44

tabby

“Yes,” I whispered against his lips, my back pressed to the door of the master suite I’d grown to know well in the months I’d spent showing and attempting to sell.

With one quick peck on my mouth, Sebastian leaned back, eyeing me skeptically. “Wait, what?”

“Yes. That’s my answer.”

He cocked his head, looking all at once intrigued and perplexed. As though the rush of blood from his brain to groin had made him forgetful. I rolled my eyes and pressed my hands to his chest, pushing him gently toward the bed.

“I’ll move in here and protect you from the ghosts, even though I’m still not convinced they’re here—”

“Oh, baby, they fucking are. You don’t get that vibe in here?” His eyes widened, his head nodded subtly. “Just wait until you feel something watch you while you sleep.”

“Shut up!” I laughed, pushing him down to the mattress. “I’m trying to do a romantic thing right now and you’re ruining it.”

“Okay, okay,” he let up, reaching out to grab my hands and pulling me down to lay with him. “You continue while I get these things off you,” and he set to work, unzipping my jeans and sliding them off my legs.

The chilled air in his room hit my skin and I bit my lip with anticipation as he dipped his head, pressing his lips over the black lace of my underwear. His eyes swept up over my body, locking with mine, and encouraged me to continue as his thumbs hooked under the waistband.

I swallowed. “I’ll let you give me everything I want,” I gasped as he threw the lace to the floor and swept his tongue over me with a hungry groan. “Jesus, you’re distracting me!” I whined, throwing my head back against the mattress.

“Then I’ll remind you,” he responded with another long, languorous lick. “You were gonna make me promise not to stop, even if you say when.”

“Oh, God …” I groaned at the suction of his lips. “I’m never saying when again,” and two fingers slipped inside the cleft between my legs.

“You promise?” he asked, his voice muffled by my skin, vibrating and coaxing my fingers to thread into the mess of his hair.

“I promise.” My eyes met his and I nodded with affirmation and encouragement, my hips rising and falling with the heat of his mouth and the deftness of his hand.

He brought me to the edge, when my head was thrown back and my breath was tripped and ragged. His hand left me empty as he sat back, tearing away at his cumbersome clothes and revealing the body of ink I had missed too much over the months we were apart. My hands grappled for him, fingers digging into his shoulders as I pulled him forcefully to me, and he laid over me to wrestle his tongue against mine.

“I fucking love you.” He broke the kiss to say the words and resumed before I had the chance to reply.

As I waited with eager anticipation for his body to align with mine, I wondered if he just didn’t think I’d say it back. That I was willing to give up my home to live with him without reciprocating the feelings he had for me. Maybe, I considered, he just didn’t think he could be loved, not by someone like me, who once abhorred the idea of interacting with him. The thought sliced at my heart, and my gaze sought his, as my hands reached out to press their palms to his cheeks.

“Sebastian,” I said, with a choked gasp as one thrust of his hips brought me to a place I never wanted to leave again.

He groaned his response, touching his forehead to mine. “Holy fuck … I’m never going that long without this again.”

The long, salacious strokes reminded me that he, a reformed playboy of sorts, had gone months without being touched by anybody but himself. If anything could be a testament of his honest devotion to me, it was that, and my fingers clasped tighter to his scruffy cheeks.

“I love you,” I whispered, nodding my confirmation.

A broken gasp touched my lips as his eyes squeezed shut. “Fuck, Tabby … say it again …”

I choked on a surprising sob, hooked a leg around his waist, and repeated, “I love you, Sebastian. I love you so fucking much, you have no idea.”

And as though the lack of confession had been the pin holding his composure together, he broke into a fervent fit of kisses and deep, delving thrusts of his hips. Hands grasped and fingers clawed. Tongues tied and hair pulled. I came undone, gasping and begging for more, and he came after, touching his forehead to my shoulder and pleading me to don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop.

When it was over, Sebastian collapsed, tangling his fingers into my hair and peppering lazy kisses against my lips before rolling over and laying face-up on the bed, his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

“So, I gotta ask,” he said, after catching his breath, “what did it for you?”

My arm wrapped around his waist, and I laughed. “What?”

“You’re the first woman aside from my mom and sisters to say you love me, so what the hell did it? Was it my dashing good looks or was it the unparalleled wit?”

I looked toward his eyes, finding them trained on me, as they always seemed to be. “It, um …” I shrugged against him. “I guess it was Greyson. The way you are with him, how easily he fell in love with you. How quickly you fell in love with him and immediately assumed your role, like you were always meant for it. The way …” I hesitated, taking a deep breath and exhaling as I continued, “The way you broke down when he first called you his dad. I think that’s when I really fell for you.”

Sebastian nodded, tightening his arm around my shoulders. “That’s a good answer,” he replied, his tone rasped with heavy emotion. Then, he admitted, “I never stopped wanting him.”

“I know.” I flattened my palm, smoothing over the nest of blonde hair.

His heart pulsed beneath my hand, thundering with the power of a man who had everything in his grasp. Triumph and pride, swelling his lungs with every rise and fall of his chest, as though he had won a battle after years of defeat.

He finally had everything he had ever wanted; the life, and love, of his son.

“And you,” he added, nodding affirmatively. “I’ve secretly wanted you for years. A little witch who could finally tame this beast.”

I nuzzled my cheek against his shoulder, silently thanking him for setting me free, and whispered, “I love you, Sebastian.”

“I love you too,” he replied. “And that’s never going to stop.”

My eyes closed to the ghosts of the past, whispering their goodbyes, and with them came the peace of settling into this new life—the life we wanted. Together.