Chapter 35
Sebastian
Waking up with Aliena in my arms is like coming home after a long day. Like taking the first deep breath in months. I soak it up, breathing her in to reassure myself she’s really here.
The days without her were hell. I was constantly thinking about her, equal parts worry and longing making my chest heavy. There wasn’t a second when I wasn’t thinking about her, and it was only my promise to her that kept me from getting too close against her wishes.
I take advantage of being the first one awake until she stirs, her change in breathing telling me she’s awake. Still, she doesn’t speak up and doesn’t try to change our position. For a few long minutes, we rest together as we wake up.
It’s only when the tease in my bed starts shifting around, backing up with her ass until it’s pressed tightly against my front. Weeks of waking up just like this, her teasing me until I was up and ready to fuck her taught me where this is going. I reluctantly pull away, much to my body’s regret.
Grabbing her wrists, I pin them above her head so she’s lying on her back before moving so I straddle her hips. “What are you doing, little troublemaker?” I wonder.
Her satisfied hum pierces the air. “I love it when you call me that,” she replies, still looking at me suggestively through her lashes.
“Oh now, don’t look at me like that, Sweetheart. We need to talk first,” I insist. The woman beneath me groans, making me smile a little.
“Okay, grandpa. God, responsible people are the worst.”
This time it’s me that groans. “Please, don’t call me that,” I whine.
“What, you don’t like it?” she teases me innocently. “I think it’s sexy, don’t you, grandpa?” she goes on, shaking with laughter when I fake gag.
“You make me want to get off you and move to the other side of the room,” I ensure her.
“And yet you stay, pinning me down and all.”
“Can I trust you to keep your hands to yourself if I let go?” I challenge.
“I don’t know. Try it and find out,” she fires back.
“Aliena,” I chastise.
“Sebastian,” she echoes, drawing out my name exasperatedly. “Yes, I can keep my hands to myself. You’re not that irresistible.”
I let go of her in time to place a hand over my heart. “You wound me!”
“Your ego can take the hit, I’m sure. Now, will you get off me to talk or would you rather keep me pinned so I can’t walk away?”
“Why would you walk away?” I ask, hoping damn well that she’s not planning on it.
She shrugs. “Judging how our last arguments went down, I’d say the chances are high one of us will storm off or flee at one point or another. ”
I don’t indulge in teasing her about that. Not when I can still remember her rushing away from me and locking herself in the bathroom so vividly. I slowly get off her. “There won’t be any fleeing today,” I assure her. That’s a vicious cycle better broken sooner rather than later.
She straightens up, leaning against the head of the bed and watching me expectantly.
“I don’t know where to start,” I tell her honestly.
“Just don’t apologize again. I know you’re sorry. I knew that when you apologized, I knew it when you took care of me despite my asking for space, and I knew it every time you made a sweet gesture in the time since.”
“Don’t forget about the ticket to the exhibition,” I cut in, grinning. I’ve got a lot of faults, but I do know my girl. She shoves my shoulder.
“That counts as a sweet gesture. Anyway, I’m no longer mad at you. Sure, you knew what you were doing when you took drugs in here and it hurt a lot, but the rest was said and done in the heat of the moment. I know you didn’t mean it. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t do anything to provoke your anger. That’s why I wanted to come talk to you at the party.”
“I said such stupid things,” I try to start, protesting against her letting me off the hook, and nearly flinching as I recall what words left my mouth that night. Aliena stops me before I can go further down that road, though.
“I know you didn’t mean it,” she repeats slowly. “Stop beating yourself up about it. People make mistakes. We both did.”
I nod reluctantly, reaching out to take her hand. The urge to hold her is always right there. “Where does that leave us?” I ask .
“I don’t know. Last I checked, you don’t want a relationship, right? That didn’t change?” she asks, and I swear she almost looks hopeful as she searches my features for any indication of my reply.
Swallowing around the nervous lump in my throat, I say, “I think it did, Sweetheart. I think my view on all of that has been changing for a while. From the moment you started sleeping in my bed, I suppose.
