by Julia Wolf
“Yeah, it does. Mostly because my parents keep looking at me sideways like they’re waiting for me to screw up too. I hate having Parker’s mistakes hanging over my head, especially when I’ve barely broken a rule. I kind of want to rebel just so they have something to actually get pissy about.”
I tossed a little piece of brownie at her, which she caught and promptly ate. “Don’t do that. You’re a good girl without being a goody-two-shoes.”
She grinned wide. “Awww, did we just fall in love?”
Shaking with more laughter, I bobbed my head. “Hell yeah we did.”
* * *
Bex dropped me off at my building after we finished our coffees. I could tell she had questions—like why I was living in a shoddy apartment when I’d previously lived in a McMansion—but she kept her lips sealed. I’d tell her, eventually, but I wasn’t one to spill my guts the second I met someone.
As I walked down the hall to my apartment, I swung my backpack to my front to dig out my keys. Snagging them with a finger, I raised my head and nearly tripped over my feet. Sebastian Vega leaned against the wall by my door, watching me.
“You’re here,” I stammered.
His lips twitched. “You’re here too.”
“Um…” I moved to my door, my keys gripped between my fingers. It wasn’t a switchblade, but it was something. “Why are you here?”
“You forgot our plans? Or are you purposely trying to sabotage me by making me fail math? Cruel either way, Grace.” He took my keys from me before I even knew what he was doing, slid one into the lock, and opened the door.
“No, I remembered.” He walked right in ahead of me, leaving me in the hall. I briefly considered staying there, but the desire to protect my home from him won out. I stepped inside, closing the door behind me but leaving it unlocked. That only worked for a second, because Sebastian reached around me to twist the lock.
“Um…” I passed him, taking my backpack to the couch.
“You said that.” He was right behind me, pushing my hair to the side, his warm breath touching my neck.
“We can work out here.” I turned to face him. “I didn’t expect you so early.”
“I had nowhere else to be.” He leaned in, but he didn’t kiss me. He never kissed me. “You smell like chocolate.”
“I had a brownie with Bex.” I shook the confusion at his sudden appearance out of my head. “Are you really here to do math?”
“That’s right. I always mean what I say.” He glanced around, then brought his gaze back to me. “Your mom home?”
I stiffened, realizing for the first time how alone we were. I wouldn’t tell him my mom wouldn’t be home for several hours since tonight was her late night at work. If he expected her to walk through the door at any second, maybe I’d be safe.
“Not yet. Soon, though. We should get this done so you can go. I’m sure you have many other things you’d rather be doing.”
“Nope.” He plopped down on the couch, catching my hand on the way so he pulled me with him. His arms were a vise around my middle, holding me flush against him in his lap. “Nothing I’d rather be doing than this.”
I squirmed despite knowing I couldn’t break free of him unless he allowed it. “Sebastian, stop. Please. You said we were going to do real work.”
“We will.” He moved his hand up my thigh to the hem of my skirt. “I’ve been wondering all day if you wore them. You should be proud of me for not checking at school.”
“Proud of you?” I sucked in a breath as his thumb rubbed circles on my skin. “For behaving like a human?”
He spread his legs apart, which opened mine too. His hand kept moving up my thigh, bunching the cotton fabric at his wrist. I hated myself more than I could say for what he found.
Sebastian stilled beneath me, his muscles tight. After a long moment so fraught with tension I could practically see waves of it in the air like heat rising off asphalt, he exhaled a great gust, fluttering the stray hairs around my temple. His reach for my face was so sudden, I squealed, but his touch wasn’t rough. He turned my head to the side and peered into my eyes like if he looked long enough, he’d see my thoughts.
“You wore them for me.” His lips dragged up and down my throat. Beneath my butt, he lengthened, pressing into me. “Why?”
“You exhaust me. I’m picking my battles with you at this point.” That wasn’t the entire truth of it. Yes, I’d been fearful of his reaction if I hadn’t worn the pink panties, but I’d also been curious to see what his reaction would be if I had. “So, now that you know, can we do our math please?”
