Chapter 44
Chapter
Forty-Four
Two days later, at dinner, Sebastian’s claim was proven correct.
“You can take Azain back with you.” Franlow brought his fork to his mouth, chewing and swallowing a bite of meat before clearing his throat to continue his sentence. “Show him this creature you speak of, and if he returns and confirms your claim, then I will help you.”
Sebastian smirked winningly. “Thank you. I—”
King Franlow interrupted him. “But you must leave one of your own here as an…insurance policy, I suppose.”
Sebastian nodded once and folded his hands on top of the table. “Very well.”
“I’ll stay.” Sawyer’s hand shot up.
Franlow shook his head and pointed a crooked, aged finger at me. “No. Her.”
I could feel Samara’s eyes narrow into small slits upon where I sat at the table, my lilac gown for this evening's dinner sparkling off the freshly waxed mahogany. I ignored her heinous gaze, keeping my attention floating between King Franlow and Sebastian.
“Absolutely not,” Sebastian firmly stated, clenching his hands together so hard they began to pale.
“She is clearly important to you, Sebastian. So I trust that you will be honorable while you are gone to ensure her safety,” Franlow added.
“Where she goes, I go,” Sebastian declared, receiving a slight scoff from Samara. “If she stays, then I stay. If I go, she is coming with me. That is not up for debate.”
Franlow leaned back in his seat, folding his velvet-robed arms across his chest “These are my terms. Accept them, or I will not be helping you.”
Sebastian clicked his tongue, his eyes pinning Franlow to the wall with an invisible dagger.
Don’t blow this, Seb. Just shut up and let me stay.
“May I ask why you really want to keep her here?” Sebastian questioned, suspicion flicking off his tongue.
“She is the reason for all of this, is she not? With her form of mind power, then she is the most powerful being on the continent. Is she not? And those markings. Those are…interesting.” Franlow nodded at the swirling stars on my flesh.
“Alright then.” Sebastian leaned back into his seat, his jawline appearing even more defined as he ground his teeth. “I’ll stay here with her. The others will take you to see the Hykah.”
“Why are you so persistent on this, Sebby? I promise to take good care of her,” Samara sneered innocently across the table.
“Why are you even at this meeting?” Sebastian scoffed back, but did not otherwise continue to acknowledge Samara.
Looking back at the king, he argued his case.
“Lyrise, Sharpe, Sinclair, and Pia will make the trip, and can take Azain to see the Hykah. When they return, we can negotiate the terms of you helping us.”
“Sebastian, you know I trust you, but I do not know them nearly as well as I know you.” Franlow held an open palm out to our group. “For all I know, Azain would never return if I let him go with them alone. He is basically family to me, and I’m sure you can understand my concern for his safety.”
Sebastian syphoned in a purposeful breath, that I was sure prevented him from exploding on the one person who could help us.
Under the table, I kicked his shin with the bottom of my heel. The gesture was meant to be a silent suggestion for him to let it go, but he was closer than I’d realized, and by the way he sucked his teeth between his lips, I had a feeling there would be a bruise on his leg later.
“Surely we can discuss this further. There must be another solution—
I cut Sebastian off. He was seriously going to blow this if he didn’t stop. “These terms are fine, Your Highness. I’ll stay here. The others can go,” I agreed.
Sebastian shot me a heated glare, his dark brows sunken into his ocean eyes.
“I’ll be fine,” I quietly assured him, squeezing his thigh with my hand under the table.
Grinding his jaw, Sebastian shuffled in his chair, contemplating.
His borrowed suit tonight was a charcoal gray, the inside of the jacket lined with navy silk that brought out the darkness in his eyes.
The fabric strained against his biceps as he crossed his arms over his chest and my stomach instantly fluttered.
I couldn’t wait to tear that jacket off of him later.
“Fine. But she will not stay here alone. At least one of us is staying with her, and that is not up for discussion,” Sebastian growled, then added, “these are my terms.”
I wouldn’t argue with that. I would certainly feel more comfortable having a familiar face here, especially with the brown-eyed, snobby-faced, beauty queen glaring at me from across the table.
“Very well. He can stay.” King Franlow pointed at Sawyer out of all people.
Kade snorted out a laugh that he immediately tried to disguise by clearing his throat, though his one-sided smirk gave his amusement away. “Erm. Sorry.”
