by Sian Ceinwen
“Me too,” Lita told him. “Awesome sex and our beautiful baby. I’m so thankful for that condom.”
Lita leaned down to kiss him and started moving back and forth on him. He filled her so completely, and she loved fucking him. She ground her hips against his and felt her orgasm start to build. She moaned his name and kept going until it took her over. As it did, she felt him spasm and come inside her.
“Holy shit.” Lita shivered, her entire body was sensitive, and sparks of electricity were shooting around her body from the place they were still connected. “That was fucking epic.”
A slow smile came across Sebastian’s face.
“It really was,” he said, and he pulled her down to kiss him as she shivered again.
17
LEVEL 16 – Negotiations
As your baby bump grows, your skin stretches to accommodate it. If you’re lucky, you won’t get stretch marks, but both your boobs and your belly are still likely to feel itchy as your skin stretches. Try using some soothing creams, but stretch marks are usually hereditary, so take anyone telling you their magic substance can stop you from getting them with a healthy grain of salt.
After they’d cleaned up in Lita’s bathroom, they made their way back to her bedroom and lay together under the covers of her bed. The day had been such an emotional rollercoaster. They’d gotten so off track with talking about Sebastian and his treatment of women, Lita had practically forgotten that the whole world knew she was pregnant with his baby.
“How long do you think it will be before they figure out who I am?” Lita asked Sebastian.
He had his arms around her, and her head was resting on his chest. He squeezed her tightly as he told her, “Probably not long at all. They knew who Maddy was within a day of the picture of her and Harrison coming out.”
“Yeah, I figured. I’m scared, Seb,” she admitted.
“Is it time to revisit the bodyguard discussion, princess?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. Maybe? I feel dumb. I’m no one; I shouldn’t need a bodyguard.” Lita pursed her lips.
Sebastian gave her a wry grin. “You stopped being ‘no one’ to the world when you became ‘someone’ to me, Lita. I’m sorry. I don’t know how many times in our lives I’ll need to say that to you.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault; I thought you recalled me practically begging to fuck you?” Lita grinned.
Sebastian laughed and gave her a kiss. “Yes, that is actually exactly how I remember that night.”
“Me too,” Lita said with a cheeky smile. “I wanted to fuck you from the moment you asked me if I’d been planning on meeting any other bands that night.”
“I wanted to fuck you from the moment I saw you walk out of the elevator, looking sexy as hell and laughing with Becky,” he admitted.
Lita laughed. “It’s a good thing we were both up for it,” she said, then she sighed. “I just need to remember everything else is just stuff. You’re what’s important. Our baby is what’s important. Whatever the world knows or thinks about me doesn’t matter. Yes, I guess if we think they’re going to know my name soon, then a bodyguard is a good idea.”
“Thank you, Lita. I’ll feel so much better if you have security.” Sebastian was rubbing her arm gently with his hand and it soothed Lita’s nerves. “I’ll look into it tomorrow. There’s another thing…” he trailed off.
“What? That doesn’t sound good, Seb.” Lita sat up and looked at him.
“This place, Lita, it’s not safe. I’m going to look for an apartment tomorrow, and I’d really like it if you would consider living in it,” he said seriously.
“No. Sebastian, you are not buying me an apartment.” Lita shook her head. “I’m your baby mama, not your girlfriend. Fuck, even if I was your girlfriend, I wouldn’t want that.”
“I wouldn’t be buying you an apartment, Lita. I would if you wanted it, of course, but I suspected you wouldn’t. I assume you don’t own this place. Are you renting?” he asked her.
“Yes, I am.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why?”
“What I’m proposing is that I buy an apartment in a secure building like I have in Chicago. You can rent it off me for the same amount of money you pay here,” he shrugged.
“That’s crazy. That kind of apartment is worth a fucking fortune. I can’t do that.” She shook her head.
