The only thing that had been different between them was the fact that Sebastian was holding back. Not in terms of the truth. He had explained himself over and over to her, clarifying why he had done what he’d done, and why he had hid it from her. No, he was holding back something else. He was gentler in bed, and while he was still attentive and ensured she had more than her fair share of fun, he seemed nervous about something.
Eden wasn’t going to let that impede on her happiness because she had a plan. Sebastian was trying to make sure she was diverted from everything else in her life by dazzling her beyond distraction with the wonder of Paris, but tonight, she was going to make sure the only thing driving either of them to distraction was their naked bodies. She knew he had dinner plans for them, reservations at one of Paris’s finest restaurants. In fact, she was supposed to be getting ready now. Sebastian had already finished dressing and was attending to some work on the phone in the small office the hotel provided for him in the ridiculously large penthouse suite.
Eden heard him enter their bedroom and her heart skipped a beat. She forced herself to not turn around and look at him. She needed a few moments to gather her courage to disrupt their evening and tell Sebastian what she needed to tell him before she threw herself at him and hoped it didn’t scare the hell out of him.
“Darling, as much as I think you look beautiful in anything, I think Le Meurice is expecting their guests to wear something a little more upscale than the adorable outfit you’re in.”
Eden finally turned and had to control the feeling she got in her stomach seeing Sebastian decked out in his suit. He had showered and shaved and looked like something off the cover of GQ. His hair was swept back and she knew that in no time, it all it would be falling over his forehead and looking as disheveled as usual, which just added to the sensuality that seeped off him.
“Well, I suppose then you’d better cancel our reservation because I have no intention of getting dressed in anything else. In fact, once I take this off, I have no intention of putting anything else on.” Eden rarely got playful and flirtatious. It just wasn’t something that came naturally to her, but Sebastian seemed to bring out parts of her that she didn’t know even existed.
He looked perplexed, clearly unsure of what she was doing. “What’s going on, Eden?”
“What’s going on is that as much as I’ve loved these past four days in Paris, we’ve barely spent any time together just the two of us. You’ve shown me beautiful site after beautiful site, you’ve wined and dined me at the most gourmet restaurants Paris has to offer, and taken me shopping for enough designer outfits and accessories to last me a lifetime. It’s been wonderful, magical, decadent, everything it should be. But I’m done. I don’t need or want all that. I want you. Just you. Just the two of us—at least for tonight. Tomorrow we can go back to your plan of making sure I’m so swept up in Paris that I can’t think of anything else, but just give me tonight.”
Eden could see Sebastian shifting his weight from foot to foot. While she knew he would do anything to make her happy, he was used to things going his way. The strict control he held on all aspects of his life meant it went against his nature to change plans like this. Eden approached him and ran her hands up the front of his suit before entwining her hands behind his neck. She wasn’t wearing heels and had to stand on tiptoes to get close to him, and even then she still had to pull his head down to her before she could make contact with his lips. And just as with every time she kissed him, it took her breath away, made her slightly dizzy with emotion. But finally, she knew he felt the same.
Eden flicked her tongue out to get him to open his mouth. She wanted to consume him, to taste him, to revel in him. Sebastian wrapped his hand around her waist, slightly lifting her as she continued to seduce him with her mouth. He groaned as she sucked his tongue gently. She knew how much he loved it and she smiled against his lips. She felt the familiar feeling of his growing erection pushing through his suit.
“Eden, we have a reservation.”
“Get the front desk to deal with it. They can call and cancel on your behalf.” She reached down between them and squeezed his cock gently, causing him to moan again into her lips. “Tell them a matter of personal nature has come up. Anyway, I don’t think you’re in any state to be seen in public, do you?” She continued to stroke him, knowing the friction was driving him wild. Eden stepped back now so she could see his face, but kept up the back and forth motion with her hands. Sebastian’s eyes were dazed and hazy.
