Chapter 14 Sebastian
Sebastian
The last two weeks had flown by. Business was starting to pick up, at least slightly.
Not enough to get me out of the hole I was in, but enough to keep my head above water for the time being.
Lydia and I had found a rhythm working and living together.
We ate breakfast together most mornings before I hit the gym and Lydia did whatever she did managing my accounts.
She would meet me at the shop sometime around midday to generate more content, usually hanging around for the rest of the evening, even after she got what she needed.
A part of me really wanted to call her out for that, but knowing Lydia, she would leave and would never spend more time than necessary there ever again. She was a brat like that, so I kept my mouth shut and just relished it internally.
I was going over the books before my next appointment when she walked in, her silvery hair blowing in the wind. She looked up at me, pushing her hair out of her face, and our eyes locked for a beat too long.
Her brows furrowed as she pointed at my face. “What is that?”
“Glasses,” I answered. I only really used them when I was going over my paperwork, so it wasn’t surprising that she hadn’t seen me in them yet.
“No.” She shook her head at me, her hands gesturing all around my face. “You don’t get to look like that, with all those tattoos, and then put glasses on like some sexy, nerdy bad boy.”
My chest puffed out, and I grinned broadly at her. “You think I’m sexy?”
“Of course you would get hung up on that,” she huffed, rolling her eyes. “What have you got on the calendar today?”
I reluctantly took off my glasses—they were really only reading glasses, and they gave me a headache if I tried to use them for farsighted vision—and put my books away.
“Two consultations and two appointments.”
Both of the appointments were relatively small, but with two consultations, it rounded out to be a decent day.
Hopefully, at least one of the consultations would book an appointment before leaving.
It was really a fifty-fifty likelihood of hearing from them again if they left without committing to it.
“You need more appointments. It’s impossible to expect me to continue to think of things to post if you don’t have anything going on.”
“Yes, it’s only for my social media presence that I need more clients. Thank you for that insight,” I responded dryly.
Lydia let out a deep, throaty chuckle. She put her bag on the couch just as the first consultation client came through the door. I had known Andrea Petit for years. She and Wyatt had seen each other for a while a long time ago, but that was small-town life.
“Sebastian,” she greeted. She looked me up and down with an interested smirk. “Is this where you’ve been holed up? I haven’t seen you around Harpoon’s lately. How’s things been?”
“Good. Been busy,” I lied. She was right that I hadn’t been to my favorite bar in town for a while, but it wasn’t because I was busy. Clearly, I wasn’t. I just didn’t have an interest in picking up random women to go home with lately. Not for the last few months.
Lydia eyed us from the couch with a scowl. She pulled a laptop out of her bag and shuffled some things around noisily. I could have sworn she was making as much noise as possible just to be a pain.
Andrea turned to look at her before turning back to me with a sultry grin.
“I love your work,” she said, her fingers trailing over the ink on my neck. “Are all of these your own artwork?”
A goat bleated loudly, making Andrea jump. We both turned to Lydia in confusion.
“Oh, sorry. TikTok video. Forgot the volume was on,” she explained with sarcastic smirk.
It took all of my effort to hold back my grin at her not-so-subtle cattiness.
“Anyway.” I turned back to Andrea. “I have a couple of ideas for your tattoo based on what you told me, but I’d like to sit with you to go over what you’re thinking. Follow me.”
I led her to the back of the shop where my chair was.
Sometimes I did the consultation visits at the waiting lounge, but that didn’t seem wise today.
I had no interest in Andrea Petit, not just because she had a history with Wyatt or because she was a bitch to Maeve when Jane was a baby.
I simply didn’t have an interest in anyone.
Not anyone I was free to pursue anyway. And any non-pursuable interests were being kept on lockdown.
Still, I wasn’t turning away the opportunity for a client, and I wasn’t going to let Lydia scare her away either.
Andrea and I sat at my station and discussed what she wanted and where.
“Right here, under my boob.” She grabbed her titty like she was mid-porno, lifting it up to show me where she wanted the placement to be.
