“What’s there to be nervous about?”
You. I am terrified that I’ll never have you in the way I need you.
I shrugged, raising my gaze back to him. “What isn't there?”
He released his hand from my waist to spin me into a twirl. Our bodies moved together in such grace that you would have thought we’d been dancing together all our lives. When the twirl concluded, he grabbed my waist again, pulling me closer to him—so close that our bodies were flushed against each other. I tilted my neck up to see his face, and I didn't think I’d have the willpower to ever look away.
“I told you that you don't need to worry. That I would protect you,” he said.
That wasn't it at all, but I nodded. “I know.”
He was absolutely perfect. Every single thing about him. Breathtaking to look at, yes, but who he was at his core was the most attractive thing about him. And no, I didn't know everything about him, but I didn't need to. None of our past mattered to me. I needed this man more than I needed air.
I was entirely consumed in him.
“How have you been feeling about everything?” he asked me out of the blue.
“Are you going to ask me that every time I see you?”
“Until you tell me the truth, yes.”
“Well you caught me at a good time, because I'm tipsy and feeling honest.” I adjusted my hand in his, fiddling with his thumb. “I’m so pessimistic about everything that I’m having a difficult time enjoying myself tonight. Well, I was at least.”
“My dancing skills really cheered you up that much?” Sebastian chuckled, the gravel in his voice creating shivers all over my skin.
“More so Kohen and Sawyer’s dancing skills, but yours helped.”
We spun in circles, gliding along the marble floor, not speaking again until the song concluded.
“In case I didn't make it clear earlier, you look exquisite. Ravishing. Stunning. Breathtaking.”
I flushed at his words, both externally and internally. “So was it the archives that you ran off to? Looking through texts to find the words you seemed to have lost earlier?”
He twirled me again, and when he pulled me back in, we were somehow even closer than we were before.
His lips curved into a grin. “How did you know?”
He dropped my hand so that he could hold my waist from both sides, and I raised my arms to his shoulders, clasping my hands behind his neck. I studied his face, trying to read him. Did he want this just as much as I did? Or was I just a piece of his puzzle—waiting to be completed so that he could shatter it and shove the pieces back into its box.
I frowned unknowingly at the thought.
“What's wrong?” His forehead creased.
I should have told him how much he affected me without even realizing it—how I wanted to be more than just his training partner. More than his friend. But I didn't. It wasn't the right time.
I faked a smile. “Nothing at all.”
He leaned down, placing his head in the crook of my neck. His body was so close to mine that I could feel the pounding of his heart against my own chest.
“I know you well enough to know that you're not telling the truth,” he breathed. “Why do you insist on lying to me?”
I bit my lip in a shudder as his words kissed my collarbone. He moved his hands down to my hips, pulling my thighs into him so that they were grinding against his groinas we danced.
Fuck.
“You don't want to know the truth. Sometimes it's better being left in the dark,” I replied, my puckered lips skimming his jaw.
“I am the dark,” Sebastian muttered, his tone empty and hollow. “You are the light. And when it comes to you, I don't want to be in the shadows.”
