Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

brISTOL

T hree months have passed since Sebastian's accident. In that span, I have conquered so many things. I took a driving class and got my driver's license. I bought a car. I bought Sebastian a new motorcycle since he said his old truck was vintage and perfect and he wasn't driving anything else. And today, we are closing on a house and getting out of the apartment.

Sebastian found an amazing old house on the beach. Well, across the street from the beach, which still counts as being on the beach for me. Mack is handling all the paperwork and we are almost to her office.

"Are you ready?" He asks, smiling at me from the driver's seat of his truck.

I nod enthusiastically. "I can't fucking wait."

I tap my feet excitedly on the dash and squeal when we park in the parking lot at Mack's office.

Sebastian's smile makes my heart feel like it's going to burst. We walk into the office and Mack is already waiting for us in the lobby. Her smiling face is always such a welcome sight .

"Hey!" She greets us with a hug and ushers us to her office.

"Okay, so I've got everything all set up here. The sellers are going to be here in a few more minutes and we can go ahead and get you two moving into your new home today."

"Thank you so much, Mack. For everything," Sebastian says.

Funny how his tune has changed since the last time we dealt with her. I wonder what's changed. Maybe he's feeling a little more grateful about life. Or maybe it wasn't as big of a deal as he was thinking. Either way, it's nice. Mack has been wonderful to us. Who gives a shit who her husband is? We'll leave his invitation out, but she's invited to all our functions at the house.

The sellers arrive shortly after we did and they're the cutest little old couple. They look to be in their early seventies and if they haven't been married all their life, I'd be shocked.

We sign papers and within the hour we are on the way to our new house. The movers packed up everything this morning at the apartment and our new furniture is already loaded onto a U-Haul that's en route to the new house as we speak.

Sebastian pulls into the driveway, tapping our new gate code into the gate. The front gate opens and our antebellum style home sits perfectly in the center of the property. The light teal blue exterior is complimentary of the beach-style décor. There's a wrap-around porch on both floors, with three big columns on the front of the house.

The porch needs a few updates, but I can't wait to sit on the swing upstairs at night and listen to the waves crash. The freedom that this house gives me is indescribable. The gate that surrounds it also gives me a little more safety and security. I feel at peace.

The movers are moving our furniture and boxes inside as we park in the garage behind the house. The concrete driveway that leads to the garage has been recently redone in the last few years and it's been pressure washed recently. Everything looks perfect.

"What?" Sebastian asks, looking over at me.

I shake my head. "Nothing. I was just thinking how perfect this is."

His smile mirrors mine. "Got me a damn sugar mama."

I roll my eyes and slap his chest. He shrinks away from me and swings his door open. He comes around and opens my door for me, giving me his hand to help me out.

"How kind of you, my little sugar baby."

He stops abruptly. "No. Do not."

I burst out laughing as Reaper and Kendra approach the garage.

"Oh come on! Why's it only funny when you do it?"

"Because. That just sounds wrong!"

"What sounds wrong?" Kendra asks, propping her elbow on my shoulder.

"Sebastian doesn't like it when I call him my little sugar baby."

Reaper doubles over laughing and I swear Sebastian is going to swing on him. He doesn't. But he might change his mind at any moment. Reaper and Sebastian head inside to help the movers and Kendra walks with me to the pool in the back. It's a perfect light blue and I cannot wait to spend every summer basking in the sun like a lizard in a terrarium. My light skin burns easily, but I'm going to give it hell trying to tan these white legs.

I've spent every single summer inside of a metal building for the last six years. I'll be damned if I don't spend my summers outside all summer every year from here on out. Fuck, I might sleep outside for all I know.

"How's he doing?" Kendra asks, sitting back in a lounge chair next to me.

"He's good. They're finally out of the scraping stage of his healing, so that's good. I didn't think he nor I were going to make it through that. We did. But it was so rough."

Kendra cringes. "Yikes. I'm glad you both made it through. Reaper told me a little about it and I made him stop because I wanted to throw up at just hearing about what Sebastian had to go through."

"How's Reaper? I know he was really upset for a while about the explosion."

"He's so much better. I don't know what shifted or what changed, but his anger has dissipated over the last few weeks. It's strange, but I'm not complaining. It was almost like he was mad that it wasn't him that got hurt and I struggled to understand that. It didn't make much sense to me. But we're past that now. He's been spending a lot of time in his shop lately when he's home. He's actually been on a job in Boston the last few weeks."

"Oh, really? Boston? That's far!"

"Yeah, he's got a few clients up there that he's been dealing with. That's actually where Ryker came from!"

"Ryker?" I ask, wracking my brain.

"Yeah! You met him at bike night last week. He's the new prospect."

"Oh! Yeah, I do remember him. His accent made him stand out. That's so cool."

"He seems to be a pretty cool guy. He's just young and learning the way of things, but he's nice and very respectful. Which is more than I can say for half the guys that don't make it."

"Right! In just the short amount of time I've been here there's been, what, four guys who couldn't make the cut?"

"At least."

"Hey! You two want to come check out the house or are you going to sit out there and melt all day?" Sebastian hollers from the back door of the house.

We walk inside and find him and Reaper upstairs on the porch. The highway is moderately busy with traffic on both sides flowing smoothly. There are a few families playing on the beach, but it's a Tuesday, so most people are at work. At least, most of the locals. It is summertime after all.

"You've got a decent view," Reaper notes, resting his forearms on the rail.