“That’s fine. It’ll be a delicate spot for a few days, so wearing a bra might be uncomfortable. It’s best to not have anything rubbing against it while it’s healing,” I said.
“That’s not a problem. My boobs look great without a bra. Well, I guess you’ll see that for yourself, right?” She smiled that seductive smile again as her fingers danced on my leg. “Maybe, after we’re done, you can take me out for a drink?”
Before I could answer, Lydia started packing her shit up just as noisily as she’d unpacked it. She whipped her backpack onto the couch, angrily shoving things in.
I heard her pull in a hiss and curse under her breath. She looked down at her thumb, sticking it in her mouth. I was on my feet in an instant.
“What happened? Are you alright?” I asked as I made my way over to her.
“I’m fine. It’s just a small cut,” she grouched. “Go back to your consultation.” She stressed the last word like it had personally offended her.
“Let me see.” I reached for her hand, but she pulled it back and grabbed her bag.
“I said I’m fine.” She looked past me back to Andrea. “Your client is waiting.”
She turned and stomped out the door. I watched her get to her car before I turned back to Andrea.
“I didn’t mean to cause a problem,” she said. “I didn’t realize you two were…”
“We’re not.”
She raised her brow at me with a disbelieving look. “Okay, well, if you’re not, then the offer for a drink is still on the table.”
I didn’t respond to her invitation, but rather tried to guide the conversation back to work.
“Why don’t we get you booked in with an appointment. What do you say?”
I flashed her my dimpled smile, keeping things light, as I walked her back to the front to schedule her session.
* * *
Lydia was curled up in the living room when I got home from work.
“You’re home early,” she said, acting all surprised. She shut the television off and got up. Her top looked like she had taken a pair of scissors to the old band tee’s neckline, making it droop off her shoulder. Her legs were blessedly covered in a pair of lounge pants.
I couldn’t tell if I liked the attitude she was giving me or if I hated it.
The clock read twenty past ten. “Same time as always.”
“Just figured you would need some time to stick your tongue down Andrea Petit’s throat.”
My blood tingled, and I took a step toward her. “Does that bother you, little wild?”
Lydia took another step toward me, her chest brushing against mine.
“If that’s how you want to run your business, that’s your prerogative. But maybe you want to keep it PG when there are other people around. Not everyone wants to see it.”
My eyes darted to her lips, but it was her mossy green eyes that held me captive. With every breath she took, her breasts pushed into my chest. Christ, this woman was a spitfire. She got under my skin and into my bloodstream.
I spun us around, pressing her back into the wall with my hand on her hip. My other hand was on the wall next to her head, essentially caging her in. Her eyes lit up with a look that I was very familiar with. She wanted me just as much as I wanted her.
“You’re jealous. Just admit it. You want it to be your throat I’m sticking my tongue down, don’t you?”
Lydia lifted her chin to look up at me. Her lips parted on an exhale, and my head dipped closer to her.
“Hardly,” she breathed. “If I wanted you, I could have you at any time.”
Fuck yeah, she could.
No. No, she was still off-limits. She was still Luke’s sister.
Although… the devil inked on my left shoulder was whispering in my ear.
She was a grown adult. She could make her own decisions. I doubted she wanted her brother to play any sort of factor in her sex life, as was her right.
Plus, she looked so damn kissable right now, with her cheeks rosy from arousal and her eyes alight with lust.
“Don’t lie, little wild. You’re jealous. Tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.”
Instantly, the fire in her eyes shifted. It was both scary and arousing as she leveled her intense gaze at me. “I’m not you, Seb. I don’t do something just because someone dares me to.”
She ducked out from under my arm and swayed her perfect ass down the hall, her bedroom door slamming closed behind her.
My lungs expanded like I had just run a marathon. Shit. I could venture a guess as to what I’d said that set her off.
Fuck that.
This woman could get under my skin like no one else, but she seemed to be majorly confused on one pretty important detail. And I’d be damned if I didn’t set her straight.
I pounded my fist against her door.
“Go away,” she yelled.
