by Julia Wolf
She looked up from her laptop, a smile painted on her face. She knew next to nothing about Sebastian Vega, but I could see the ship forming in her head. To her, we were the start of a cute teenage rom-com. Or maybe an epic love story like she had with my dad. If she only knew I’d been appointed the hapless victim in this psychological thriller.
Sebastian stopped at the edge of the living room, dipping his chin in deference to my mother. “Hello, ma’am. Sorry I’m so late. I had to help my sister out and it took longer than I expected.”
Mom shot me a wide-eyed glance before giving him a kind smile. “How sweet are you? And don’t worry about the time. Grace is always up until at least midnight. She runs on fumes and iced coffee in the morning and never listens to reason.”
Sebastian flashed a boyish grin that appeared so sincere, I nearly believed it. “I’ve noticed that about Grace. She’s stubborn. But I think that’s why I like her.”
“A stubborn woman is better than a pushover. I just hope she isn’t giving you too hard a time. I gave her dad the runaround for months before admitting defeat.”
“It isn’t like that, Mom. This is a school thing. That’s all.”
Sebastian brought his hand up to the back of my neck, giving it a gentle squeeze. Chills raced down my spine, followed by heat flooding the same path.
“Grace is giving me just the right amount of hard time. I don’t have any complaints.”
“Ah, the joys of youth. Enjoy it while it lasts.” She flattened her hands on her keyboard. “Would you guys mind doing your work in Grace’s room? I’m trying to get a paper written out here.”
I ducked out from under Sebastian’s hold. “When have you ever allowed a boy in my room?” If she only knew the boy was a wolf and she was throwing her daughter right into his claws.
“Since we live in a small apartment and it's pretty hard to keep secrets. Since you’re eighteen. And since you’re going to keep the door open a crack, just in case.” She winked at both of us. “Now, shoo. We all have work to do.”
Sebastian nipped at my heels down the hallway to my bedroom. My room was the farthest from the living room, but my mom was right, sound traveled through the cheap construction.
The second we stepped into my room, Sebastian gripped my shoulder and walked me into the wall. He spun me so we were facing each other and dipped his head to run his nose along my neck.
“Tell me what happened to your head,” he murmured into my skin.
“I have it handled. It’s no big deal.” I pressed my palm against his rock-hard chest, and his muscles twitched under my touch. “We have work to do.”
Sebastian pulled his face away, gripping my chin with his fingers. “What do you have handled?”
“Bitches.”
He huffed a short laugh. “I’m not gonna leave you alone until you tell me.”
“You already made it clear you wouldn’t leave me alone anyway, where’s the threat?”
His dark eyes darted between mine, frustration seeping from his every pore. “I’m not threatening you, Grace. I feel protective of you.” His thumb pushed against the center of my bottom lip. “If anyone’s going to hurt you, it’ll be me. Anyone else, I need to make it right.”
My brain splattered on the wall behind me as my head exploded. I wanted to shout and go crazy, but I reeled myself in. I couldn’t let my mom hear what I was about to say.
Poking his chest, I hissed, “I am not yours to protect. I’m not an object to own. You assaulted me. You continue to terrorize me. I barely know you, yet you act like…like...well, like I’m yours. And you charm my mother, calling her ma’am all respectfully, when you defiled her daughter in the back of a freaking minivan.”
“Grace.” He caught my hand and brought it to his mouth to kiss my knuckles. If I could have slapped him, I would have. When he kissed me like that, all tender and sweet like he was my boyfriend, the screaming inside my head reached a sonic boom. “Stop it.”
“It’s laughable that you want to make me being hurt right. How are you going to make the way you hurt me right?”
“You’re not wrong.” He backed away, leaving me slumped against the wall as he walked around my room. “I took things farther than I should have. I’ll own that.” He picked up a picture of my family when we were three, studying it. After a pause, he placed it on my dresser, then moved to my desk, brushing his fingers over the white surface. I hadn’t cluttered it up like my old room yet. We’d gotten rid of most of our belongings before we moved back, not being able to afford to bring them, so when Sebastian touched my things, I didn’t feel so violated. They were barely mine.
