16. Sebastian
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SEBASTIAN
“I’ll walk you to your room,” I tell Stevie, as she steps out of the elevator first. She has my coat tightly wrapped around her body still, from the chill of the ferry ride. The sight of her wearing it brings me pleasure despite the tension between us on the way back after what we did.
I’ve been stuck inside my head for the last hour, wrestling with the lack of control I had over the situation.
But more than all that were the insane feelings I had while we were together.
The way her body moved with mine and how well we fit together.
When I kissed her soft lips, a bolt of electricity shot up my back.
Then I nestled myself inside her, and it was the most familiar feeling.
As if I recognized another piece of myself.
Obviously, it wasn’t the best scenario, but I fucking loved it.
“I live here, remember?” she playfully quips, turning my attention back to her. “I’m sure I can make it there safely.”
I clear my throat, now with more of a sense of protectiveness over her. “I know you do, but I wasn’t asking.”
She turns to me with an arched eyebrow. “Is that so?”
I blow out a breath. I’ve been in my head all night, and I’m not in the mood to go back and forth with her.
I need to be by myself to think straight.
“I just want to make sure you are back in the comfort of your bedroom before I go to bed. It’ll make me feel better…
” Then I bend, hook an arm around her legs, and throw her over my shoulder.
“Sebastian!” she yells, wriggling in my grasp, but I clutch her tighter.
I swiftly walk down the hall to the East Wing.
Stevie hits my back trying to get me to put her down.
The lavender scent of her hair blows past my nostrils, reminding me how good she smelled only a few hours ago when I had my cock inside her. Then I kick open the door. “Not everything I do or say needs a comment or pushback from you.”
“Put me down!” She swats at my back again, but it does nothing to loosen the grip I have on her.
“Stop trying to hurt me. It won’t work,” I say as I approach the foot of her bed.
“This isn’t funny. Put me down!”
“Here you go.” I toss her onto a mound of thick comforters and blankets.
Stevie’s hands swing back to brace herself, pushing into the mattress of the bed. With her hair strewn across her face, she stares at me with anger. “What the hell was that?”
I need to sleep to clear my head after we had sex. “I’m exhausted. As I’m sure you are, too.”
“So, you forced me into my bedroom?”
I turn my back to her, walking toward the door.
“Sebastian, shouldn’t we talk about this?” she shouts.
We can talk all she wants in the morning.
“We both need rest. And to process what happened tonight,” I say. “It’s how I deal with what we do. If I don’t, it’ll consume me. I don’t want that to happen to you either.”
I shut the door behind me. Stevie might be upset right now, but she’ll thank me later after a full night of sleep.
A tsunami of thoughts and emotions crash against me, leaving me in desperate need of some time to myself.
I speed down the hall to the West Wing, craving a cigarette.
The incessant itch begging for that euphoric hit of nicotine, I throw open the door to my bedroom and grab a half-empty pack from the top drawer of my nightstand that I’ve had in there for a while.
The rain has picked up outside, tapping the glass patio doors, an ideal way to collect my thoughts.
With my favorite skull lighter and a cigarette in one hand, I grip the handle of the doors, opening them to the balcony.
The wet, cool night moves across my face.
Sucking in deeply, I fill my lungs with fresh air, then empty them before taking a much-needed drag and replacing the clean air with toxicity.
It’s a nasty habit when I’m stressed or after a kill, but I can’t seem to quit.
Slumping into the chair safely under the roof overhang, I pull an ashtray over from the other side of the patio table. A bolt of lightning illuminates the endless dark sky right as I think about calling Christian to give him an update on tonight.
“Hey, Sebastian,” he answers on the first ring. “How’d it go tonight?”
I straighten in the damp cushioned seat. “It was an interesting evening, to say the very least.”
“Interesting how?” My mind briefly replays the events. “Well, for one, Stevie kicked ass. She handled herself well.”
“That’s great to hear.” Papers rustle in the background. He’s probably still up working. “So, what happened?”
Flashes of Stevie’s crimson cheeks take over my vision.
“We met the killers. Formally. I’m going to make a handwritten list of each one, their monikers, but since they gave us their names while their masks were on at the masquerade ball, I’m still trying to piece together who’s who.
Once we narrow them down, we can devise a plan to eliminate them one by one. ”
“Will you start the research once I’ve uploaded the list to the secure drive?” he asks.
“Of course.”
He pauses for a beat. “I was thinking about moving back into Nightrose Hall to help you out with the project since River’s away.”