“No.” My voice was equally as harsh. “Let me in. We are not done here.”
“Yes, we are.”
“No, we’re not. Open the fucking door.”
I raised my hand to pound against the door again just as it swung open.
Lydia flinched but stood her ground on the other side.
The fire in her eyes hadn’t abated in the least. I dropped my hand to my side, my stance softening.
“I would have thought my slamming the door on you was indication that I was done. Stop banging on my door, and leave me alone.”
“You’re wrong,” I growled.
My words seemed to get her attention, at least for a moment. Her hand still gripped the wooden door like she was going to slam it shut again, but she didn’t.
“That we’re done here? No, pretty sure I’m right.” She started to close the door, but I put my hand out to stop it.
“Not about that,” I huffed. I looked her in the eye, needing her to hear me.
Needing her to understand that I was completely serious.
“It was never about a fucking dare, Lydia. I was a twenty-year-old, hormone-driven moron, but even then, I wouldn’t have played with you like that.
There was never a dare to go that far. I told you that. ”
Lydia crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her tits together. “That’s bullshit. You told me that you didn’t spread our hookup all around town. But don’t lie about why you fucked me. We both know the truth, Seb. I was a fucking dare to you.”
“Don’t tell me what you were to me,” I growled.
Her eyes held a challenge as she stared me down. “Why did you knock on my window that night? Tell me that.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, pulling on my tight muscles. I wished I had a different answer for her. She had no idea how much I wish it hadn’t started the way it did.
“That’s what I thought,” she said. The anger from a moment ago was gone, replaced with a disappointed pain that I desperately wanted to kiss away for her.
“It was only supposed to be a kiss,” I rushed to tell her. “I took the stupid dare to get a kiss from you. People were talking shit about you, and I didn’t like it. I defended you, which somehow turned into me proving to everyone that it was them that was the issue, not you.”
“It was them. A bunch of smelly high school losers. I didn’t want any of them.”
“I had every intention of being truthful when I knocked on your window,” I told her.
Memories of that night came rushing back.
She looked like a sinful angel with her dyed black hair, smooth pale skin, and perky, braless tits when she opened that curtain.
“If I asked you to let me kiss you so I could win a dare, would you have said yes?”
She looked down at my feet and shrugged. “Probably.”
“I fucked up, Lydia. And I’ve wanted to apologize for years…”
Her head snapped up, and she cut me off, her fight back in full force in an instant, giving me whiplash.
“I don’t want your apology, Seb. I don’t need to hear how you regret that night. It may not have meant anything to you, but it was my first. You were my first. It meant something to me, so don’t tell me you’re sorry it happened. You can keep that information to yourself.”
“Are you out of your mind? You think I regret sleeping with you? Never. Not for one fucking moment have I ever regretted that night, even when I thought I should. When it was clear that you didn’t want anything to do with me afterward.
When you ran to New York and stopped coming home.
I could never bring myself to regret being with you because it was the best fucking night of my life, and I’ve been searching for someone to make me feel that way again ever since. ”
Well, shit. That was more than I intended to say. It was the God’s honest truth though. I’d slept with more than my fair share of women, and I wouldn’t knock any of them. Sex was fun and satisfying. But only one time in my life did it ever feel like it could be more than just some fun.
“I can’t do this right now.” Lydia’s round eyes bored into me. She searched my face with a shake of her head. Tears started to well in her eyes. “I can’t—”
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, resting my lips on the top of her head. “Please believe me. It meant something to me. It still does.” I breathed her in for a moment, lavender and vanilla tickling my nose. “Get some sleep, little wild.”
She nodded as best she could pressed against my chest. “Good night, Seb.”
“Good night, Lydia.”
I let her go and went straight to my bedroom. That woman’s emotions were impossible for me to predict. When I thought we were good, she came at me hot. When I thought we were fighting, she went and started crying.
I pulled in a deep breath. My dick stirred, the scent of her still surrounding me. It was so strong it was like she was in the bed with me. She was all around me, even when she wasn’t even there.