Of course, he always went a step too far. Opening the top drawer of my dresser, he pulled out a pair of lacy pink panties and waved them around, a slanted grin on his face.
I snatched at them, but he waved them higher. “You’re an asshole, Sebastian. This isn’t funny.”
“I don’t know about that. I’m enjoying myself. Maybe when you tell me what happened to your head, I’ll give these back.” He clutched them in his fist, starting for his pocket, but his movement hitched. “Or you could wear them tomorrow.”
“Wear my own underwear?”
He tipped his chin, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. “Wear them for me.”
My pulse fluttered in my throat. “What does that mean?”
“When I ask, you’ll show them to me.” He shrugged. “That’s all.”
“Oh, that’s all? No thank you. No deal. Do not pass go. I’ll never willingly show you any part of me under my clothing.”
Sitting on the edge of my bed, he ran the lace edges of my panties between his fingers. He took up so much space in my room—and not just physical. All the air in the atmosphere gravitated to him, choking me because I was outside his orbit.
“You’re adorable.” He patted the spot beside him. “Come here. We have shit to do. I’m not failing this assignment because you’re deciding to be difficult.”
I would have thrown myself down to pound my fists on the floor like a tantruming toddler if I didn’t think Sebastian would be on me in an instant, taking everything I’d never give him. Instead, I planted myself on my desk chair, across the room from the monster of my nightmares. I wasn’t safe, but I was marginally safer than sitting on my bed with him.
He sighed. “This isn’t going to work.”
“It’ll work fine. We don’t need to be near each other to complete this assignment. Do you have a notebook?” As soon as I asked the question, I noticed he didn’t have his backpack with him. My eyes narrowed as venom pumped through my system. “You had no intention of working on the assignment tonight, did you? You’re only here to get under my skin.”
Chuckling, Sebastian lay back on my pillows with his hands tucked beneath his head. “Your skin isn’t what I’d like to get under.”
“Are you going to answer my question?”
He turned his head toward me. “I did have the intention to work on the assignment, but by the time I was able to come here, my intentions were thrown out. I’m not in the mood for schoolwork.”
“So, you want me to do all of it like I originally offered? I don’t have a problem with that, especially if it means I don’t have to spend any extra time with you.”
He bounced up and down on my bed a couple times. “This mattress is hard as a fucking rock. What kind of princess sleeps on a slab of stone?”
My eyes rolled heavenward. When Sebastian wasn’t being horrifying, he was beyond frustrating. Having a conversation with him seemed impossible. He only talked about what he wanted to, and only when he was ready.
“The broke kind. Can you answer my question about the assignment please?”
“I’ll buy you a new one. If I’m going to be spending time here, I’d like your bed to be a lot more comfortable.”
“It’s a good thing you won’t be spending any time here. No need to waste your money.” I folded my arms under my breasts. “The assignment?”
His gaze returned to the ceiling. “Tell me who hit your head. I’ll find out anyway. You might not like my means, though.”
“Stop changing the subject.” I flew to my feet, my fists at my hips. “I won’t tell you what happened. It’s none of your concern. I can handle myself just fine now that I know what to expect. It’s when I’m taken by surprise that I’m hurt, but that won’t happen again. You can go if you’re not planning on doing math.”
He patted the spot beside him again. “Come lay here with me for a minute, then I’ll leave.”
“I’m not getting in bed with you. You’re demented, Sebastian.”
He scooted his entire body over so he was against the wall. “Come here, Grace. You can be on the outside for an easy escape. I’m not going to hurt you tonight.”
Trepidation warred within me. I wanted him gone more than I wanted to take another breath, but I’d be a fool to climb onto that bed with him. Still, he had to know I’d scream this whole building down if he tried to hurt me again.
“Will you really go?”
He studied me for so long, I had trouble breathing through the intensity emanating from his gaze. “I’ll go,” he promised.