“We could have had this talk a lot sooner if you’d given me any indication that you wanted something more from me. To me, you seemed even more hesitant to let things become serious than me, and I get it. With everything happening with your parents, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t the right time to demand anything from you that might take energy.” Even more hesitantly, I add. “And I was a coward, hesitant to change the status quo despite how much I care about you.”
My words linger for a second before Aly replies. “I was scared. Am scared. I never had a relationship. You know all about my fear of leaning onto someone, never mind that I crossed that bridge a long time ago when it comes to you and it seems there’s no turning back, no matter how hard I try. I’m starting to think the risk might be worth it if we give this a fair shot.”
A slow, wide smile spreads over my face. I can feel it. “Yeah? You’d agree to being my girlfriend?”
She rolls her eyes, even as a smile of her own takes over her features. “Yes, Sebastian, I would gladly be your girlfriend.”
To say the looks on our friends’ faces are hilarious when Aliena and I walk into the private room hand in hand the following weekend would be an understatement. Lily gapes, instantly asking, “When did this happen and why the hell did I not know?”
Andrew is a little more subtle, his gaze jumping between Aly and me before he blows out a breath and takes a long sip of his drink.
Mattheo simply smirks cockily, the bastard. “Look who finally came around. I must say, I was almost losing hope in you, Seb. After you ruined my knee, I was sure you’d man up and set to winning her over, but you persisted in being a little bitch. Now, here we are, months later.”
Aliena stumbles a step, her head whipping around to look at me. “Pardon me, you did what to his knee?”
“Oh, ups, you never mentioned that?” Mattheo drawls, feigning innocence. Dumbass doesn’t realize he’s making his knee look horribly kickable again. “You remember how I couldn’t dance with you on your birthday, Amo? Yeah, you have that one to thank.”
Before she can snap at me, I say, “He was the reason you got hurt. He should have made sure you got home safely that night.” That, at least, placates her a little. She smiles and shrugs.
“We are all just accepting that? I thought you guys couldn’t stand each other!” Lily protests.
“Your head is always in the clouds, my love. You’re the only one who thought that,” Andrew tells her. She glares at him before bringing her attention back to the girl holding my hand.
“You’ve been holding out on me! I always give you the dirty deets about my love life. You two have been screwing around behind my back and I don’t know a thing about it? ”
Aliena laughs while Andrew has the courtesy to blush at the revelation that his sex life isn’t as private as he might’ve hoped. Before anyone can change the subject, Andrew seems to realize something that makes him jerk in his seat.
“Whoa, you want to know how Sebastian is in bed?” His gaze swivels to Aliena. “No.” Is all he tells her. I refrain from telling him she doesn’t listen to orders. He’ll realize that she does whatever she wants eventually.
“I’m still curious as to how it happened, though. And how you hid it from us,” Lily persists, ignoring Andrew skillfully. I can’t believe he didn’t know women talked... Poor man.
“Well, circumstances kind of made me move in with him and one thing led to another,” Aliena provides with a shrug.
“You live here?” her best friend exclaims. Now, even the guys look surprised.
“Since last December,” Aliena admits, looking a little sheepish now as her friend’s face turns red.
Lily takes a deep breath, and with a forced calmness, she says, “You and I will have a sleepover soon. At my place, apparently. Then, I will make you talk, you hear me?”
The whole crew laughs and as we settle into the couches, the conversation eventually moves on from Aliena’s and my new relationship status.
When eventually, the others start heading downstairs to dance, I notice Aliena eying me.
“Yes, Sweetheart?” I ask, arching a brow.
“Well, aren’t you going to ask me to dance?” she retorts with that attitude I love so much.
I bow my head in apology and get to my feet, holding out a hand to her. “Would you do me the honor and dance with me, milady?” I tease her. She swats at my hand, smiling cheekily.
“You’re an idiot,” she declares, walking past me. For a second, I just stand there and enjoy the view. That’s my woman . I feel both unbelievably lucky and undeserving. When she finally looks at me over her shoulder and says, “Well, don’t let me wait now.” My feet follow her obediently.
