36. Sebastion
SEBASTION
REGULATE YOURSELF, MOTHERFUCKER
Istep out of the shower exactly twenty-one days after my return to my parents’ property, and snag a fresh towel from the rack.
Wrapping it around my hips and tucking a corner of the fabric in to keep it up, I work through the pang of disappointment I feel in the base of my gut, because I made it the whole way through my shower and Scarlett didn’t think to join me.
What even is the point of knowing such a beautiful, vibrant, responsive woman is so near and so fucking mine, if I don’t even get to start my day with the taste of her lips on mine?
Either set. I don’t mind.
But then I catch the soft lilt of her laughing voice from the room. Her playful tone. Which means instead of chatting to me, she chose to chat to her brother.
Which is acceptable. I guess.
Fucking prick.
Shaking my head and the dumb grin curling across my lips, I move out of my bathroom and into the bedroom, all to find Scarlett lying on my bed.
She rests on her belly, her feet swaying in the air and crossed at the ankles, while she braces herself on her elbow, one hand lifted to hold the phone to her ear, while the other caresses a pen and marks up one of her new notebooks.
Can’t have my girl running out.
“Yes,” she drawls playfully, her gaze coming to mine while her smile makes it all the way to her dimples. “I’m being safe, silly. I figured I’d extend my vacation and get away with a girlfriend.”
Stunned, I tilt my head to the side and try again. On her belly. Feet up. Drawing.
Not talking to her brother?
“Yeah, well, Linc is traveling for work right now, and I still had a bunch of time up my sleeve. I didn’t want to sit in his house all alone like a dummy, so I called a really special friend of mine and asked if she wanted to meet up.”
Curious, I blink, blink, blink, and when that doesn’t help, I move to the bed and simply drag her hand away from her ear until I catch the name on her phone screen.
Detective Mills.
Well, that makes way more sense.
“Yeah, I’m having a really nice time. I still talk to Linc every single day, since he’s clingy like that.”
She waits while Mills says something on his end of the line, then she barks out a delicious laugh and shakes her head. “Yeah. But we knew that about him. We can’t change him. We can only get through each day.”
Only half invested in her conversation, Scarlett silently rolls onto her back and looks up at me through those bright blue eyes God gave her. She grins, like she knows something I really should know, then she brings her feet to her butt, lifts her knees, and lets them drop open in invitation.
Mmm. Breakfast time.
Grinning, I consider the time and know I should be in the yard in less than an hour to get the guys warmed up. But when a beautiful woman lies across a man’s bed, he should be forgiven for fobbing his responsibilities onto his little brother. Again.
Fuck it. I crawl onto the bed beside her and ignore the ache of my hard cock being squished between me and the mattress. Instead, I peel her shirt a little higher and nibble on her ribs.
“Yeah, he’s with Nova. Oh my gosh, Mills. He’s stupid in love with that woman. It’s nauseating.”
I hear him. Chuckling. Teasing. All dad-like, even though she already has one of those.
“I’m waiting for him to pop the question.
” Scarlett slides her fingers into my hair and scratches my scalp.
From hornier than a teenage virgin, to a fuckin’ puppy, compliant and willing, I melt into her side and groan as her fingers make their way along the back of my neck.
“Me?” Surprised, her voice jumps an octave or two, and for just a beat, her scratching fingers still.
“Aw, nah. I’m just doing my thing. I don’t have time for men these days.
They’re hardly worth it, don’t you think? ”
Drawing my head up, I lock onto her playful eyes and say nothing of the ache her words put in my heart.
Scarlett leans forward, creating a double-chin in the silence while Mills says whatever he says to defend mankind—or not—then, like she knows of my pain, she lays her lips oh-so-gently over mine and soothes what she damaged.
“I dunno,” she murmurs for him. “Maybe, eventually. I figure whoever left that letter on my door was reminder enough to clean out the mess from my last relationship. Wherever Roy went after we broke up, he’s still causing me issues. So rushing into something new seems foolish.”
Mills says something, grumbled and fast.
“Linc? Nah. I know he flew to Denver to look into the letter for me, but nothing really came of it. Now, everything seems to have calmed down, so… I dunno. Maybe he got bored?”
Why are you lying to your friend, Princess?
And why, when I know you’re lying, do I let you roll me to my back and crawl on top?
Oh, I know. Because I’m a fucking sucker.
But I’m a sucker who sets his hands on her hips the instant she’s up.
I’m a sucker who exhales a contented grumble as she peruses her pile of markers, selects one, pulls the lid off with her teeth and spits it back to the covers, then she rests over top of my chest and colors between the lines of my ink.
“Mmm. I’m just gonna enjoy my vacation for the next week or two, then I’ll head back home and get on with life. Whoever left that note got what they wanted, I guess. They scared me. But it seems to be done now, so I’m letting it go.”
Too curious to wait, I place my hand over her wrist, the one controlling her pen, and halt her movements. So when her eyes come to mine, I ask a thousand questions without a single word leaving my lips.
“Well, anyway. I’m actually headed out shopping in a sec, so I really should go take a shower and…” She pauses for a beat while Mills talks, then she snickers. “My girlfriend? Her name is Serena. Very beautiful, very tan. She’s got these really long legs I know guys enjoy.”
I roll my eyes and squeeze her wrist hard enough to make her giggle.
“Give Martha and the kids my best. And wish Dani luck. That baby must be about ready to come out by now, huh?” She laughs at whatever Mills responds with, then shakes her head.
“I’ll let Linc and Nova lead the way. I’ll make my own babies in…
” Her eyes swing back to mine and hold. Warm.
Dig into my fucking soul. “I dunno. A few years. Or decades,” she giggles.
“Whichever comes first.” Twisting her hand from beneath mine, she nibbles on her bottom lip and continues drawing.