Against my better judgment, and every one of my instincts, I crossed the room to my bed. I drew one knee up, then the other, kneeling at the edge. Sebastian took my hand, tugging me down beside him. He turned on his side, but I stayed on my back. The last thing I would be doing was staring into his eyes.
He pushed my shirt up to splay his hand on my bare stomach. His palm was hot and rough. The muscles in my stomach clenched in response, which made him huff a laugh.
He inched upward, but I caught him by the wrist. “That wasn’t part of the deal,” I hissed.
“I never said I wouldn’t touch you, just that I wouldn’t hurt you.” He kept going, breaking free of my hold like I was a pesky gnat. “I didn’t get to spend enough time with your tits.”
He cupped my breast in his hand, flexing around my flesh. My eyelids tried to flutter closed, but I forced them to stay open. Closing my eyes around Sebastian would be a massive mistake. This boy was a villain, and it would serve me to always keep that in the front of my thoughts. Even if he made me feel good sometimes, he wasn’t the hero.
“I’ve been thinking about that night in the van.” His thumb idly rubbed my peaked nipple. I worked hard to remain still, calming my breathing and pulse.
“Funny, so have I. My thoughts are more like nightmares, though.”
He dipped his head to run his nose down the length of mine. “I understand that. The trouble is, you are my new obsession. Playing with you is my pastime. This isn’t going to end, Grace. I enjoy you more than I’ve enjoyed anything for a long, long time.”
“What if I spread my legs right now and let you fuck me? Would that end your curiosity?” I would never do it. Never. But I had to know—as my in-case-of-emergency-break-glass, last-ditch option.
“Hmmm…” He reached down, gripping one of my thighs and wrenching it apart from the other. “We could try.”
I pressed my legs together, trapping his hand between them. “No. That’ll never happen.”
“It will, Grace. But I promised not to hurt you, so I won’t. Not tonight.” He freed his hand to continue his exploration of my breasts. For some reason, I felt safer with his hand under my shirt than anywhere else.
Sucking in a shaky breath, I asked the question that had been playing on my mind since the van. “Have you done something like this before?”
He pushed my shirt up toward my chin and closed his mouth over my nipple through my cotton bra, sucking hard. A whimper escaped me, and not entirely from pain.
“I’ve sucked a few tits. Yours are the prettiest, though. You don’t have to worry about that.”
I pushed his face back until his eyes met mine. “That wasn’t what I meant—and you know it. Have you done what you did to me in the van to anyone else? Is that your thing?”
He stilled, capturing me in his never-ending ferocity. “Never.”
“Have you gone crazy like this with another girl? Wanting her to cry for you? To hurt her?”
“No.” He nudged the cup of my bra down. “I told you, this is specific to you. I don’t want to hurt you.” His warm, wet lips closed over my tip, his tongue circling and flicking. I shook, my hips rising even when my brain ordered them to be still.
“What do you want from me?”
His teeth grazed my nipple, the nerve endings shooting pleasure all the way to my core.
“I don’t know yet.”
Sebastian touched his mouth to my breast in that gentle way that knocked me off balance, then threw me completely off-kilter when he righted my bra and pulled down my shirt.
He propped himself up on his elbow, staring down at me. “We’ll work on the assignment tomorrow. I’ll show up earlier with my math stuff.”
“What?” I pushed up on my elbows. “You’re coming back here?”
That made him laugh. “What don’t you understand, Grace? I’ve been pretty clear on what’s happening here. I may not know what the outcome will be, but I do know I’m not even remotely close to being done with you. I don’t think you’re done with me either, even if it kills you to admit it.”
I groaned, irritated beyond measure. How had I gotten here? More importantly, how did I get out?
“You said you’d leave if I lay here.” I covered my eyes with the back of my hand, willing him away. “Please, Sebastian.”
“Mmm.” He pressed his face into the space between my jaw and shoulder, taking a deep inhale. “I did say that. I’ll be seeing you.” Something light dropped onto my chest. “Don’t forget to wear these tomorrow.”