She pulled his jacket to guide him to follow her until she was standing near the bedside table where she could reach the phone. She unbuckled and unzipped his trousers before lifting the phone and pressing the button that connected directly with the front desk. She checked that it was ringing before she handed the phone to Sebastian and slowly lowered herself to her knees, pulling out his now rock hard erection.
“Eden…”
“Sebastian, focus on the task at hand. Cancel the reservation.” She looked up at him before running her tongue over the slit at the end of his swollen head. She loved the way he smelled. Even though he had just showered, she could still smell him—not his body soap, not the scent of his dry cleaned clothes, but him. A musky scent so masculine and distinct, she could get lost in it. She licked down the underside of him, all the way to his balls, which she cradled with her left hand, alternating between squeezing softly and then more forcefully.
She waited until she heard the faint sound of the front desk picking up and Sebastian starting to explain about the cancellation before she swiftly took him all in. Sebastian’s voice caught and she hummed in amusement. With his cock pressed against the back of her throat, the vibrations drove him even further and she felt his cock twitch in her mouth uncontrollably. She sucked hard as she slowly pulled her mouth up his shaft, moving at an infuriatingly slow speed. She knew she was teasing him, but she wanted to work him into a frenzy. She wanted him to lose control, to let out the passion and animalistic side of him that she loved the most. For all his control that she knew so well, it was the wild side, the slightly uncontrollable side that she wanted to see tonight before she told him her news.
Sebastian dropped the phone, barely managing to get it back on the cradle, before he ran his fingers through her hair, pulling her off him. “Fuck, Eden, you’re going to pay for that later.”
“I’m sure I will.” She smiled up at him before she took him back into her mouth, moving fast this time, sliding her tongue over his soft skin. She grabbed the base of him, jerking her hand back and forth to match the rhythm of her mouth. She felt Sebastian flexing his hips to meet her mouth, pushing himself further each time she pulled him into her. He never pushed her too far when she took him in her mouth. He knew it was still a novel experience for her and she loved how he guided her but also let her figure it out for herself. Eden could feel his balls starting to tighten in her hand and she knew he was close. He pulled her hair, forcing her head up slightly to allow him deeper access.
“I’m close, Eden. You need to stop, baby, I’m really close.”
Eden pulled him out of her mouth abruptly. She met his gaze as she inserted her finger into her mouth, sucking it on it before crudely licking it, making sure it was wet.
“I know, Seb. I know.” She once again wrapped her mouth around him, taking up the same speed as before, but this time, to add to it, she slipped her hand between his legs and started massaging his perineum, starting with the sensitive spot right behind his ball sack. Sebastian moaned harder.
“Oh my God, that feels good. Fuck.”
He was thrusting harder now and she knew he was losing control. She moved her finger up his perineum, staying just below his anus, not wanting to make the final move until she knew he was about to come. She swirled her tongue around him and she forced her throat to relax as she pushed him in deeper than she’d ever tried to in the past. She tasted his salty pre-cum and only then did she dare slide her finger just the tiniest bit further until s
he was resting on his anus.
“Jesus, Eden! I’m going to come.”
She kept up the rhythm and pushed into his anus, sliding her finger in until she was able to press on his prostate. Sebastian grunted as his fingers tightened in her hair, pulling himself deeper as he spurted into her.
She swallowed and kept moving over him, taking all of him, licking up every drop of him. She could feel his legs slightly shaking and she slowly pulled out her finger and let him gently drop out of her mouth, kissing his semi-erect cock along the top before pulling herself up.
Sebastian’s eyes were closed, but as she rose, he opened them. She knew what she’d see in them and she was right—adoration, love, and need. Even though he had just come, he wanted more. She pushed him slowly until he bumped against the bed before she started to undress him. Whenever he tried to run his hands over her and take her clothes off, she batted him away. This was about him.