"It's one hell of a view," Sebastian says, staring at me.

I grin and rest my head on his shoulder, staring out at the gulf as the waves crash against the shore. I can't wait until it's two in the morning, there's no traffic on the road, and the only sound traveling through the air is the waves crashing on the shore. The smell of saltwater in the air, the humidity in the air, and my sweet Sebastian beside me. I swear I bought this house for the porch and location alone.

"I love the big oak tree in the front yard," Kendra says, popping her head on the other side of Reaper's shoulder.

"The whole property is beautiful," I note, looking at it from up here.

I head inside to check on the status of the movers and see how things are progressing. They've got almost all of the furniture unloaded into the main room of the house and are moving it into the coordinating rooms from there. We have brand new living room furniture, bedroom furniture, and dining room furniture. It may have taken a solid two hours for Sebastian and I to agree on a bed, but after I showed him my point of view, he came around to my way of thinking. And, by showed him my point of view, I mean put his dick in my mouth in the furniture store and had him gripping the showroom nightstand to keep from screaming my name.

My thighs press together at the thought and begin trying to figure out how to get rid of Reaper and Kendra and the movers so we can start breaking this house in. There are so many new surfaces that need christening. New surfaces. New furniture. New pool. New patio furniture. So many things. I push the thoughts down into the back of my mind since we won't be alone for a while, considering I'm looking out the back door at the truck of all our shit and it's only half-empty. I walk across the house and the floor creaks in different spots throughout the living room. It gives it even more character and I love it.

The day drags on and when the sun finally sets and the house has cleared out, there is so much unpacking to be done. Kendra helped me unpack most of the kitchen and bedroom boxes, but Sebastian and I went a little crazy while we were shopping for house décor and necessities so now we have way more items than we originally started with.

"Are we going to bike night tonight?" I ask, peering through the doorway of Sebastian's future man cave.

"Actually, I've got some stuff to take care of with Reaper. You can go to bike night if you want, though, love."

"I think I might just go hangout with Kendra. She said something about a get-together with Mack."

"That sounds perfect. Just keep your phone on you and be safe. "

"I will. And text me when you make it where you're going safely, please."

Sebastian nods. "I'm going to shower in a few and I'll head out."

"I'm actually going to go ahead and head out now."

I cross the room and kiss him, placing a hand on either side of his face. It's a soft, lustful kiss. One that says, ‘I love you and be safe' but also ‘I want you'.

His hand travels down my back and caresses my ass, gripping a cheek in each hand. "See you tonight. I'll be late, but I can't wait to fuck you on our new kitchen counter."

"Yes, please," I whisper. Kissing him one more time before I walk out the door.

I feel only a tinge of guilt as I drive to meet Kendra. I may have told a little white lie. It is true that I'm going to meet Kendra and Mack for a get-together. I just left out what kind of get-together we are indulging in.

I've never been much of a grudge holder until my life was forcibly taken from me and ran entirely by another human for so many years. It was then that I learned that I would take no shit from anyone moving forward in my life. Part of this new life mantra is not letting little preppy, conniving bitches get away with trying to ruin people's lives.

I shoot Kendra a text letting her know I'll be at her place to pick her up in fifteen minutes and turn the radio up in my Infiniti and open the sunroof. The smell of the beach has become one of my favorite things about living here.

Kendra is ready and waiting outside when I pull into her driveway. Her hair is pulled back into a tight bun and she's wearing a solid black tee and black leggings, her outfit mirroring mine .

"Mack said to meet her at this address," she says, typing it into the GPS of my car.

"You ready?" I ask, raising my brows.

Kendra nods. "Fuck yeah."

We are fifteen minutes from our destination. We drive down a few back roads and end up in the middle of nothing. The GPS says to turn into a driveway that I can hardly see and there are massive potholes that I have to drive around as we maneuver down this gravel driveway that is surrounded by woods on either side. We drive for about a mile before there's a curve to the right that turns into an opening. Tucked away in the back of the driveway is an old, rundown house. It's a shotgun style home that looks like it hasn't been lived in for a very long time from what I can see in the little bit of daylight that's left.

Mack is standing on the porch, leaned against one of the posts holding the house up. I wouldn't lean too hard on that thing if I were her, it doesn't look like a very sturdy place to begin with. The orange cherry of a cigarette dangles from her fingertips as she presses it to her mouth to take a drag. I didn't realize she was a smoker. I guess that would make sense since I've never really been around her outside of a professional setting.

"Welcome, ladies," she says with a smile as we approach the house.

Kendra walks up the rickety stairs a little too cheerfully and I giggle.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just that what we're here for versus your energy are two very different entities."

Kendra shrugs a shoulder. "I'm happy about it, what can I say? I've wanted to do this for literal years ."

"It's only been a few months for me, but same. Let's get this party started," I say, pulling a pint of fireball whiskey from my back pocket. I twist the top and take a swig, scrunching my nose up before swallowing it and passing the bottle to Kendra.

"Oh, hell yeah. My favorite!" She takes two sips then passes the bottle to Mack. She takes a small sip and gives it back to me. I shove it back into my back pocket and Mack opens the door, leading us inside with an oil lantern. It feels like I've traveled back in time to the Salem witch trials or something.

We walk through the entire house straight to the very back room. There are chains hanging from the ceiling and hanging from them is none other than the little bitch who thought she could ruin my life.

Princess.