8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Mason

The shower Sebastian started for me had long grown cold, but it wasn’t the temperature that left me frozen in place. Moving to America was supposed to be my happily ever after. But here I was, surrounded by my exes and the one-night stand that never seemed to end.

I should have never left Lyon. I was better off hiding in my dad’s mansion. Sure, I was alone and so hungry that it physically hurt, but at least I knew what to expect. I’d wake up, go to the gym in the basement, and work out for an hour. I’d have half a grapefruit coated in zero-calorie sweetener to hide the bitter flavor. After breakfast, I’d work until two. Sometimes, it was on music; other times, it was just meetings.

My dad didn’t allow me to have lunch after I started showing. He told me it was just a precaution because he didn’t want my career to be destroyed by a pregnancy like my mom’s. But our maid usually snuck me a piece of fruit, some cheese, and a little bread. If I were really lucky, she’d sneak me a bit of jam for the bread. After work was done, I’d go back to the gym for an hour before undergoing whatever body maintenance was scheduled for me. Haircuts, facials, manicures, anything to help me look presentable for the public. Every other night, I was allowed to have dinner alone. This usually consisted of steamed vegetables and a bit of fruit. My night would end by doing whatever I wanted; usually, that was reading or star gazing. By that point, I was always too nauseous to do anything else, even if I had wanted to.

But the pain of acid gnawing away at my stomach lining was nowhere near as bad as this. I could deal with the physical pain. These emotions were too much.

The door to the bathroom squeaked open, and I finally had the sense to turn off the water.

“I’m just coming to check on you.” Sebastian assured me as he approached the shower.

In our time apart, he had put in the multitude of facial piercings he never wore in public. He always told me he had an appearance to maintain, one that didn’t allow him to look the way he wanted. I was more than a little shocked when he put them all in the first time we hung out. Both nostrils, his septum, his tongue, and so many ear piercings I didn’t bother to count. And those were just the ones that were visible with his clothes on.

“I’m okay.” I whispered as I pushed back the floral shower curtain to reveal the powder blue walls of the bathroom. Somehow, knowing Sophia had decorated this space made it feel less garish.

“Can you hand me a towel?” I asked.

Sebastian’s face softened as he grabbed the white towel off the rack. He didn’t hand it to me, though. Instead, he extended a hand and helped me out of the tub, plopping the fabric on my head once my feet were firmly on the ground. He softly scrubbed the water from my scalp before venturing down to my shoulders.

“You’re so cold your lips are practically blue,” he mused. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah… just tired.”

That was one way to put it.

Slowly, the towel drifted lower, and as Seb stopped at my stomach, I realized two things. One, I was much larger than I was the last time he saw me in person. And two, I wasn’t sucking her in like I did during our daily video calls.

He sank to his knees and kissed just above my belly button. As he pulled away, she kicked hard enough for her movement to be seen under the skin.

A smile crept across Sebastian’s face.

“That’s new,” he said.

My heart stopped.

Cameron had felt my daughter kick before Sebastian. Biologically, I supposed that was right. But, though the two shared DNA, Cameron would never be Lavender’s father.

“She’s been moving like that for a couple weeks…. She loves attention.”

Sebastian kissed the same spot again, watching my stomach with complete and utter adoration until she kicked again.

A lump formed in my throat. “Hey, are you sure you want to do this?”

He rested his chin on my bump as he looked up at me. “Do what?”

“The baby… you’re only twenty-three.” Freshly twenty-three, at that.

Sebastian laughed and shook his head. “Mason, I started my first degree at age nine. By that standard, I’ve been acting like an adult for fourteen years. A child—especially with someone I love as much as you—has been long overdue.”

“Even if you didn’t put her there?”

“I may not have been in the room when she was made,” he stopped for a moment to pull away, “but by how she’s kicking, I think she missed her daddy.”

Her daddy.