Neither of them had spoken yet and the silence between them hung heavy with lust and want. When he was finally naked, she pushed his chest until he sat back on the bed. Only then did she step back and start to quickly undress herself. She didn’t care how elegant she was. She wasn’t trying to give him a strip tease. She just needed to be naked so she could feel his skin against hers. She needed there to be nothing between them. Once she was completely stripped down, she pushed him further up the bed, crawling between his legs as she moved up his body until she could straddle his hips. Although he had only come minutes before, she could feel his growing erection pressing against her ass as she sat across him. Finally, he spoke.
“You are so beautiful, Eden. You take my breath away.”
“You too.”
He opened his mouth to speak again, but she pressed her finger against his lips. This was her moment now before she got too distracted by his hardness. She was soaking wet after feeling him come in her mouth. It wasn’t something she’d ever thought she’d like, but with Sebastian, everything they did together drove her wild.
“No, I have something to say to you. And I have to say it now. When this whole thing first started, I couldn’t believe that anyone could make me feel the way you did. The way you do. And there was a time where it scared me because the feelings I had for you were so overwhelming that I thought I would get lost in them, that I would get lost in you. And after trying to find myself for so long, I thought it wasn’t right, that there was something dangerous and unhealthy about being so consumed with someone that you lost yourself in them. Then when I walked out that night, it was the worst time of my life. Worse than anything I’d ever felt before. It felt like a part of me had died and I didn’t know how I was going to continue. And I was so mad at you and mad at myself. I hated that I’d lost myself in you, hated that I could only be the woman I wanted to be when I was with you.
“When you saw me on the sidewalk a week later, I’d reached rock bottom because I realized that I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. That I had to face the fact that no matter how weak it made me feel, my life was better with you in it, I was better with you in it. Then when you came back to me and told me everything, I was scared because I knew how hard it would be when this ends, but I also realized that it was worth it. It would always be worth it because what I feel when I’m with you, the way you make me feel, it’s worth it all, it’s worth everything, it’s worth any hell I’ll have to experience. And now that I know that, I’m not scared anymore, I’m not afraid of the intensity of what we have. So I just want you to know that what you saw on the sidewalk might frighten you, but it doesn’t scare me anymore. You told me that being yours meant I had nothing to be afraid of anymore. And you were right. You make me not scared anymore, of anything, Sebastian.”
Eden had kept her gaze on Sebastian’s face and she knew he had winced when she’d mentioned them breaking up in the future, but it had to be said. She waited now for his response, feeling so exposed straddling him naked, but it was better this way. It was all out in the open now and she prayed that he understood what she had told him. But he didn’t answer her. Instead, he lifted her off him and placed her on the bed. He was getting something from his suit jacket that she had thrown on the floor when she’d stripped him. She couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“Sebastian, please, say something, anything.”
He turned to look at her, interrupting her as she tried to get him to talk. “No, it’s my turn now.” He seemed angry and she resisted wrapping the sheet around her. She knew how much he hated it when she tried to hide herself from him. “You said ‘when this ends.’ I don’t want it to end. And I don’t intend for it to end. Ever.” She now could see the item he had retrieved from his jacket and she gasped as he opened it and placed it in front of her on the bed. The ring was delicate and perfect for her. “You’re mine, Eden. What we have will never end. You’ll be my wife.”
As usual, it wasn’t a question, simply a statement of fact.
“That wasn’t a question, Sebastian.”
“It’s not a question because it’s a given. To ask you would imply that I don’t understand how you feel about me, that I don’t understand what you just told me. That I don’t understand that you would rather die than live your life without me. To ask would be an insult to everything we feel and everything you’ve just told me. So no, Eden, I’m not going to ask you to marry me. I’m going to tell you to put on the fucking ring before I lose it and then I’m going to fuck you senseless.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
As soon as they returned back from Paris, Sebastian jumped into action. He had neglected his other offices for too long and wanted to show Eden his other homes, or what would soon be their homes. He had tried to convince her to let him arrange for movers to move her things into his apartment, but she wanted to arrange it herself.
