by Amanda Lance
Clearly amused, Quinn’s voice caused a few people to glance in our general direction. “Oh? And who’s going to throw me on my face? You? I bet you can’t lift half of what I can.”
If he was at all uncomfortable, Sebastian didn’t show it; instead, he just stared straight ahead. Stepping to the side, I saw him give Quinn the same look he gave to opposing witnesses during integration. I swallowed hard. Maybe it would have just been better to make a scene instead.
I gently pulled on Sebastian’s elbow in an attempt to get his attention. Unfortunately, Quinn seemed to notice more than he did.
“Why do you always get the pretty ones, anyway? Everything from the best cases to the interns with asses like valentine hearts—what makes you so damn special?”
Stepping in front of me again, Sebastian glanced toward the front door. “I can hold my liquor for starters, but then I’m also charming, good-looking…” Sebastian sighed, as if listing all of his qualities bored him. “Of course, being smarter than everyone else tends to help, as well.” Finally, he looked at me sternly and took my hand. “Let’s go.”
Without hesitation, I turned to walk with him, surprised and disgusted when Quinn made a move to grab at my arm again—admittedly a move I didn’t think he was bold enough to do. “Hey, valentine heart and I were still in negotiations,” he said. “Weren’t we?”
His hand slapped my ass and I shrieked as if I was a kid who had just seen a mouse—or more accurately, a giant rat. And if that didn’t draw enough attention to us, Sebastian whirling around to punch Morgan in the face finished it off.
There was a whirlwind of activity then. But between the encouraged rooting on of onlookers and the sound of glass breaking, I didn’t have the opportunity to take it in before I was shoved into the crowd. Like magic, a circle cleared, creating less space in the already small bar. A drink spilled onto my shoes as people struggled to get a better look while others pushed and shoved their way forward. Had I not gotten the memo about being in high school again?
“Stop it! Both of you! Stop!”
My cries were lost over the yelling as Sebastian took another swing. I would have been lying if I said the sound of his fist connecting with Quinn’s face didn’t make me shiver. Others, however, visibly flinched. One woman even screamed and covered her eyes.
“Violet? What—” Nicky eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Somehow, even with her incredible rack, she had difficulty getting a front view. I glanced at the high heels she clutched in her hand. She held them facing outward; they must have made a great cattle prod.
Two large bodies in tight black t-shirts filed out of a room behind the bar. One of them waved his flashlight at us and shouted something about backing up, but it didn’t do much good. Already in progress, the other security guard tried to pry Sebastian off of Quinn. And though the security guard was clearly larger than him, I had the vague suspicion that he was only successful because Sebastian was finally getting ahold of himself. He blinked hard, his neck craning wildly until he saw me.
Another fight broke out on the other side of the bar and the security guard holding Quinn back must have gotten distracted enough to loosen his grip on him. And, unlike Sebastian, Quinn clearly hadn’t gotten his temper in check. I watched the scene in slow-motion while he slipped from the oversized arms of the security guard; he looked from me to Sebastian before pouncing on him again. Without his arms to defend himself though, it was as cheap as cheap could get.
“Son of a bitch!” I hardly recognized my own voice, but I did recognize Nicky’s laugh as she ushered me to the side.
“We should go,” she encouraged. “I’m sure someone has called the cops by now.”
The crowd seemed to disband as quickly as it had come together. I shook my head and searched for Sebastian but couldn’t see him anywhere.
“Over there.” She pointed him out to me in the corner of the room. He had a few cuts and a torn shirt but was no worse for wear. He handed several bill from his clip to a man in a suit and said something that appeared to be an apology. Half-expecting him to try another cheap shot again, I kept my eyes open for Quinn but couldn’t see him anywhere. At the rate he was going, he had probably slinked out the back and down the alley like the rat he was.
Sebastian’s handsome face remained indifferent as he walked over to me. How he could do this with blood threatening to spill onto his forehead, was beyond me.
“Are you alright?” As indifferent as he may have wanted to appear, his voice revealed something else altogether. Though I couldn’t identify it, it still made my insides swell.
“We’re fine.” Nicky’s laugh permeated the moment between us and he blinked hard, taking his eyes off of me and smiling.
“Hello, Nicky.”
No quip or smart comment? Maybe he had gotten hit harder than I thought.
“Why are you asking about me? You’re the one who was in a fight.” I reached up to get a better glance at the cut on his head but he flinched away. Could he really not even stand me to the point where I wasn’t allowed to see if he was okay?
Nicky sighed dramatically. I thought maybe she was trying to clear the sudden awkwardness that had settled in, but I couldn’t be sure. “If all the excitement is over and done with, I’m going home.” She rolled her eyes at Sebastian before turning back to me. “Vi, if you’re going downtown we could share a cab—”
“I’ll take her.” Perhaps realizing that we were both glaring at him, Sebastian cleared his throat and tried again. “I drove here. I’ll give her a ride.”
I thought of a dozen clever quips and demeaning comments that would have made a feminist spontaneously combust if I’d said them out loud. Luckily for them, however, my concern for him held out over my need to be the funniest person in the room. “You won’t be taking anyone anywhere. I’ll drive you to the ER.”
