Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife (24 page)

I thought he
might have wanted to cop a feel but he didn’t. Instead, he reached
for the black flannel off of one of the glass shelves that lined
the shower wall. Next came some yellow coloured shower gel that he
lathered up in his hands and began to wash me with. I was stunned
silent. No-one had ever done this to or for me before...ever. I
swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat at the sight of him.
The muscles in his arms and chest bunched and flexed with every
movement and his face contorted into concentration as his big hands
produced the exotic smelling bubbles.

“Stand up.”
Sebastian said, his voice was still a bit groggy but I heard him
clear enough. I turned and stood facing him. I bit my lip and
looked up into his blue eyes, seeing them warm and open. He looked
down at me, giving me a small smile. “I’m taking care of you. Now,
please be quiet and just relax.” He kissed the tip of my nose as he
continued to lather up.

For the ten
minutes it took to wash me, I obeyed his commands and instructions
to raise my arms and lift my legs. I was struck mute. I couldn’t
say anything even if I wanted to. My eyes just followed him, taking
in every movement he made. He was pretty cute when he frowned in
concentration. His pink tongue even popped out at the corner of his
mouth occasionally.

“Thank you.” I
managed to get out when he placed the flannel aside.

Sebastian
pulled me to him so my boobs pressed against his chest, my nipples
hardening the moment they touched his heated skin. He leaned down
and pressed his lips to mine in an ever so soft kiss. “You’re
welcome.”

Because it was
the right thing to do, that’s what.

Once I
finished dressing in a white vest and a pair of black lace French
knickers that Sebastian had left out on his bed for me, I left his
room and made my way down the hall. There was no TV on or any
talking. The whole place was bathed in silence. Who could live like
this? The silence would drive me insane.

Rubbing the
grey marl towel over my head to attempt to dry my long hair, I
stopped at the kitchen to see it empty. “Huh.” Where were Sebastian
and Rosa?

I bit my lip
and continued down to the dining room—ah. Sebastian sat in the same
seat as last night. He was sitting there looking absolutely
gorgeous with his long hair hanging around his shoulders and his
bare chest smoothed out in the subtly Sunday morning light coming
through the wall length windows. Stubble coated his jaw because he
hadn’t shaved yet and there was a frown marred between his brows as
he read the papers in front of him. Overall though, he was a hot as
hell specimen that made something deep in my stomach tingle. What
made me feel even tinglier was the bite mark on the side of his
neck which practically glowed with the shape of my teeth.

“I know you’re
there.” he commented absently, as he picked up a piece of toast
that looked to have orange marmalade on it and took a huge
bite.

“You know
you’re handsome as fuck sitting there like that.” I commented as I
strolled into the room and approached the table. I stopped at his
side dumping the towel over his paper and ran my fingers through
his hair.

Sebastian
shook his head from side to side and made a noise of exasperation.
“Before you, I never knew a woman could speak like that.”

“They broke
the mould when they made me, that’s for sure.” I laughed and tilted
his head back. I bent down at the waist and planted a kiss on his
lips then squealed into his cavern when Sebastian’s arm wrapped
around my legs and pulled me into his lap. My hands scrambled to
grab hold of something so I wouldn’t fall but Sebastian had a tight
hold on me. “What are you doing?”

“Kissing you,”
He muttered before lowering his mouth back to mine. His tongue
slipped into my mouth, licking at the insides of my lips before
slipping it further inside to tangle with my own. Immediately I
tasted tea, marmalade flavoured toast and a hint of mint and all
Sebastian. I moaned into his kiss and wrapped my arms around his
neck, angling my head at a different angle seeking more. Our breath
mingled together as our tongues stroked all over each others,
deepening the kiss.

With a
reluctantly groan, Sebastian pulled back and stared down at me. His
hand swept up my bare leg, over my hip and against the side of my
boob until he reached my jaw. His finger trailed a line down the
slope and up across my lips. The tip of his finger dipped inside my
mouth so I licked across edge with my tongue and nibbled a
little.

“You are
something else.” He said quietly, his eyes darkening, flicking over
my face before settling on my eyes.

