I thought he might have wanted to cop a feel but he didn’t. Instead, he reached for the black flannel off of one of the glass shelves that lined the shower wall. Next came some yellow coloured shower gel that he lathered up in his hands and began to wash me with. I was stunned silent. No-one had ever done this to or for me before...ever. I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat at the sight of him. The muscles in his arms and chest bunched and flexed with every movement and his face contorted into concentration as his big hands produced the exotic smelling bubbles.
“Stand up.” Sebastian said, his voice was still a bit groggy but I heard him clear enough. I turned and stood facing him. I bit my lip and looked up into his blue eyes, seeing them warm and open. He looked down at me, giving me a small smile. “I’m taking care of you. Now, please be quiet and just relax.” He kissed the tip of my nose as he continued to lather up.
For the ten minutes it took to wash me, I obeyed his commands and instructions to raise my arms and lift my legs. I was struck mute. I couldn’t say anything even if I wanted to. My eyes just followed him, taking in every movement he made. He was pretty cute when he frowned in concentration. His pink tongue even popped out at the corner of his mouth occasionally.
“Thank you.” I managed to get out when he placed the flannel aside.
Sebastian pulled me to him so my boobs pressed against his chest, my nipples hardening the moment they touched his heated skin. He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine in an ever so soft kiss. “You’re welcome.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Because it was the right thing to do, that’s what.
Once I finished dressing in a white vest and a pair of black lace French knickers that Sebastian had left out on his bed for me, I left his room and made my way down the hall. There was no TV on or any talking. The whole place was bathed in silence. Who could live like this? The silence would drive me insane.
Rubbing the grey marl towel over my head to attempt to dry my long hair, I stopped at the kitchen to see it empty. “Huh.” Where were Sebastian and Rosa?
I bit my lip and continued down to the dining room—ah. Sebastian sat in the same seat as last night. He was sitting there looking absolutely gorgeous with his long hair hanging around his shoulders and his bare chest smoothed out in the subtly Sunday morning light coming through the wall length windows. Stubble coated his jaw because he hadn’t shaved yet and there was a frown marred between his brows as he read the papers in front of him. Overall though, he was a hot as hell specimen that made something deep in my stomach tingle. What made me feel even tinglier was the bite mark on the side of his neck which practically glowed with the shape of my teeth.
“I know you’re there.” he commented absently, as he picked up a piece of toast that looked to have orange marmalade on it and took a huge bite.
“You know you’re handsome as fuck sitting there like that.” I commented as I strolled into the room and approached the table. I stopped at his side dumping the towel over his paper and ran my fingers through his hair.
Sebastian shook his head from side to side and made a noise of exasperation. “Before you, I never knew a woman could speak like that.”
“They broke the mould when they made me, that’s for sure.” I laughed and tilted his head back. I bent down at the waist and planted a kiss on his lips then squealed into his cavern when Sebastian’s arm wrapped around my legs and pulled me into his lap. My hands scrambled to grab hold of something so I wouldn’t fall but Sebastian had a tight hold on me. “What are you doing?”
“Kissing you,” He muttered before lowering his mouth back to mine. His tongue slipped into my mouth, licking at the insides of my lips before slipping it further inside to tangle with my own. Immediately I tasted tea, marmalade flavoured toast and a hint of mint and all Sebastian. I moaned into his kiss and wrapped my arms around his neck, angling my head at a different angle seeking more. Our breath mingled together as our tongues stroked all over each others, deepening the kiss.
With a reluctantly groan, Sebastian pulled back and stared down at me. His hand swept up my bare leg, over my hip and against the side of my boob until he reached my jaw. His finger trailed a line down the slope and up across my lips. The tip of his finger dipped inside my mouth so I licked across edge with my tongue and nibbled a little.
“You are something else.” He said quietly, his eyes darkening, flicking over my face before settling on my eyes.
“True.” I pursed my lips and nodded. “But you love me though.”
Sebastian squeezed my butt cheek then patted it, signalling for me to get up. “That I do.”
I walked around the table to his right side and pulled out one of the comfy looking chairs and slumped down into it, bringing my foot up to curl my leg underneath me. I then reached over and pulled a warm plate over to me and sat it down in front of me.
“Where’s everyone else?” I asked as I loaded my plate up with creamy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, Cumberland sausages, a couple of tomatoes and a fried slice. When Sebastian didn’t answer, I dropped the toast onto my plate and looked up at him with my brows raised. He was watching me intently, a small smile playing on his face. “What?”
He shook his head and sighed as he picked up my used towel and put it aside then reached for his paper and placed it back in front of him. “It’s nice to see a woman eat her food. All my life I’ve been in the company of women who prefer to eat next to nothing or nothing but salad due to keeping their figures.” He shook his head again, his brows furrowing as he did. “I could never understand that concept though.”
“Me neither.” I snorted. “What’s the point in not eating? I mean, when you don’t eat, you get grouchy and snappish and what funs that?” I pointed my knife at him. “Also, I have woman meat that needs feeding and a lot of it too.”
