by Koko Brown
SIX
No movement came from my fist slamming against the wide door the first time and I reared back, my aim high to hit again.
My hand burned from the initial hit, my limbs shaking and only partly from the trek over here in more than unstable footing. I went so fast I couldn’t even get both crutches. I only had one, a baseball bat in the other.
I wasn’t playing.
My hand pulsing from another hit at the door, I braced myself for another round, but a woosh sounded into the night hair.
Sebastian stood in front of me, large and nearly two of me when I compared size. Head dipped, his dark hair combined with the night when he stepped out into it, actually clothed this time. His well-worn jeans sat low on his hips and his Henley style t-shirt shaped hard over his broad shoulders.
He didn’t look disheveled, every strand of that inky black hair in place. The clump that wasn’t curled over his eyes, making a pass over his royal blue irises.
His jaw hiked at seeing me, a smile forming on his lips and I saw right away the beginnings of my name had been about to form on his mouth after it.
That was until he saw the bat.
Thick eyebrows drew in together, Sebastian’s head tilting. He might have said something, done something. He might have.
But I’d been quicker.
“Journee—?”
I ducked under his arm when he took a step forward, saying fuck it all to my last crutch on the way. I’d be faster without it, no matter how awkward.
I had to be.
“Journee, what are you doing?”
He asked me the question about midway to his stairwell, his voice not far behind. Ignoring him, I took the steps head-on, prepared for them this time as I’d taken them before.
“Let me help you. What are you—”
His hands raised at the bat approaching his face.
He swung back dodging it easily, but I hadn’t exactly been trying to hit him. I just wanted to get him off me, gone so I could get Aleise, and get away.
“What have you done with her?” I gritted, bat above my head. I was sweating, shaking, but I shook it off.
I raised the bat higher. “I’ve called the police so you better back off and tell me where she is. I won’t ask twice.”
Now, I hadn’t exactly called the police. I meant to, but I’d been in such a hurry to get over here, save my friend.
Sebastian lifted his hands. “Who are you talking about—”
“Aleise, you asshole. My friend you had over here earlier and I swear to God if you hurt her…”
I didn’t care if he had guns. I didn’t care if he had an army of guns.
Impatient for his response, I went down those stairs, using the bat a little for help. I knew exactly the last room I spotted her in and I was heading right to it.
“Journee, wait. Slow down. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“I’ll hurt myself…”
How ironic.
Sebastian was faster than me but didn’t dare to cross me with this bat again. He let me go, lingering not far behind. In actuality, he let me go right up to the room I desired before he attempted in intercept again.
“She’s not here,” he said, his hands still where I could see them when he crossed in front of my path. “She left and I don’t know what you think happened, but there’s some kind of misunderstanding here. Clearly.”
Like hell, she left. Like hell. I would have seen her.
I would have seen her.
I raised the bat again, not wanting to talk anymore.
“Move,” I said, as much threat in my voice as I could muster. He didn’t have to move for me and this whole plan or lack thereof had been a really bad idea. He could take me out, easily.
But instead he chose to move.
Lips coming together, he lowered his hands slowly, a side step granting me entry.
I took the exit without a second thought and right away the ambience changed from what it had been in the hall. For starters, the hall had been dark.
But this room was warm with light.
He had candles flickering. There were three in the middle of a coffee table, then others sprinkled like twinkling lights around the room. And in the center of it all was a bowl of popcorn, the kernels perfectly tinted with yellow butter.
I stepped into the room, seeing more. He had wine glasses near the television set, one emptied and smeared with pink lipstick and the other one nearly empty. On the screen behind them was a paused movie, one I’d seen before.
The throws of a Michael Bay film were underway, the movie not screaming “date night” by any means, but the paused crash and wielded machine guns would have been perfect for the female party that would have been here tonight.
Aleise loathed chick flicks.
But loved action movies.
“She said she had to go,” came from behind me, came close from behind me, and sure enough light flashed before me from his window, causing me to look over.
The driveway.
I stepped forward to the windows, peeking out of the curtains a little. I didn’t need to move them much.
It’s her.
And fully alive.
Aleise was behind the wheel of her car, still parked in Sebastian’s driveway like she had been when I first came over. Head down, she rummaged around in her purse on her lap, a clear frown on her face. Deciding to give up on what she was doing, she put the car into reverse, backing away. She twisted the wheel and out of the driveway she went, pulling down the road.
I stood there, curtain still parted with my fingers.
“She left through the garage,” Sebastian said. He was behind me now, no more than a breath away.
A breath I felt.
His shadow reached and touched high on the curtains, his heat around me.
He breathed. “She said she had to work, that it was getting late and she needed to go.”
Work… of course.
Because she worked for me. She was me until I was out of this cast, acting manager.
“Journee?”
Spice… wine. He smelled of both, the scent husky and rough with no clear borderline of what held zest or what was sweet.
