Chapter 403 Handle things just fine

For long moments, neither of them moved from the couch. His hips stayed pressed flush against hers, their bodies still joined, chests heaving against each other.

The only sounds in the dark room were the soft, wet noise of their breathing and the quiet drip of their combined release onto the couch.

Sebastian kept his face buried against the soft curve of her breast, his tongue occasionally flicking her sensitive nipple as the aftershocks faded, unwilling to pull away from her, for she made him complete, and he knew that the moment he was out of her, he would feel as empty as a dead man. He wanted to stay exactly where he was forever, but he knew duty was waiting outside.

Still, everything he needed to return to felt distant now, muted by the warm body beneath him, and Sebastian grew a little greedy for more.

Viola’s legs remained locked high around his waist, her heels still pressed into the small of his back, as though she feared he might vanish the second she loosened her hold. Her fingers had softened in his hair, stroking slowly instead of gripping, and every gentle pass of her nails sent a low shiver down his spine.

Sebastian finally released her breast with one last, lingering suck, the nipple left glistening and flushed from his mouth. He lifted his head just enough to look at her face in the dark. Her eyes were half-lidded, her lips parted and swollen from their earlier kisses, a faint sheen of sweat along her hairline.

The insecurity that had flickered across her features when she’d first asked for his mouth was gone now, replaced by something softer, almost dazed. He felt a fierce, possessive satisfaction settle deep in his chest at the sight, knowing he had somehow managed to chase away her insecurities, at least for now, and that everything else would be gone once the marking was complete, for if she could feel his emotions, she would have no reason left to doubt his words or his actions.

Slowly, carefully, he began to ease out of her. The wet slide of his softening length leaving her body made them both inhale sharply. A warm trickle of their mixed release followed, coating her inner thighs and the couch beneath them, and she moaned in protest as he began to leave her body completely.

He stopped moving away at her protest. Instead, he shifted his weight onto one elbow, his free hand moving between them to gently cup her sex, his palm pressing lightly against the slick, swollen folds, as if to soothe the emptiness he had just left behind.

“Is this better?” He whispered into her ear, licking her earlobe slowly and feeling her shiver.

Viola’s hips gave a small, involuntary roll into his touch, a quiet sound catching in her throat, and that motion alone made his satisfied body begin to stir again, as though he hadn’t just had her at all. She rolled her hips against his hand again, and Sebastian nearly came undone and gave in.

He leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers, soft now, almost reverent. No hunger this time, only the need to taste the quiet after. Her lips parted under his, answering with the same gentle pressure.

One of her hands slid from his hair to the side of his face, her thumb stroking along his cheekbone, where the earlier coldness of the dungeon still seemed to linger. Sebastian closed his eyes and leaned into the touch, letting himself feel the contrast: the blood and screams of the past hours against the warm, living softness of his wife, his lovely mate.

When he finally drew back, he kept his forehead resting against hers. “I love you,” he whispered softly, and Viola felt her heart grow warm, completely reassured. All her insecurities seemed to evaporate into the night, vanishing from her heart. Having him close, feeling him near, always fixed her far better than anything else in this world ever could.

“Say you love me too, sunshine.” He pecked her lips when she didn’t reply right away, still simply staring at him.

Viola felt her lips pull into a smile as she realized this was exactly what he had gotten her used to. Whenever she didn’t say the words after him, he would coax them out of her, always. And whenever he didn’t do this, she would feel as though something had changed between them, even when nothing had.

He had made it into a habit for her, a habit she had grown so accustomed to that she wanted it to stay that way.

“I love you too.”

“Say it with your endearment for me,” he insisted, licking the side of her neck teasingly and making her squirm and smile.

“I love you, hubby.”

“That’s more like it,” he mused, bringing his forehead back to rest against hers. He breathed in her delicious daisy scent, now mingled with his own.

Their breaths mixed in the narrow space between them. The black shirt he still wore clung to the sweat along his spine; her t-shirt and bra remained bunched above her breasts, leaving them bare and marked by his mouth. Neither of them moved to fix their clothes. The moment felt too fragile, too necessary to be disturbed by any movement.

Sebastian’s thumb stroked once more between her legs, gathering the evidence of what they had just done, before he brought his hand up and rested it against her waist, his fingers splaying over the soft skin there. He could feel the shiver of rising arousal still running through her body, the way her pulse fluttered beneath his palm. For the first time since this morning and dealing with the elders, the hollow place inside his chest finally felt full.

Outside, the five minutes he had asked for had long since passed. He knew the warriors would be waiting, restless, ready to move on to the battle he was about to settle with a building bunch of packless werewolves.

Duty pressed in against the edges of the quiet room once more, but he stayed where he was a little longer, forehead to forehead with her, breathing her in, letting the last of the night’s darkness settle around them both before the world demanded him back.

He wanted to sink back into her, to feel that wondrous feeling again, but Sebastian knew he would only delay his departure further if he did. So he stayed exactly as he was until he saw her eyes begin to flutter, her lashes finally dropping as she let out a contented sigh.

•••

Viola opened her eyes smiling, for a reason she couldn’t quite place at first, until it suddenly came to her, and she turned to look for him. She belatedly realized she was lying in her bed alone, with no trace of his scent anywhere around the bed. She quickly understood that he must have carried her back to bed and left. Why hadn’t he woken her before he went? She thought, her smile falling away as she turned to find a note on the nightstand and grabbed it quickly.

[I’m going to be out of Silver for a while. I may not make it back today, but I’ll do my best to return tomorrow. Something important came up that needs my attention, but Matt will be on duty with you while I’m gone.

I know you’ll handle things just fine in my absence, Amor. Don’t hesitate to make whatever decisions you need to make for the pack. You’re my Luna, and I trust you completely to take care of things until I return.

And use my office if you need it. Consider everything in there yours.

Take care of yourself for me.

Love,