Chapter 25 - Brianna
He drops the plate beside him and reaches for me. His hand slides around the back of my neck, and before I can think, he's pulling me toward him. Our mouths collide. The kiss is all urgency—messy and breathless, like we've both finally run out of patience.
I barely manage a breath before he's kissing me again, one hand tightening at my neck as he pulls me closer. Then, just when I start to lose myself in it, he breaks away. His chest rises and falls as he stares at me, his grip still firm, like letting go isn't nearly as easy as pulling me in.
“Alright. Time to go.”
“What?” I hardly get the word out before he’s pulling me to my feet, his grip firm as he guides me toward his walk-in closet.
“Come on. I need a taste of you right now.”
Seth shuts the closet door behind us, sealing us into the dark, hushed space, and my lungs forget how to work. I stumble back a step, then another, deeper into the closet, my pulse thundering in my ears.
Holy shit. This closet is bigger than the entire bedroom I rent at Natasha’s. Shoes line the walls in neat rows, clothing hangs in perfect order, but none of it exists to me. All I can see—all I can feel—is Seth, advancing with the steady, hungry patience and focus he reserves for the crease.
My back bumps into the shelves, the edge digging into my spine, and then his arms cage me in, trapping me there. His body heat rolls off him in waves, searing straight through my clothes until my skin prickles with anticipation. We’re doing this.
He lowers his face until we’re practically eye-level. “There’s a lot I need to say.”
I wet my lips and swallow.
“There are things I need to apologize for. But baby,” his eyes search mine, “I can’t sit next to you for another second without touching you.”
Oh… oh God.
“Without kissing you,” he adds, his lips brushing the shell of my ear as he dips to my neck, his breath hot. “Do you have any idea how much I like you?”
I swallow hard, my throat bone dry. My voice comes out shaky. “Tell me.”
His hand slips from the shelf until it wraps around my throat—firm, claiming, holding me there like I belong to him. He tilts my face up toward his, forcing me to meet the storm in his gaze.
“That Halloween night wasn’t just about forgetting the mess I’d made of my life—it was about remembering.
About dragging back the parts of me that I thought were gone.
You didn’t just bring me back, you gave me hope.
And I haven’t stopped thinking about the strawberry-haired woman who’d made me feel alive again. ”
Then his mouth crashes against mine. The kiss tears straight through every wall I've spent weeks building. Every thought, every doubt, every reason to protect my heart disappears the second he touches me.
I’ve always been a sucker for a good kiss.
One that steals my breath just like the ones in the movies do.
But for a while, I thought those types of kisses were purely cinematic...
until now. Seth’s lips devour mine, rough and desperate, and I open for him instantly.
His tongue slides against mine and it feels like he’s consuming me whole.
A sound escapes me, raw and needy, and I claw at his neck, dragging him closer, grinding against him as if my body can’t get enough.
Every nerve in me sparks, begging for more, for all of him.
And just when I’m lost in him, just when I surrender to the rush and let myself drown in the delicious chaos of it, Seth tears his mouth from mine.
“Fuck,” he groans, pulling back just an inch, his forehead pressing against mine as our ragged breaths mingle in the tight space.
His hazel eyes are molten and filled with heat.
“You’re too fucking good to us,” he murmurs, his voice thick with emotion.
“You shouldn’t have driven all the way to Boston for Sawyer last night.
And you shouldn’t have made us dinner, found another book for her to enjoy and shown up today to practice with her. You’re too fucking good Bri.”
“Stop telling me what I should do,” I whisper.
Seth lifts his head, his brows drawing together as he studies me, his gaze searching, trying to read me.
I get it. Maybe he thinks that he’s getting free labor from me that he can’t repay.
Or maybe he thinks that I don’t want to do these things.
But that’s simply because he doesn’t know the real me yet.
“I enjoy showing love to the people in my life,” I say softly, my fingers trailing down his chest, feeling the hard ridges of muscle beneath my fingertips.
These pecs that I’ve touched before that I can’t wait to touch again.
“It’s something that I got from my mother.
Never show up empty, she’d always say. Whether that’s bringing a home-cooked meal, staying up late to read a fantasy novel so I have something to talk about with Sawyer, or driving hours just to sit with her after a stressful situation. I try to always show up ready to help.”