My hand slid down the curtain and turning around, Sebastian was there, full on like he had been that morning. His body moved slowly in his breaths, a volcanic mountain simmering slowly.
“What exactly just happened here?” he asked me, then his gaze traveled downward and I didn’t need to look to know his gaze found my hand.
My fingers let the tip of the bat slip, the end touching the floor.
Damn…
I gripped it and blue eyes followed me when I raised it.
He frowned. “What was that… for exactly?”
If he knew, he’d laugh at me. If he knew…
Everything here tonight had been nothing but innocent, the wine and the movie. The candles…
He had this room set up beautifully, like he’d truly been trying to impress a woman.
And then here I was.
“A mistake,” was all I could say. I didn’t have the stomach for anymore.
He caught me watching the candles on the table, those soft flickering lights.
Dark hair cut the air with his nod.
“I see,” he said, tilting his head. He came forward a little, his big hands together. Those hands could crush someone…
Or hold someone tight.
Fingers dusted in dark hair threaded together and the strands flipped a little when he nodded to himself. Eventually, he scratched his head, turning slightly and when he came back he was smiling again.
“I don’t know if you have time…” he started, opening his hands a little. “But Aleise, well… she didn’t stay for cake.”
SEVEN
He seemed so… normal. In fact, he seemed so more than me as well as pleasant. I didn’t find myself around pleasant people a lot. People of the world tended to be gruff with their comings and goings, but not Sebastian. He was accommodating. He was a g
entleman.
And he was sexy as hell.
I mean, I had eyes, hormones. The man had it where he needed to and I couldn’t help noticing. Though, I tried not to. He’d essentially been on a date with my friend tonight.
“Sorry, I left so suddenly earlier,” I told him, swallowing the last of my cake. He had two kinds, mine and a chocolate one he made.
He made.
And it had a design in the frosting, perfect piping like he’d been to culinary school.
Maybe he had.
His expression went warm at what I said, his head turning with a small smile after he deposited his own empty cake plate into the sink. He’d had a large piece of my carrot cake. Turning around, he lounged against the kitchen sink. We’d taken our cake in the kitchen.
“It’s no big deal,” he said, then laughed a little. “But it was kinda weird.”
Weird… Well, that summed up all my actions today, didn’t it? Barging in on him this morning, barging in on him tonight. Add the whole spying on him and getting into his stuff thing and yep, I was all kinds of weird and the very thought made me laugh.
Biting my lip to keep in the sound, I stood, taking a couple of clunky steps over to him with my empty plate. I had my single crutch still and my um… my bat, but I wasn’t going far so I went without.
I got over to him, not surprised when he asked to help me yet again but with my refusal he stood back, taking the empty plate when I handed it to him.
“Add that to the tally,” I said, pushing my hands down my shorts. I thanked the all mighty above I hadn’t changed into bed clothes for the evening yet. I would have been over here in a nightgown inside of my shorts and tank top I never changed out of from this morning.
I pushed my hands into my back pockets. “I was in the wrong today, for many things.”
He’d turned around at that point, starting to wash our two dishes.
“For what exactly?” he asked, scraping the extra frosting I hadn’t eaten into the garbage disposal. Curly, black lashes flickered my way with the question in his eyes.
I shook my head. “Well, I um…”
But I stopped when I realized I didn’t know what exactly I was apologizing for. I found his guns by accident, the spying I was sure he didn’t even know about.
My thoughts silenced at the turn of the faucet, the water rushing down the sink. He placed the dishes underneath them, getting them clean.
“I’m sorry you left the way you had,” he said, placing the two forks out to dry in the dishes holder near the sink. He looked at me over his shoulder. “I’m sure what you saw…”
“It was nothing,” I told him because honestly, I didn’t really want to go into it. I shook my head again. “I shouldn’t have been looking at your stuff. It was none of my business.”
His large shoulders worked in silence, leaving me with nothing but my own words in the air as he continued to wash dishes.
He placed one into the drying rack.
“I don’t believe you,” he said, causing my eyes to widen.
I tilted my head. “You don’t believe—”
“What you said,” he came back with, and used the moment to shift on the floor in his socks, staring at me. Reaching behind him, he grabbed and towel and I watched as he watched me.
His expression was the utmost of serious.
“What you said about it being nothing,” he said, tossing the drying rag over his shoulder. “What you saw… my stuff not being a big deal to you.”
He was right about that, but the fact that he called me on the carpet…
I didn’t know anything about this stuff, but I did know everything about tonight told me I’d been in the wrong about him initially.
I could only shrug at what he said, his words putting me on the spot, and my heart leaped a little when he used his foot to push off the sink, coming toward me. This man was devastatingly handsome and I… well, was a little intimated by it.
A smile lifted his lips a little. “You came at me with a bat, Journee.”
The way he said it, humor in his voice caused me to laugh too. It was really crazy when I thought back about it.
I bit my lip. “I guess I’d been…”
And he surprised me as he lifted his hand to the air and even more when he pulled a wayward twist from in front of my eyes. It happened so quick I did nothing, my heart squeezing by invisible large hands.