“Sorry, Sweetheart, just wanted to take in the sight,” I say, moving her along with a hand on the small of her back.
“Oh, yeah? And, was everything to your liking?”
“Fuck, yes. My girlfriend looks devastating tonight,” I whisper in her ear.
“I’m nervous,” Aliena repeats for the hundredth time since I told her my mom was about to turn up at the apartment with the rest of the cleaning crew and demands to finally meet the girl that stole her boy’s heart. Her words, not mine.
I’ve been managing to hold her off for a few days since telling her that I had a girlfriend. Now, her patience seems to have run out.
“She’ll love you, don’t worry,” I reassure her.
Right on cue, the elevator dings and opens to reveal a crew of ladies, all shorter than five feet five. I greet them with a smile as always, but they don’t stop by to chat, merely sending curious glances toward the girl clinging onto my arm before they rush off to the second floor .
My mother is the last in line, her face lighting up as she spies us ready to welcome her. “My boy, hello,” she exclaims happily, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug. She’s seriously strong for such a small woman... Then, letting go, she moves on to study Aliena.
With my girlfriend’s face in her hands, she gushes over how pretty she is in that thick Spanish accent of hers. Aliena, for her part, holds dutifully still, even as a vicious blush takes over her face.
I finally take pity in her and interrupt, “Mom, enough. You are embarrassing her.”
Noticing I’m right, she lets go of the girl’s face and resorts to hugging her. “Sorry, darling. I’m just very excited. Sebastian has never introduced me to a girl before, and I’ve been dying to meet you for half a year now.”
At that, my girl arches a questioning brow at me. I brush her off. She doesn’t need to know I told my mom about her after our first meeting.
After a few minutes of chatting, my mom excuses herself to go help the others clean, but not before inviting us for dinner at my parents’ place tomorrow night. As soon as she’s out of earshot, Aliena slumps against my side. “Oh, god. I’ve never experienced something more stressful. Do you think I made a good impression?” She groans before I can answer. “I was too quiet, wasn’t I?”
Chuckling, I squash her against my chest and press a kiss to her forehead. Who would have thought I’d ever see Aliena Hart this shy?
Dinner is tense. Sebastian’s father, William Henderson, is as much of an asshole as expected and while I can brush off his demeaning comments quite easily, Sebastian’s tight grip on my hand beneath the table tells me he isn’t faring as well.
I feel bad for him. He warned me this would happen and apologized in advance. When I asked him why he agreed to come if he hates his dad so much, he simply said it would make his mother happy. My heart melted a little at that.
So that’s what brings us here, into this beautiful mansion, sitting at this majestic mahogany dinner table, eating the delicious food Sofia, Seb’s mom, prepared.
“So, Aliena, are you a student at my university?” William asks me, that deep, stoic voice disrupting the tense silence. Sofia looks nervously between her husband and me.
I smile sweetly as I tell him, “No. Sadly not.” Then, I keep eating, smiling sincerely when Sebastian squeezes my hand.
“Oh? May I ask where you study, then?” the old man at the head of the table goes on.
“I’m afraid the answer to that is nowhere. I chose to work rather than going to University.” Never mind that it wasn’t much of a choice, in my case, but he doesn’t need to know that. He’s the kind of vulture that would jump at the notice of my dire financial situation.
He looks greatly displeased at that, and while his wife reaches for his hand, pleading with him with her eyes, and Sebastian glares, I keep my smile in place, completely unbothered by his rudeness.
So what if he doesn’t approve of me or my life choices? I’ve never cared much for the opinion of little men who haven’t known a single day of hard labor, and I don’t plan on starting now .
William is exactly the kind of privileged man that had one person or another cater to his every wish his entire life. I’d bet on it.
The two of us are locked in a staring contest, which I’m only willing to lose to look at Sofia when she speaks.
“I didn’t study either,” she throws in, smiling nervously at me. I smile back sincerely.
When her husband mutters a not-so-subtle, “Yeah, and look where that got you”, my mask slips.