He climbed over me, and once he was off the bed, he smoothed his knuckles down my cheek. “Bye, Grace.”
I didn’t open my eyes until I heard the front door firmly shut. The pink panties were laying on my chest, looking like a poisoned rose. Fisting them in my hand, I slammed my feet down on my mattress, both sick a guy like Sebastian found me fascinating and deeply ashamed I found some sort of pleasure in it.
Chapter Twelve
Bex’s stare was unrelenting. “Elena did what?”
“You heard me. The bitch used my head as a battering ram.” My finger prodded at the tender spot square in the center of my forehead. “She took me by surprise.”
“Holy shit. I wish I’d been there. I would have...I don’t know, given her a menacing stare or something.” Bex pounded her fist into her palm, but she looked about as tough as a toddler.
“I feel like I should carry a switchblade like I’m in an eighties movie.” I slapped my chest like a tough guy. “I’ll be like, come at me, bro. And then I’ll do some fancy maneuvers with my blade until she runs away scared.”
She snorted with laughter, her cheeks flushing hot pink.
I bit into my brownie, giggling too.
This was the first time we’d had time to really talk today. She’d noticed the bruise during first period—no amount of makeup was going to hide the goose egg that went along with it—and I’d told her I’d spill the details later. Except, later never came since Sebastian insisted we eat our lunch on the wall with his crew. While he’d given Bex and me space, I had remained incredibly aware of his presence, which meant my lips had remained sealed. So, when Bex asked me to grab coffee with her after school, I jumped at the chance. Riding in her minivan hadn’t been the most pleasant experience, but finally having privacy and room to breathe made the long minutes of discomfort worth it.
“Oh, girl, I can picture it now.” She flailed her hand in front of her. “Zoom, zoom, zoom, and there goes your thumb. Your spurting blood will definitely scare a bitch off.”
I contorted my face into something hideous, crossing my eyes and stretching my lips in opposite directions. “That’s right. I can’t fight, but I’ll make my enemies think I’m too crazy for them to want to fight.”
That sent her on another laughing fit and had me almos
t choking on my brownie. I hadn’t laughed this way in months and months. And really, by all rights, I shouldn’t have been laughing now. Not with a bruise on my head, a dead father, a poor mother, a psycho with no boundaries obsessed with me...but I laughed anyway. This was my life. If I didn’t grab these happy moments by the horns, I’d drown in sadness.
“Okay, okay…” she wiped a tear from her cheek, “tell me why you didn’t rat her out.”
Sighing, I glanced out the window, catching sight of the mural on the side of Wheelz—the mural I still couldn’t believe Sebastian had created.
“I just want her to forget I exist, you know? If I keep my head down, then maybe she will, but if I get her in trouble, she might be out for blood.”
She nodded. “The path of least resistance. I get it. I really can’t believe you were ever friends with her.”
I shrugged. “We’d been friends since we were little. I guess I was so used to her, as we got older, I became blinded to who she’d become. Like how cooks throw lobsters into warm water where it’s all comfy, and they relax so much, they don’t even realize they’ve started boiling until it's too late.”
Bex scrunched her nose. “Is that true? That’s how they cook lobsters?”
“I think so? I’ve never actually seen it done...but the analogy stands.”
“I get that. It’s like how my family became so immune to my older brother acting out, we didn’t notice how bad he’d gotten until he was addicted to oxy and had stolen a lot of my mom’s jewelry.”
“Whoa, really? I’ve never heard you talk about your brother.”
“Parker’s a fucking mess. I barely ever see him, but he looks like a strung-out ghoul these days. It's hard to feel bad for a kid who was given every opportunity and threw it all away for a high.”
“I’m sorry.” I reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “That really sucks.”
I thought maybe Bex had needed the laughs as much as I had. She always seemed so light and like she had her shit together, but the truth was, you never really knew the weight others carried until they showed it.