I shrug slightly, my heart pounding as I look up at him. “Seth, I enjoy taking care of my people. It isn’t draining for me, it energizes me. I like giving. Sometimes, I think that I get more joy out of the act than the people who are receiving.”
His jaw clenches, his thumb brushing gently along my jawline, tracing the curve of my cheek. The thick pad of his thumb moves back and forth in slow, soothing strokes. I melt a little more into him and this quiet, intimate moment that we’re sharing.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t be telling you what you should and shouldn’t do.
” His eyes darken, his thumb pausing as he presses it gently against my lower lip.
“But, Bri, if you’re going to take care of everyone else in your life,” His voice dips lower, sending a shiver straight down my spine.
“Please let me be the one to take care of you at the end of the night.”
My lips part and he takes advantage—pressing his thumb a little further, just enough to part them.
“Open,” he murmurs, his gaze locked on mine.
I do. I open for him, welcoming the weight of his thumb as he slides it into my mouth just like the way he did outside. But this time, his daughter isn’t waiting for us.
My tongue flicks against the tip, tasting him, and I suck.
A deep groan vibrates in his chest, and his eyes go almost feral as he watches me, his nostrils flaring, his jaw ticking like he’s holding back everything he wants to do to me.
“I’m going to take care of you tonight,” he growls, his thumb sliding deeper, his breathing ragged as he watches my lips close around him in a firm suck. “And this won’t be the last time. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
I nod, my body already buzzing with the anticipation, my tongue swirling around his thumb before he pulls it out slowly, a wicked gleam in his eyes as I lick the tip one last time.
“Say it,” he commands.
“I want it too.”
“Good.”
His hand slides down my side, over my ass, dragging me flush against him. I feel how hard he is, and my brain goes a little blank, because I hadn't forgotten how big he is—I just hadn't prepared myself for the reminder.
“Sawyer’s either still in her room reading or asleep,” Seth murmurs, his lips brushing against mine, his voice low and full of need. “I can’t risk her hearing us. This closet is the furthest spot away from her room.”
“Oh.” I nod, whispering, my breath catching. That makes sense. But it’s not just the proximity to his daughter that makes this feel forbidden. It’s him. His heat. The way he’s looking at me like he’s already decided what we’re going to do in here.
Seth's right hand finds my throat—not tight, just present, just enough to make me focus on nothing but him.
His thumb strokes slowly along the side of my neck before his touch begins to travel.
Over my breasts, where my nipples pull taut beneath the thin fabric of my sports bra.
Down my stomach, his fingertips dragging a trail of heat across bare skin.
When he reaches the waistband of my shorts his fingers dip inside, slow and deliberate, brushing just above my pubic bone.
His jaw tightens. His brows lift. A low rumble moves through his chest.
“No underwear?” His voice is strained, his eyes flicking up to mine, dark with something dangerous.
I shake my head, unable to form words, and his nostrils flare.
“Bri…” His forehead drops to mine, his breathing ragged as he teases his fingers right above my clit. “I’m dying here.”
“I am too,” I whisper, barely able to get the words out. “Touch me. Please.”
He pulls back just enough to search my eyes, and whatever he sees there must be enough.
With ease, Seth drops to his knees. His large hands tug my thin shorts down.
I lift one leg, then the other, stepping out of them and feeling completely exposed under his intense gaze.
I’m bare, standing there with nothing but my sports bra on as he stares up at me, eye-level with my pussy, his lips parted, his breathing uneven.
His fingers trail up my legs in a slow, torturous path—brushing against my calves, over my knees, up to my thighs. The anticipation coils in my belly, the air thick with tension until his hands finally part my pussy, and his thumb strokes down the slick center of my opening.
“F-fuck,” I hiss, my hands falling to his hair.
“Just like the night that we met,” he murmurs, his voice rough with lust. “You’re perfect.
I’m already soaked, my body is turned on unbelievably, and I can’t tear my eyes from his. He watches as he slides his first finger inside me. My head tips back, a broken moan claws up my throat. I feel my pussy clench around the intrusion instantly.
He pulls his fingers out, lifts his gaze, and then slides his fingers into his mouth—sucking them clean with a low, satisfied hum.
“Fucking delicious.” His tongue flicks over his knuckles, his eyes locked on mine like he’s daring me to look away.