“You are,” Wesley said. “How do you expect to aim properly if you don’t even stand straight?”
“How doyouexpect me to aim at all when I don’t even have a gun?”
“You really are asking for it.”
Sebastian had to bite back a startled yelp as Wesley’s hand landed on his ass, and not gently either. Heturned over his shoulder and gave Wesley a dirty look. “We’re on a boat.”
“And we’re still quite alone. Believe me, I’m watching.”
“But you didn’t dothatto your soldiers.”
“I thought this waspretend.” Wesley had just a hint of a smile again, sly around the edge. “And I promise, if I had ever found myself in charge of a medic as gorgeous but impertinent as you, I would have been so bloody tempted.”
He gestured at the ocean. “Now face forward and square your fucking shoulders, or I’ll do it again.”
Sebastian inhaled, the heat in his stomach spreading out into his limbs and under his collar. He pushed away the urge to test Wesley’s threat, forcing himself to turn to the ocean and look forward.
“There is no point picking up your weapon until you get the posture right.” Wesley tapped his right shoulder, the touch feather-light. “Shift here.”
Sebastian took another breath. It would have been faster and easier for Wesley to push him into position. But he wasn’t pushing, wasn’t forcing Sebastian to move. Maybe because more than anyone else, Wesley understood that Sebastian still had echoes of someone else’s control in his blood, and he wanted Sebastian to be fully in control of his own body—was willing to wait however long it took for Sebastian to move himself.
Sebastian tried shifting toward Wesley’s hand, just slightly, and all at once felt his body align like the watch hand reaching noon, or a compass needle finding north.
“There,” Wesley said approvingly. “Feel the difference?” He was shifting behind Sebastian, studyinghim. “Your posture isn’t terrible now, but you need to breathe.”
“You make me forget how,” Sebastian muttered.
He felt the air move as Wesley startled, felt more than heard the quietly exhaled swear. “Don’t you dare be romantic when I’m trying to focus on instructing you.”
“But it’s true,” Sebastian said, barely more than a whisper. “You’ve always made me breathless.”
“Corporal, you are going to hush right now or find yourself bent over this convenient deck chair right here, and then where are you going to learn to shoot?”
Sebastian swallowed. Wesley was joking, but the idea was tempting. The thought of being manhandled over a deck chair wasn’t raising his nerves. He wanted Wesley to do it, trusted Wesley would let him up if it ever got to be too much.
He forced his thoughts back to the moment, his focus on the ocean.
“Breathe,” Wesley instructed, “then raise your arm and pretend to aim.”
Sebastian did. Wesley’s hand skated across his bicep and forearm, making only the lightest taps so that again all adjustments had to be made by Sebastian himself.
“Keep this arm an inch higher.” Wesley shifted fully behind him. “And bring your other hand up as you would to brace the gun, with steady breaths the whole time.”
He continued the butterfly-faint touches of guidance on Sebastian’s bicep, his shoulder, his hip. “Like this. I’ve seen you dance; I know you can learn what to do with your body.”
“When did you see me dance?” Sebastian said. “You weren’t watching at the Magnolia.”
“Of course I fucking was.” Wesley’s breath was a tiny spot of warmth in the cold, ghosting over the back of Sebastian’s neck. “I couldn’t take my eyes off you.”
“But you said you didn’t—”
“I lied, because I’m a coward, and a brooding, jealous prick.” Wesley’s hand touched his hip. “And even when you so sweetly tried to reassure me that you had told your lady friend you were taken, my ego wouldn’t let me admit I appreciated hearing that.”
Sebastian swallowed. “I really wouldn’t have—”
“I know.” Wesley’s mouth was very close to his ear. “It’s an ugly thing, jealousy. I would like to claim I’m above it, but I’m afraid I’m still reprehensibly territorial when it comes to you.”
Words tumbled out before Sebastian realized he was going to say them. “I thought that was just when I had magic in the tattoo. Because the lion used to be yours alone, but now everyone can see him.”
