Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
SEBA
A haze of smoke— most likely weed by the musky scent– weaves through the bodies crammed into The Larson’s guest house while voices compete with the music playing from speakers tucked into the ceiling.
(Rich people shit). Across the room, safely shielded by Grant and Jessica, Marcus shoots me another nervous look.
His hands were all over Cade. His mouth. His body—
I chug the rest of my beer to chase down the acid rising in my throat.
Since walking through the door, I’ve been tempted to start something with the fucker, if only just to alleviate this pent-up frustration.
Fortunately for him, I’m not that stupid or intoxicated.
I took the excuse to stay out because going home means facing him.
I can’t do it.
So here I am, lurking in the corner of a crowded party with people I don’t like, nursing another beer to avoid reality.
You’re turning into your father. It’s pathetic.
My fist strangles the beer can. It creaks in protest. I've lost count of how many I've had. I check the time. It’s well past one in the morning and the party shows no signs of winding down.
I could stay here, drink myself into oblivion like the rest of these idiots, or I could grow a pair and walk home.
“Hey Sebastian,” chirps an overly excited voice. A short blonde in a skimpy top gives me a cartoonish grin. She looks familiar. Maybe one of the cheerleaders? Her pupils are blown to the point I can’t tell what color her eyes are.
Drugged. Like pretty much everyone here.
“Did Andrea come with you?” she asks.
I shake my head, pretending to sip from the empty can.
Take the hint and leave me the hell alone.
“Of course not,” she scoff-slurs. “She never comes to these things, no matter how many times we invite her. It’d be a totally different story if Cade were here. I swear to God, her obsession with him is so annoying. The worst part is she’s completely in denial about it.”
Great. Just what I needed to hear. Coming here was a mistake. Then again, my judgment has been shit lately.
The girl grimaces. “Oh shit, he’s your brother, right?”
Yeah, it’s time to go.
“Stepbrother,” I grumble and shoulder past.
Her voice calls at my back as I march out, but it’s swallowed by party chaos.
The front door slams behind me, instantly sealing the noise inside.
My ears feel stuffed with cotton. I used to love the quiet.
Now, it only amplifies the madness screaming in my skull.
Burying my hands in my pockets, I follow the sidewalk, gaze trained on my boots until I reach the house.
A solid eight hours of sleep is what I need. Or a coma. No dreams. Then I could blame amnesia for not remembering the asinine shit I said in the car.
By the time I get some water from the kitchen and climb the stairs, the last beer hits. Maybe I will sleep after all. Grinning to myself, I push in the door to my room.
“About fucking time.”
Sitting on my bed, haloed in the dim light of my bedside lamp, is the tempter himself.
“Cade.”
“Sebastian.”
The way his tongue wraps around my name sends heat licking down my spine.
I need him out of my space.
Now.
“What do you want?”
He uncoils like a serpent. “Oh, I don’t know…” His head tilts. “How about the explanation you owe me?”
He’s always pushing me and I can’t fucking stand it.
“I don’t owe you anything,” I growl.
A wave of cigarettes and cologne washes over me as he slithers closer. “Is that so?” Something violent flashes through his eyes. “I’m usually a fan of games, but this game you're playing? Is bullshit.”
He’s under my skin like acid. It burns, it burns, it burns. Charging, I snarl, “I’m not the one playing games here.”
A bitter laugh. “More lies. Doesn’t it get exhausting repeating them to yourself all day?”
I cuff his throat, shoving his chin up with my thumb. His pulse slams against my palm.
“I have no choice.”
“No, you believe you have no choice,” he hisses. “There’s a difference.”
Hot breath fills the space between us. His tongue flicks over his bottom lip. I track the movement. Fuck.
“I can’t.”
“Can’t what?” He demands. My jaw is wired shut. His glare darkens. “Can’t. What?”
“No,” I stammer.
“You’re not running this time, Sebastian.” His tone is sharper than fangs, injecting paralytic venom. “Man the fuck up and tell me to my face—”
“I can’t!”
“I can't,” he mocks in a high-pitched whine. A switch flips and he's furious again. “Do you know any other words? ‘Cause I'm getting really fucking sick of ‘I’ and ‘can't’!”