We have three guesthouses on the property: Nightrose Hall, Hollow House where Hayden lives, and Thornfell Lodge which remains empty at the moment.
Each one with its own driveway entrance and boasts multiple bedrooms and its own gardens.
Christian has stayed at Nightrose Hall often in the past to assist River and me with other projects.
I take another puff of my cigarette, then put it out in the glass ashtray next to me. “That sounds great, man. I’ll send the housekeepers in to prepare the house tomorrow.”
“Okay, perfect. I can probably be there by the end of the week,” he tells me as another bolt of lightning streaks through the sky, followed by a deep rumble of thunder. “Oh, I almost forgot. Did you have to offer a token or something?”
No token, just sleep with the beautiful woman I thought I couldn’t stand for the first time in front of an audience.
“Uh, yeah, about that.” I swallow hard, partly embarrassed that I have to relay what Stevie and I did. I’m not ashamed that we had sex, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t hate how it happened in front of a group of psychopaths.
“What was it?”
“I brought my gun as an offering, but they wanted something else…” I begin, unsure how to approach it.
“And?”
As the storm outside becomes more intense, I rise from my chair and head back inside, closing the door behind me. The silence in my bedroom is heavy, pressing a weight on my chest. “I had to fuck her in front of them,” I finally say.
Christian says nothing for a moment. Then he lets out a strained cough. “Wow, I was not expecting that.”
“Neither was I.”
“I’d say that was the best-case scenario if you ask me. Imagine they asked you to bring in a kill. How’s she holding up?”
“I don’t know. When I left her in her room a while ago, she seemed to be in her normally annoying mood.”
He laughs. “I think she’s tougher than we think. Maybe you’re right. Maybe she will do fine.”
“I felt awful for her, though.”
“We got lucky they asked you and not one of them,” Christian points out.
My blood simmers through my veins at the thought. “I wouldn’t have let that happen,” I state.
“I know you wouldn’t have. And so does Stevie. That’s why she trusts you, Sebastian. She wouldn’t have agreed to this if she didn’t,” he encourages. “She never would’ve agreed to do any of this in the first place.”
Trust. A tricky word.
“I don’t like that they put her in that situation, but it did get us in.”
“We’ll get them,” Christian says. “Did they tell you what’s next?”
“No, I was told they’d be in touch like last time.” I walk into the bathroom to get into the shower, but the nagging feeling to check on Stevie prevents me from getting in. “Look, I need to get some sleep. We’ll talk again soon.”
I end the call before he can respond with only one thing on my mind. I bound toward my office only a few steps away from the door to my bedroom.
The wall of screens meets me as soon as I enter.
My eyes shoot over to the camera in Stevie’s room.
She’s lying in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin, staring at the ceiling which I can bet she’s replaying everything from the night.
Was it callous of me to leave her without talking about what happened?
Running a hand through my hair, I want to speak with her again.
Slipping my phone from my pocket, I give in and text her.
Me: Hi.
She rolls over to grab her phone from the nightstand by the side of the bed. When she sees it’s me, she blows out a frustrated breath before responding, and it brings a chuckle to my chest.
Stevie: Now you want to talk.
Me: I’m sorry I ran out. I needed to get my head straight after tonight.
Stevie: Makes sense. But you could have told me that.
I thought I had?
Me: You’re right. Do you want to talk about it now?
Stevie: Honestly, there’s nothing to discuss. We can catch up on the rest tomorrow.
Stevie: I’m alright if that’s what you’re trying to ask.
Me: I didn’t expect that to happen.
Stevie: It’s not like this was my first time having sex, Sebastian. I’m a big girl. And it was just for show, so we’re all good.
Stevie: We’re in. We fooled them. That’s all that matters, right?
Me: What are you doing tomorrow?
Stevie: I don’t know yet.
Me: See you at breakfast?
She smiles and rolls onto her side.
Stevie: Evening breakfast?
I laugh.
Me: Is there any other time of day?
She laughs again.
Stevie: Not that I know of.
Me: Good night, Annabel Lee
Stevie: Good night, Dark Prince
Maybe she is handling it better than I am.
Or she’s simply better at controlling her emotions.
I don’t know. But her tone through text feels like she’s doing better.
The weight of what happened on my chest tonight has lifted slightly, knowing this.
Fuck, do I not want to take each one of them out one by fucking one even more now—especially Silas. That prick.
I turn to leave my office for the night, but not before glancing at the screen one more time.