He groaned next to my ear. His teeth snagged my lobe, tugging and nipping. “I can’t get enough of you saying ‘please.’”
“If being polite gets you to cooperate, then I’m all for it.”
This was all part of my plan to force him to lose interest. Fighting him only made him want to win—and Sebastian winning meant me losing a piece of myself I couldn’t afford to. This experiment might backfire, but I had no choice. At least none I could see yet.
The path of least resistance, as Bex had said.
He toyed with the elastic at my inner thigh, and I had no time to say please before he shoved my panties to the side and slid his fingers through my folds. Achingly slow. Heartbreakingly thorough. He held my face tenderly while he violated my core.
“Why?” I whimpered. “Why do you want it like this? Please. Please.”
“Yes, that’s exactly how I like it.” He kissed my jawline as though he was rewarding me for begging. And in his twisted mind, he probably was.
He circled my clit, taking his time. My body’s response came automatically, soaking through my defenses. Even though I’d decided not to fight back, I twisted and bucked, my fight or flight instinct kicking in. I should have never let him in my apartment. I really shouldn’t have worn the panties.
I told myself I gave in to him because I was afraid of his reaction. Giving in kept me safe in some way. But that wasn’t the whole truth. Sebastian brought out a darkness in me that didn’t want to be safe, that was starting to crave his danger.
Sebastian tossed me onto the couch on my back, swiftly taking his place between my legs. He loomed over me, cuffing my arms above my head while he picked up where he’d left off.
“Doesn’t this feel good, Grace?” He pressed on my throbbing clit, and it felt out of this world, but that meant nothing. Nothing. I didn’t understand how I could both love and despise the effect he had on me.
I turned my head away as tears began to leak from my tightly shut eyes. He pushed a finger inside me, curling and thrusting until my legs were shaking. I kept my lips pressed together, unwilling to give him the sounds of my pleasure. If he knew how much he turned me on, he might take this to a place I wasn’t willing to go.
He didn’t ease up when I came. He also didn’t pull down his pants and ram inside me like I half-expected and feared. His lips trailed down my body, dragging, kissing. He brought my hands down to my stomach, pinning them there as he settled between my legs. His tongue plunged into me, his face buried in my core. I was so wet, so swollen and slick, each pass of his tongue made obscene squishing sounds. He groaned against my flesh, reaching up with his free hand to palm my breast.
My hips rose and fell without permission. But that was the thing, wasn’t it? With Sebastian, I lost all control, even of my own body. He took it from me, claiming it, choking it out of existence.
And when he did, despite my fear, he made me never want it back.
My thighs clamped around his head, and he growled his approval. I was helpless to him—helpless to fight him, helpless to hold back the orgasm that crashed over me.
I trembled everywhere, silent in my release. Tears fell onto the couch cushion beside my head. I knew what came next, and I didn’t have any idea how to stop it.
Chapter Thirteen
Sebastian rose above me, keeping my hands in his. The telltale sound of his zipper lowering forced my eyes open. A
storm raged in his gaze. His nostrils flared as he licked my flavor from his lips.
“Goddamn, Grace.” He shuddered like he was in ecstasy. “Tell me you didn’t love every second of that. I did.”
I shook my head from side to side, refusing to give in any more than I already had. “You don’t have to do this. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“You won’t stop fighting me. I’ve made it clear I like you. I’ve made you come three times now and you haven’t even touched me.” His shiny lips turned wicked. “Not that I mind making you come. You’re the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I think about your smell when I’m falling asleep at night. And god, your tits, Grace.” He shifted his knees to the outside of my hips, then shuffled forward until he hovered over my stomach. He released my hands, only to trap them under him.
“I think about you too,” I whispered. “When I’m not thinking how terrifying you are, I think about how if maybe you’d just spoken to me like a person that first day, I’d be here willingly.”
