Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
For the next hour, I slowly melted into the couch as the three of us finished our drinks. The fire crackled away as Genoveve and Sebastian discussed business and money formalities. I observed the insane amount of logistical nightmares that the two of them had to untangle.
Sebastian immediately hired Genoveve as his personal assistant, of course. He would pay her out of his own personal funds. They discussed that Sebastian had his own, relatively small wealth in a safe bank account that his mother couldn’t touch. Even if Sebastian was completely disconnected from the castle, he was still plenty comfortable, at least for a year. Everything would still be fine, for the short term.
But as I watched him talk with her, a slow sadness crept up on me.
It felt so good to have Sebastian here. It felt like a slice of what life could be like if we were a normal couple, on a normal night, having a friend over for drinks.
This simplicity was all I had ever wanted or needed. But all three of us knew how temporary it had to be, no matter what happened.
“I think Henry would rather watch paint dry than sit through any more of this talk,” Sebastian finally said, reaching over to squeeze my thigh.
“What?” I said, blinking. “No. It’s fascinating, honestly.”
“Doesn’t look like you find it that fascinating, my love,” he said.
“I’m just exhausted,” I said. “Dead exhausted.”
“Me too. Bed time.”
“I agree,” Genoveve said.
I led her to the spare bedroom, loading her up with as many cushy pillows and blankets as she’d need. When I went back to the hallway, Sebastian was there waiting for me. He reached out and took my hand in his, leading me toward the bedroom.
“Can we never do this kind of day again?” I asked him. “The bad parts, at least.”
“Definitely. The blow job and the me being gay are going to keep happening, though.”
“Music to my ears,” I said.
It was the first time Sebastian and I had walked into the bedroom together. He looked around at the empty walls, the dim lights on either side of the bed.
“It’s clean,” I said. “I managed to get some new sheets when I moved in. They aren’t silk, but they do the job.”
“I’m sure they’ll be amazing,” he said. “Um, do you… do you want the right side of the bed, or the left?”
“Oh,” I said. “Either way. You choose what you prefer.”
He swallowed, looking back at the bed. He was still holding my hand in his, and I felt him squeeze his fingers a little.
“I suppose I’ll take the right side. Is that all right?”
My heart squeezed in my chest. I hadn’t seen Sebastian act so deferential, so unsure of himself, since we were kids. Back in the day, he’d always looked to me for guidance on all of the little things.
“Perfect. Take it,” I said.
“You sure it’s okay?”
“It is one hundred percent okay.”
Sebastian settled into bed, tucking in under the covers. I stripped off my pants, wearing my faded t-shirt and boxer-briefs to sleep as usual. As I got in, I saw Sebastian sliding open the drawer on the nightstand.
“I knew it,” he said. “You’ve got the lube on this side. This is your side!”
“Yeah, but it’s yours, now.”
He gave me a needlessly apologetic look that made me want to kiss every inch of him.
“I didn’t mean to steal your side of the bed. I can’t believe you just let me have it.”
“Sebastian, you could sleep directly on top of me,” I said. “I don’t care where we are, as long as we’re sleeping together.”
“Sleeping together, huh?”
“In every sense of the term.”
We turned out the lights and tucked in under the covers. The bed may as well have been a fucking cloud in heaven, even though it was nowhere near as plush as Sebastian’s mattress back at the castle. Sebastian curled up next to me, and I breathed in deep.
I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him as close to me as I could.
“I like that you called me ‘my love’ earlier,” I murmured, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck.
He hummed. “It’s how I feel,” he said.
“I take back what I said before,” I told him. “All of the craziness of today was worth it for this moment. I… I could hold you like this forever, Sebastian.”
“Please do?”
“I never want to stop.”
I heard him pull in a shaky breath. “I don’t have a plan, Henry,” he said, his voice weak. “For the first time in my life, I have no plan. No routine. Nothing.”
I squeezed him. “And for the first time in your life, you don’t have secrets, either,” I said.
“You’re right.”
“We will get through this,” I told him. “I don’t know how either. But we will.”
14
Sebastian
The next few days in Berrydale were surreal.
Each day was grey and dreary. Snow fell, blew away, and then fell again the next day. We didn’t get even an hour of seeing the sun. Time felt strange, like we were waiting and waiting for a storm to break, but nothing ever happened.