“Be sure to let me know as soon as that baby is here. Otherwise, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
” Her lips curl higher. “Uh-huh. Okay. Bye.”
The instant she drags the phone from her ear and ends her call, I grab her wrist and toss the device away so it lands on the carpeted floor with a thwump.
“Hey!” Pouting, she drops her bottom lip forward. “Why’d you do that?”
“Because I want your attention.” I bring my knees up and bump them against her back, knocking her forward until she lands on my chest and her nose stops mere inches away from mine. “Why’d you lie to Mills about where you were? I thought you trusted him. What changed?”
“Nothing changed.” And yet, her expression remains the same.
“I just didn’t want to turn the letter thing into a huge thing in his mind.
He’s a cop, Linc ran some stuff by him and came up empty, and now Linc’s moving in a new direction.
The last thing we want is for an actual detective to start detecting and connecting dots between Roy and me. ”
“Mm…” Okay. Acceptable. But, “There is no Roy and you. There’s Roy, and that motherfucker ain’t coming back to bother you anymore. And there’s me and you.” I lay my hands over her ass cheeks and squeeze. “You don’t have time for me anymore?”
Her eyes glow just a little brighter. Even better, her heart pounds in her chest and bounces against mine. I fucking love it when that happens.
“I don’t have time for other men.” She crawls just a little closer and nibbles on my lips. “I have time for you, though. Because I love being around you.”
Say the words, Scarlett. Say them to my fuckin’ face. I know you wanna.
“I love spending time with you,” she purrs. “I looooove when you squeeze my butt that way you do.”
Say it!
“I love how you make me feel when it’s just me and you in this room all alone.” She exhales a heady breath and feeds every last morsel of her oxygen straight into my lungs. “I love that I sleep better when we share a bed.”
“Cause I squish you down and don’t let you fuss and fidget.”
She snickers. “When you say it like that, it sounds kinda scary. But the actual experience isn’t scary at all.
” She releases my gaze and trades it for a kiss dropped onto my chin.
Another onto my chest. “I haven’t slept properly in years.
” Another kiss on my ribs. “Too many years. And I know I risk sounding kinda clingy and weird when I say this, but I’ve come to rely on sleeping beside you.
I wouldn’t cope if you changed things up now.
” She inches along my body and drags her covered pussy over my throbbing cock.
“I love how you hold me in bed at night. I never told you this, but…” She presses her forehead against my hipbone for a beat, like she needs the time to think.
“I haven’t told anyone,” she amends quietly.
“But I don’t think I’ve slept without nightmares in years. Lots and lots of years.”
Yeah, Princess. I know.
“And then when I came to stay at Lincoln and Nova’s house, my nightmares changed.”
Curious, I cup her face and force her eyes back to mine. “For the better?” Because I was watching over you and keeping you safe?
Her eyes darken and break my heart.
“Not for the better,” she whispers. “Because you joined my nightmares, too. So then I had both of you doing those things to me. Hurting me.”
“Wait.” I shove up to my ass and stop her from crawling lower. “I was in your nightmares? I was hurting you, too?”
“It’s why I wasn’t very nice to you a lot of the time.”
“Fuck, Scarlett!” And I repaid you by doubling down and being a complete prick all day long. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
A soft, heart-squeezing snicker rolls along her throat.
“You don’t have to apologize for the things my brain did to me at night.
But…” She tugs the very corner of my towel free and backs off the end of the bed until she’s on her knees.
She stares up at me, so fucking innocent and sweet, so fucking tempting.
So telling.
Because I know warfare enough to know that at least half of all wars are started over the women they love.
“I don’t wanna think about my dreams anymore. And I definitely don’t want to talk about Roy or Detective Mills.” She peels my towel open and drops the fabric aside. Staring down at my cock, she hums in the back of her throat like a starving woman who craves only me. “I wanna taste.”
“You do?” Already, it jumps with needy anticipation. She needn’t do much more than breathe on it to make me come. “Fuck, Princess.” I drag loose tendrils of hair off her face and groan at how fucking beautiful she is. “You sure?”
“Mmhm.” She lifts high onto her knees and stares down at my throbbing length.
It jerks, simply because she’s near. Twitches, because completion is so fucking close. My stomach swirls because I can picture her in my mind, eating my seed and thanking me for it at the end.
“You have no clue how much I wanna be a gentleman. To tell you that you don’t have to do that.”
Her lips twist with a devious smile.
“But how much more I want you to choke on my cock and cry about it.” I slip two fingers into her mouth and damn near lose myself, simply because she closes her lips around the digits and suckles. “You’re gonna be the death of me. I know it.”
“I sincerely hope not.” She presses a sweet kiss to the tips of my fingers.
Another to the side of my hand. The side of my wrist. Folding closer, she kisses my thigh.
Then my hipbone. Finally, with a saucy smirk and vixen’s eyes, she drags the flat of her tongue from the tip of my cock all the way to the base.
That’s it. I’m done.
I fall back and land against the bed with a thump.
“Don’t die,” she giggles playfully. But whatever kindness she intended with her words comes undone when she wraps her hand around my shaft and squeezes hard enough to make my lungs ineffectual.
“Fuckkkkkk.” Powerless to the magic she weaves, I lift just my head and watch her take me in her mouth.
She cups my balls and swallows me all the way to the back of her throat, and all the while, her eyes remain torturously on mine.
“Adelita.” I drop my head back and prepare for Valhalla. This is it for me. I’m ready.
“I love how good you taste.” She suckles on the tip and almost gives me the words we both feel.
We both fucking want. “I love how gooey and pliable you get every time we’re in the same bed.
” She lifts my cock and takes my balls in her mouth instead.
“I love how, even when I feel weak, you convince me I’m not. ”
For the rest of my life, Princess. I promise.