Chapter 25
twenty-five
Time stops the second Sebastian’s hands touch my skin.
The world may be spinning still, but I can’t feel anything but his lips against my skin.
His kiss is commanding, as always, and heat floods my body.
How he can make me want him so desperately with just one touch, I’ll never know, but I don’t care either.
“I’ve missed you,” I breathe between kisses, smiling against his lips.
Feeling shameless, I grab the fabric of his dark jacket and drag him back to me.
He guides my leg up and around his hip before lifting me off my feet and placing me on the table next to us without breaking our kiss.
The edge of my skirt rides up my thighs, but I don’t care.
Hell, Matteo could walk back in right now and I wouldn’t give a damn.
Let the world watch. Right now, I’d let this man strip me bare and fuck me on the steps of the Vatican.
I’m not Catholic, what does it matter to me?
His demanding hands rake across my curves, and I groan, soaking in every sensation.
“The way you make me feel, the way you touch me, I’ve never felt anything so addictive.” I whisper, my voice husky and strained. My nails scrape across his scalp as he bites my lower lip. Pinpricks dance across my skin, and I struggle to maintain any sliver of control.
“When I touch you how? Like this?” He asks, trailing his fingertips down my neck and across my collarbone.
Goosebumps cover my skin, causing me to shiver.
He drags his fingers across the collar of my shirt, gripping the fabric in both hands before ripping it down the center.
“I can smell what I do to do, Vanessa. I can see your skin react to my touch.”
I gasp, staring daggers back at him. I love this fucking shirt. I raise a hand, rearing back to slap the silly little smirk off his face, but he catches my wrist before I get that far.
“I loved this shirt, Sebastard. I would’ve just taken it off if you’d asked.” Rolling my eyes, I try to wrench my wrist from his grasp, but he squeezes tighter.
“But my way is much more fun. Admit it, you like me savage. I can see it all over your face, I can smell it all over your perfect skin,” his tongue darts out, tracing a path between my breasts. I can’t suppress the groan that falls from my lips every time he touches me like he owns me.
“If you think I smell good, you should see how good I taste,” I say, tempting him even more. I’m going to get what I want from him sooner or later, but I prefer sooner.
Sebastian flashes the sexiest smirk I’ve ever seen, his face still partially covered in the black body paint, and drops to his knees without another word.
His palms flatten against the outside of my thighs and drag up towards my hips, pushing my skirt up with them.
His fingertips meet black lace, and he hisses out a breath.
“Gesù Cristo, Vanessa. I want you so badly. How have I gone two weeks without this perfect body? Just waiting for me to unwrap this delicious pussy and devour it?” He squeezes my hips so tightly, I know he’ll leave his marks behind and I groan.
“You enjoy making us both suffer. Fucking masochist.” I say, bracing my hands on the tabletop behind me as he places one hand in the center of my chest and pushes me back.
“Don’t move,” he commands, and I look down at him.
So quickly, he pulls out the knife he usually carries at his back, tracing the tip up my inner thigh.
I shiver, loving the feeling of the cold steel against my skin.
One wrong move and it will bite into my flesh.
The darkest parts of my soul want to know how it feels to bleed for him. My thigh muscles quiver, and he grins.
“Don’t move, Bambina,” he sings, and that silky smooth voice slinks through my veins like sweet poison. I’d die a satisfied woman if these were my last moments.
The sound of fabric slicing rings in my ears, and the cool air hits my core moments before his lips descend on me.
He closes his mouth around my clit and sucks hard.
Crying out, I’m unable to stop myself or remember that we’re currently in a public place, my public place, right now.
My hand threads through his hair, drawing his face even closer to me, and he comes willingly, licking and biting in even strokes.
My nails rake across his scalp and he growls, the vibration shaking me to my core.
“Jesus fucking holy, Sebahhhhh!” He sucks harder, adding two thick fingers deep inside of me, and my back arches, nearly throwing me off the table. The point of the knife grazes against my inner thigh again, and I shudder into it.
