Smolder (Georgia Smoke #6)

• Thirty •

“What is it you need, baby?”

Royal

Every day that passed with just me and Sebastian in that cabin, I lost a little more hold on my good sense, and my self-preservation had gone to hell. It was impossible not to fall for a man who said all the things I’d always needed to hear. Slowly, he was healing the damage my father had caused me, growing up. Giving me the belief in myself that I was worth being loved. That I was someone to be proud of, not hidden away and embarrassed, like the way Merce had made me feel.

When Sebastian watched me across the room, even if I wasn’t looking at him, I’d feel it, and my heart would start to race. Stopping myself from going to him and curling up in his lap was something I’d just given up on. He didn’t seem to mind me doing it; in fact, he seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.

He’d begun reading to me while I sat in his lap. Listening to his deep Southern drawl was my new favorite pastime. Scratch that. It was my second favorite. Sex with Sebastian was my first. That was something else I couldn’t get enough of, and thankfully, he seemed to be as needy for me as I was for him.

Our days went by much quicker than I’d expected, and by the fourth day, I was starting to dread the end, although I knew it had to come. I stood at the window, looking out over the vast land outside, while Sebastian brought wood onto the small, covered porch from a shed that was out back. He’d said the thick, dense clouds meant the first snow was coming. He doubted it would be bad, but the electricity often went out, and there was only so much fuel for the generator. He hadn’t considered it could snow.

The idea of getting snowed in so we could stay longer was appealing, but then there was Grams. If it wasn’t for my worry about her, I’d not ever want to leave. Her memory might be going, but she would remember me and wonder where I had gone. Where Dad had gone.

Sebastian stopped and reached into his back pocket and pulled out a phone. It wasn’t his iPhone, but I hadn’t realized he had any phone at all. Why had he not told me?

His eyes swung to the house, and I stood there as his gaze locked with mine. The tense stance of his body and the way his jaw was set were signs he was angry. With me? I hadn’t done anything but find out he’d not told me he had a phone.

He started toward the house, and I stepped back away from the window, crossing my arms over my chest, hating this feeling. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was something he hadn’t told me, which meant he didn’t trust me.

The door swung open, and he scanned the area until he found me. Then, he closed the door behind him, shrugging off his coat and taking off his boots, not looking away from me. I couldn’t read his body language, but I knew it wasn’t what I had gotten used to this week with him.

When he began stalking toward me, I lifted my chin in the only defiance I could muster. “You have a phone.”

He stopped, his brows drawing together. “Did you think I wouldn’t have some form of communication? It’s a burner phone, and I don’t use it much, but I need it to check on things. Like your Grams.”

Honestly, at some point in the midst of our sex and reading time and me falling in love with him, I hadn’t considered he might need or have a phone. I had been living for the next moment I could be close to him. Just admitting it made me feel pathetic.

“You didn’t tell me,” I pointed out.

He tilted his head to the side, just an inch. “I assumed you knew. What’s wrong? It can’t be the phone?”

He reached out to brush my hair back, then cupped my cheek, which he did a lot. It made me feel special. I soaked it up like the emotionally hungry female I hadn’t known I was. Not until him.

“Who called you just now?” I asked.

The tic in his jaw worried me. Had he gotten bad news? Was it my dad?

“They’re closing in on us,” he said. “Not sure how much time we have left.”

I grabbed his wrist. “Who? The Feds? Are they going to question me?” I felt the panic roll through my body at the thought of being accused of something I’d had nothing to do with.

“No. Not the Feds. The family,” he said almost apologetically.

Okay, what? Why were they looking for us?

“I don’t understand.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

I watched as he ran his hand over his mussed locks. I’d grown fond of burying my hands in it when his mouth was between my legs.

I needed a clear head. Don’t think about his hair and sex.

“They were the main reason I took you,” he said, snapping me out of my sexual thoughts.

“The family?”

“Yeah. My father—he’s not the boss, but he is in charge of the Georgia branch of the family. I, uh, showed some lack of restraint where you were concerned, and with the Dancastles being linked to you and us having to handle the drug trafficking before the Feds did, that wasn’t a distraction he’d allow me to have. He was going to order me to stay away from you.” He paused. “And I couldn’t do that.”

My head was swimming. More information that he’d failed to share with me. What else did I not know? Were the Feds even a threat to me?

“You abducted me because of the Mafia. Your dad. Not because I was in danger.”

“No—yes—fuck!”

He looked so torn that I almost went to wrap my arms around him to tell him it didn’t matter. But I caught myself. It did matter.

“Which is it?” I demanded.