With a short apologetic look at Sebastian, I allow myself to lose it. Fuck playing his game of forced niceties and and backhanded comments. Where I come from, yelling is a much more popular way to express one’s opinion.
“You never tire of hearing your own voice, do you? God, you make it so obvious no one has ever told you to shut up . The fact that you were born with a golden spoon up your ass doesn’t make you anything better than your wife or me.”
My outburst seems to snuff out the air in the room, but I’m not done. “You forgot to ask me where I work,” I remind him sweetly. “It’s a nursing home called Bloomfield living care. Does that ring a bell? It’s a great place with lovely residents.
“You might know one. Her name was Rosie and I got to take care of her for over a year before she passed. But you wouldn’t know that. No, you never bothered to visit her, no matter how often she asked about you.” My throat tightens at the mention of my old friend, but I buzz on.
“Don’t worry, she didn’t die knowing what an unlikeable, ungrateful disappointment her son turned out to be since I brought her flowers every month, pretending they were from you. Yeah, you’re welcome.” I take a deep breath, nodding to Sebastian before getting to my feet .
I turn to Sofia, who’s gaping at me. “Sofia, thank you so much for the invitation. The food was fantastic. The company too, for the most part, but I think all in all, this was a successful dinner. I hope to see you around the house soon.” Letting my smile drop, I turn back to William, nodding cockily.
“It’s been a pleasure, old man. I can only hope you take what I told you to heart and stop being such an overgrown bully to the people you’re supposed to care about. It’s pathetic.”
With that, I turn on my heels, trusting that Sebastian is right behind me as I exit the mansion. Outside, I let out a startled laugh, feeling the adrenaline cursing through me. Holy shit, I can’t believe I said all that.
I’ve never been a wallflower, sure, but talking like that to the father of my boyfriend? I can only hope Seb isn’t too mad at me.
Speaking of the devil, two strong arms come around me from behind and a face nuzzles into my shoulder. “I don’t deserve you,” he mumbles against my skin. I turn in his arms, still feeling triumphant as I kiss his soft, inviting lips.
“Maybe, yeah. But at least now I know firsthand where you got some of your most questionable traits from.” I peck his lips again, taking a deep breath as I cup his cheek, so I have his full attention. “You’re not your dad, though. And it’s a good thing too because if you ever tried undermining me like that, in front of others no less, I wouldn’t stick around long enough for you to regret it.”
He chuckles, tightening his hold on me. “Trust me, I know that. I wouldn’t dare test you like that. Especially not after the show you just put on. Honestly, I don’t think my dad will ever recover. Sweetheart, I don’t think I’ve ever been this attracted to you.”
“Really? Me yelling at your dad turns you on but when I call you grandpa, it turns you off faster than a cold shower?” I tease him.
He kisses me deeply, rather than replying. Then, resting his forehead against mine, he swallows thickly, as if bracing himself for something. “Aly?”
“Yes?” I reply, my voice lowering to match his as I keep my eyes shut.
“I love you,” he whispers hoarsely.
I smile against his lips, pecking them. “This is the part where you say it back, Sweetheart,” he tells me playfully. I huff and shove him away.
“You’re such an idiot. I was just about to do that, but you know how I feel about getting told what to do.”
“Yes, I know, I know. You only like it in the bedroom,” he announces loudly. I gasp, looking over my shoulder to make sure neither of his parents is there to hear that.
“Shut up before I refuse to let anything happen in the bedroom until you forget what my preferences were in the first place,” I threaten him playfully.
He raises his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” I’m granted another kiss. “Oh, and by the way, that’s another one of my firsts you snatched since you like them so much. You’re the only girl I’ve ever loved.”
My heart flutters happily. I hum against his lips. “I love that,” I tell him. Then, lowering my voice, I add, “And I love you.”
And since he’s so great at ruining deep moments, Sebastian pulls away, and whoops. That’s right, he whoops and hugs me around the waist before lifting me up so I’m slung over his shoulder. Then he skips to his car, no consideration for my newly filled stomach.
“You’re an idiot,” I declare, even as I cling to him.
“An idiot you love,” he adds, whooping again.