Sebastian outlined her jaw with the tip of his finger, and heat dropped her stomach to the floor only to lift it up again, the rush sending her on a dizzy spell. “When you smile, the most adorable dimples dent your cheeks.” His voice dropped an octave, his accent more pronounced. “Your eyes are the color of the ocean.” He ran his finger up her cheek and she struggled not to melt into his caress. “And your breasts… they deserve their own commemorative stamp. Or to have a street named after them.” With his gaze locked on hers, he lowered his hand to her chest, making an invisible pattern on her pointing nipples with his fingers.
“A street?” she breathed.
Sebastian snaked an arm behind her and pulled her closer. “A whole city. A country, even,” he said with a growl. His hot breath electrified her scalp, and he kissed her earlobe. She thought she was going to explode, her blood flowing fast and furious through her veins. Instead of aiming at her mouth, he rose to his feet, looped his hands under her knees, and lifted her off the couch and into his arms.
He laid her down the mattress, and she barely registered the softness of the bedspread or the pillows he tossed to the side. He was all that there was, all there could be, as he eased on top of her. He dipped his head and took her mouth in his, his tongue delving into her dark corners. She cupped his face and intensified the kiss, giving in to a hunger she didn’t know she had. Well, she knew. But she’d avoided it. Ignored it. Suppressed it.
Tonight, there was no holding back. She wrapped her legs around him, and the brush of her thighs against his thick legs, his hardness teasing her sex, was mind blowing. She squirmed against him, and he reached for the zipper on the back of her dress. With the mastery of a pro, well —she didn’t want to muse over his experience—he unzipped her dress and removed it over her head. He hesitated before touching her again, and beamed at the sight of her sparkly purple bra and G-string.
“You came prepared.”
He reached under her buttocks with circular movements, his hands warm and heavy over her skin.
For a moment, she felt like stretching her hand out and pulling the bedspread over her. The exposure sank in. Of course, the lighting was dimmed, still… she lay in bed, vulnerable. He removed her bra and slid her panties off her legs, and he assessed every inch of her naked body.
She worried her bottom lip, still tender from his kiss. The look of male appreciation in his green eyes encouraged her to sit up and start to undress him. Stripping him distracted her from her own nerves and soon enough she would get over herself and ditch her insecurities. With every part of him she exposed, her heart beat each time faster than the last. Sebastian was… gorgeous, his muscles shifting on his smooth chest, as he breathed heavily. When she reached for his pants, he inhaled.
Flashing him a smile, she undid his fly and pulled down his pants and black briefs. Oh, yeah… his cock sprang out, and she didn’t resist fisting her old friend. Old and large. “I’ve missed you,” she told Sebastian, running his length with her fingers.
He frowned, and asked, “Is that all you missed?”
She hesitated and drew back. Sex before the marriage, and arguing after, were the only two things that stuck in her head every time she thought of being Mrs. Sebastian Zwane.
“Come here. I’ll refresh your memory,” he said, and he pulled her down to the mattress.
Okay. Good. So the awkwardness was gone. She must have imagined the tense flicker in his eyes, the thinning of his lips as he asked her that question. Silly Grace. He’d meant sexually, of course, and there she was, letting her mind delve into non-existent paranoia. Bad Grace! He started a trail of kisses on her breasts, and she threw her head back, burying it into the goose-feathered pillow. He flicked his tongue over her nipple, while he cupped the other one with his palm. She moaned, arching her body to him as a silent message for him to go ahead and take her already.
Sebastian had other plans. Of course. He licked her belly, and then nipped her skin with his teeth. The temperature upped another twenty degrees and sweat threatened to break out and glisten over her body. When he bent further and his breath coated her thighs, she was already trembling. Using his tongue, he entered her swollen walls and twirled it around her flesh, each time deeper. Each time, getting close to her G-spot. Did he remember, after all this time? He flicked her clit. Her moan turned into a pleading scream when he plunged deeper and… Oh yeah. He remembered.
