Page 8 of The Gods Forbid

“Yes,” Sebastian said, and my mouth dropped open an inch in relief before he continued. “Yes, I do mind.”

I blinked away my relief, rolling my lips together and plastering on a pleasant smile. People normally responded well to smiling. Sebastian was different it seemed, regarding my smile the way one would regard a sneer.

“Alright,” I said, not wanting to push it. I walked over to the stool and sat down, crossing my legs in hopes that would help the sensation of the wood pressing into my skin. No such luck. “Did you sleep well?”

“Not a fucking wink,” Sebastian shot back. He took a sip of his coffee to punctuate his point, his strong throat working on a swallow.

I could respond in a number of ways. Remind him of what he did to land himself here. Let my anger towards him win and snap back with well, that bed is brand new and quite comfortable, get over it.

Or I could take a different path.

“I didn’t either, to be honest,” I responded, moving right through his rude response. It was hard to maintain your conviction to answer with anger when the person you spoke to wouldn’t react to it. “I don’t think I actually fell asleep. Would you consider this a new day, then, or an extension of yesterday?”

Sebastian just blinked at me.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt, imagining he was thinking of a response. I took a sip of my own coffee, relishing in the creamy, slightly sweet flavor and let him deliberate.

After another two sips, it became clear he had no intention of answering me.

A little rumble of frustration built in my chest. Normally, we’d start working with residents right away. Their initial nervousness and fear of ending up in Prometheus normally gave us an opening, a little window of vulnerability, that we could use to ensure they understood we only meant to help.

I cocked my head at Sebastian, openly studying him. “You know it’s not very nice not to respond when someone asks you a question, right?”

Sebastian chuckled sarcastically. “I’m not a nice man, love. It’s best you learn that now.”

My eyes narrowed on him. I was sure he believed that. And yes, maybe he wasn’t very nice. That didn’t mean he wasn’t kind. I’d be trying to find that side of him first. “You held the coffee for me. Some might consider that nice.”

Sebastian looked downright offended. “You asked me to hold it.”

I nodded, swallowing another sip of coffee. “You didn’t have to listen.”

Sebastian leaned forward, crossing his ankle over his knee and resting his forearms on his leg. Something in the position made the outline of his muscles under his long white shirt seem even more pronounced. Interesting.

“I didn’t really have a choice,” Sebastian said. “Not with you ambushing me.”

He was really intent on seeming like an asshole. “You did,” I said, pushing back. “These bars are quite thick.” I reached up behind me, running my hand over the wide plate of iron. “I could have rested the mug on there. Or held both in one hand. But you helped me.”

Sebastian was visibly frustrated, his lip curling with disgust and his eyes growing dark. It was so visceral, it made me a little nervous. I fiddled with the end of my hair passively to distract from the slight uptick in my heart rate. “You have an incredible ability to spin things into a positive.”

See, that was a compliment. A nice one, I wanted to say. But instead, I settled on, “Thank you.”

The corner of Sebastian’s mouth twitched. I couldn’t figure out if it was an almost smile or if his mouth was going to open in shock. “I just called you naive.”

“I’m choosing to believe you meant optimistic.”

“See,” he said. He’d scooted down the bed. Closer to me. “Naive.”

“No.” I leaned forward on my crossed leg. Even though we were several feet apart, it felt like I was speaking directly into his face. But it was important that he understood this. “Naivety requires ignorance. I’m not ignorant. I may choose to believe that people are inherently good or choose to view things in the best possible light, but that does not mean I am ignorant to the darkness.”

Sebastian let out two breaths before he responded, “Poetic.”

“Thank you,” I said, leaning back with a smile. “Especially coming from you.”

Sebastian ran his hands through his hair and then down over his face. “Stop thanking me.”

Wow, I was really frustrating him.

“No.” I had no plans to stop. I took another sip of coffee then remembered what we’d been talking about. “Anyways, what other nice things have you done for people?”