Sebastian grunted his agreement and settled back down reading his paper. I cut up bits of my bacon, slices of my sausage and some scrabbled eggs and loaded all three onto my fried slice and took a big bite, nearly moaning out loud at the mixture of absolutely gorgeous tastes rolling over my taste buds. Damn Rosa could cook.
“You never did answer my question.” I said around my mouthful. “Where is everyone?”
The paper lowered again. “Rosa is with her family today. Her daughter called and said something about needing her to go over there and Ralph is running an errand for me.”
Huh. I didn’t know Rosa had family but then looking at her, she looked like one of those grannies who baked a shit load of cookies and smelled of that famous perfume that everyone complained about.
“What kind of errand?”
Sebastian shifted in his seat and his jaw hardened. My eyes travelled down from his face to his hands that were gripping the edges of the paper with white knuckles. Oh no, this wasn’t good, was it?
There was only one person I knew of that made Sebastian lose his cool...Naomi.
“Let me guess.” I sighed and finished off my mouthful of toast. It felt like dry sandpaper going down my throat now rather than the tasty food it was minutes ago. “It’s got to be Naomi related, right?”
Sebastian’s eyes fluttered shut before he nodded once.
“What’s the matter now?”
Sebastian eyed me for a minute before spilling. “Baby Leo isn’t mine.”
If I would have been eating, I would have choked. Okay, that was good news, real good news. A major weight lifted off my shoulders, a weight I didn’t even know had been weighing them down in the first place.
Part of me felt like I wanted to jump up and down on the spot, throwing my hands up in the air and shaking what my mother gave me in delight, in happiness and in relief but...the other part of me felt I had no right to do that and thinking or even feeling that was bad and wrong somehow.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded and settled back in the chair, my eyes never leaving Sebastian. I was afraid that even if I blinked, I’d miss something. “And?” because there was obviously more.
A snort left me as I threw my hands up in the air. “She’s not happy? What has she got to be not happy about?” the moment I said that, it hit me. “Oh wait!” I held my hands out in front of me as I pushed up from the chair and started pacing back and fourth. “I know why she’s not happy. She’s not happy that you know Baby Leo’s not yours. She was hoping to fool you for eighteen years then slap it down with major realisation that you weren’t her baby daddy. Now, I bet she’s spitting pissed because she wanted in on some of you, well, more than what she’s already had but still. She wanted maintenance for the kid and something else too.” I took a breath, held my index finger up and explained. “She wanted that poor boy held over you like a sacrifice. She thought she’d trick you then blackmail or some shit like that when you wanted to see him. She would have drained you dry and by the end, it would have all been for fuck all.”
Sebastian stared wide eyed at me for at least a couple of minutes before nodding slowly. He adjusted his position in his seat and sighed, rubbing his fingers over the stubble growing along his chin. “That and another reason she’s not happy.”
“And that is?”
“I’ve issued her with at least three different court orders this morning.”
On a Sunday? Could you even do that? Huh, why was I even considering it? This was Sebastian Blackwell for God’s sake; he could do anything he wanted.
I felt my own eyes go wide. “You did?” he did? “And what were the court orders for exactly?”
His head lolled back and fourth. “A couple of issues.” He shrugged. “Mainly though, the house,”
My brows drew together and I fiddled around with the knife and fork on my plate, the gorgeous tasting food now forgotten. “House, what house?”
“The house I shared with Naomi when we were married.” He laughed but there was no humour in it. “You didn’t think I lived here.” He waved his hands around the dining room. “With Naomi did you? Naomi wouldn’t be caught dead living here. That’s one of the reasons why I chose it. It’s too...” he pursed his lips in thought. “...plain for her liking. She’d be able to take a couple of nights but anymore than that, she would go mad with the need to turn it into something else.”
I was struck silent with his words. I slumped back against my chair and pulled at my bottom lip with my thumb and index finger. My eyes flickered over him seeing him lost in thought. That marring between his brows was still there but it was a bit deeper now and his eyes had a faraway look in them. I blinked and cast my eyes away from him, scanning the room I sat in wondering what the hell was wrong with it in the first place that someone would want to change it then I wondered what Sebastian’s house looked like and what it would be like to see it.
No! My mind shouted. Why would I want to see the house that they had shared once upon a time?
Hang on a minute...I just thought... “Why would you need to issue Naomi with a court order to leave the house you shared if you’re divorced already?” wouldn’t the house have been one of the things in the divorce that would have been fought over?
Sebastian blinked at my question and seemed to come back to the land of the living. “Well...”
Oh, it was one of those answers which meant that I either wasn’t going to like the answer or truthfully him, he didn’t like the answer. “Well?” I prompted when he continued to stay silent.
Clearing his throat, Sebastian explained. “When Naomi informed me of the pregnancy all of those months ago, I allowed her to stay in the house we once shared until the baby was born.”
Whoa, slam on the goddamned brakes. “What?” I exploded. “You did what?”
“Calm down, will you?” He said, huffing out a breath and running a hand through his hair. “I had to do it.”
My brows drew together. My bare feet sunk into the rich carpet as I continued to pace. “You had to do what, Sebastian? You just had to go and give her a house that you owned and for what? What made you do that?”