Her body clenched all at once, and spasms started at her sex and swept over her trembling legs all the way to her curling toes. He continued to suck her and she quivered.
A misleading sensation of peace washed over her. Peace? He bent on his knees, and with a wicked smile, demanded, “Get on all fours for me, baby.”
Chapter Four
Sebastian’s mouth watered. She leaned down and lifted her gorgeous ass in the air. He traced the heart shaped tattoo above her buttocks, and groaned. He rolled the condom he had strategically placed on the nightstand on his length, and she smiled over her shoulder.
His cock grew bigger. Easy, he told himself. He wanted to make it good for her. Not good, memorable. After eavesdropping on her phone call to her friend, and the way her eyes lit up when he showed her the stack of cards filled with ice breakers… All he wanted was to give her pleasure – and to distract himself from a powerful, lingering emotion that had driven him to arrange the flowers, and prepare the place for her. Nostalgia?
He bent and nipped her buttock, the skin firm and smooth under his teeth. Delicious.
She moaned and stayed put, and he moved on to the other cheek, savoring the firm flesh. Exquisite. He cupped her sex, and snaked his fingers into her dripping-wet essence. She had tasted so wonderful, he could do that everyday. Nonsense. He could do it for as long as they had each other.
He flicked her clit again, using his finger to stroke the warm bud.
“Sebastian, come inside me,” she demanded. “Now.”
“Your wish is my command.” Aroused, he spread her cheeks with his length, easing slowly into her hot, wet sex to give her time to adjust. He felt rather than heard her intake of breath, the planes of her back stiffening, and he almost withdrew all the way. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her.
She cast him another glance over her shoulder, and smiled. “What the heck are you waiting for?”
He reached for her hair, and pulled it, fisting his fingers in her silk. Driving inside her was like diving into a parallel universe. She was so tight… Her walls clung to him, her inner muscles clenching around him. She thrust her hips toward him, and he threw his head back, the blood rushing through his body. Oh yes… he impaled her, sending his length into her, the ripples of pleasure building in him. She whimpered and he tugged at her hair again. How amazing it was to be in charge of her, even if only sexually… He smacked her perfectly round and fleshy butt, and a couple small growls filled the air. Yeah. She was enjoying it as much as he was.
“Sebastian. I’m coming. I can’t even…” she said in a strangled voice, and he let go of restraint and slammed her all the way to her hilt. Breathless, he gave her one more slap on her ass. Then, he watched her shiver, until she thumped her upper body on the mattress, and he withdrew himself all the way just to return one more time. Deeper. Stronger. He reached her most secret spot, plunging into her, and soon he came. The release of raw energy, from his body to hers, had him closing his eyes. It was better than before. Nonsense.
He fell on top of her, rolled off and snatched her to him. Her body, slicked with sweat, draped over his. He threaded his fingers through her hair, and paced his breath. Suggesting they got intimate again had been a bold move, but as his body still pulsated around her, his blood pressure slowly coming down… it was all worth it. Sex with her was the one way he could have her. And fantasize about what otherwise couldn’t be.
He’d been made a fool by her once, because he believed there could be something more. Now, he sank into this twisted divorce deal with both eyes open – despite his traitorous cock.
“W
hy didn’t you ever tell me about your mother? When we were together?” she asked, her voice soft.
The muscles in his neck tensed up. He had told her his parents weren’t alive anymore, although he had spun the story so she believed he’d lost both of them on the same day. Because, hadn’t it been that way? He loosened the hold, and brought his hands behind his head. “Men don’t usually advertise their flaws.”
With a sigh, she propped herself on her elbows and turned to face him, her expression growing serious. “In what way is losing a parent a flaw?”
Trying to avoid her scrutiny, he fixated on the textured ceiling. “I should have taken care of her. She was all I had after my father left us, and I should have seen it coming. I kept telling myself it would be okay,” he said in a low, coarse voice. “It was my idea to move to the States.”