A subtle tingle inched across my face. Sebastian filled that role, but her real dad was so close that he’d probably have the chance to hold her. What if Cameron changed his mind? What if he wanted to be in her life?

How would Sebastian react to that?

I didn’t want to think about what my life would be like if Sebastian left because of Cameron. Lavender would be stuck in custody battles, and I’d be anchored to the States, surrounded by people who should hate me.

“Also, you look fantastic. “ His voice took on a gravelly tone as he moved his hands down to squeeze my hips. It took me a second to realize his kisses had trailed lower, slowly morphing into love nips.

Sebastian claimed he was a virgin before me, and that was fine. But virgins tended to be docile and afraid to mess up the first few times. Sebastian had been aggressive from the get-go. He loved to bite me, the way bruises looked on my skin. He seemed comfortable with kinks of mine that even I admitted were a little extreme. He attributed his confidence to avid porn consumption, but unless he’d been watching it purely for research purposes, that didn’t explain his skill.

Still, his lack of stamina left me inclined to believe his story.

Despite my standing position, Seb nudged my legs apart enough to bite the inside of my thighs. As he breathed me in, a slow heat filled my core, growing ever more intense thanks to Sebastian’s expert teasing.

I raked my fingers into his brassy blonde hair.

“You’re going to knock me over,” I warned on an exhale.

The stud in his tongue ran across me, stopping at my clit as he pulled back. I jerked in response, grasping Sebastian’s head to keep myself standing.

“Guess we’d better take this to our room, huh?“ He seemed to take pleasure in the fact we now lived together, and that made me happy.

“Tell me, Princess, am I allowed to do anything I want to you?”

I thought for a minute. In the world of sex, I had yet to find a hard limit. There was nothing I wouldn’t try once as long as it ended in an orgasm.

“Remember, no breath play.”

“It’s bad for the baby,” he agreed. “What about wax?”

My brows raised. “You know I like wax.”

His cheeks reddened slightly. Sebastian was always extremely upfront with me, so I knew he’d watched my sex tape when an anonymous culprit leaked it a few years back. Wax was just one of the kinks featured in the now-infamous video that seemed to haunt my every interview. The world wants a porn star, my father had told me, and even though I would much prefer a squeaky-clean reputation, sex sells.

“I just wanted to make sure,” he continued, bringing himself to his feet. His shoulders slouched ever-so-slightly, bringing him closer to his brother’s height.

Stop thinking about Lucian, God dammit.

“Come on, Princess.” He laced his fingers in mine. “I want to make up for lost time.”

My towel remained on the bathroom floor as he pulled me through the apartment. The space wasn’t large, but I tried to remind myself it would be enough for the three of us until we could finally escape to Sebastian’s Victorian dream house in Portland.

The living room, while mostly clean, was very much a bachelor’s paradise. The ceiling was lined with LEDs cycling slowly through the colors of the rainbow. One entire wall was taken up by a long shelf full of comics and completed Lego creations. He pulled me through the space and into the bedroom.

The door slammed behind us, and although I wanted to take a second to look around, Sebastian was already pressing his lips to mine, joining us in frantic kisses as his hands caressed my bare sides. I followed his lead, running my hands up his shirt. The thin cotton lifted easily, but I was far too short to push it all the way up his massive frame. Sensing that I was stuck, Sebastian grabbed the bottom of the garment and tugged it out of my hands. He pushed me gently onto the bed as he tossed the fabric over his head. The blue material fluttered to the floor as I took in all six-feet-five-inches of the complete and utter man towering in front of me.

Before I left America, Sebastian had been an awkward, scrawny teen—tall, but no meat or muscle on his bones. So, I was shocked the first time he and I reunited. He had warned me he looked a little different, and I told him the same. People always change during the transition from adolescence to adulthood, after all. But he’d failed to mention that he had spent countless hours in the gym, buffing himself up until he looked like he was modeled after Hercules himself.