“True.” I
pursed my lips and nodded. “But you love me though.”

Sebastian
squeezed my butt cheek then patted it, signalling for me to get up.
“That I do.”

I walked
around the table to his right side and pulled out one of the comfy
looking chairs and slumped down into it, bringing my foot up to
curl my leg underneath me. I then reached over and pulled a warm
plate over to me and sat it down in front of me.

“Where’s
everyone else?” I asked as I loaded my plate up with creamy
scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, Cumberland sausages, a couple of
tomatoes and a fried slice. When Sebastian didn’t answer, I dropped
the toast onto my plate and looked up at him with my brows raised.
He was watching me intently, a small smile playing on his face.
“What?”

He shook his
head and sighed as he picked up my used towel and put it aside then
reached for his paper and placed it back in front of him. “It’s
nice to see a woman eat her food. All my life I’ve been in the
company of women who prefer to eat next to nothing or nothing but
salad due to keeping their figures.” He shook his head again, his
brows furrowing as he did. “I could never understand that concept
though.”

“Me neither.”
I snorted. “What’s the point in not eating? I mean, when you don’t
eat, you get grouchy and snappish and what funs that?” I pointed my
knife at him. “Also, I have woman meat that needs feeding and a lot
of it too.”

Sebastian
grunted his agreement and settled back down reading his paper. I
cut up bits of my bacon, slices of my sausage and some scrabbled
eggs and loaded all three onto my fried slice and took a big bite,
nearly moaning out loud at the mixture of absolutely gorgeous
tastes rolling over my taste buds. Damn Rosa could cook.

“You never did
answer my question.” I said around my mouthful. “Where is
everyone?”

The paper
lowered again. “Rosa is with her family today. Her daughter called
and said something about needing her to go over there and Ralph is
running an errand for me.”

Huh. I didn’t
know Rosa had family but then looking at her, she looked like one
of those grannies who baked a shit load of cookies and smelled of
that famous perfume that everyone complained about.

“What kind of
errand?”

Sebastian
shifted in his seat and his jaw hardened. My eyes travelled down
from his face to his hands that were gripping the edges of the
paper with white knuckles. Oh no, this wasn’t good, was it?

There was only
one person I knew of that made Sebastian lose his cool...Naomi.

“Let me
guess.” I sighed and finished off my mouthful of toast. It felt
like dry sandpaper going down my throat now rather than the tasty
food it was minutes ago. “It’s got to be Naomi related, right?”

Sebastian’s
eyes fluttered shut before he nodded once.

“What’s the
matter now?”

Sebastian eyed
me for a minute before spilling. “Baby Leo isn’t mine.”

If I would
have been eating, I would have choked. Okay, that was good news,
real good news. A major weight lifted off my shoulders, a weight I
didn’t even know had been weighing them down in the first
place.

Part of me
felt like I wanted to jump up and down on the spot, throwing my
hands up in the air and shaking what my mother gave me in delight,
in happiness and in relief but...the other part of me felt I had no
right to do that and thinking or even feeling that was bad and
wrong somehow.

Taking a deep
breath, I nodded and settled back in the chair, my eyes never
leaving Sebastian. I was afraid that even if I blinked, I’d miss
something. “And?” because there was obviously more.

“And,” He drew
out the word. “She’s not happy about it.”

A snort left
me as I threw my hands up in the air. “She’s not happy? What has
she got to be not happy about?” the moment I said that, it hit me.
“Oh wait!” I held my hands out in front of me as I pushed up from
the chair and started pacing back and fourth. “I know why she’s not
happy. She’s not happy that you know Baby Leo’s not yours. She was
hoping to fool you for eighteen years then slap it down with major
realisation that you weren’t her baby daddy. Now, I bet she’s
spitting pissed because she wanted in on some of you, well, more
than what she’s already had but still. She wanted maintenance for
the kid and something else too.” I took a breath, held my index
finger up and explained. “She wanted that poor boy held over you
like a sacrifice. She thought she’d trick you then blackmail or
some shit like that when you wanted to see him. She would have
drained you dry and by the end, it would have all been for fuck
all.”

