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Peering down at her, he stepped closer and cocked his head. “One touch is all it takes with you, Taylor. Have you not learned that by now?”
“They should find a way to bottle your sex drive,” she quipped. “We would make a killing.”
Laughing, Sebastian tapped her bottom lip. “There are no labels that could define us, Taylor. Nothing could ever embody what I feel for you. That, darling, is as limitless and untamable as the sea.”
“And every bit as dangerous,” she added, trying to ignore the heat that crawled across her cheeks. The warm flush spread and coiled with determination in her belly.
Sebastian laughed softly. “Perhaps, sweetheart, but would you really want it any other way?”
“No,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
Her eyes drifted shut as he skimmed his lips across the bare slope of her shoulder. Edging closer, he captured her hands and placed them on his belt buckle as he kissed a slow path down the side of her neck. A delicious chill rippled across her skin while he eased the zipper of her dress down and she unfastened the slender metal buckle at his waist to tug the leather strap free. Groaning against her ear, Sebastian lifted her with ease, coaxing her legs around his waist as he carried her to the bed.
Sprawled across the plush mattress she stared up at him. He made no move to touch or kiss her. He kept his weight braced on his arms, peering down at her in contemplative silence and holding her gaze as the breathless seconds ticked by.
“What are you thinking?” she whispered, reaching up to stroke the chiseled contours of his face.
“I’m merely debating what I am going to do with you now that I have you trapped and helpless beneath me.”
“Who says I’m helpless?”
The corners of his mouth quirked with faint amusement. “I do,” he stated, lifting a brow. “Just what is it that you think you are going to do, Taylor?”
“I could scream,” she whispered.
“Mm. You’ve tried that one, darling. All it does is make me think you are rewarding me for my efforts.”
“You have a wicked idea of praise, Agent Baas.”
“So you claim.”
Seconds ticked by before he lifted his hand to brush a dark wisp of hair away from her face. The brooding desire looming in his eyes threatened to steal her breath away.
“You’re going to have to come up with something better than that,” Sebastian finally whispered, trailing a finger down her neck to circle the bared outline of her breast.
Taylor arched beneath him and gasped as he captured her nipple and wrung it in a deliciously painful twist.
“Do you want to fight me?” he asked.
She shook her head mutely.
“That’s not an answer, Taylor. Say it,” he commanded, pinching harder and tugging the stiffened peak until he drew a pleading whimper from her throat. “I want to hear the words leave your lips.”
“No, Sebastian,” she murmured. “I’ve tried to help you battle your demons, but I was never fighting you.”
“Maybe you should fight,” he mused. “I should teach you what to do…how to shut yourself down and survive. If you could get through that, you could get through anything.”
Cocking her head, she peered up at him. “What is this? Some kind of test?”
“Perhaps,” he admitted.
Her shoulders jerked in response. “You have a sick sense of foreplay tonight,” she muttered, turning her head to the side.
The atmosphere in the room shifted; the sudden change in momentum seemed to draw all of the oxygen out her lungs with it. Without warning, Sebastian grabbed her face, wrenching her attention back to him. Gone was his smile. Conflict and pleading contorted his brow, replacing the former hints of play.
She held her breath, feeling the dark undercurrent of anger seething just below the surface.
“This isn’t a game, Taylor. I’m not spiking your fear out of some sick sense of satisfaction,” he warned, his fingers sinking deep into the line of her jaw. “You have no idea what we might be up against here, but it’s not pretty. If Marx or someone else gets their hands on you, I need to know that you will be strong enough to push through that fear. I need to know that, no matter what happens, you will still be capable of thinking. There’s been too many times when I’ve rattled you and you’ve locked up or shut down from fear.”
She pondered his words, trying not to think about what might have elicited that train of thinking. This was the first time he’d ever eluded to the fact that she might be anything but safe behind the armed and guarded confines of their home. She wanted to believe that was because of what had happened before with Laychee. The break-in and subsequent attack had been a heavy blow to Sebastian’s pride, but there was no way to be sure if that was where this sudden surge of doubt and protectiveness stemmed. Not without asking and she wasn’t too sure she wanted to hear the answers. Shaking the dismal thoughts from her mind, she felt her body sag with a dejected sigh.
“That’s different,” she managed. “I might not like what happens when I’m in trouble with you, but I know I will live. I don’t have that guarantee with Marx.”
Leaning down, he kissed her forehead. “No you don’t, baby, but if anything ever happens, I need you to stay strong and survive because, one way or another, I will find you. I won’t abandon you, Taylor. I promise you that I will always find a way to be with you again. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to be by your side. You need to know that.”
“I do know, Sebastian.”
He frowned. Tilting his head, he studied her face. “You’re lying,” he stated softly. “Your mouth claims one thing, but your eyes are telling me a very different story. What is it that you doubt here, Taylor?”
Her throat swelled. Sebastian loomed over her, his unyielding expression warning his patience was drawing to an end. He expected a response. Her pulse quickened and a light sweat erupted along her brow. How did she voice her concerns without adding to his worries? Why did their future always have to seem so uncertain? Her love for Sebastian was the only constant in their lives—the only thing that never wavered or changed, even when everything else was falling apart. She didn’t want him to doubt that. Not now. Not when the rest of his life was falling apart at the seams.
“It’s not you,” she said. “I don’t doubt you will do everything you can to keep me safe, Seb. I just question how possible that is, and I don’t…” she trailed off with a disheartened slump.
“Don’t what?”
“I don’t know how you would find me if someone did take me. I believe that you would try. I just don’t see how…”
He pressed a gentle finger to her lips. He tried to smile, but it was just a ghost—a mere shadow with no real life or vitality behind it. His eyes lowered and he traced the diamond and amethyst pendant with the shiny metal center he’d given her on Christmas morning. His dimples deepened in a show of reluctance before he swung his stare upward to meet her eyes.
“Do you remember how mad I was when you took this off?” he asked.
She nodded. That experience was something she would never forget. It had been her first “come to Jesus meeting” with Sebastian’s belt, and his anger had been as sudden as it had been startling. She shivered, remembering the deep bite of the leather as it had repeatedly branded her skin.
“There is a reason for everything I do, Taylor, even if you fail to understand it at the time. I was hurt that you could just take something off and cast it aside after I told you it was a reminder of our love, but there was so much more behind it. I told you to keep this necklace with you always and to never take it off. Perhaps now, you understand why.”
She stiffened beneath him as his explanation struck home. “You…you’ve been tracking me?”
His eyes narrowed slightly. A challenging gleam ignited in their pale depths, daring her to keep pushing the boundaries and questioning his reasons. She knew this was dangerous ground, but they’d come this far and she needed to u
nderstand.
“You didn’t trust me?” she accused, trying to mask the hurt in her voice.
