Page 23

Wesley closed the door behind him. Tension seemed to literally leave his limbs as he turned the lock in the door, forming a barrier between the world outside and the warm, cozy world made up of just him and Sebastian.

He’d never had something like this before, never known that the place one could feel most at home might not be a place at all, but with a person.

Their room was spacious, with a small seating area on one side and a large bed on the other, with its headboard against the wall. Windows filled the other two walls, but the curtains were thankfully already drawn and the radiator had the room warmed to a comfortable temperature.

Sebastian set his cap on the back of a wingback chair. “But I already have a tuxedo.”

“And I’ve already called my tailor,” Wesley said, balancing his own hat on the hat stand. “Mr. Lloyd will be here in the morning. There won’t be time for something bespoke, but he’ll see you properly dressed.”

Wesley stepped into their sitting area, and Sebastian moved closer, most of the space between them disappearing. “You know I look ridiculous in the tailcoat and top hat, yes?”

Their height difference was always so much more noticeable up close: the way Sebastian had to tilt his head back so their eyes stayed aligned, the way his lips were just out of reach so that Wesley would have to bend in order to kiss him.

“Balderdash. There is no possible way you will look anything but stunning.”

“Not stunning,” Sebastian insisted. “I look like a penguin.”

His long-lashed eyes were deeper brown in the dim light, his hair in looser waves after a long day of travel. “Only if penguins were devilishly sexy.”

“ You look sexy in a tailcoat.” Sebastian took Wesley’s tie in hand, pulling it free from the waistcoat. “It suits you. I will not look so handsome the way you do.”

“And you call me shameless .” Wesley was reaching for him, unable to resist. “Flattering me as if you can get me to agree you don’t need proper clothes for a ball.”

“I would never,” Sebastian said, with wide, innocent eyes. “You’re much too smart to fall for flattery.”

Wesley had to laugh. “You will be unbearably gorgeous, not that you have ever seemed to care.” His hands found Sebastian’s hips, his feet moving on their own.

“I’m certain you could have the duke’s entire circle eating out of your palm, but instead you’re sulking over comfort.

You’re too wild for society’s cages and gilding the bars can’t change that. ”

Sebastian’s body was pliant in his arms, letting Wesley steer him backward, to the bed. “I’m not what people consider wild.”

“Because people don’t understand. They only ever think wild is something to be feared.” They hit the bed and tumbled down together, Sebastian on his back and Wesley on top of him.

“And yes, wolves are wild, but so are fawns,” Wesley said, crawling over him. “And you’re wild like a mustang on a beach, like your heart still beats in time with the wind and the waves. You don’t care about a ball; you’d rather run free through the sand.”

“You could run away with me,” Sebastian said, as Wesley caught his hands and pinned them to the bed.

“Spoken like the fae trying to tempt a man away into the woods.” Wesley bent his head, their noses nearly touching. “But this time, you’re caught in my world, a world of traditions—and tailcoats. You’re simply going to have to accept that, duck.”

Sebastian groaned, but he was smiling. “You’re such a bastard.”

And then his eyes abruptly went wider. And just as suddenly, Wesley became aware of their position: Sebastian on his back, his hands held to the mattress on either side of his head as Wesley loomed over him.

Wesley hadn’t been paying attention, had been too busy talking and teasing to realize he’d pinned him in a position they hadn’t been in since Sebastian had lost his magic.

The room had gone very quiet.

“All right there?” Wesley kept his voice a whisper. “Do you want me to move?”

Sebastian’s tongue darted out to wet his lips. Held down as he was, with his wrists facing up, the black ink of the lion tattoo was stark against his skin and the bright white of the bed’s duvet.

Then he shook his head. “Stay.”

The word rippled over Wesley’s skin like Sebastian had tattooed it onto him, a thrill down his spine that left his head spinning. He tightened his grip on Sebastian’s hands and heard the quiet inhale. “Stay?” he repeated, making it a question, giving Sebastian room and time to change his mind.