Sebastian
stared wide eyed at me for at least a couple of minutes before
nodding slowly. He adjusted his position in his seat and sighed,
rubbing his fingers over the stubble growing along his chin. “That
and another reason she’s not happy.”

“And that
is?”

“I’ve issued
her with at least three different court orders this morning.”

On a Sunday?
Could you even do that? Huh, why was I even considering it? This
was Sebastian Blackwell for God’s sake; he could do anything he
wanted.

I felt my own
eyes go wide. “You did?” he did? “And what were the court orders
for exactly?”

His head
lolled back and fourth. “A couple of issues.” He shrugged. “Mainly
though, the house,”

My brows drew
together and I fiddled around with the knife and fork on my plate,
the gorgeous tasting food now forgotten. “House, what house?”

“The house I
shared with Naomi when we were married.” He laughed but there was
no humour in it. “You didn’t think I lived here.” He waved his
hands around the dining room. “With Naomi did you? Naomi wouldn’t
be caught dead living here. That’s one of the reasons why I chose
it. It’s too...” he pursed his lips in thought. “...plain for her
liking. She’d be able to take a couple of nights but anymore than
that, she would go mad with the need to turn it into something
else.”

I was struck
silent with his words. I slumped back against my chair and pulled
at my bottom lip with my thumb and index finger. My eyes flickered
over him seeing him lost in thought. That marring between his brows
was still there but it was a bit deeper now and his eyes had a
faraway look in them. I blinked and cast my eyes away from him,
scanning the room I sat in wondering what the hell was wrong with
it in the first place that someone would want to change it then I
wondered what Sebastian’s house looked like and what it would be
like to see it.

No!
My
mind shouted. Why would I want to see the house that they had
shared once upon a time?

Hang on a
minute...I just thought... “Why would you need to issue Naomi with
a court order to leave the house you shared if you’re divorced
already?” wouldn’t the house have been one of the things in the
divorce that would have been fought over?

Sebastian
blinked at my question and seemed to come back to the land of the
living. “Well...”

Oh, it was one
of those answers which meant that I either wasn’t going to like the
answer or truthfully him, he didn’t like the answer. “Well?” I
prompted when he continued to stay silent.

Clearing his
throat, Sebastian explained. “When Naomi informed me of the
pregnancy all of those months ago, I allowed her to stay in the
house we once shared until the baby was born.”

Whoa, slam on
the goddamned brakes. “What?” I exploded. “You did what?”

“Calm down,
will you?” He said, huffing out a breath and running a hand through
his hair. “I had to do it.”

My brows drew
together. My bare feet sunk into the rich carpet as I continued to
pace. “You had to do what, Sebastian? You just had to go and give
her a house that you owned and for what? What made you do
that?”

Even I knew
people didn’t give away houses for free, there had to be more to
the situation than what he was letting on.

“Because it
was the right thing to do, that’s what.”

Was I hearing
right?

“For whom,
Sebastian, because from where I’m standing, all you did was entice
her and make her think that things were going somewhere and don’t
get me started on what she did to me. Yet you still gave her a
house. Are you crazy?”

“I’m not
crazy.” He blasted, his hand fisting on the table before banging
it, making the plates and various dishes jump and rattle a little.
“I was doing the right thing by the unborn child. I couldn’t let
her live where she was when there was a possibility she was
pregnant with my child. What kind of man do you think I am?”

“I think you
were fucking crazy is what. I get your point about the baby but
come on. It wasn’t like the bitch was living in squalor and a crack
den was she? She wouldn’t know what living on the breadline was
like, Sebastian. She’s never been in such a position that she’s
needed to count every penny and I mean
every
penny just to
make it through the week and that includes paying her rent for a
shit hole.” I slammed my hand down on my chest. “But I have and
what did you do for me? Not that I expected it mind.” I added
quickly. “You put her up in your posh as fuck house probably for
free because you felt obliged.” I shook my head and squeezed the
bridge of my nose. “Put me aside for a minute. Did you sort her out
with the house before or after the thing with Jacob and the
recording?”