The barbell piercings in Sebastian’s nipples caught the light as he lurched forward, pressed me against the bed, and sunk his teeth into my neck. My breath hitched, and I bucked against him. I was sure I’d have a giant mark on my neck after a bite like that. Fortunately, Sebastian would be the only one to see it, since I had absolutely no desire to leave his apartment.

After the first bite, he moved lower, nibbling on my collarbone before pulling away. A lustful haze hung behind his eyes as his chest heaved.

“I have a sex swing,” he blurted.

“...Okay? And?”

He pulled his lower lip through his teeth, staring me down like a predator eyeing its prey. “I’m going to put you in it, and you’re going to like it.”

I jerked back, producing an audible creak from the springs in the mattress.

“What, no ‘please’? No ‘Hey Mason, are you comfortable being held up by ropes?’”

A beat of silence fell between us as Sebastian looked me over. Sebastian wanted to be dominant, and that was fine, but he needed to learn there was more to doming than just bossing his submissive around. Fuck, we hadn’t even talked about a safe word—Sebastian always said he didn’t need one. I trusted him, but I would have liked that extra layer of security.

“Why wouldn’t you be comfortable with it?” He stood before heading to the closet.

“Uhm...” I looked down at my stomach. “Because I’m kind of the size of a house right now?”

He glanced back at me with exaggerated concern. “Don’t be silly. Houses are much larger.”

I winced at his meager attempt to comfort me, but quickly hid my reaction as Sebastian turned around. He removed a mass of black ropes and searched through them until he found a pair of silver hooks, which he fastened over the top of the closet door. Then, he shut the door and straightened out the straps.

I watched skeptically as he gave the stirrups a few tugs and then leaned back, lifting his feet and settling his full weight into the device. The door creaked softly as he began bobbing up and down, testing the limits of the ancient hinges. But he kept bouncing, and after a while, he seemed satisfied that it wasn’t going anywhere. I, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced.

“Have you, uh, been planning this?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, it wasn’t a plan, per se. But I was reading up on sex and pregnancy, and one of the forums recommended this. They said it was good for your hips.”

Sebastian smiled as he slowly slipped out of his jeans. His dick stood at attention, and the three piercings that ran along his seam were barely visible underneath. Butterflies erupted in my stomach as I remembered how they felt inside me.

But my overwhelming desire for him to rail me didn’t eliminate my nerves.

“Seb, what’s the weight limit on that thing?”

“Three hundred pounds, I think.” He looked back at the swing and then at me. “You’re nowhere near that. Stop worrying so much.”

Yet another painful reminder that feelings weren’t Sebastian’s forte. But…he was trying. That was more than anyone had ever done for me—more than I deserved. So, if he really wanted to put me in that thing, I owed it to him to try.

“Promise me I won’t fall?”

He sauntered over to me before leaning down and pressing his nose to mine.

“Princess...” His breath brushed against my lips. “I’d rather die than hurt you.”

There was an edge to his voice, a dangerous hint of a lie that made me shudder. Arousal bloomed in my nipples, and I could feel a dull heat growing between my legs. But then his chest pressed to my stomach, and I swallowed hard. Sebastian was hot, this was fucking hot , but the second my belly got in the way, ice-cold embarrassment ran through my veins.

The last time we were together physically, I barely had a bump at all, especially when lying on my back. Now I was interrupting the flow of sex. My heart clenched, and I waited for Sebastian to say something, to mock me. But he simply adjusted his position. Instead of laying on me, he made space for my belly to fit under his arm.

Finally, our lips met. He tasted like citrus and sin as his tongue danced with mine. My heart quickened with every passing kiss, every gentle touch. When he pulled away, I was gasping for air. My knees instinctively pressed together as arousal threatened to seep onto my thighs.

It was hard to believe this man was a virgin just four months ago.

“If you don’t want to use the–”

“We can use the swing,” I whispered. “I trust you.”

