Chapter 26 #2
“That’s all that matters,” Sebastian said. “Atticus is going to recover. Zeus is going to sit with him.”
“I’m so happy Atticus is okay.” I stretched up on my toes and kissed his cheek, trying to soften his scary scowl. “How are you? This has to be difficult for you. I know how close you and Atticus are.”
“I’d feel much better if my friend wasn’t nursing a bullet wound because of me.”
“You can’t blame yourself.” I wanted to make this right for him. He didn’t deserve to shoulder the weight of what happened tonight all by himself.
“I can.” He slid his fingers under the strap that had fallen down my shoulder. “Why do these always fall?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “But I like when you fix it.”
“It happened the night we first met.”
“I froze when you touched me, but I liked your attention.” All I wanted to do that night was figure out how I could see him again.
“I didn’t want to stop touching you.” He leaned down and kissed me. “I still don’t.”
“You never have to stop touching me.” I spoke against his lips as he deepened the kiss.
When we were together, focused on one another and creating a connection, everything else dissolved. Sebastian was my first, and as far as I was concerned, he’d be my only.
“We should think about our surroundings.” He smirked. “As tempted as I am right now.”
“Come on.” I took his hand and led him up the steps.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he followed me.
“Somewhere a little more private.” I glanced over my shoulder. “In case we want to do more than kiss.”
“I’m starting to think you’re no longer my little minnow.”
“I’m not?” I opened my bedroom door and led him inside before shutting and locking it. “That’s disappointing.”
“Don’t be disappointed.” He brought my hand to his lips. “I’m upgrading you to my little shark.”
“Really?” I slipped off my flip-flops. “How come?”
“You’re coming into your own.” He kissed my knuckles. “You took control tonight during a hectic situation. You knew what had to be done, and you did it. You got Atticus the help he needed.”
“I tried to be brave, but when I saw the blood on your shirt, everything went dark for me. I thought…” For a second, I thought he had been shot, and that thought process was a rabbit hole I didn’t want to go down. “I can’t lose you.”
“I’m not a man who scares easily, but when I saw that car approach us, I knew they were going to fire, and my only instinct was to protect you.”
“But I never want you to expose yourself to keep me safe.”
“We’ll have to disagree on that.” He trailed his lips along my wrist but stopped when he got to the skin that had been irritating me. “What happened?”
“Oh.” I looked at the fresh scrape. “That must have happened when I fell to the ground before the shooting started.”
“When I shoved you?” His jaw tightened. “I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do it on purpose.” I rubbed the cut; the blood had already started to dry on it. “You were trying to protect me.”
“From a position you never should have been it.” He studied the cut. “We need to clean this.”
“Sebastian.” I kissed him. “It’s fine.”
“Let me clean it up.” He pointed to the door by the bed. “Is that a bathroom?”
“How did you know?”
“I was going to buy the house across the street many years ago, and it was the same layout as this one.”
“That’s weird.” I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that if my father hadn’t betrayed him, we would never have ended up together. “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“Me too.”
“There are bandages in the cabinet,” I said as I switched on the lamp by the bed. “Oh!”
I had left my room a total wreck when I was getting ready for my party.
That night seemed like such a long time ago.
How could it have only been a couple of days?
I grabbed the clothes off the bed and the extra pairs of shoes off the floor and tossed them in the closet, slamming it shut just as Sebastian came back into the room.
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning up.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I’ve been to your house and your hotel room. You’re a meticulous man, and my sloppiness might deter you.”
“Deter me from what?” He guided me to the bed and sat down next to me. “Let’s see that wrist.”
“Well, as you can see from my bedroom, I’m not the tidiest person around.” I held out my hand so he could wipe the fresh cut.
“I already figured that out.” He tended to my scrape, being gentle and attentive. If I didn’t already think he was the most perfect man in the world, I would now.
“How?”
“The wet towels on the bathroom floor in the hotel room tipped me off.” He smiled. “Lip gloss tubes, hairbrushes, straighteners, curling irons, various hair products, and jewelry strewn all over the counter both at my house and in your own bathroom were a good indicator too.”
“I’m messy.”
“It’s adorable.” He placed a bandage on my wrist and gently kissed it. “I needed some disruption in my orbit.”
“I am disruptive.”
“Yes, I figured that out too.” He swiped my hair behind my shoulder. “I like your disruptions.”
I bit the corner of my lip, losing myself in his perfectly sculpted bone structure and stunning green eyes.
I had been drawn to him from the moment I saw him at the club.
The charisma dripped from him. Everyone in the room sought his attention, and he knew it.
His subtle smugness had piqued my curiosity, but when he approached me, that was when I knew.
I would surrender my soul to him if he asked. There was no turning back.
I am his.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He trailed his fingers along my throat, disrupting my thoughts.
“Like what?” My words came out breathless, full of desire. Does he know how I feel? Should I tell him?
“Like you want me to rip this dress off you and show you who’s in charge.”
“That’s exactly what I want, Daddy.”