“So fucking delectable. Be my good girl and come on my face, Vanessa. Show me who I belong to,” he commands, his voice raspy as the heat of his breath brushes my skin, and he laps at my core furiously.
My orgasm hits me like a bolt of lightning, like pain and pleasure colliding at once, and I don’t bother suppressing my scream.
Let the neighbors call the fucking cops.
The only business open at this hour is Grovewood Ink, and god only knows the sounds I’ve heard through the walls at all hours of the night from that place.
I’m just giving them a run for their money for once.
He stands, wiping his mouth in the most sinful way I’ve ever seen before crashing his lips against mine once more.
Tasting myself from his tongue is the most devious indulgence I’ve ever consumed.
I never thought the serenity I find in Sebastian’s touch would ever be a reality for me.
His darkness tangles with my own, and completes me in the best way.
He’s only inches from being inside me, only a few layers of clothing between the two of us, and I can’t stand it any longer. I need to feel him, and it’s taking everything in me not to take control of this situation and climb him like a fucking tree.
“You want my cock, diavolina?” He grins that wicked grin, the one the masked man has haunted me with for months, and my core clenches. Trailing the edge of his blade across my collarbone, I shudder, my nipples pebbling as the tip of the blade traces the curve of my right breast.
“I think you have too many names for me. You’re gonna have to pick one and run with it, Seb.” I pant, slowly untucking his shirt and releasing the clasp on his belt. The tip of his knife hovers over my heart, and I’m shocked he has yet to slice into my skin. I know it’s sharp, devastatingly so.
“How about wife?” he says, and I swear the Earth shifts off its axis.
I gasp, my eyes shooting up to his. His eyes are fixated on the spot where his knife presses against my skin, transfixed by the sight of it.
He can’t be serious, can he? There’s no fucking way he’s serious.
But…he speaks about our relationship in terms of eons.
Like we have no true end. It only makes sense that one day I would be his wife, right?
Do I want to be anyone’s wife? I don’t think I’ve ever thought seriously enough about anyone to consider the title before now.
“Tell me to stop,” he says, his eyes still locked onto the knifes point. The pressure is nearing pain, but I still won’t stop him. If it pierces my skin, so be it. He will never cause me pain in the ways other have, of that I am sure. I trust him completely.
“Never.” I tell him, and his smile spreads deviously.
The blade bites into me, breaking the skin, and I hiss as he drags it across my heart, the curves drawing his familiar letter. I will gladly wear his brand for the rest of my life. How could I be anything less than his wife, than the queen of his kingdom?
“Tell me you’ll be mine. Forever.” It’s not a question, more of a demand. Of course, coming from this brute of a man, everything is a demand.
All I can think to do is laugh, and his eyes flick to mine, confusion brewing there.
We make quite a pair right now. If anyone were to walk in on us right now, we’d both be thrown into some kind of institution.
But that only serves to further prove to me how much I belong in his arms and by his side until the very end.
“I love you, Sebastian. And I will love you until the sun burns out, until the stars crash into the sea. Give me all that you can, all your darkest impulses. And I will always stay by your side.” Blood trickles between my breasts, and my core clenches, my body begging to be filled by him.
“Mine,” he growls, gripping the back of my neck and pulling me towards him.
Our lips collide in a furious kiss, the sound of his buckle clinking against the table, his zipper sliding down, his desperate pants filling the air around us.
There is no hesitation before he slides deep inside me, and my head falls back on a silent scream.
I’m so incredibly full of him, my body having waited far too long to feel him moving inside me.
This is exactly what I needed to feel complete. Him, always him.
“Look, Vanessa. Watch my cock sliding into you. See how perfectly we fit together? We were fucking made for each other.” he says, guiding my head down and forcing me to watch where we’re joined. I whimper and feel him grow thicker inside me.
“Fuck, Seb. Harder. God, you feel too good.” I groan.
I don’t think he’s supposed to be engaging in sexual activity this vigorous so soon after a major abdominal injury, but I can’t find it in me to give a fuck at the moment.
