Page 50 of Want It All
‘They’ll know it was you!’
He snorted. ‘Do you think I care?’ His voice dropped. ‘Come on, Rose. We don’t have to study if you don’t want to. We could go for a walk instead.’
‘A walk?’
‘Outside,’ he confirmed. ‘Bring your hat; it’s sunny. We’ll take a page from Tristan’s book and go say hello to some trees. It’ll be character building, or something.’
I smiled despite myself. ‘Okay.’
After we hung up, I took a moment to rake my hands through my hair and brush my teeth, before grabbing my hat and spraying myself with scent canceller. When I finished, Sebastian was waiting outside my room, his sunglasses hooked on the collar of his shirt. They dragged the material down, baring a mouthwatering stretch of skin.
He shot me a megawatt smile. ‘Come on,’ he said, taking my hand. ‘Tris is waiting outside, but he promised he’d give us space. We can walk, just you and me.’
‘You and me alone is dangerous,’ I said without thinking.
‘I think the term isincendiary,’ Sebastian answered.
I flushed. He was so beautiful that it was hard to believe he really thought that, but he was here, withme, and his grip was firm around my fingers. He hooked a lock of hair behind my ear with his free hand, then rubbed his thumb across my cheekbone, as if he couldn’t help himself.
‘You know what else trees are good for?’ he purred.
I shot him a startled glance. ‘What?’
‘Making out under.’
I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. ‘Seb –’
‘Don’t worry, I’m joking. Unless you want to, in which case I’m as serious as a first-year politics student.’
I laughed.
‘Honestly, Rose. Literally any time.Any. Time. You could knock on my door at three in the morning and I’d make out with you. Whenever, wherever.’
I knew I should have been more sensible, but the pull in my chest was so strong. I lifted his hand to my lips and brushed a kiss over his knuckles. ‘It should be somewhere private next time.’
I looked up to find him staring at me, his blue eyes sparkling in the afternoon light. He leaned closer. ‘You don’t know what I’d do – what I’dgive– to take you somewhere private, Rose,’ he murmured. ‘You don’t know how badly I want you to myself, just for a little while.’
The pull in my chest turned painfully tight. ‘Seb,’ I said again, but it came out more like a breathy little whine.
He swallowed, then looked away. ‘Come on, Rosebud. I promised trees, so trees are what you’ll get.’
It wasn’t until after we’d walked across the green beyond the manor’s wide back doors that I noticed Tristan, trailing after us from a distance, seemingly engrossed in his phone. I knew better than that, though; whatever he was doing, one eye would always be on us.
If it was anyone else, I’d feel creeped out. But Tristan made me feel safe in the same way Byron did – as if neither of them would hesitate to leap between us and danger.
It was also difficult to forget the way he’d looked that day at the beach. I shivered, remembering the way he’d tugged his shirt over his head, my memory catching on the hard planes of his chest and the lines of muscle crossing his stomach.
Sebastian pulled me past the maze and into the line of trees to the south. They were all towering river red gums, covered in alien-looking white flowers. I breathed in deeply, filling my lungs with the scent of eucalyptus. It was cathartic, being able to smell something natural after being so long inside themanor, where the air was full of the artificial, metallic scent of cancellers. I picked up some fallen leaves and crushed them between my fingers, breathing more of it in.
‘It’s weird, isn’t it?’ Sebastian said musingly. ‘Being without human scent. Sometimes I feel as if I’ve lost a limb. Even though our scents outside Banksia are technically muted from the blockers in the water, it’s still … comforting … having an echo of them. But here, where there’s nothing at all … It’s almost eerie.’
‘I didn’t realise betas had such good noses,’ I said absently.
I looked up in time to see a flush of pink spreading across his cheeks. ‘I don’t know how it is for others, but my sense of smell is pretty good. I’ve always been able to pick up scents easily.’ He bit his lip, as if considering what to say next, then blurted out: ‘I wish I could scent you.’
Fuck, I wished the same thing. Would Sebastian be sweet? A floral scent, perhaps? Or would he have a lifestyle scent, like leather? Or some other nature scent, like rain or freshly cut grass?
Whatever it was, I was sure it would be delicious.