“I ca—”
“You can’t what?”
“I can't want you!”
The echo of my roar rings in his stunned silence. Violence shines in his eyes again. It’s sirens flashing. A warning given far too late.
“But you do.”
I don't deny it.
The faintest lift to the corner of his mouth renders me immobile. He takes a deliberate step back, his gaze wrapping a rope around my neck like a leash.
“You want to touch me.”
His fingers curl around the hem of his t-shirt. Excruciatingly slow, he peels it over his head. Two fingers trace the line down his chest and through the V disappearing into his loose boxers. They slide under the waistband.
“You want to taste me.”
“No.” My upper lip curls. “I want to fucking devour you.”
Dangerous, wild flames of triumph erupt in his gaze. He reaches for the lamp on my nightstand.
“Do it then.” His cunning smirk burns into my retinas as the room goes black. “God can’t see us in the dark.”
I float outside of myself, watching like a spectator as I go at him, shoving him on the mattress.
He falls back willingly with a malicious laugh.
I slap a hand over his mouth to shut him up.
His lips part against my palm, petal soft and plush.
But there's something I want to do more than ruin his wicked mouth.
I loom over him at the edge of the bed and kick his legs apart. His shorts bunch at his crotch, emphasizing his erection. Streaks of moonlight draw stripes across every exposed inch of him.
Sin never looked so holy.
For the first time in my life, I kneel for someone other than my God. Cupping his inner thighs, I push them wider. His chest heaves as my nails carve crescents in his velvet soft skin.
Our gazes connect.
“I hate what you’ve done to me,” I rasp.
He wets his lips. “I know.”
Then I do what I’ve fantasized about a hundred times.
My teeth sink into the meat of his sensitive inner thigh. Hard. He inhales sharply, whispering a curse as I suck a bruise. Seconds later, I attack the other.
It’s not sensual. It’s brutal. Animalistic. Bestial. Again and again, I bite and suck, occasionally drawing blood as I move from his thighs to his hips. His cock twitches beneath me, rock hard and throbbing. He goes to touch himself—
Lightning fast, I pin his wrists to the mattress and clamp onto his hipbone.
He gasps, bucking against my hold. “Please.”
His begging might kill me.
“Please what?”
He arches with a groan. “More. I can take it.”
“Fucking hell,” I mutter under my breath before repeating the bite on the same spot. He cries out. Red beads well in the indents. I lap them up like a starved man while he trembles.
“Sweet poison,” I whisper, licking through his iliac crest. “So delicious.” Rearing back, I gaze down at the map of marks I’ve left. “But so toxic.” His glazed eyes track my hand as it covers the bulge in his boxers and squeezes. “Making me fucking sick.”
Cade moans. The sound is an electric shock to my balls.
I did that. My hand. Me.
It’s a rush that has me stroking him roughly again through his shorts. He writhes, fisting the sheets and biting his lip. I lean into the crook of his neck.
“I could eat you whole.”
He’s panting and rocking into my grip faster now, chasing the pleasure I’m giving him. The pressure building in me is borderline unbearable. I’m too caught up in the helpless noises slipping from Cade’s lips and the pulse of his cock as he reaches climax. His head whips back.
I take a final bite— his Adam’s apple.
“Seba.”
He’s my undoing.
Cum soaks the fabric of his shorts at the same time I erupt in mine. A flood of shame crashes over me, cutting through the high of my orgasm before I can even come down.
My lips brush his ear. “Get out.”
He hesitates, blinking as he returns to himself. I don’t want to look at him like this— bathed in dim light and darkness, bleary with ecstasy and gazing at me with something bordering on vulnerability.
It’s agony how beautiful he is.
That soft look evaporates. His jaw flexes. He slides out from under me, off the bed and toward the bathroom. Then pauses in the doorway and flicks the light switch, revealing the mess I made of him. Purple and red decorate his thighs and hips while a wet stain darkens his shorts.
I grit my teeth. “Never again.”
Those eyes burn into me, silently whispering, Another lie.
“Goodnight, Sebastian.”
The bathroom door closes.
I collapse onto my back, staring at the ceiling.
This isn’t over. Not even close. I condemned myself the second my mouth touched him.