He shook his head hard. “I didn’t want this from you the first day.” He freed his length from his jeans, curling his hand around the base. From this angle, he seemed impossibly big. Much bigger than he had in the van. He would destroy me in every way. “Open your mouth.”
I clamped my lips shut, biting down to seal them.
He sighed, scooting back just a little. He squeezed my breasts, pushing them together in the center of my chest. Bending over me, he slotted his cock between the flesh of my breasts, bumping into my chin when he thrust forward.
“You make things so difficult.” His hips rocked again and again, and I couldn’t stop watching him. Normally, he was so tightly wound, but he’d snapped. His dark hair hung messy on his forehead. Brow pinched, he bit his bottom lip. The storm in his eyes had reached a fever pitch. His pupils were so dilated, almost no iris was visible. The tendons in his neck were taut highwires, and a small part of me wanted to walk my fingers along them like a tightrope.
I couldn’t move my hands, though. I thought maybe if I had some way of participating in this, I’d be able to walk away without feeling like I’d been stripped to my bones. So, the next time his dick hit my chin, I parted my lips to peek my tongue out. When my tongue touched his tip, Sebastian hissed and stilled, looking at me accusingly.
“What?” he breathed, confused.
I sucked in a shaky breath. “You can put it in my mouth if you promise the next time you touch me, it’ll be consensual.” I knew, down to the center of me, there would be a next time. Not just because he would force it, but because being with him this way had uncovered something about myself. Not something I could name yet, but one day, I might be able to.
Sebastian’s shoulders bunched. I’d taken him by surprise, but that was good. He’d taken me by surprise too many times already. If he was thrown off his game, maybe he’d pause, give himself a second for rational thought to take root.
“I don’t know if I can promise that, Grace.” He looked down on me, sliding his tip back and forth on the curve of my bottom lip. “You might not ever consent to me touching you.”
“I will. I promise.” I stuck my tongue out again, catching the very end of him. “I need you to take your time with me.”
“How much time?”
I weighed and measured my options. If I said a month, he’d never agree, and a week was too little. I’d never be able to mentally fortify myself in seven days.
“Two weeks. Give me two weeks to know you, and for you to know me. Maybe you won’t even like me anymore.”
“That’s what you’re banking on?”
“I’m only being realistic.” My tongue darted out once more, making his eyelids flutter.
He let go of my breast to cup my jaw. Those black eyes searched me, for the truth, for my sincerity, for something. He must have found whatever he was looking for because he exhaled heavy through his nose, then pushed against my slightly parted lips.
“All right, Grace. If you hold up your end, after this, I won’t touch you without your consent.” The hand holding my jaw shook, jostling me around. “Now, open.”
Knowing that promise was as good as I would get from Sebastian Vega, I let my lips fall open. In less than a second, he invaded my mouth, sliding his length along my tongue. I’d only done this a couple times with a boy back in Switzerland, but not in this position, and instantly, I thought I made a huge mistake. When he pushed more of himself into me, I forgot to breathe. My chest tightened, my face heated, and I panicked.
“Jesus, Grace. Don’t die on me. You’re no good to me then.” Sebastian pulled out, allowing me to inhale a long breath.
“Let me have my hands. Please, Sebastian.” I blinked tear-filled eyes at him, seeing the moment he softened ever-so-slightly. He raised up enough for me to yank my hands up to my chest, then he was back at my mouth, slipping past my lips.
I tried to keep up with his movements so I didn’t get overwhelmed again. Needing to feel like we were connected on more than this base level, I reached up, laying my palms on his stomach. His thrusting stuttered, and again, he looked down at me with surprise. I smoothed my hands around to his side, squeezing to let him know he could keep going—not that he’d stop if I complained.
Sebastian’s fingers delved into my hair, stroking my scalp and holding me at the angle he needed. His breathing picked up, and he went deeper with each plunge, but never to the point where I choked.