“You were sixteen. You don’t see how that was her decision?”
Her decision? His mother hadn’t been able to make choices, her will to live slipping away each day. If he hadn’t insisted on moving to Florida, would she still be alive? “Maybe, but—”
“No maybe. There was no way you could have avoided what happened. You couldn’t watch her around the clock, and like you said, she was long gone before she physically went.”
He swallowed the lump lodged in his throat, gathered his strength and glanced at her. “When we met… it was nice not having to think about that part of my life,” he said, and shook his head. Time for a change of subject. “Don’t you see yourself somewhere else? Other than Florida?”
“No.” She shifted in bed and sighed. “I spent my first eighteen years of life moving from campground to campground with my parents. I was homeschooled, and never got to make friends. By the time I learned people’s names, we were on the road again. I know they wanted to show me the country, but it wasn’t fair to me.”
No, it wasn’t. How could anyone raise a child like that? If he hadn’t lost his parents, perhaps he would have that sense of belonging – one he no longer shared. “Did you ever tell them that?”
She snickered. “I might have slammed the door a couple times when I was a teenager, but I knew that was just their nature. I couldn’t go against it. ”
“You’re an adult now. You can make your own decisions and come and go as you please.”
She bit back a smile and played with the hem of the sheet. “Yeah but I could never abandon my grandmother. I’m all she has left.”
His stomach curled. That kind of love he understood well, and respected. Why hadn’t she been able to commit the same way to him? He clenched his jaw, and damn it, he knew he shouldn’t bring this up, but before he stopped himself, he said, “You say it like it’s hard for you to leave people behind.”
“Sebastian… If I hadn’t fallen pregnant, we wouldn’t have gotten married so soon. And when James was gone… I couldn’t deal with things. You suffocated me.”
Could that be true? He cracked his knuckles and sat up on the bed. “You lost our baby after we fought. Of course I wanted to take care of you, and I still don’t know why that was a big deal.” An invisible knot looped around him, allowing him to breathe in gasps. The air around him was in short supply. What else was left to say? There was no way they’d ever agree on this.
“No point in talking about it now.” She cocked her head to the side and scooted away from him. She checked the alarm clock and brushed her temples with fidgety fingers. “Shoot. I have to get going and get some sleep.”
He cleared his throat. “Don’t go.”
She shrugged, as if that was out of discussion, and jumped out of bed. While he watched her scramble into her clothes, adorable and naked, he thought of ways to convince her to stay. Then, it hit him. It was pointless. And why did he want to complicate things? A no strings affair was what he wanted, what he needed. He’d had enough complication to last him a lifetime. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning so we can go over the numbers.”
***
He thought an extra cup of espresso would help. Foolish idea. As he sat across from Grace in her office, she was a natural energy booster. He cursed himself for not being able to go back to sleep after she had left. He wanted to drive her home, but refrained from insisting after she refused the ride.
Bits and pieces of their conversation flashed through his mind. You suffocated me. Why on Earth did she have that perception? He only wanted to be there for her like he hadn’t for his mother. When they got married, he was so in love, the idea of something happening to her brought a hitch to his breath.
If anything, he had been very involved during their time together. Was she after the opposite? A husband who gave her all the space she needed, so much of it in fact that they occupied different wavelengths? Or had they been on different wavelengths all along?
None of it mattered.
None.
Soon, his wife would be the four new offices on the West coast. That’s what deserved his dedication and time – that’s what would give back instead of over complicating things.
He focused on the numbers in front of him, on the spreadsheet on her laptop she’d turned in his direction. “Have you done a market study? Are your prices competitive?”
She clicked the top of her ballpoint pen and handed him a few sheets of paper neatly stapled together. “Yes, I even lowered them a bit to give me a head start.”
He glanced through some of her profit margins and sighed. “Maybe that’s where it all went sour. There’s a reason why the other caterers charge more. I understand you wanted to build clientele, but you can’t be profitable with such low margins. What are you doing to upsell your services?”