“Think about it, Lita. I was already planning to get a place here to make it easier to visit you and the baby. This way, there’s someone living in it to take care of it for me when I’m in Chicago.” He sighed. “But, if I’m being honest, I’m just saying that. The real reason is I am fucking terrified for your safety.
“To get in here, you have to walk straight in from the street. Once they know where you live, it means you could be facing paparazzi at your door every day. Having to get through them every time you come in or out of your place.
“I would get an apartment where there’s secure underground parking. Your bodyguard will be able to come get you and drive you safely in and out of there, so you can come and go as you please without having to face them.”
Lita considered what he was saying. “I’ll think about it, Seb. We don’t even know if they’ll find my name, let alone my apartment.”
“You’re being naïve, princess; they will definitely get your name. Shit, it’s been a few hours now; they probably have more information already. Once they have that, you’ll be surprised by what they can find out about you.” He grimaced.
Lita got out of the bed, went back to the living area, and grabbed her phone. As the screen lit up, she could see what felt like thousands of notifications from Reddit. Message after message from people. She also had texts from Becky and Heather.
“Shit,” she said to Sebastian as she climbed back into the bed. “You were right.”
Lita opened up the Cruise Control subreddit and refreshed it. Her post from June was trending, and it had been upvoted to the top of the sub, above the picture of her from today. She couldn’t resist opening the thread and reading the comments. There had been a hundred or so total before, including her commenting back and forth with a few people who had met the band, now there were thousands, and more coming in as she watched.
Sebastian read over her shoulder. “You’re so fucking cute, fangirl.”
“Shut up.” Lita blushed. “You were never meant to read this!”
He dropped his head and kissed her lips quickly. “I think it’s adorable you were so nervous about meeting us. I see you thought I might be an asshole, of course.”
“Well, not just you…but, yes. I was so worried I’d meet you, and all you guys would turn out to be dicks. As it turns out, though, there was only one dick I needed to be worried about,” she smirked.
“Lita, how much do you use Reddit?” Sebastian asked her.
“A lot,” she laughed. “Probably too much. Why?”
“Have you ever posted identifying information on there?” He cringed.
“No, I’m not fucking stupid.” Lita rolled her eyes.
“Okay…so, you would never have posted about being a video game programmer, or said you’re Italian, or, I don’t know, you live in Seattle or anything?” he asked.
It slowly dawned on Lita that she had probably left a trail of breadcrumbs about her identity on the website, and her mouth dropped open into a round ‘O’ of horror. “Shit. I mean, even this post says I’m flying there from Seattle, and I post in r-slash-programming all the time.”
“Can you wipe your account?” he asked her.
“Pointless,” Lita said. “The posts would still exist. Even if I delete them, there are sites you can use to see the deleted posts. Some of the subreddits even have bots that auto-post a copy of the original, so it will always be there.”
Sebastian breathed out heavily. “Fuck, Lita, you’re a programmer; I would’ve thought you’d have been more careful online.”
“Sebastian, this is the birth control pill conversation all over again,” Li
ta laughed. “I didn’t know I was going to meet you and that the entire world would check my post history to piece together the story of my life. I was just interacting on my favorite website like anybody else does.
“I never gave out my real name or address. I followed the basic rules of internet safety, but what we’re dealing with now is far beyond the realms of regular life. I’m dealing with the Cruise Control world now. To be fair, I should’ve thought about my online presence from the day I found out I was pregnant. I could’ve tried to clean some of it up before now, but I didn’t, and I can’t change that.”
Sebastian looked really anxious; he was frowning and chewing his bottom lip. Lita knew he was stressed about her safety and wellbeing, plus that of their baby. He’d been through some pretty terrible stuff because of Cruise Control’s fame, and it concerned Lita he was as worried as he was for her.
“Look, Seb, I’ll consider your offer about the apartment as soon as we have real proof there’s a reason to be worried, or somebody knows my name. I’m going to have a bodyguard as soon as you can organize one. It will be okay.”