“I think it scared you,” he said, lowering his hand. “It scared you like you do me.”
My mouth dried, his rough smell in the air so wild, untamed like him.
I dampened my lips. “Why do I scare you?”
He gave me a look like I didn’t want the answer, leaning in a little.
“Because I had a woman here tonight, ready and willing,” he said, skating across the top of my shoulder.
I felt it in my core.
He breathed. “And all I could think about was you.”
EIGHT
His hand didn’t stop and his other, seemly jealous, joined in. He braced my shoulders, bringing me close but being careful of my cast, and the wild look in his blue eyes matched his scent.
“Touching you,” he went on, indulging in that touch when he practically lifted my feet off the floor to bring me close to his lips.
His mouth parted.
“Fucking you.”
The words burned, tightening my pussy to unbearable discomfort. He breathed his lips over mine and I could taste that sweetness of the wine he had before, my mouth opening and closing.
“But Aleise,” I trembled out. She was my friend. She…
He let go of my shoulders, but only to touch my face. His long digits pushed pulses into my skin and his nose brushed mine when he leaned in.
“She came on to me,” he said, admitting. He licked his mouth…
Then he licked mine.
His tongue went out in slow caresses, the softest buds on his rough tongue.
“But I didn’t want her,” he said. His hand went between my legs and before I knew it, he was squeezing my lips.
I squeaked out a pant, his mouth catching it between his teeth.
He had me on his kitchen table after that, forcing away the rest of the cake and the holder and it all fell toward the floor in a huge crash.
We became a mess of hands, limbs, and mouths, as Sebastian worked my clothes off me, holding up my casted leg and making sure to keep it protected.
“I told her it wasn’t right,” he said, forcing his mouth on mine and covering my body with his. He had my shirt off, my chest bare except for my bra.
He grabbed a breast, massaging it while he worked my mouth with an active tongue.
“This is right,” he said, dancing my tongue with his while he pressed my body hotly against his kitchen table. His touched burned, pinning his massive body to me.
He groaned. “You know how much I want to be inside you right now?” he asked, forcing his bulge between my legs.
“How much I need it.”
He let me feel it, the table actually skidding across the floor a little with his rocking hips. Bracing my hips, he rocked himself hard into me, basically dry humping me in the middle of his kitchen and no way was I going to tell him to stop. It felt too good.
It felt too right.
“Tell me you want this,” he said, still moving. He was so powerful, so big and perfect. He touched my forehead with his, looking down at his working hips.
“Tell me you want me.”
It was crazy, all this was… crazy, but…
“Yes,” I said, breathing. I closed my eyes. “Yes, I want you.”
His groan sounded so hard I felt it in my stomach, my breasts… everywhere.
I wanted to feel more.
NINE
His body was like the artwork that donned his bedroom walls, a masterpiece of structure and hard lines. His abs forming, he pounded into me, a fury of power and strength.
His skin flush, Sebastian took me to a place I’d never been befo
re, my body feeling as if on a cloud.
And this was the third time we made love.
The first had been passionate, sweet. But this time was all carnal, no holds barred, and that had been from both of our ends.
Spent, I attempted to keep up with him as much as I could, but between my cast being between us and well, Sebastian’s endurance…
Sebastian’s body was not only built like a machine but worked like one. He had all this… energy and power.
So much power.
My body jiggled, as he ground his hips into me the third time, his big, calloused hands digging into the backs of my thighs. Always being careful of my cast, he pulled out of me, then grabbed me where I was hot and achy, his fingers replacing in a way unique to his cock.
His digits moved piston-like, deep and charged by fire. The only relief came when he gingerly stroked my bud after fingering me, but by then I was so close to coming.
“Sebastian—”
He took my mouth, taming the height of the wave. Surrounding me with his big body, he caged me in and hit hard everywhere I was soft, his biceps resting on either side of my head.
His thighs rubbed rough against me, his dick a solid mass of force, as he edged my legs open to accommodate him.
I was slick and he reached between us, tapping my lower lips with his girth.
“Open for me.”
He looked into my eyes as he said it, those bewitching, luminous eyes of his. I spread wide, letting him rub between my legs.
Using his dick, he teased my clitoris, his mushroom head stroking along the sides of my hood before brushing the sensitive flesh between my thighs.
My mouth made a small “o” and he kissed it, so tender with his soft kisses.
Sebastian fucked. He fucked hard. He fucked right, but his kisses… His kisses were always so sweet.
It was like there on my mouth was the only place he could control himself. He could find control through me and our kiss.
He nibbled my lips before licking, healing the swollen ache in them. His tongue plundered in and I felt him enter me.
Slamming his thighs again me, all the sweetness of before was gone. The beast was back, the man that couldn’t be tamed.
He wasn’t gentle with me and he didn’t try to be. He used my body to tell him if what he was doing was too much and even then, he’d only slow down a little.