My hands glide up the columns of his neck, and he bristles momentarily before relaxing into my touch. I slide my hands up his jaw, pushing the mask up with them. The inky black color obscuring his face fades to the familiar olive tone I recognize around his dark eyes. His gaze bores into me, filling me with every ounce of uncertainty and fear, all of his reservations. But I also find something else there, something deeper.
“Hear me. Clearly, please. I understand that mask kept you alive. It made you untouchable when the world wasn’t kind, when you felt like you had to hide these parts of yourself away,” I step closer, our bodies flush against each other. “I’m not asking you to be anyone else. I’m only telling you I don’t want you to hide behind the mask with me, Sebastian. I see you, the real you, and I love every part of you.”
I thread my fingers through his hair, slipping the mask off his head and placing it gently on the table next to me. It really is beautiful. No wonder it haunted me for months the way it did, the way he did. There was always this invisible thread pulling me towards him, my masked man, something that told me he was meant to be in my life. Finding Sebastian behind the mask only proves to me this man is my destiny. Pushing up onto my tiptoes, I hold my lips only a breath away from his. His eyes dare me to kiss him, to give in to this depravity for the rest of our eternity, and I have no reason to hesitate.
“If you need to, take the mask off slowly. Let me learn you the way you are now. You don’t have to be so strong with me. You don’t have to be feared. You’re safe in my love, the way I am in yours.” I take a small breath in, looking into his deep brown eyes, showing him I mean every word.
“I have never known anything that measures against my love for you, Vanessa. Beyond time. Beyond any apprehension.Beyond everything that will inevitably try to end us. I will never give you up.” He grips my neck, crushing my lips to his in an all-consuming kiss.
twenty-five
Time stopsthe second Sebastian’s hands touch my skin. The world may be spinning still, but I can’t feel anything but his lips against my skin. His kiss is commanding, as always, and heat floods my body. How he can make me want him so desperately with just one touch, I’ll never know, but I don’t care either.
“I’ve missed you,” I breathe between kisses, smiling against his lips.
Feeling shameless, I grab the fabric of his dark jacket and drag him back to me. He guides my leg up and around his hip before lifting me off my feet and placing me on the table next to us without breaking our kiss. The edge of my skirt rides up my thighs, but I don’t care. Hell, Matteo could walk back in right now and I wouldn’t give a damn. Let the world watch. Right now, I’d let this man strip me bare and fuck me on the steps of the Vatican. I’m not Catholic, what does it matter to me? His demanding hands rake across my curves, and I groan, soaking in every sensation.
“The way you make me feel, the way you touch me, I’ve never felt anything so addictive.” I whisper, my voice husky andstrained. My nails scrape across his scalp as he bites my lower lip. Pinpricks dance across my skin, and I struggle to maintain any sliver of control.
“When I touch you how? Like this?” He asks, trailing his fingertips down my neck and across my collarbone. Goosebumps cover my skin, causing me to shiver. He drags his fingers across the collar of my shirt, gripping the fabric in both hands before ripping it down the center. “I can smell what I do to do, Vanessa. I can see your skin react to my touch.”
I gasp, staring daggers back at him. I love this fucking shirt. I raise a hand, rearing back to slap the silly little smirk off his face, but he catches my wrist before I get that far.
“I loved this shirt, Sebastard. I would’ve just taken it off if you’d asked.” Rolling my eyes, I try to wrench my wrist from his grasp, but he squeezes tighter.
“But my way is much more fun. Admit it, you like me savage. I can see it all over your face, I can smell it all over your perfect skin,” his tongue darts out, tracing a path between my breasts. I can’t suppress the groan that falls from my lips every time he touches me like he owns me.
“If you think I smell good, you should see how good I taste,” I say, tempting him even more. I’m going to get what I want from him sooner or later, but I prefer sooner.
Sebastian flashes the sexiest smirk I’ve ever seen, his face still partially covered in the black body paint, and drops to his knees without another word. His palms flatten against the outside of my thighs and drag up towards my hips, pushing my skirt up with them. His fingertips meet black lace, and he hisses out a breath.
“Gesù Cristo, Vanessa. I want you so badly. How have I gone two weeks without this perfect body? Just waiting for me to unwrap this delicious pussy and devour it?” He squeezes my hips so tightly, I know he’ll leave his marks behind and I groan.
“You enjoy making us both suffer. Fucking masochist.” I say, bracing my hands on the tabletop behind me as he places one hand in the center of my chest and pushes me back.
“Don’t move,” he commands, and I look down at him.
So quickly, he pulls out the knife he usually carries at his back, tracing the tip up my inner thigh. I shiver, loving the feeling of the cold steel against my skin. One wrong move and it will bite into my flesh. The darkest parts of my soul want to know how it feels to bleed for him. My thigh muscles quiver, and he grins.
“Don’t move, Bambina,” he sings, and that silky smooth voice slinks through my veins like sweet poison. I’d die a satisfied woman if these were my last moments.
The sound of fabric slicing rings in my ears, and the cool air hits my core moments before his lips descend on me. He closes his mouth around my clit and sucks hard. Crying out, I’m unable to stop myself or remember that we’re currently in a public place,mypublic place, right now. My hand threads through his hair, drawing his face even closer to me, and he comes willingly, licking and biting in even strokes. My nails rake across his scalp and he growls, the vibration shaking me to my core.
“Jesus fucking holy, Sebahhhhh!” He sucks harder, adding two thick fingers deep inside of me, and my back arches, nearly throwing me off the table. The point of the knife grazes against my inner thigh again, and I shudder into it.
“So fucking delectable. Be my good girl and come on my face, Vanessa. Show me who I belong to,” he commands, his voice raspy as the heat of his breath brushes my skin, and he laps at my core furiously.
My orgasm hits me like a bolt of lightning, like pain and pleasure colliding at once, and I don’t bother suppressing my scream. Let the neighbors call the fucking cops. The only business open at this hour is Grovewood Ink, and god onlyknows the sounds I’ve heard through the walls at all hours of the night from that place. I’m just giving them a run for their money for once.
He stands, wiping his mouth in the most sinful way I’ve ever seen before crashing his lips against mine once more. Tasting myself from his tongue is the most devious indulgence I’ve ever consumed. I never thought the serenity I find in Sebastian’s touch would ever be a reality for me. His darkness tangles with my own, and completes me in the best way.
He’s only inches from being inside me, only a few layers of clothing between the two of us, and I can’t stand it any longer. I need to feel him, and it’s taking everything in me not to take control of this situation and climb him like a fucking tree.
“You want my cock, diavolina?” He grins that wicked grin, the one the masked man has haunted me with for months, and my core clenches. Trailing the edge of his blade across my collarbone, I shudder, my nipples pebbling as the tip of the blade traces the curve of my right breast.
“I think you have too many names for me. You’re gonna have to pick one and run with it, Seb.” I pant, slowly untucking his shirt and releasing the clasp on his belt. The tip of his knife hovers over my heart, and I’m shocked he has yet to slice into my skin. I know it’s sharp, devastatingly so.
“How about wife?” he says, and I swear the Earth shifts off its axis.