“I’m getting the apartment whether you choose to live in it or not, Lita. I can’t keep staying in hotels like I have been, obviously. I should’ve taken the time to find one much sooner than this. I haven’t asked you, but can I crash here in the meantime?” He smiled down at her. “I could get a hotel, of course, but I’d definitely rather be near you.”
“Sure, Seb, I’m not exactly about to send you off to a hotel tonight,” she laughed. “Wait, how long do you expect to be here?”
Lita realized she hadn’t asked Sebastian when he was planning to go back to Chicago now that he’d delayed his flight. She’d assumed he would go back tomorrow when she went to work, but he was talking about going to look for an apartment instead.
“However long I need to be here.” He shrugged.
“Don’t you have to go back to Chicago, though?” Lita asked him.
“Not really, we’re finished with promotion for Games We Play. Tour prep doesn’t start until next year.” He looked thoughtful. “I mean, I’ve got Gabriel’s bachelor party on Saturday. I can fly out Saturday morning if I have to, and back on Sunday. Then you’re coming to Chicago for the wedding the weekend after that, and I’ll see how things are going then.”
“You… want to stay with me all week?” Lita raised her eyebrows.
“Maybe. If you’re okay with that, I mean. We’ll see what the pressure is like with the paparazzi. I just don’t want to be a four-hour flight away if shit goes south. If I’m in Chicago, I won’t be able to relax if I don’t know everything is okay here with you two anyway.” He shook his head. “If you don’t want me here with you, I can get a hotel, of course.”
“What the fuck do you do with your days if you can just drop everything and stay in Seattle for an indeterminate amount of time, Sebastian Fox?” Lita asked him.
Sebastian laughed. “Think your baby’s father doesn’t work hard enough for his money, princess?”
“Well, it depends, really. When we’re promoting an album, we have to do twelve-to-fifteen-hour days, giving interviews, and answering the same dumb questions in every one of them.
“Sometimes we have photoshoots to do, or we’ll be recording a video clip. We spent a month last year recording Games We Play. We go to events and parties. Touring is the big thing, though. It’s months and months of being away from home, but it earns shitloads of cash for us and the people involved with the band: ticket sales, merchandise, fan experiences. We sell ourselves off, basically.
“For the small price of your soul, you too can have the life we lead. The trade-off is when we’re not doing those things, we have a pile of money to spend and plenty of spare time in which to spend it. Every time someone streams one of our albums or buys a piece of merch on our website or a song is played on the radio, it’s more money coming in. A few of our songs were put on movie soundtracks, more royalties. We could probably stop today and still not have to worry about money for the rest of our lives.”
“You won’t stop, though, will you?” Lita asked him.
Sebastian smiled at her. “No, fangirl, we won’t stop. We all love making music. I’ve already started thinking about stuff for our next album. We have slowed down, though. We’re not going on tour for Games We Play until April. With everything that’s happened, we put our foot down with the execs from Sierra and told them we wouldn’t be touring this year. We decided to start the tour one year after the release. The tickets sold out faster than any of the previous tours too. Wait, do you have a ticket to our Seattle concert?”
“I hate when I have to admit how big a fan I am, but yeah, you’re not telling me anything I don’t know about when your next tour is.” Lita wrinkled her nose at him, and he laughed.
Sebastian hugged her. “My baby mama, my fangirl, my princess. I’m glad you’re in my life, did you know that?”
“I had kind of gotten that idea, yes. If you’re trying to butter me up so you can stay here and we can have sex every day for two weeks, you don’t have to try that hard. You can pay me back in orgasms.” Lita grinned wickedly at him.
“If you take me up on the apartment offer, can I get the same deal? I’d much rather receive orgasms from you than money,” he smirked at her.
The smile fell from Lita’s lips, and she said seriously, “No, Seb. If we do that deal, you’ll already have been more than generous enough. I will pay you rent. I have no interest in being ‘kept’ by you.”