“No, that isn’t necessary,” he said sternly. “I feel fine.”
“Really?” Nicky added. “Because you look like hell.”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, she did have a point. With the collar of his shirt torn, his hair mussed and bruises already beginning to form, Sebastian practically looked like a refugee—his injuries worse than I originally thought. What had possessed him to do something as stupid as start a fight with Quinn, anyway? I swore silently to myself and looked at the ice wrapped in a cocktail napkin that he held to his knuckles. It had better have been over some case I didn’t know about, I thought, or some old dispute, or Roger’s favoritism, or anything more petty than me…
“I was fine handling that situation.” The daggers in my voice were enough to make Nicky flinch. “You didn’t need to intervene.”
“Really?” The twinge of amusement in his tone suggested he felt better than he looked. “Were you and Morgan rehearsing for parts in Titus Andronicus? Because other than making a fine Lavinia, you didn’t look fine at all.”
I gritted my teeth and glared at him. “I was fine.”
“Well, if everyone is fine, I’ll see you later.” Nicky gave something of a cautious glance to us both. “Good-night?”
I tried to make my smile reassuring. “You, too. I’ll see you Monday.”
After she walked away, it occurred to me that Sebastian was still staring at me, that look of concern and anger still there instead of indifference. Frankly, it was more intimidating than his interrogation stare. I broke eye contact and looked up at the cut on his forehead.
“You should really get that looked at.”
“You should really let me drive you home,” he countered.
“How about I drive you home?” I sighed and reached for a cocktail napkin to dab at the blood. “I’ll help you clean up what used to be this pretty face of yours.”
He spit a mouthful of blood into an empty glass. “You know, now that I think about it, I may have a concussion, after all.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.” He smiled. “Think you can find a way to keep me awake for the next few hours?”
<
br /> I smiled wryly right back at him. “I think we might be able to figure something out.”
Chapter 10
Sebastian
“Stay away from Quinn Morgan. He and all of his other cronies are the fucking assholes.”
“I’m aware of that,” she scoffed and threw out the last gauze pad. Though the cut on my forehead was small, it had bled enough to go through half a box of them, not to mention ruin my new shirt. “It doesn’t necessarily take one to know one in this situation.” She eyed me up and down. “Though I’m sure in your case it helps.”
“Still mad at me, huh? Even after I rescued you?”
Throwing me an icepack, she rolled her eyes before she slammed the freezer shut. “I already told you Sebastian. I was handling it.”
“I wasn’t going to just stand there while someone was hurting you.” I mumbled. “I owe your father that much.”
Violet instantly froze. “So you do remember him—me?”
I grinned as I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. “I recognized you the moment I saw you.”
“Then why are you giving me such a hard time?” she asked. I could feel her step closer and, though I wanted to watch her, my head hurt too much to open my eyes just yet. “Do you hate me?”
I chuckled. “I don’t spend all my time fantasizing about women I hate.”
She sounded genuinely surprised. “Then why?”
“Because you shouldn’t be in criminal law. You’ll be terrible at it.”
“Bastard.” Violet punched my arm playfully, and I found myself smiling wider. “I could be a great criminal defense attorney if I wanted to be.”
“You misunderstand—once again.” Instantly, I felt my mood darken, insulted that she would assume my comment was an insult. “I have no doubt that there isn’t anything you can’t do. If you specialized in corporate criminal law, you would probably win cases; make hundreds of thousands in billings, maybe millions.” I stopped and chuckled. In a couple of years it was possible she could even out bill even me. “But in the end you’d end up hating yourself for betraying your values. Being a good person is who you are. It always has been.”
She shook her head earnestly. “You’re a good person too, Sebastian—a good man. I know you—”
I cut her off. I knew where she was going with this. She knew the kind of person I was. If only I made an effort to change. Blah. Blah. Blah. How could someone so intelligent be so dense? So naïve? Did she really need her heart broken to learn a lesson? “A good man wouldn’t have finger fucked you the other day in his office. Wouldn’t think about it still…”
“I wanted you to do more than that,” she said. “I wanted—want you.”
I stormed away, throwing the ice pack across the room and taking out a thousand dollar vase with it. All I had to do was go to bed, go straight to bed, jerk-off, fall asleep and pretend this night never happened.
“You should leave,” I told her. “Quit the internship. I’ll write you any kind of recommendation letter you want.”
Unfortunately, Violet was right behind me.
“No,” she said sternly. “I won’t do that. Once I start something, I don’t give up until it’s finished.”
“You should forget about criminal law. It’ll break your heart.” I stared at her. “I’ll break your heart.”
Her voice rose with anger. “Didn’t you just hear me? I’m not giving up on you.”
I turned on my heel to see thunder bolts in her eyes, an expression that made me want her more than ever. And strangely enough, not just for her body. “I’ll corrupt you; ruin you for everyone else…”
“No you won’t,” she said. “I’m incorruptible.”
“We’ll see about that.”
I went for that sweet spot on her neck before she could say anything else, eliciting a gasp from her that would have made me hard if I hadn’t been already. Like a demented vampire, I nipped and sucked at her and, within an instant, I was caught up in her. The feel of her hands on my chest combined with the soft smell of her soap had me reaching for the zipper at the back of her skirt, pulling like a madman to get her out of it.
