I melt into him before managing to pull back again. “Sebastian…”
He lets out a sigh but doesn’t seem annoyedatme. “If our roles were reversed, would you be angry at me? Would you want me to blame myself?”
“Of course not,” I say, although I think I’d come out much worse than a scratched neck with an out-of-control Sebastian.
“Then why are you so hard on yourself?”
“I…” I don’t know how to answer the question, so I settle for my own instead. “If our situations were reversed, would you not feel guilty?” Sebastian narrows his eyes at me.
“That’s not the point I’m trying to make, Grace,” he says on a growl. “I would take the brunt of a bad nightmare every single night if it meant that you were with me, and I knew you were safe,” he says, grasping my hand. “This…” He puts my hand right over the scratches, pressing hard so that my palm digs into his skin, despite the pain it must cause him. “This means you’re safe,” he says with conviction as his pulse beats a strong, steady rhythm against my hand, and I try to swallow past the sudden lump of emotions in my throat.
“Now.” He raises a brow at me. “I’m pretty sure you promised me a shower,” he says, and a sad but surprised sounding laugh escapes me at the unexpected change of tone.
He leans forward and pulls my bottom lip into his mouth. When he bites down on the soft flesh, I gasp, and his heated stare is enough for me to push aside everything else. At least for now.
Sebastian soothes the bite with his tongue before diving into my mouth whilst he slides his hands up my side, causing my T-shirt to rise with them. Breathless, I pull away from him and consciously grab the edge of my shirt, pulling it down. Sebastian pauses his movements and focuses on what I’m doing.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
“I…” He’s already seen my scars, but somehow, I feel more exposed here. It had been dark then, for the most part at least, but in here with the lights on and him right in front of me, I’d be entirely bare for him. I can’t even bear to touch them, let alone look at them. What is he going to think when he sees them properly?
“You don’t have to hide from me, Grace,” Sebastian says, slowly moving his hands from my sides and inwards towards where the worst of them are, sending a shiver through me.
“They’re not—”
“They’re not what?” he interrupts me. “They’re not beautiful? Is that what you think?” He leans in, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to my neck right over my fluttering pulse. “They’re not perfect?” He does the same to the other side of my neck before moving back in front of me. Sebastian splays his hands over my stomach, almost covering the entire space. “Nobody’s perfect, Grace, but they sure as fuckarebeautiful. Because you are. Your scars don’t define you.Youdefinethem. Do you want to know what I see?” he asks, removing his hands from my stomach and covering mine, still clutched at the hem of my shirt.
I mull his question over in my head, unsure of my answer. I also don’t want to stop where this is leading.How could I let him take something else from me?With a deep breath, I relax my hold on my shirt, and Sebastian takes that as his sign. Using my hands as anchor points, he slowly raises my shirt, and it almost feels likeI’mrevealing myself to him rather than him doing the movement. Cool air hits my stomach, and I suck in a breath. My shirt is pulled over my head a moment later, and Sebastian drops it on the floor beside him.
Goosebumps prickle my skin. I don’t know whether they’re more from the cold or being exposed to him in a way I’ve never shown anyone. This is a choice. The only other person to see my scars is the man who carved them into my body. And that was never a choice.
Sebastian moves his gaze down my body so slowly that I struggle not to fidget under the perusal. “Stunning,” he says, and heat blooms on my chest, rising to my cheeks. “I’ve barely even touched you, and I’m ready to be inside you,” he says, brushing his hand over the obvious erection in his briefs, readjusting himself to expose his tip. I’m transfixed by the sight as a bead of liquid wells on the tip of his hard length.
Sebastian reaches out his hand and brushes his thumb across my bare nipple, and it pebbles under his touch. “I’m going to show you just how beautiful I think you are. Every inch of you, insideand out.And you’re going to watch me,” he says, hooking his thumbs in the waistband of my underwear. “Do you understand?” he asks, and I give him a slow nod. “Tell me you understand, Grace,” he says, and this commanding side of him only has my temperature rising.
“I-I understand,” I stutter out, and he instructs me to lift, so I do. He slides my underwear off and drops them on top of my T-shirt.
“Put your feet on the bench.”
I do as he tells me, pulling my feet up so that my knees are together, but hetssksme. “No more hiding, Grace.” Sebastian taps the side of my knee, and after taking a reassuring breath, I spread my legs, inch by inch, until I’m completely exposed to him.
Sebastian groans at the sight that greets him. “Fuck.Look how wet you are for me,” he says before he reaches for me, sliding his thumb along the outer seam of my soaked folds. I jolt when his thumb barely grazes the bundle of nerves that had made me feel things I’d never felt before the last time we were together. He pulls his hand away, only to raise it towards me. His thumb glistens with my arousal as he holds it in front of my mouth. “Taste how beautiful you are,” he says, and I gulp.
Does he want me to…
My gaze flicks from his eyes to his slicked thumb as he waits for me, but the pure desire swirling in those blue depths has me opening my mouth. Sebastian dips his thumb into my mouth, and I hesitantly touch my tongue to it. The flavour is strange, a little salty, and slightly sweet, but it’s not horrible. With that discovery, I close my lips around him.
“Shit…” he rasps out, and his reaction only spurs me on. Swirling my tongue around his thumb, I add a little more pressure and suck. Sebastian physically jolts in response. I never thought I would find tasting my wetness arousing, but the way Sebastian responds to it has my core throbbing, and I lock the information away for later.
When I’ve licked and sucked his thumb clean, Sebastian pulls it from my mouth, and my gaze drifts down his body. Instead of a bead of precum, there’s a stream running over the head of his erection, and after what I just did, I wonder whathewould taste like.
“Later,” Sebastian says, and I snap my head up, embarrassed at being caught, but I struggle to concentrate on anything else when he drops to his knees.
Hooking his arms around my thighs, he pulls me forward so that I’m right on the edge of the bench, except the angle has me wincing. Before I can adjust my position, Sebastian carefully takes hold of my injured ankle and puts my leg over his shoulder.
“Do you remember what I said?”
“Yes,” I say on a breath as he stares up at me.