Chapter 38 Chapter 38: I Can't Believe It

Chapter 38 Chapter 38: I Can't Believe It
Aliana Slate's POV:

I couldn't believe what I just did. Did I really just... I mean, I couldn't believe it.

As I realized this moment, I knew it went past regular shock, as I didn't intend to be so shocked when it first happened. My lips parted as I reached my hand up to the side, and I could feel the light bead of salted water as it ran down the side of my cheek. It left a light, wetened trail behind as it left a part of itself with each strand of hair it passed by.

Was I actually attempting to cry for the very first time, and for however long? How long ago was it that I actually cried? My mind started to wander, filling my mind with fear when suddenly...

"It's all right," Sebastian said right then, his words cutting into my thoughts as I turned to look back at him in shock.

Did he know that my mind was starting to wander the way it was? As I looked at him, he carefully pulled me into a close embrace, wrapping one arm around my lower back as he used his opposite hand to place his palm on the side of my cheek. He even used his thumb to wipe the one tear that had escaped from my eyes.

At that, my eyes started to shed more tears. One first, then another... as I filled my eyes, starting to swell with tears as if they had never stopped in the first place.

It was like I couldn't see exactly. Is this what crying was like? That your eyes would blur with the amount of salty tears that now filled them?

At that, I tried to break eye contact with Sebastian and looked down, but he didn't let me look down for long. I heard him make a slight humming noise before he used his hand on the side of my face to lift it slightly.

"I don't want you to hide this from me," Sebastian said, his voice still soft. "There is nothing that you have that could scare me away. There is nothing that you have done that would make me think any less of you. I want you to know that I am here for you."

As I looked up and my eyes met with Sebastian's piercing gaze, I saw the corner of his mouth raise right then. It was like... this time, I heard it when he chuckled lightly to himself. Then he again started to wipe more of the tears off my face as he brought up his opposite hand and then placed both of his palms on the sides of my cheek.

I couldn't help it. Instinct... It simply had to be instinct. I reached up with both of my hands, grabbing firmly onto his wrist, somehow thinking in the back of my mind that something was going to happen. Sebastian... All he did was smile at me softly.

"You have nothing to fear from me," Sebastian told me.

Right then, as he spoke, it was like his tone had changed. It was set deeper than before. I even got a hint of an unknown, powerful might that I wasn't sure what was driving it. No matter. I didn't care. The only thing I cared about was that I was there. I was there in this moment.

He then leaned forward and did something that I didn't expect. He removed one of his hands from the side of my face and again used it to wrap around me as it was previously. Then, with his arm still holding me, as it was wrapped around my back, he pulled me closer to his side, removing his hand from my face as he turned to face the interior of my now new bathroom suite.

My hands were raised up into my chest before I turned my back to the open scene before me, when I ended up turning them over and placing them on his firm chest instead.

"Sa... ba..." I tried to say, but I didn't exactly know... How he would take it if I said his full name.

"How about this?" Sebastian asked as he looked down at me, instinctively causing me to look up at him at that moment. "How about you call me Bash? Will that work for you? That way you don't have to say my home name all at once."

"Bash?" I spoke, my tone set extremely low, as if in a low whisper.

"Precisely," Sebastian said, smiling down at me, causing me to break eye contact again. "You got it. All you have to do is call me Bash anytime you need anything."

My nose started to burn again. This wasn't a feeling that was very common with me as of late. It meant that my eyes were going to start watering again. I didn't know what to do. I didn't... I honestly didn't know how to process someone who is being ever so sweet to me in such a manner. This is not what I was used to.

"Would you like to take a bath?" Sebastian asked, and when I looked up at him this time, my eyes went wide with shock.

"A bath?!" I couldn't believe that I was actually speaking to him now.

I know I said something outside before we walked in here, but I felt that this was somehow different. I didn't mean to get all emotional. I didn't even know what I was really doing. I was so lost within my head about how I was treated over the past... Can I say it? Can I actually say it was a decade?

I gasped, and no sooner than I did, Sebastian spun me around into his arms, pulling my back directly into his chest. He held my hands crossed in front of me as I tried to pull away, and he held me from behind.

"It's okay..." Sebastian whispered in my ear. "It's okay."

I wanted so much to be free of this moment. The fact that he was behind me and not in front of me changed the way I thought in that moment. Usually, a man would hold me directly to his chest so that I couldn't push away.

But the way Sebastian was holding me in that moment was that my back was up against him and that if I wanted to open up my eyes, I could look to see whatever was in front of me. My sight wasn't blocked by the sight of a mere man.

It took me several minutes to be able to calm myself down as I was huffing to breathe. I sniffled several times even as I held my eyes closed in that moment.

"Breathe... Just breathe," Sebastian spoke softly into the side of my ear. "It's all right. Just breathe. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here when you need me."

I continued to huff, my mouth parted as I was breathing frantically, trying to calm myself down.

"Okay," I said after a few more moments. "I'm okay."

"Are you?" Sebastian asked softly. "Are you okay?"

"I have to be."