“There’s my princess.” A smirk twisted Sebastian’s lips, and he slipped off his glasses with one hand, placing them on the nightstand.

Sebastian pulled his lip through his teeth, his gaze dripping from my face to my chest to my belly as he pulled me to my feet. I had no idea how he could possibly find me sexy right now, but I wasn’t going to question it.

He slowly walked around me, circling me with a familiar predatory glint in his eye. I braced myself for what was about to happen, though I still jumped when his hands grasped my ass in tight handfuls.

“Fuck,” he groaned the word as if it had seven syllables. He ran his fingers up my spine and then pressed them into the space between my shoulder blades, causing me to stumble forward. My hands met the mattress, and I gripped the navy comforter.

“You look so fucking good.”

Sebastian’s praise caused goosebumps to form on my arms, and I shivered.

His fingers slid into the perfect position on my clit and began massaging me, curling and straightening like he was beckoning me closer. My lips parted with a short moan before I sucked in a breath.

“And you’re so fucking sensitive.” He didn’t stop fingering me as he leaned over, his chest pressing to my back. “I’ve gotta say, I like having you like this.”

“Under your control?”

“Close.” His words rumbled against my ear. “Pregnant and so obviously marked as mine that no one fights it.”

My stomach flipped, and I swallowed the urge to tell Sebastian about Cameron.

“I noticed the way people looked at us in the airport,” he continued. “Everyone knew who you belonged to, Mason. There was no doubt that you’re mine... and I’m going to keep you that way.”

The edge of a threat kissed his words as he withdrew his fingers.

“After Lavender is here, and it’s safe, I’m going to spend as much time with my cock buried into you as possible. I’m going to fill every inch of you with my cum and force you to carry the physical manifestation of our love.”

The heat in my cunt flared, trickling down to my toes as I took in his words.

Someone’s been reading up on dirty talk.

“If I say no?” I challenged.

“You won’t. My Princess is a very good girl. This means you’ll do anything to see me happy. And making you stay like this...“ he trailed off as he inched around, rubbing my stomach before climbing to my breasts, squeezing them tightly and toying with my nipples, “...makes me very happy.”

Sebastian blessed me with a kiss on the shoulder before scooping me into his arms. I choked on a breath as I wrapped my legs around his waist, his lips meeting mine in another fiery onslaught of kisses. I was so distracted that I didn’t notice we were moving until he slid me onto the swing, placing my feet in the stirrups and guiding my hands to the grips. I whimpered as the strap pressed itself into my ass.

Sebastian’s gaze devoured me as he stood between my legs. I was aching for him, eager to feel whatever he had to offer me.

“I almost forgot,” he mused, reaching into his box once more.

This time, he pulled out a scarlet candle and a small lighter. My legs twitched each time he clicked the lighter, but they settled as a bright flame sprung forward. Sebastian took his time lighting the candle, letting a pearl of wax fall onto his wrist to check the temperature before he dared to bring it anywhere near me.

The heat from the fire warmed my cheek as he tilted the wax cylinder over my chest. I gasped as the first few drops fell and rolled between my breasts. Sebastian’s gaze intently followed the path of each droplet, but after a while, his attention drifted lower.

His fingers suddenly slipped into my core. I moaned, unable to deny the pleasure washing over me. His thumb moved in slow circles around my clit as he explored me.

I was dizzy with ecstasy by the time he withdrew. He placed his fingers inside his mouth, cleansing himself of me. But, while he was savoring the way I tasted on his skin, I was trembling, my pussy throbbing, desperate for release.

“Seb, don’t make me wait.”

His icy gaze bore into mine.

“I don’t want to, but you’re being loud, Princess.” His attention flitted between me and the base of the candle before he focused on my lips.

“Open.”

My stomach flipped.

“Why do you need me to–”

My sentence was cut short as he shoved the candle between my lips. Soft wax molded into my clenched teeth. I looked down, and a stream of wax escaped, pouring onto my stomach and rolling back toward my cleavage. I moaned and tipped my head back, stopping the flow.