She opened her mouth to speak, and her cell phone rang. She peered at the screen and frowned at the number, answering right away. “Hello.” She gestured to him she would be just a moment.
He let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. One thing was for sure, Grace King sure acted like they hadn’t had sex the night before.
She nodded a couple times, then said, “I’m heading over.” She hung up and slid her phone in her pocket.
“What is it?”
Surging to her feet, she grabbed her bag on the windowsill. “I’m so sorry, Sebastian. Can we continue this after lunch? I got a call from the nursing home.” She bit back a smile. “Nana has been asking for me. That doesn’t happen often and I really need to see her.”
He still remembered her grandmother, the vivacious Southern matriarch he’d met a handful of times. “Why don’t we go together? You can spend all the time you want, and afterward we’ll finish.”
She chuckled. “You? In a nursing home? Unless you want to give the old ladies an instant heart attack, I don’t see the point.”
“I’d like to pay Nana a visit. I’m old school. We’re going to get officially divorced, and she is the last of the King family I have the opportunity to say good-bye to.”
She shrugged. “My parents aren’t dead, you know.”
“You know what I mean,” he said. Her parents were never in the picture, but he hoped he didn’t have to spell that out.
She brought her eyebrows together, and a small gasp of air flew past her lips. “Fine. Don’t be heartbroken if she doesn’t remember you, and please don’t mention anything about our divorce if she does.”
“You got it.”
During the drive to the nursing home, she sat with the trace of a smile on her lips, eyes remote and deep in thought. He opted to keep quiet and not ruin her moment of bliss. Why the hell did he offer to come with her? The question buzzed in his ears, as they made their way into the quaint complex of brick buildings. A courtyard filled with well-manicured shrubs and colorful plants, made him realize it didn’t matter. Maybe seeing her spend time with Nana would nip in the bud any hope she would visit him in L.A. once in a while. Nonsense. He shook his head. The whole purpose of spending time with her was to enjoy the sex between them. Hadn’t one time of fooling himself been enough?
She showed him the visitor parking
lot, and after parking, he turned off his Ferrari rental. Then he got out of the car, going around it to help her get out.
She continued staring at the horizon, transfixed. He nudged her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She shook her shoulders and blinked. Accepting the hand he still offered, she slid out of the car. “Sorry. This is bittersweet. This may be the last time she remembers me.”
He gave the back of her hand a light kiss. “Grace, don’t waste your time anticipating. Enjoy her presence.” Easier said than done. The irony of his advice sent a tingle through him.
She withdrew her hand and nodded. “Thanks.”
He put his right arm around her shoulders while they talked, and realized how tense she was. Squeezing her neck lightly, he whispered into her hair, “It will be okay.”
By the time they reached the reception area, he noticed several nurses in beige uniforms shepherding some residents. A few of them seemed more independent elderly, as they walked, played chess or shared a laugh. Even though he had only seen Nana a few times, he recognized her. She sat on an old-fashioned leather chair facing the gardens. Her gray hair was put up, giving her a dignified air and showing her wrinkled face. Sitting, she seemed a lot slimmer than when he’d last seen her.
“Nana,” Grace called, emotion carrying her voice.
The woman turned to her granddaughter, putting aside the knitting gear that lay on her lap. “Grace. I was knitting a vest for you.”
A wave of warmth rushed through his bloodstream, and his stomach clenched. He knew how much her grandmother meant to her, and somehow being there seemed like for one moment, he understood Grace better.
“Nana, this is Sebastian.” Grace introduced them.
Sebastian leaned and shook her hand, and the old lady assessed him like the first time. She didn’t recognize him as Grace’s husband, which meant she thought they were in an age of the past where Grace was still single.
Grace wrapped her Nana in a hug so tight, Sebastian hoped her bones would endure it. “Calm down, child, it’s not like I haven’t seen you in forever,” Nana said, her Southern accent pronounced.
Accidentally Still Married (The Naked Truth Series Book 2) Page 4