Sebastian shivered. But he didn’t tense, instead tilting his head to meet Wesley’s eyes. “Stay,” he whispered again.

Fuck. Wesley dropped onto him, finding Sebastian’s mouth. Lips parted for his tongue, another gesture of trust and hard-earned surrender that went straight to Wesley’s cock.

They kissed for long moments, Sebastian letting him set the pace, an intoxicating relinquishing of control that made it hard to think straight.

Finally, Wesley moved to kiss his jaw. “For the record, I despised having an empty bed last night.” Their fingers twined together as one of Wesley’s legs slipped between Sebastian’s.

“Knowing you were down the hall but out of my reach.”

He pressed his thigh down, finding Sebastian’s cock a hard line against him. Sebastian’s eyelashes fluttered, a noise catching in his throat. Wesley kissed down his neck, to the top of his collar. “At least I can make up for it now.”

Sebastian’s eyes were heavy-lidded as Wesley shifted to the side, plucking open his shirt buttons to get to the warm skin beneath.

“I will never get enough of this side of you,” he admitted, skating his hand over Sebastian’s stomach to slip under the waistband of his trousers.

“All mine to take apart however I like.”

He wrapped his hand around Sebastian’s cock, getting another full-body shiver.

He slowly stroked up and down, hearing the lovely little noise that caught in Sebastian’s throat every time he moved his hand.

“And I can’t decide if you’re being sweet or wicked right now,” Wesley said, “because you’re letting me have you exactly how I want, but you know full well it drives me wild. ”

He tightened his hand, and Sebastian swore. “Wes,” he whispered, and Wesley needed their clothes off, now .

In short order their suits were crumpled on the floor at the foot of the bed. Wesley pushed Sebastian over onto his stomach on the mattress and crawled over him. “I’m so enamored with your gorgeous face that I forget how good this view is.”

Sebastian huffed a half laugh. “Shut up.”

Wesley tsked. “That’s not how nice boys talk.”

“To you it is.”

Another pulse of heat went through Wesley, the same urge he’d had in Manhattan, to have Sebastian pinned and panting under him.

But then, he hadn’t pushed, and the self-control had been more than worth it for this moment now, with Sebastian clear that he wanted this, wanted Wesley to take control.

“I wanted you under me like this so badly the other day,” he confessed, dropping his head to kiss Sebastian’s shoulder.

Sebastian shifted under him, miles of soft skin and lean muscle that were all Wesley’s to touch. “When?” Sebastian said, voice thick as he tried to look over his shoulder and didn’t quite make it, flattened as he was to the bed.

“In New York.” Wesley skimmed his hand along Sebastian’s body, starting at his thigh to trace the curve of his arse and then up his side. “When you were being so impertinent in bed.”

“All the way back in New York?” Sebastian’s eyes were hazy golden brown, his lips slightly parted and shiny from Wesley’s kisses. “And you waited?”

“Yes, and I would have waited an eternity if needed.” Wesley lowered himself fully, his chest pressed to Sebastian’s back. “I am never in a rush when it comes to you; I want you to crave this the way I crave you.” He put his lips near Sebastian’s ear. “Perhaps I ought to remind you.”

Sebastian groaned, squirming under Wesley, whose cock was hard where it was pinned between their bodies, so that the smallest hint of movement sent sparks radiating through him.

“Oh, is that a yes, Wesley, remind me that you can take all the time you want with me ?” He nipped at Sebastian’s bare shoulder with just a hint of teeth. “How fortunate we have the whole night, the whole inn—and very welcome privacy.”

Sebastian’s eyes had gone half-lidded. “Arthur and Rory are taking one of rooms down the hall. You can invite them in if you miss them.”

“And now you’re being very fucking impertinent again,” Wesley said, shifting his hips so that his hard cock pressed tight to the curve of Sebastian’s arse.

