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The air kicks on and blows against our damp skin. She shivers and that has me jumping away from her. I run my hand through my hair and briefly start to panic. What did we do? Did I push her too far? I should have draped her in the towel that she dropped when she enticed me with her body. The last thing I ever want her to think is that I’m just like my brother.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt and watch the happiness drain from her eyes, replaced with despair.
She bends down and covers herself up haphazardly, then tucks her hair behind her ear.
“I need to go.” I run out of the door and slam it shut behind me. Taking a deep breath, I head toward my room.
Shit.
I just came from my room.
I have nowhere to go.
More like, nowhere to run.
Chapter Twelve
GABRIELLA
What. Just. Happened.
I let out a breath and droop against the wall. My spine digs into the hard surface, but not even that is enough to wake me from my sleepy, sorrowful state. After so long of Sebastian and I not being together, we finally got the chance, and he apologizes? Did he regret me? I thought once I dropped the towel, his control would snap, and he would take me on the bed like the savage beast I knew he was, and I’d finally lose this damn virginity that apparently has a high damn price on it.
I pinch the tip of my nose to keep myself from crying. I’ve done that all too much lately. Granted, my life has been an emotional rollercoaster, so I’m giving myself a learning curve.
I remember a time when I was fierce, sassy, and took no shit. I was headstrong, and I never let anyone walk over me. I had a way of categorizing everything, and it let me move on from things easily.
While Kendrick was a horrible human being, and everything he did over the years changed me for the rest of my life, I was ready to move on from him, mind, body, and soul. I no longer want him to have an evil grip on me. I want to gain control of who I used to be.
I know Sebastian wants me, and he is playing the good guy. That makes me love him more, but if I have any more time wasted between us, I might as well grow silver hair and wrinkles and die a virgin. I am a grown woman, and it is time I have the chance to be one.
I know what Kendrick had made me be wasn’t real for me. It was a character I played to keep him at bay, and I was ready to shed that skin and become someone stronger, someone better.
Sebastian had been a key role in that for me. I depended on him in my mind more than I depended on myself, and I knew that wasn’t a good thing. I needed to learn to be on my own. That was one thing I wasn’t sure I could remember how to do.
With a sigh and a pounding headache, the endorphins from my first orgasm in years faded quicker than I had wanted, and I walk to the window. I cross my arms and lean my head against the glass, watching the waves roll in sets of three and crash against the shore. Is that how my dead body ended up here?
And out of everywhere I could have ended up, somehow, I landed on his doorstep. Some people don’t believe in first love, fate, destiny, or soul mates, but if my second chance at life tells me anything, it’s that I am meant to be here with Sebastian. I washed up on his beach for a reason, maybe by chance or coincidence, or maybe the universe had a higher power that I didn’t know about, but it left me wondering.
The seagulls caw, a muted tone from behind the glass as they fly through the sky. The sun is set, seeping below the line of water edging against the sky as far as the eye can see. Oranges and pinks blend to create a picture no artist could ever recreate.
This is my heaven.
Sebastian isn’t about to lock me in hell. It would be a different kind of hell—a sexually tormented one, but I have endured too much with Kendrick, and I love Sebastian too much for him to be skittish.
If anyone has the right to be skittish, it is me, but I am ready to lay on my back, legs spread for Sebastian to have his way with me.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” I bang my head against the glass, hoping to knock an idea or two out of me, but I can’t think of anything.
Sebastian is going to be difficult, thinking he has my best interest in mind, but doesn’t he know he is my best interest? Doesn’t he know he kept me alive all the years? I want him more than I need my next breath, and the last time I checked, breathing is essential for the human body.
Sebastian is essential.
Not like money or frivolous things, but like blood or water.
A knock at the door sounds, and with a tired exhale, I urge whoever is on the other side to come in. “It’s open,” I say. At least, I thought it was. The handle jiggles, proving it isn’t unlocked like I thought. I hurry, putting a pep in my step, and look out the peep hole to see Quinn again. She has bags in her hands.