“There we go,” Sebastian husked. “Keep quiet and keep still, or else you’re going to be a beautiful, waxy mess, my treasure.”

I kept my eyes open and focused on the ceiling, but my vision had hazed over. I was drunk on my own pleasure. The feeling only intensified as Sebastian plunged into me.

When we first had sex, I had thought the piercings on his shaft were odd. But at some point, I had grown to like them. The sterling balls rubbed me in all the right ways. Each thrust brought me closer and closer to ecstasy as I fought to keep my head up.

Sebastian’s hands, now free, dug into my hips, pulling me closer to him each time his tip explored deeper, and I swore I would melt if he kept this up.

Of course, I wasn’t the only one enjoying myself. There was a shake in Sebastian’s grip, one that worsened with every thrust. A loud grunt escaped from deep within his throat as wave after wave of hot cum filled every inch of me. When he pulled back, he was gasping for air, and I could no longer see him. I didn’t want to look down and risk coating myself in the wax.

He panted as he fiddled with me once more. This time it wasn’t a finger or his cock teasing me—it was the stud that penetrated his tongue. He used the metal to circle my clit, and I struggled to breathe as pleasure threatened to consume me. With each passing moment, my chest grew tighter and my knees weaker.

Eventually, I could no longer resist. My mouth fell open, and the candle tumbled to the ground, the flame extinguishing itself in the fall. My vision faded to black as I came undone.

When my senses returned to me, Sebastian was scraping the pearls of wax from my skin with the edge of a credit card. I stared him down, breathing raggedly. My knees were so weak that even if I could get out of the swing on my own, I wouldn’t have been able to stand.

“Come on, Princess. Let’s get you all cleaned up.”

Sebastian did most of the work getting the sweat and wax off my body, then lent me a shirt and helped me to the couch with an ice-cold bottle of water. He offered me an electrolyte packet, too, but I waved him off, imploring him to go shower in peace.

As I sat under the synthetic blue glow of the living room’s LEDs, the gross, nauseous feeling that came with hunger started to creep in. I had no idea how to tell Sebastian I needed to eat again. What an embarrassment I was, stuffing my face any time I was left to my own devices.

I stared at the dark screen of the TV, lost in my ruminations, until a knock came at the front door.

“Princess, can you get that?” Sebastian called over the sound of running water.

I would truly rather not, but what the fuck was I going to tell him? No, answer the door while naked and wet ? I pushed myself up with a sigh, resting my hand on my stomach as I bridged the small gap between the couch and the front door.

The knocking came again, and I fully braced myself to greet Sophia. She’d been over the moon when I walked into the house earlier. Immediately she tried to wrap me into a conversation, but I squeaked something about being exhausted before escaping up the stairs. Honestly, I was surprised she left me alone this long. I straightened my shoulders as I pulled the door open.

But it wasn’t Sophia waiting for me on the other side. Instead, Cameron lumbered awkwardly in the doorway, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He didn’t speak, but his lips pressed into a thin line as he focused on my chest. At first, I thought he was staring at my tits. Men tended to do that. But then I remembered the giant fucking mark Sebastian had left on my neck. I tossed my hair into place to cover it, blushing furiously.

“Can I help you?” I challenged.

Cameron averted his gaze like I had caught him doing something wrong. “Do you like Chinese?”

I tried to keep my confusion from creeping into my expression. “That’s not information you need.”

“I, uh, it ain’t for me…” He swallowed hard. “Sophia wants to have y’all down for dinner. Like a welcome party.”

I parted my lips to tell him I wasn’t hungry, but the growling of my stomach betrayed me. “She would have done this even if you weren’t…. You.” He bit back an awkward chuckle. “That’s just how she is… ‘course, you already know that.”

“Fine,” I mumbled. “But I’m not coming down without my boyfriend.”