Page 19 of Please Hate Me

“Can you hand me a towel?” I asked.

Sebastian’s face softened as he grabbed the white towel off the rack. He didn’t hand it to me, though. Instead, he extended a hand and helped me out of the tub, plopping the fabric on my head once my feet were firmly on the ground. He softly scrubbed the water from my scalp before venturing down to my shoulders.

“You’re so cold your lips are practically blue,” he mused. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah… just tired.”

That was one way to put it.

Slowly, the towel drifted lower, and as Seb stopped at my stomach, I realized two things. One, I wasmuchlarger than I was the last time he saw me in person. And two, I wasn’t sucking her in like I did during our daily video calls.

He sank to his knees and kissed just above my belly button. As he pulled away, she kicked hard enough for her movement to be seen under the skin.

A smile crept across Sebastian’s face.

“That’s new,” he said.

My heart stopped.

Cameron had felt my daughter kick before Sebastian. Biologically, I supposed that was right. But, though the two shared DNA, Cameron would never be Lavender’s father.

“She’s been moving like that for a couple weeks…. She loves attention.”

Sebastian kissed the same spot again, watching my stomach with complete and utter adoration until she kicked again.

A lump formed in my throat. “Hey, are you sure you want to do this?”

He rested his chin on my bump as he looked up at me. “Do what?”

“The baby… you’re only twenty-three.” Freshly twenty-three, at that.

Sebastian laughed and shook his head. “Mason, I started my first degree at age nine. By that standard, I’ve been acting like an adult for fourteen years. A child—especially with someone I love as much as you—has been long overdue.”

“Even if you didn’t put her there?”

“I may not have been in the room when she was made,” he stopped for a moment to pull away, “but by how she’s kicking, I think she missed her daddy.”

Her daddy.

A subtle tingle inched across my face. Sebastian filled that role, but her real dad was so close that he’d probably have the chance to hold her. What if Cameron changed his mind? What if he wanted to be in her life?

How would Sebastian react to that?

I didn’t want to think about what my life would be like if Sebastian left because of Cameron. Lavender would be stuck in custody battles, and I’d be anchored to the States, surrounded by people who should hate me.

“Also, you lookfantastic.“ His voice took on a gravelly tone as he moved his hands down to squeeze my hips. It took me a second to realize his kisses had trailed lower, slowly morphing into love nips.

Sebastian claimed he was a virgin before me, and that was fine. But virgins tended to be docile and afraid to mess up the first few times. Sebastian had been aggressive from the get-go. He loved to bite me, the way bruises looked on my skin. He seemed comfortable with kinks of mine that even I admitted were a little extreme. He attributed his confidence to avid porn consumption, but unless he’d been watching it purely for research purposes, that didn’t explain his skill.

Still, his lack of stamina left me inclined to believe his story.

Despite my standing position, Seb nudged my legs apart enough to bite the inside of my thighs. As he breathed me in, a slow heat filled my core, growing ever more intense thanks to Sebastian’s expert teasing.

I raked my fingers into his brassy blonde hair.

“You’re going to knock me over,” I warned on an exhale.

The stud in his tongue ran across me, stopping at my clit as he pulled back. I jerked in response, grasping Sebastian’s head to keep myself standing.

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