt like a searing hot spark.
Amelia could hear both of them breathing.
Sebastian's hand remained at her waist, his thumb moving once, almost absently, against the fabric of her gown. His eyes searched her face as though asking for permission once more.
She nodded and turned and his breath left him slowly. Then he reached for the fastening at the back of her gown.
He worked slowly at first, giving her every opportunity to change her mind. She didn’t.
Amelia felt the fabric shift beneath his fingers and drew in a quiet breath. His fingers stilled, and when she glanced over her shoulder, she found him watching her with an expression that made her heart stumble.
He eased the fabric lower, slowly enough that she felt every small movement. Amelia's fingers tightened around the folds of her skirt.
She exhaled, her pulse loud in her ears. When the gown finally slipped from her shoulders, she instinctively drew her arms closer to herself.
Sebastian noticed. He did not reach for her immediately, giving her the space to decide whether she wished to remain where she was. Amelia's cheeks warmed, but after a moment she lowered her arms.
His fingers brushed her arm, almost reverently, and Amelia shivered. She reached for him then. Her hands found the buttons of his coat, growing bolder as she worked.
She felt a frantic sort of desperation, her fingers trembling as she worked at his clothes, wanting to erase every single barrier between them.
When the last of their garments fell away, she felt a sudden, sharp spike of vulnerability.
She had never been seen like this—completely exposed, not just in body, but in the raw, aching hunger in his eyes.
Sebastian paused, his gaze sweeping over her with a reverence that made her breath hitch. He looked at her as if she were the only thing in the world that mattered. That look—that absolute, unwavering devotion—was what finally broke the last of her defenses.
He lowered her onto the sheets, the fabric cool against her back. As he settled between her thighs, his weight was a grounding weight. He leaned down, his lips grazing the sensitive shell of her ear, his voice a rough, low vibration.
"You are so beautiful," he whispered, and the sincerity in his tone almost brought a sting of tears to her eyes. "I will be as gentle as you need me to be. Just tell me."
She didn't want gentle—not in the sense of hesitation. She wanted him. She arched her back, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. "I trust you," she breathed.
She reached for him, pulling him down and he groaned, the sound vibrating deep in his chest. His lips found the sensitive hollow of her throat.
He tasted her, his tongue swirling against her pulse point.
Amelia let out a soft, shuddering moan, her legs winding around his waist to pull him closer, craving the weight of him once more.
He moved slowly, his hands roaming over her breasts, his thumbs brushing over her peaked nipples with a rhythmic pressure that made her toes curl into the sheets.
Amelia looked at him, he was watching her, a captivated look on his face as her eyelids fluttered and her lips parted, drinking in every flicker of pleasure that crossed her features.
When he first entered her, the world narrowed down to a single point of intense, searing contact.
She gasped, her eyes snapping open, her fingers digging into the muscles of his shoulders.
It was a sharp, invading pressure that stole the air from her lungs.
For a heartbeat, she froze, the instinct of the unknown clashing with her desire.
But Sebastian stopped instantly. He didn't pull away, but he ceased all movement, bracing himself on his elbows to look directly into her eyes. He waited, his breath mingling with hers, his expression one of profound concern and tenderness. He didn't push.
"Look at me," he murmured.
She focused on the depth of his gaze, the warmth and the patience there. Slowly, the sharp sting faded, replaced by a heavy, pulsing fullness that felt like it was rewriting her entire internal geography. She felt a strange, overwhelming sense of expansion.
She let out a long, shuddering exhale and tilted her hips upward, a silent invitation. "Please," she whimpered. "Don't stop."
As he began to move, the sensation shifted sharply. Each slow, deliberate thrust pulled her further away from the shore of everything she had ever known. Her mind went blissfully blank, filled with the scent of sandalwood and musk, and the way he groaned her name.
Amelia gasped, her head falling back against the pillow, her eyes fluttering shut as she felt him fill her completely. The sensation was overwhelming, a slow-burn intensity that radiated from her core to the tips of her fingers.
She opened her eyes and watched his face—the way his jaw tightened, the flicker of intensity in his eyes—and realized that she was affecting him just as deeply. That realization sent a jolt of emotional electricity through her, amplifying the physical sensation until it was almost unbearable.
Amelia gripped his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin, her breath coming in short, jagged hitches. The tension coiled within her, tighter and more focused than before, building until she felt she might shatter.
"Sebastian," she whimpered, her voice breaking. "Please..."
He quickened the pace, his movements becoming more urgent, more primal. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, his breath hot and ragged, as he drove himself deeper, seeking the very center of her.
The climax hit her like a tidal wave. It was violent, sudden, and all-consuming.
Amelia cried out, her body convulsing around him in tight, rhythmic waves of pleasure that left her breathless.
Sebastian followed a moment later, a low, guttural roar escaping him, his entire frame shuddering with the force of his release.
As they lay there in the aftermath, the silence of the room wrapping around them like a blanket, Sebastian didn't pull away. He stayed tucked against her, his heartbeat slowing against her chest, his hand gently stroking her hair.
"I should have said it days ago," he murmured against her hair, one arm wrapped securely round her.
"You said it exactly when I needed to hear it." She pressed closer, feeling his heartbeat slow gradually beneath her palm. "I will not let you disappear on me again, Sebastian. Not after this."
"No," he agreed, quiet and certain. "Never again."
She felt changed. The world outside the door felt distant and insignificant. She closed her eyes, drifting toward sleep, feeling completely seen, completely cherished, and finally, irrevocably home.