Sebastian began to argue yet again, but I laid a hand on his upper arm, squeezing his muscle. I forced a smile directed at the king. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
After discussing some logistics over dessert, it was determined that Sebastian and our friends, apart from Sawyer, would leave at sunrise.
When our stomachs were full to maximum capacity, we were dismissed.
Sebastian and I returned to our room, him sporting the largest scowl I’d ever seen on a person.
“I don’t like this,” he grumbled, taking a seat on the edge of our bed and aggressively unbuckling his dress boots.
“That’s too bad.” I shrugged, standing before him to deliver the harsh reality of the situation.
He threw a boot on the area rug next to his side of the bed. “I don’t trust him.”
I raised a brow. “Franlow?”
“Sawyer.”
I nodded in understanding and took a few steps back, pressing my spine into the dresser behind me. “Well, you trust me, don’t you?”
He nodded, chucking his other boot and then moving his fingers to unbutton his jacket.
“So then what’s the problem?”
He raised his eyes to me, the skeptical hue of them drilling into me. “You know the problem, Maeve.”
I understood his apprehension, but steaming over it wouldn’t change anything.
“I know things are awkward between us all right now, but at the end of the day, Sawyer is still my friend. My best friend. And I know he would never do anything that I wasn’t comfortable with, and I also know that he would never put me in harm's way.” When Sebastian didn’t respond, I added with a slight attitude, “Would you feel more comfortable if Kade stayed with me?”
Sebastian rolled his eyes before dropping his gaze to his lap. “No,” he scoffed under his breath.
I bent down to remove my own shoes then climbed onto the bed, kneeling behind him. My fingers glided over his shoulders, grappling at his jacket before dragging it down his arms and dropping it off the edge of the bed near his boots.
“Despite how you feel about him at the moment, is there really any question about Sawyer being the safest option—beside yourself—to stay with me?” I dug my fingertips into his shoulders, massaging the obvious tension in his muscles. “Seb?”
With a hefty sigh, he rotated his torso towards me. “I know. I know,” he groaned, the admittance sounding like it absolutely killed him. “Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”
“I’m not happy about it, either. Do you really think I want to be away from you for five days?” Maybe longer depending on how everything played out.
Sebastian reached around to my back, using his fingertips to grasp the zipper of my gown. “I don’t want to be away from you for a single second, let alone nearly a week,” he answered, pulling the zipper down and setting me free from the confines of the fabric.
I shimmied the puffed sleeves down my shoulders, letting them rest in the crook of my arm.
“Everything will be fine. If you are going to worry about anything, it should be leaving me here with Samara.” She had been insufferable since we arrived, making flirtatious comments at Sebastian every chance she got.
“Pft. You can handle her. I have no doubt about that.”
My dress fell to the floor in a puddle of shimmering cloth when I rose to my feet. I started for the dresser, rummaging through it to find some loungewear.
“Don’t bother.”
My hands stilled in the drawer. I turned back to Sebastian. “What?”
He stood, unbuttoning the collar of his cream-colored dress shirt as he prowled towards me. “Don’t bother putting clothes on. You won’t need them for what I’m going to do to you.”
My lungs sucked in a dry breath. “And what might that be?” The words slipped off of my tongue as I silently closed the dresser drawer behind me, leaning back against it and crossing one leg over the other.
“Since I won’t be seeing you for a week, I have big plans for us tonight.
Some of which may involve you, me, and that washbasin.
” With one hand still working his buttons, the other gestured to the door that led to our washroom.
The partially visible muscles of his abdomen went rigid with his motion.
“That bath has already seen enough,” I giggled, my body shivering in remembrance of bubbles, heat, and desire.
“Then perhaps we should try something I mentioned the other night. Turn fantasy into reality.” He slipped one arm out of his sleeve, pulling the other off painfully slowly to reveal his full upper body.
My fingers searched for the lace strap of my bra, toying with it as I raked my eyes over his perfectly toned figure. “What did you have in mind?”
Sebastian’s lust vanished for all of a second, leaving him with pure solemnity. “Do you trust me?”
My head tilted. “In what sense?”
“All of them, but right now I want to know if you trust me with your body?”
My nipples hardened under my bra, so much that they were undeniably visible beneath the fabric. “Yes,” I breathed. I trusted him with more than just my body. My heart. My soul. My life.
“Good,” he murmured in a low tone.
Neither of us moved. We simply eyed each other's bodies, the indescribable desire and tension between us sending heat coursing through me.