We’re not that far from the hospital if his orgasm causes some kind of massive internal bleeding, and at least he’ll go down satisfied.
His tongue traces the bead of sweat trailing down the side of my neck, and I roll my hips, a groan ripping from his chest. He pounds into me like a man completely possessed, like a fucking beast. I know his fingertips will leave bruises where he’s gripping my hips and neck, but I don’t care.
My nails rake down his back, and that’s all it takes to send him over the edge.
He spills into me, claiming me in every way, and I cling to him.
After our breaths finally even out, he slowly pulls out of me, tucking himself back into his pants, his cocky smirk firmly in place.
My pussy throbs, wetness dripping out of me, and he cocks his head to the side, catching it with his fingers and pushing his cum back inside me.
The act is completely obscene, a deep blush creeping up my chest and heating my face.
“Don’t go getting all embarrassed on me now, Ness. I just fucked you in the middle of your coffee shop, and you didn’t even pull the front blinds down all the way. There’s really no need for embarrassment.” He laughs, and my cheeks burn hotter as I look toward the front of the building.
The blinds on the front door sit halfway down the front window, and I die a little inside.
God help me if anyone felt like taking a late night walk tonight.
They must’ve gotten a hell of a show. My chest heaves, the adrenaline finally settling in.
Sebastian steps away, pulling the front blinds completely down and grabbing a clean towel from the counter before coming back to me.
He shrugs out of his black dress shirt, draping it across my shoulders to replace the one he ripped from my body.
The man had a thing for ruining clothes tonight.
He presses the towel against my chest, and I hiss, the cut stinging.
“You shouldn’t have let me do that.” he says as we both study his handiwork. A skillfully sliced letter S lies right above my heart, the skin already red but not really bleeding much anymore.
“You’re right. I should’ve let you finish the whole name,” I smirk back at him, and he stares at me, completely dumbfounded. He mumbles something unintelligible in Italian before gripping my jaw between his thumb and forefinger and kissing me hard enough to bruise my lips.
“Ti amo, anima mia,” he whispers, and I don’t need to be fluent to understand that one at all. I love you, my soul.
“I love you. And I meant what I said,” I tell him, threading my fingers through his dark hair. “I’m not afraid of your darkness, Sebastian. The only thing I fear are the secrets you keep from me. So show them all to me, and I will love every part of you.”
Wrapping his shirt around my body, he scoops me up from the table and carries me towards the back of the shop.
There’s a whole new mess I need to clean before opening in the morning, but right now I can’t begin to give a shit.
I’ve missed him more than I thought possible, and all I can think about are his hands on my body until the sun rises.
“Wait. Matteo. I’m not about to spend all night with him creeping on us from the other room. That’s a fetish I’m not interested in exploring.” I joke, but really…I’m not joking.
“I’ve already sent him to stay at your house with Douglas.
Even though he was quite excited to see his father, I had to postpone our reunion until tomorrow.
Right now, all I can think about is getting you under me.
” He sets me on my feet, pushing me towards the back door to lock up, and I find myself wondering how he moves so effortlessly in the shadows and if I’ll ever be that good.
“Douglas,” I scoff.
He gave my dog a proper name. The man is unhinged.
He follows me silently up the back stairs to the apartment where we began, his hand burning a path up my spine.
Burying his face in my neck, I fumble with the keys for the apartment.
I don’t understand how he can still make me so fucking nervous, yet here we are.
“Open the door, Vanessa.” He growls against my skin, and I laugh uncomfortably.
“Get the hell off me and I will, Sebastard.” I reply, shrugging him away.
“I’m starving,” he groans, desperation lacing his tone.
“Oh, really?” I ask, already knowing what he’s going to say.
“Feed me, so I can devour you.” He replies, biting into the muscles between my neck and shoulder, and I melt into a puddle at his feet.
Okay, so I lied. Not at all what I expected. It seems this man will continue surprising me for the next hundred years, and I think I can live with that.