“Ah, there it is.” Sebastian sighed. “Always so casually cruel to me, princess.”
“I’m just being honest,” Lita said.
“Well, in the interest of honesty, you should know I intend on taking any rent you pay me and putting it in an account for the baby.” Sebastian shrugged.
Lita shook her head. “We are so completely and utterly different, Seb. You’re just writing off my rent, a huge portion of my monthly budget, as if it’s nothing.”
“I spent a lot of my life not having any spare cash. We weren’t poor, but we weren’t rolling in it, either. Spending some of the money I have now on a place to keep you and my baby safe is not something I would ever regret doing. I would rather you keep your money and do whatever you want with it, but I know you won’t, Lita. So, I’ll put your rent aside for our baby instead,” he said.
“Assuming we even do this,” Lita reminded him.
“Yes, assuming that.” He rolled his eyes at her.
“Jerk.” She poked her tongue out at him.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow at her. “Don’t poke your tongue out if you’re not going to use it.”
Lita kissed him then. Their tongues intertwined, and she was amused, making sure to use hers a fair bit during their kiss. When their kiss finished, they were both breathing heavily. The sexual chemistry between them was so electric that it almost made her forget all of the bullshit floating around them right now.
“I know another way I can use my tongue,” Lita said with a wicked grin on her face. “And I’m pretty sure I can get you to owe me ten thousand dollars before dinner.”
Sebastian laughed. “Give it your best shot, princess. I won’t hold my breath, though.”
Lita woke up in Sebastian’s arms the next morning, and it took her a minute to understand why. At first, she thought she was just having another really vivid pregnancy dream. Then she remembered everything that had happened yesterday and sighed.
She checked the time and saw her alarm wasn’t even due to go off for another half an hour, so she snuggled back into Sebastian. He looked so beautiful while he slept; his face was completely relaxed, and his hair was rumpled. He slept naked—well, at least he had on all the nights she’d spent with him.
The bedsheets had crept down overnight, and his muscled chest was exposed. This was where Lita rested her head now. She squeezed her arms around his chest and couldn’t resist kissing his smooth skin before she rested her head back on him. Sebastian put his
arms around her and held her tight.
“Morning, princess,” he said, then kissed the top of her head.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Lita said.
Sebastian smiled at her. “I don’t mind. What time do you need to leave for work?”
“My alarm to get up and get ready for work will go off in about twenty minutes,” she told him.
“That’s not nearly enough time, princess,” he said in a sulky voice.
“I know, but I have to drive to Bellevue in rush hour traffic,” Lita laughed. “You’ll have to get up earlier if you want to have morning sex.”
“We could take a limo to your work, and we could fuck in the car on the way there,” he suggested, and his eyes were dark as he looked down at her exposed breasts.
“I am not showing up to my work in a limousine, Sebastian. God, how embarrassing.” Lita shook her head.
Sebastian moved one hand to start playing with her breast and lowered his head to hers, stopping just before their lips met and looked into her eyes. “Are you sure, princess? Wouldn’t kind of epic sex be worth the embarrassment?”
Lita kissed him, moaning into his mouth as he continued to tease her. Then, when their kiss ended, she said, “It probably would be, but I’m still not going to do it.”
“You’re no fun, princess.” Sebastian gave her a dramatic pout.
“You’re a liar, Sebastian Fox; you think I’m a lot of fun. Just not right now. If it helps, as soon as I’m home from work, I’ll give you all the sex you can manage. Besides, don’t you have a bodyguard to hire and apartments to look at today? You’re too busy to be fucking me in a limo this morning,” Lita told him.
“Oh, no, I’m never too busy to be fucking you in a limo, princess. All right, though, I’ll let you go to work, and I’ll just have to deal with my poor blue balls all day,” he grinned at her.
She shook her head. “You’re terrible. I had sex with you less than twelve hours ago. My vagina is going to be red raw if you end up staying with me for the rest of the week.”