His eyes met mine. “I don’t know how much the Feds know about you, but they do know about your and your father’s connection to Merce. The Dancastles will use whoever they have to in order to save their asses. But I could have protected you from either of them without ever leaving Georgia. What I couldn’t stop was my father taking you from me, and I … I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

I stared at him. How was I supposed to feel? He had lied—kind of—again. I was here because he hadn’t been willing to stay away from me. He wanted me so much that he’d kidnapped me and run off. From the Mafia. From his father.

It wasn’t a sane response, but then again, I was that important to him. I’d not been important to Merce, and we’d been together for eight months. Sebastian had defied the Mafia to keep me. There was a lot of warm, gooey, tingly things happening right now that I knew shouldn’t be. The lying thing and he had taken me somewhere without my permission.

He had gone to a whole lot of trouble to get me here. Just to …

“This was all because you didn’t want to stay away from me?”

His eyes were dark pools, filled with a lurking danger, I knew I should be wary of, possibly run from. But the pleading and … love—those were what trumped everything else. He hadn’t told me he loved me with words, but his actions had said it. Didn’t they?

“Yes.”

One simple word. No other excuses.

“Was it worth it?” I asked, but I really meant, Was I worth it?

“Absolutely.”

This was not how healthy relationships were built, but then when had I ever witnessed one to know what it looked like? What I did know was that I needed him. I ached to belong to him. To never have to leave his side.

I closed the space between us and went on my tiptoes, grabbing his face and pressing my mouth to his. There was a franticness churning inside me. Fear of what all would change when we left here. His hands closed around my waist, and he picked me up to carry me to the counter and set me down.

My hands went to his shirt, and I started to unbutton it as our tongues tangled together. My urgency became a form of madness. When I got the last button undone, I shoved his shirt off his wide shoulders, and he helped by pulling it free of his arms and dropping it to the ground.

“What is it you need, baby?” he asked, breaking the kiss to pull the sweater I was wearing over my head. “You need my cock? Is that it?”

I nodded, my hands going to his jeans. Off. I wanted it all off.

“Damn, baby,” he groaned. “As much as I want to bend you over that table and fuck you, I’m worried about where this is coming from.”

I opened his jeans and looked up at him. “What do you mean? I always want you inside me.”

He lifted one side of my hips to tug my leggings down, along with my panties, then the other side.

“Yeah, but not normally when we are having a serious conversation,” he said, reaching down to take my bottoms down my legs.

“Sebastian, I want you to fuck me. Hard. I want to feel your cum inside me.”

His eyes heated as I talked.

“Take off your jeans and fuck me like you’re punishing me.”

“Fuck,” he hissed and shoved his jeans down, then stepped out of them and his boxers. “Come here.” His tone was dark and demanding.

He picked me up and put me back on the ground. “Bend over the goddamn table,” he said with a gentle shove in that direction.

I had to go up on my tiptoes as I did it, and I spread my legs open the way he liked.

His hand ran over where he had spanked me last night. “I left too many marks. I was too rough.” His tone softened.

Not now. I wasn’t ready for the sweet. I needed to bind him to me. Try to hold on to what we had here.

“I was bad and deserved it,” I told him. “You did what you had to.”

His eyes went from my bottom to meet mine.

“You drive me fucking crazy. You know that?” The growl in his voice made me shiver.

“And you make me dripping wet.”

“Pretty mouth talking dirty,” he said with a shake of his head as he grabbed my hips and sank into me with one firm thrust.

“OH GOD! SEBASTIAN! YES!”

“Fuck, I love this cunt.”

The table beneath me shook as he took me savagely. His hands slid around and covered my breasts just enough so that he could feel them bounce. He kissed my shoulder and the center of my back. Even while our bodies slammed forcefully against each other, he was trying to make me feel as if it were more.

“Sebastian.” His name tore from my lips on a cry as the emotion built along with the promise of release.

“Is this what you needed, baby?” he asked, still leaving kisses along my spine. “Is that deep enough?”

“Yes,” I panted, meeting his thrusts.

“God, I want to bite that ass. Seeing it jiggle.”

“Oh!”

His hands left my chest to run over my bottom. “Mine,” he said just above a whisper.

I sucked in a breath as he continued to caress my tender flesh.

“Mine.” There was a growl when he said it this time.

The world exploded for me, and I pushed back one more time, shaking.

Sebastian’s arms wrapped around my waist as he sank into me. “MINE,” he snarled, and then his body jerked as he released into me.

It was always at this moment when I felt the closest to him. When we were both vulnerable and locked together.

He had become so important to me in such a short time. I was sure I could forgive him for almost anything.