Eden realized that having control was a necessity for Sebastian and they were both learning when to pick their battles. She was happy to move into his apartment, but considering everything that had happened before he swept her away to Paris, Eden thought it was best to move slowly. They still spent every night together at his place, but she wanted the time to pack her own things. She had only just finished unpacking from Edinburgh and she hadn’t finished going through the boxes her parents had sent up from Boston. Sebastian reluctantly agreed to back off and let her sort out her apartment, but she could see he was anxious about it as much as she reassured him it had nothing to do with her desire to move in with him. She still would spend every night at his apartment, but she needed to wrap up her old life on her own terms.
The other thing she had to wrap up was Joachim. She and Sebastian had their first fight as an engaged couple when she told him she wanted to talk to Joachim one last time so she could put his betrayal behind her. Sebastian absolutely refused, leading Eden to slam the bedroom door in his face and refuse to come out for three hours. Joachim had been pestering her with phone calls and texts almost daily since she’d asked him to leave her apartment. Whereas before, Eden would have interpreted this behavior as nothing but the actions of a supportive friend, she now knew it was something far more disturbing.
When she finally emerged from the bedroom, she found Sebastian sitting outside, waiting for her. “A compromise, my love. We’ll both see him for lunch. Public space, he can’t mess with your head or fill you with anymore lies, and he certainly doesn’t get to be alone with you in private.”
Eden arranged it for the next day, but Joachim never showed up.
“I bet he saw that you were here and left,” Eden remarked, checking her phone again, not surprised to see that Joachim hadn’t texted or called to say he wasn’t coming. She hadn’t warned him that Sebastian would be joining them for lunch.
“I know you want to put this to rest, but maybe this is for the best, love. There’s nothing he could possibly say that would make you feel any better about what he did.”
“I know, he’s my oldest friend, though. I guess there was a part of me that hoped he had some explanation to
give me that would ease the betrayal.” Eden looked up at Sebastian, grasping his hand. “After all this time, it’s hard to really imagine how wrong I was about him.”
Sebastian remained silent, his eyes warm, full of compassion at her obvious pain.
“I’m not going to sit around and mope, though. After all, I’ve got a wedding to plan. I’m going to finish off with the final boxes tonight, hopefully, and I’ll be home for a late dinner.”
“Of course, darling, whatever you want.”
****
While Eden finished labeling the boxes, she glanced down at her ring. Maybe Sebastian was right, maybe it was all for the best that she didn’t see Joachim one last time. She couldn’t imagine how he would have taken their engagement. The buzzing of the intercom shook her out of her reverie. She picked up the handset and was surprised to hear Rick, her doorman, inform her that Joachim was in the lobby.
“He’s agitated, do you want me to send him away?”
“No, it’s fine. Just send him up.” She hung up. Joachim no doubt wanted answers, but the fact that he hadn’t made any contact since their lunch made her nervous.
As soon as she opened the door to him, Eden could tell he had been drinking and she felt a flare of anger rise up.
“You’re drunk. You bailed on our lunch date and now you show up drunk. First class, Joachim, really.” She blurted it out without even thinking. She could smell the alcohol coming off him in waves.
“Yes, I’ve been drinking, Eden. It shouldn’t matter to you.”
“What’s wrong, Joachim? Why are you even here?”
“You said you would let me know when you were ready.”
Eden remembered the words she had said to him outside his office building at their first reunion, now almost two months ago. She wished she could go back and change it.
“I’ve waited for you, Eden. I’ve been waiting for you for years, patiently being at your side the whole time. And then you go with Sebastian Stone? How could you? Of all people, you get together with that lowlife scum?” Joachim stalked across the apartment, flailing his arms as he walked back and forth, continuing his rant. “And then that night, when I came to you, when you needed me, Eden, where was Sebastian? Answer me that, where was Sebastian? Not at your side, because he had gotten rid of you! And you still took him back!”
Trusting Stone Page 24