“Only for you.” Sebastian sounded a bit breathless.

Because you’re mine , Wesley wanted to say. Instead, he rocked his hips again, torturing them both with pleasure and the promise of more to come. “I might say I’ll hold you here all night,” he said, more softly, “but you know I’ll let you up any moment you want?”

“I do know.” Sebastian slid his hand along the mattress, tucking it under Wesley’s hand. “And I don’t want.”

That went straight to Wesley’s head, and for all his talk of having an entire night, he had to have Sebastian now.

Had to trail kisses over Sebastian’s warm skin while his hands explored every inch they could reach.

Had to search for every spot where his tongue made Sebastian whine and beg.

Had to press his hard cock inside that tight body so the world became nothing but the two of them, together.

When Sebastian seemed to have lost his ability to form words in either language, Wesley rolled them onto their sides, Sebastian in his arms, his chest to Sebastian’s back. And Christ, this was even better than Wesley’s fantasy, a feast for someone who liked to touch as much as Wesley did.

“You’re so perfectly at my mercy like this,” he whispered into Sebastian’s ear, as he pulled him even closer, ran his hand over his hip, then his stomach. “If I were a nice man, maybe I wouldn’t enjoy that so much. But I’m not a nice man, and I could spend hours like this, making you mine.”

Wesley wasn’t exaggerating. It was almost impossible to believe anything could feel this good and he never wanted it to end. Sebastian made another noise in his throat, not an actual word but a good sound, if the way he was pressing back onto Wesley’s cock was any indication.

“If I touch your cock, you’re going to lose it, aren’t you?” Wesley asked. Sebastian whined, and he kissed his cheek. “I’ll have to take my time with that too, then.”

“Wes.” Sebastian was craning his head back, reaching for Wesley. “Wes, please.”

A jolt of pleasure went through Wesley, and he had to press his head to Sebastian’s shoulder to keep himself in check. “Fuck, the way you beg .”

Sebastian was trying to get to his lips, a hand threading its way into Wesley’s hair. “Need you.”

And that was it; Wesley couldn’t torment either of them anymore.

He wrapped his hand around Sebastian’s cock, stroking him as he rocked into him, holding himself back from the edge just long enough to feel Sebastian come first. And feeling Sebastian stiffen and shudder in his arms, and around his cock, sent Wesley hurtling over the edge of his own release.

He came back to himself sprawled over Sebastian’s back, pressing him tight to the mattress again. “So good, Wes.” Sebastian’s murmur was barely audible, slurred and muffled by the pillow. “Love you.”

Wait. What?

Wesley lifted his head, needing to see Sebastian’s face. But Sebastian’s eyes were closed, his back rising and falling with slow, steady breaths under Wesley’s chest.

Had he just said—?

No. No, surely not, Wesley had obviously misheard. For fuck’s sake, Sebastian was half-asleep and Wesley was squashing the poor man into the bed; of course he wasn’t going to be able to make out whatever Sebastian had actually said.

He rested his head against Sebastian’s back.

In his most fanciful, private moments over the years, Wesley had wanted to believe that maybe his own heart of stone would someday be able to love another person. Obviously it would be an utter miracle, but maybe he could be capable of love.

He’d been burned before, though, hoping he could learn to love someone but never finding it.

Sebastian was so different in every way, but that was all the more reason to be cautious, to treat the thought of falling in love like a mirage: a distant hope, but something he didn’t dare look at too closely else it vanish completely.

But the reciprocal of that, the idea that someone else could ever fall in love with Wesley —

That was such an outlandish fairy tale, so far beyond Wesley’s wildest dreams, that the thought hadn’t ever occurred to him. Life was unfair; people were unbearable; Wesley was unlovable. These were simply facts.

He stared unseeing into the dark, feeling the soft rise and fall of Sebastian’s breath beneath him, hearing that heart beat steady and strong.

Facts.