Chapter 4
We’re not done yet. Not even close. He’s got me bent over in the shower, my palms braced against the marble as he takes me from behind.
And it just gets better from here.
Deeper at this angle.
More possessive, with his grip on my hips keeping me right where he wants me.
I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
I could live the rest of my days doing this with him.
“Sebastian,” I gasp, overcome by how deep he feels.
How deep he is.
So. Damn. Deep.
Over and over, with no end in sight.
God, don’t let this end.
My mind whirls in euphoric abandon as he grunts and thrusts, his fingers gouging my skin, desperate to claim every piece of me.
Unlike in the bedroom, where he was careful and patient—each inch measured against my innocence—he holds nothing back now, giving me the most stripped-down parts of himself.
With a groan, I let my head droop and squeeze my eyes shut.
And that’s when the climax barrels into us at once.
“Fuck,” he bites out, fisting my wet hair and hauling me upright. My spine bows, back flush to his chest as we crash together, both of us swallowing the sounds of the cardinal sin we’re committing.
For several minutes, we stand under the shower spray, motionless in the steamy haze. Eventually, he reaches for the soap, even as he stays inside me, and his hands glide over my breasts, slippery with lather. He rolls my nipples until my teeth sink into my lip.
His cock swells again.
Neither of us speaks, too consumed to fill the quiet with words.
Only moans.
He finds my clit, and I shudder in his arms, shaken apart by the achy release wrung from me one more time.
So many times, I’ve lost count.
When the last wave finally lets go, my knees buckle.
“I’ve got you,” he says, keeping me on my feet as his hands soothe the spots he bruised with his grip.
The blind hunger that ruled us settles into quiet tenderness, and a different kind of ache pulses between my legs. The last barrier between us is gone now—proof of what I chose.
Proof that I belong to him in a way the Brotherhood can never claim or auction off.
I turn and press my face to his collarbone, letting myself exist in the hush of the moment, safe inside this marble sanctuary that smells of citrus and honey.
An intoxicating spell, broken only when the water turns cool.
Sebastian shuts off the shower then reaches for two towels. After we dry off, I follow him into the shadowed suite, where he tucks his jacket in the depths of the wardrobe to hide the evidence.
It’s the protector in him, thinking of every angle to keep me safe.
To keep us safe.
Because that dark fabric is our only witness now.
We slip between the sheets, clinging to each other, and every kiss and sigh and moan from tonight plays through my mind. Even knowing the risk we took, I can’t bring myself to regret a single moment.
And yet…
The countdown has already begun, ticking away the seconds until he leaves me again. I brush a finger across the scar tissue along his ribs, tracing the map of his survival—a map that serves as physical evidence of how close I came to losing him.
“What are you thinking?” Sebastian asks, winding a blond lock around his knuckle before letting the damp strands slip free. He repeats the ritual, the hypnotic motion a silent echo of the way he’s always worshiped my hair, no matter the length.
“I was thinking of how amazing we were together.” Not quite the truth, but not a lie, either.
Because it was life altering.
Soul shattering.
Better than I could have imagined.
And in a few hours, I’ll have only the memory to sustain me until he finds his way back home to me.
If he finds his way back home.
“I don’t need to be inside you to feel your anxiety.” His words vibrate against my cheek. “Do you regret it?”
“Not for a second.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just wish…”
He tilts my chin until we’re eye to eye. “Tell me, baby. If I can make it happen, I will.”
“I don’t want to wake up alone.”
His thumb stills against my jaw. “I’d stay if I could, princess. You know I would.”
“I know.”
“Don’t think about tomorrow. I’ll stay and hold you like this for as long as I can.”
Letting my lids drift shut, I allow the heat of his body to pull me into the illusion. For now, the sun isn’t here to steal our happiness, to shine a light on the danger that threatens. We don’t have to consider the Brotherhood, their rules, or their damn auction.
For now, we can just be us.
But illusions tend to shatter, and mine splinters under the weight of reality.
“You’ll be back in time for the auction, right?”
“Nothing on earth will keep me from coming back in time for that.”
I want to believe him.
I have to believe him, because the alternative is a desolate scenario I won’t survive twice.
For a moment, I memorize him, my palm flat over the steady thud of a heart I was sure had stopped beating. It’s that impossible fact that finally shakes loose the practical questions—the ones I haven’t allowed myself to think about since I discovered him alive in my room.
“How did you get in here?”
“A friend of Tatum’s.”
“The woman I saw you with downstairs?”
Sebastian nods. “She has a network of people in high places. She got me into the ball.”
“But that still doesn’t tell me how you got in here.”
“She bribed the guard outside your door. His piss breaks are on a schedule tonight.”
His crude humor almost makes me laugh, except the dread in my chest won’t ease. Tomorrow, I’ll step back into a world that believes he’s gone, and until he returns, I’ll have to pretend it’s the truth.
He pulls me tighter, one hand stroking a hypnotic path down my spine. Eventually, my eyelids droop.
Somewhere in the distance, a train howls.
“Sleep, baby,” he murmurs against my temple. “You need it.”
“I don’t want to wake up without you.”
“You won’t. I’m with you, no matter what.” He kisses me, his tongue sliding between my lips, languid with promise. “An ocean might separate us, but you’re mine, and I’m yours. Don’t ever forget that.”
A vow of certainty strings those words together, and I feel his faith in us—like a tangible knowing that lives in my blood. But even as my eyes drift shut, the seconds tick toward the dawning day…
When he’ll be gone again.