I preen under his touch and his words. I feel my orgasm start to build from within my core. As if he senses it too, he pushes my legs wide with both hands, exposing every single inch of me to hi m as he watches himself pump inside of me. Then without warning, he starts to rub at my clit in fast circles.
‘Oh my—’ My back arches. My legs try to close on their own accord, but he pushes them back down and resumes his ministrations on my clit as his thrusts pick up speed.
Over and over, he hits that sweet spot inside of me, until my body feels like it’s about to light on fire and I’m shaking, from head to toe, my legs stiffening out to the sides.
Sebastian lets out a deep, guttural groan. ‘That’s it, baby, let go. Come all over my cock.’
That’s all it takes. My orgasm rips through me like a tidal wave. Relentless. All-encompassing. I see stars, moaning loudly as he drives into me, pushing me to the breaking point as he draws out every last tremor, until he’s pulling out of me and leaning back with his cock in his hand.
His teeth sink into his bottom lip, and his eyes fall to half mast, veins throbbing in his forearm as he works his length up and down. Once, twice.
I watch in awe, my mouth parted as his own orgasm crashes through him. Cum spurts across my stomach and chest, coating me in his release. His eyes are dark, uninhibited, and he releases his cock and slides his hand up my thigh, over my hip and to my stomach. I groan with pleasure, and his cock bobs between us.
‘Do you want a taste, sweetheart?’ he asks, voice like gravel.
‘Y-yes,’ I breathe. Desperate for it, for anything as long as it’s from him.
A devilish smirk tugs at his lips. He dips a finger into the cum above my belly button and brings it to my lips.
‘Open.’
I do. I suck his finger into my mouth, flicking my tongue against the underside, and I revel in the salty taste of him.
Sebastian and I showered together again, and now I’m sat on his bed, my legs buried beneath the blankets. Yes, plural, because apparently unit leaders needthreeblankets. Rude. He’s just taken my empty plate of food away and gone to wash his hands after he ate as well.
When he returns, he looks happy, sated, relaxed. It’s a version of him I’m not used to, but I want to be. I enjoy seeing him at ease, and I want to see more of it, which is why, as he slips into the bed beside me and pulls me into his arms, I find myself asking:
‘What are we doing? What is this?’
His arms tighten around me as he takes his time to answer.
‘What do you want it to be?’ he finally says, and I frown.
‘No.’ I push myself into a sitting position and turn to face him. ‘You don’t get to cop out of my question by asking me a question.’
He sighs, then nods, knowing I caught him out. ‘All right, fine.’ He straightens and pushes his hair back off his forehead. ‘I don’t know what this is.’ When my face falls, he puts his hand up to stop me. ‘But I know what I want it to be. Listen, I never wanted you here. I never wanted you to see the brutality inside these walls. But you have anyway, and that kills me, especially knowing I’ve played a part in the brutality you’ve endured. I wanted you gone and ended up making it worse for you.’
‘We’ve already discussed this—’
‘I know that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still feel guilty for the way I behaved. This is my last year at Valmora Academy. You still have three years, Ria. By the time you’re out, I could be halfway across the continent. There’s a ticking clock above us, one that will send me away from the academy, away fromyou. So I can’t sit here and give you words that I’m not ready to take back if I’m forced to. I won’t do that to you.’
‘What about what I want? Do I get a say in this before you tell me how you’re trying toprotectme again?’ I twist away from the hand he reaches between us. I hate it, the distance. But I need him to know how serious this is.
‘Of course you do,’ he insists.
‘Good. Because I want this. Whatever we are now.Whoeverwe are now. I like how you make me feel, Sebastian. When you’re not being an asshole, that is.’ A small smile curves his lips. ‘I have spent my entire life trying to measure up, to be good enough to be seen. You were the first person that looked past my brother and found me. When put in front of us both, you looked at mefirst. No one did that. Ever. I was always an afterthought.’
‘I always saw you, Ria. Even when I didn’t want to because the thought of you drove me fucking insane. I still saw you in my head, like your face was carved there, right behind my eyes.’
I feel raw. Like someone’s cut into my skin and I’m bleeding out, showing him the most vulnerable parts of me: my insecurities about not being good enough or wanted orloved.
‘Then keep seeing me,’ I plead. ‘Keep finding me in a room full of people, just like you did on Ceremony Day. You found me, all the way in the back row with my hood pulled over my head. You. Found. Me. So please, don’t push me away again.’ His eyes are twin pools of emotion. I want to swim in them and get lost forever. Fuck the academy. I want to be here. In the green liquid of his gaze. I’d drown in them if I could.
‘I won’t,’ he declares, voice unyielding. He reaches forward and pulls me toward him.
My arms wrap around him as his weave beneath mine.
‘We’ll make it work,’ he kisses my temple, then pulls back so we’re eye to eye. ‘I see you, Ria. Always have, always will,’ he whispers.