She smiled against my cheek, using her knuckles to push me away. “Let me.”
After a week of making me watch her glide around the office without so much as batting one of those pretty eyes in my direction, Violet was going to try and tell me what to do? I had spent every night fantasizing about her. Not a chance in hell.
“No.” I spun her around, and pushed my hard-on into her. “You’ll do what I tell you.”
“Wh—”
One of my fingers against her lips silenced her completely. “Shut up. From now on, you’ll only speak when spoken to.” I ran my hand under her blouse and she shivered. “Is that understood?”
“I—”
I smacked her ass. Hard.
“Should we try this again?”
Opening her lips to speak, she quickly closed them again. She nodded and looked away.
“Good. Now take your shirt off.”
I walked away to get a better view, surprised that her slim fingers quickly worked to undo the buttons. As much as I enjoyed the view of her exposed skin, it felt too rushed, too hastened. If this was the last moral threshold I was going to break, then I at least wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible.
“Slowly.”
Violet bit her bottom lip so hard that I thought it might draw blood. I smiled and enjoyed the way her fingernails worked the buttons while her fingers trembled. I took another step back so that I could sit on the sofa while I stroked myself. As if on cue, she followed me
“Good girl.” I reached forward to cup one of her breasts, before I traced the lace of her bra. “Now take this off.”
I adored the flush on her face as she revealed the rest of herself to me. Like I’d hoped, her nipples were a subtle pink, perfectly placed, like the dot over an “i.” She pushed herself into me and I took one of them in my mouth.
With the part of me that could think properly, I knew I didn’t want to take her in my bed. It seemed like an insult, considering how many women had been there before her. She deserved better than dirty sheets and reminders of my recklessness. She deserved better than me.
Still, it was all I could give her. And for now, that was going to have to do.
“Take off my pants.” My voice sounded harsh, even to me. But if she was afraid or even remotely nervous, Violet didn’t show it, smiling wide and working the buckle of my belt like a pro.
Once we were out of the rest of our clothes I laid her down on the couch, kissing her hard enough to make her weak. I hadn’t been lying or exaggerating when I told her I was going to corrupt her, ruin her for any man she’d ever have after me. With any luck, this would only be the beginning of it.
I ran my thumb over her clit and watched her squirm.
“You’re going to say my name,” I whispered in her ear, grazing her wet curls with my index finger. “I’m going to make you scream, and cream, and then scream again.” She moaned, her hands wild as she tangled them in my hair. Each time she shivered I ran my tongue up and down her slit—and, once again, she was positively dripping. I drank her like sweet honey.
“Sebastian, please…”
She shook with each hot kiss and it was only when she was on the brink that I sat up and reached into the drawer of my coffee table for a condom. When she saw me—all ten inches of me—the wide-eyed expression that washed over her face was magnificent. “I’ve been like this, so hard all week like this, just for you. Do you like that you do this to me?”
She nodded, her chest heaving with each breath.
“Do you want to touch me?”
“Yes.” She swallowed hard. “May I?”
I nodded and took her hand in?as my own. Sure enough, the feel of her fingertips made me hiss like a breaking furnace. Right when I clenched my eyes shut, I saw her smile. I suppose I should have known that this pretty little spitfire would make a wor
thy bed partner. Just the way she gently stroked me was enough to tell me she was a natural.
The heat between her legs was too tempting to ignore, too wonderful to deny. I sank myself into her slowly, unsure if she could take all of me right away. Already, she felt amazing, hot and tight around me. We groaned at the same time as her nails dug into my back. No more than two inches in and I lost the rest of my control. I plunged in and out of her, digging my fingers into the globes of her perfect ass.
“Tell me.” I glided in and out of her as easily as water. “Tell me how I make you feel.”
“Full.” She dug her fingers into my shoulder and called out. “God, Sebastian, you make me feel so full, so good… please don’t stop.”
Normally I wouldn’t have allowed her to tell me what to do, but in this instance, I was more than willing to comply. I pushed myself into her harder and faster, still amazed at the way her pussy clenched my cock. Her moans were erratic, pierced by the shrieks of ecstasy I had hoped for.
“Now you’ll come for me, my sweet Violet. You’re going to drench my cock with that sweet juice and scream for me.”
“Yes.” Her voice was breathy, on edge. “Please…”
I reached my index finger and thumb between us, pinching her clit as gently as I could with my shaking hands. I had never wanted to make a woman come so badly in my life, never felt that need to satisfy someone else so completely, and not just in the bedroom. She bucked against me like a wild animal, screaming out my name and some obscenities. I followed her with my own orgasm, silencing myself by slamming my lips against hers. Every cell of me rippled with pleasure and a searing white flash of light burst before my eyes.
The rest of me gave out as I settled myself on top of her. The last thing I wanted to do was make her feel claustrophobic, but she pulled me closer, her sultry laugh in my ear the entire time. I leaned my ear against her chest and listened to the mad beating of her heart, my pulse slowly returning to normal.