“That’s it, Grace. So good, baby. So, so good.” He tossed his head back, grunting so loud, his voice echoed off the thin walls. Hot, salty seed spilled from him, coating my tongue and throat. I grimaced at the taste, but it wasn’t terrible. Just...unexpected. My boyfriend in Switzerland had never finished in my mouth.
He pulled out slowly, keeping his gaze trained on me. I swallowed three or four times and tried to take calming breaths to ease my spiking heart rate. He traced the lines of my face with his fingertips. When he got to my lips, he swiped the little bit of his cum that had seeped out with his thumb and pushed it into my mouth. He rubbed my bottom lip again and again, pressing his thumb between my lips every once in a while.
Breathing calmed, Sebastian tucked himself away, then hopped up, pulling me with him. My panties were still in disarray, my shirt was over my bra, and my mouth tasted of cum, but he kissed me chastely on the cheek like he was dropping me off after a first date and my parents were watching.
My knees were weak from the adrenaline leaving my system in a flood. All I wanted to do was curl up under my covers to nap for a few hours, but I would never relax enough to fall asleep with Sebastian here. He might have promised to wait for my consent, but I didn’t really believe him. Not yet.
He leaned his forehead on mine, his breath warm and sweet as it brushed over my lips.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he murmured.
“Not all of it was. The parts where I was certain you were about to…” I sighed. “You scare me.”
He ran his hands along my biceps, squeezing gently. “I know.” He kissed the corner of my mouth. “But you did so good.”
“And you like when I’m afraid?”
His head moved up and down. “If you could see yourself, you might understand.”
In a million years, I would never understand him. To me, that was a good thing. My mind didn’t work like his, and I didn’t want it to.
“Okay.” I pushed his chest, and he stepped back, dropping his hands. “I’m going to clean up. When I come out, I’m going to do our math assignment. If you want to be a part of that, you can stay. Otherwise, you got what you came for, so…”
I let my words trail off as I rushed past him, closing the door of the small bathroom between my mom’s room and mine. I didn’t look in the mirror. If I did, I’d start crying again, and I didn’t want that. Instead, I peed and washed my hands and face. I used mouthwash, rinsing three or four times until all I could taste was mint. Once I’d washed away all evidence of what had just happened in my liv
ing room, I went back out there.
Sebastian sat on my couch, a pencil twirling between his fingers and a scratched-up black notebook in his lap. I sat down on the opposite end, where my backpack was, quickly finding my own notebook and pencil. I tossed the assignment sheet at Sebastian.
“That has our income and budget.” My words came out tremulous, but there was no helping that. Not with Sebastian here. He was too unpredictable for me to be able to calm down.
He glanced over the paper, raising his brows. “Oh, we rich-rich. I can work with this.”
Despite myself, I laughed. “We’re middle income, if anything. And with the car accident, dental work, and—”
“Surprise pregnancy. I’m gonna knock you up.” He rubbed his jaw, a glint of amusement in his eyes.
“Who says you’re the dad? Maybe I’m having a torrid affair behind your back with Gabe.”
Just like that, his amusement vanished. “Nope. We’re not even gonna play about that.”
“I don’t know…” I nibbled the end of my pencil, “Gabe could be fun to play with. I mean, now that you’ve broken me in…”
Sebastian winced, slamming his notebook down on his legs to stop me from talking. I’d said enough anyway. Physically, I’d never best him. That wasn’t up for debate. But if I could drive him crazy—crazy in a different way than he already was—I would.
“Stop being an asshole and do your work, Grace.”
Inside, I did a victory dance. It was a small win, but I needed it.
We finally got to work, setting up our budgetary sheets for the month. We wouldn’t be able to get this done today, but once we had it all set up, we could do the rest on our computers. Separately. From our own houses.
When my mom walked in through the front door, we were finishing up. She was all smiles for Sebastian again, and though he’d been grumpy since I’d teased him about Gabe, he turned on the charm for her. So much so, she asked him to stay for dinner.
“Actually, I have to get home pretty soon. Rain check?” He flashed a grin, and I saw the moment my mom melted into a puddle.
