Sebastian ran his thumb over my knuckles, and something inside me calmed. But calm was the last thing I could afford to feel.
“My hand is fine. Now tell me what you agreed towithout asking me first.”
Sebastian leaned back into the seat. “I’m going to be handling the weekly payments. If anyone approaches you, there’s going to be a problem.”
For the second time that night, my body began to relax. But then the reminder of the world I lived in hit me like a punch in the stomach. Nothing in this world was free, and every favor had strings attached.
Look at what had happened with the loan sharks: at first they’d given me money, and hadn’t asked me to make any payments. Then when I’d racked up more debt than I could possibly repay the beatings began. No, I would not be wrapped up in another spiderweb. I refused the same mistakes again. And certainly not with the Amato family.
“And what do you want in return?” I asked flatly. There was no point dancing around the issue. I needed to know if he wanted more than I could give.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “If that's how you want it, then make me an offer.”
Good, at least he hadn’t started off making demands. What could I offer that would fully repay this debt?
“I’ll give you information,” I said. And now we were back to the original reason Sebastian had approached me. “Butonly a little at a time, and the information I give will be valued at its true value. If the intel I give you in a session is worth more than $15,000 dollars, you’ll give me the remaining value in cash.”
I needed to be cautious about how much information I doled out to him. Give him too much information at once, and he might decide that he no longer needed me and wouldn’t pay me. Then I’d be at Ray’s mercy with no income to back me up.
I held my breath as Sebastian thought it over. Feeding him minimal information at each session was non-negotiable, but I hoped he wouldn’t fight me over the distribution of additional cash. The power I’d felt when I’d beaten down Ray made me realize something: I wasn’t helpless. And I could steal back my power from the people who’d taken it.
But that first step required money in my hands. Hopefully, Sebastian didn’t prefer me completely dependent on him.
The windows went dark as we entered his condo’s car lift.
“Deal.”
I blinked. Really? He’d accepted the proposition without a single counter offer.
Sebastian stepped out of the car and moved around the side in order to open my door.
He looked down at my likely shocked face, and rolled his eyes. “Why are you so surprised? You’re always waiting for me to screw you over,” he said.
“You really want to have that discussion now?” I asked, as I refused his hand and slid out of the car on my own. It was insane that an hour ago, I’d decided to go back to slumming it on my own. And now here I was back at Sebastian’s apartment of my own free will. I needed to get my head checked out. I slammed the door to the apartment shut behind me, but he maneuvered around it with a smirk.
Sebastian leaned in, and whispered in my ear, “There are other things I’d rather have that mouth doing.”
“Like what?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
His hands pressed into the wall above me, effectively caging me in without even touching me. For a moment all I could stare at was his hungry eyes, and tensed stomach muscles. It took all of my self control not to run my hands down his perfect pecs towards his growing package.
Despite my quickening breath, I spit out, “With you, the only thing my mouth would be doing is yawning.”
“Oh, this is going to be fun, Selene. But do you remember my rules?”
I thought back to our prior conversation. He’d insisted on sobriety, separation between our business relationship and sex, and a safeword. Check. Check. Check.
But, I’d also insisted that there wouldn’t be another time. Even if my body seemed to yearn for the exact opposite of that.
I pushed his arms away, and he immediately stepped away from me.
Sebastian called after me as I walked down the hallway, “You can walk away if you want, but I thought you said you wanted to have fun tonight.”
I spun around to face him.
“Who said I didn’t have fun?” I said, showing off my bruised knuckles to emphasize my point.
Sebastian leaned against the wall he’d caged me in a minute ago. There was something wrong with me for being jealous of a wall. “I agree it feels amazing beating the shit out of someone who absolutely deserves it. But,” he pushed off the wall and his voice dipped lower, “it doesn’t compare to what I can give you.”