Even I knew people didn’t give away houses for free, there had to be more to the situation than what he was letting on.
“Because it was the right thing to do, that’s what.”
Was I hearing right?
“For whom, Sebastian, because from where I’m standing, all you did was entice her and make her think that things were going somewhere and don’t get me started on what she did to me. Yet you still gave her a house. Are you crazy?”
“I’m not crazy.” He blasted, his hand fisting on the table before banging it, making the plates and various dishes jump and rattle a little. “I was doing the right thing by the unborn child. I couldn’t let her live where she was when there was a possibility she was pregnant with my child. What kind of man do you think I am?”
“I think you were fucking crazy is what. I get your point about the baby but come on. It wasn’t like the bitch was living in squalor and a crack den was she? She wouldn’t know what living on the breadline was like, Sebastian. She’s never been in such a position that she’s needed to count every penny and I mean every penny just to make it through the week and that includes paying her rent for a shit hole.” I slammed my hand down on my chest. “But I have and what did you do for me? Not that I expected it mind.” I added quickly. “You put her up in your posh as fuck house probably for free because you felt obliged.” I shook my head and squeezed the bridge of my nose. “Put me aside for a minute. Did you sort her out with the house before or after the thing with Jacob and the recording?”
I just had to hear the truth. I already had a feeling what the answer was going to be anyway before he even opened his mouth.
Sebastian’s stubble coated cheek rippled with the grinding of his back teeth. “After.”
A bitter laugh left me. “How did I know that?” I said more to myself than him. I shook my head as I continued to huff out disbelieving laughs. I didn’t know how we were supposed to be a proper couple with shit like this hanging over us and happening behind the scenes. Obviously during the six months that I wasn’t around, Naomi had gotten her clutches into him again and just like a sap, he’d allowed it. The thing that bugged me and really got on my wick was that he said it was because of the kid yet there was a part of me that niggled away in the back of my mind telling me that maybe it wasn’t all the kid.
I just didn’t know what to believe anymore.
Where did this morning end up going so wrong?
“So let me get this straight.” I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “you sat there in your Mother’s house listening to not only Naomi degrade me in front of everyone with not only her mouth, actions and the recording but afterwards when I left and you didn’t come after me, you gave her a house?” I finished off shouting with incredulity.
“It wasn’t like that.” He said quietly.
“Then how was it?” I persisted.
His cheek rippled again and his eyes flashed in warning. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”
I licked my lips and smiled but it wasn’t a nice smile. I felt my lips stretching into a snarl. “No, you’re right. You don’t have to explain anything to me. After all,” I leaned forward into his space. “I’m just Victoria; your bit on the side.”
“Oh don’t start that. You know you’re more than she could ever be, more than anyone else could ever be.”
“I’m sorry.” I chuckled. “Did you not just tell me that you gave your ex wife a house—your house to live in after she’d done what she did to me—to us?”
“I’ve already apologised a million times to you for my solecisms. I said I was sorry and I meant it. If it helps all that much I’ll apologise for helping Naomi too. In supplying Naomi with the house, I was doing what felt was right. Could you imagine if I had gotten her pregnant and not benefitted her with housing how bad I would feel. Leo could have been my Son.”
“But he’s not.” I answered quietly.
“No.” Sebastian sighed
almost regretfully. My head snapped up at his tone. Was he gutted that the baby wasn’t his? Was he secretly hoping he was? No, he couldn’t be, could he? “You’re correct and we know that now.”
Stifling silence settled around us making me fidget around, uncomfortably. “So?” I shrugged, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. “You’re chucking her out now, is that it?”
“Evicting her, asking her to leave, whatever way you want to put it. Now I know for sure the baby wasn’t fathered by me, she’s been ordered to leave. I have no more responsibility to either one of them.”
He didn’t have any bloody responsibility in the first place. Wasn’t he the one that told me he didn’t think he was the Dad to Naomi’s baby when she announced she was pregnant? Did he suddenly forget that?
I nodded slowly. “What will you do with the house?” not that I was really bothered but I had to know if this was going to be springing up again.
Now Sebastian shrugged and frowned. “I don’t actually know. I should have sold it but in this climate, it’s not the best move to make. Perhaps I could see if any of my brothers want it.”
God, he was so spoilt. There were people dying in the world and there he sat willing to hand over a house that I knew would be worth millions—like it was a bag of crisps. Damn, and there was me looking for a place to live with a deposit of not even five hundred pounds.
“Listen,” I ran my hands through my damp hair. “I’ve got to go and get my stuff for work tomorrow. I’m gonna go get dressed and I should be back some time later.”
“Victoria.” Sebastian started.
I shook my head and chewed the inside of my cheek to stop my mouth running away from me like it really wanted to. I wanted to scream and shout at him, perhaps slap him a little or maybe hit him with my six inch heeled shoe to knock some sense into him but...I wouldn’t.
“I’ll be back later, Sebastian.” With that, I walked out of the dining room and down to his bedroom where my clothes had been placed and sorted into his huge walk in wardrobe. I snorted as I pushed through the lines of his expensive suits. None of the clothes I was about to put on were truly mine anyway but hey ho.
Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife Page 18