Chapter 118: Beautiful Idiot

Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Beautiful Idiot

Sebastian looked at him.

Actually looked at him.

For several seconds, all Sebastian could do was stare into Nero’s face and genuinely question whether the enigma had suffered some previously undetected neurological complication during the last twenty-four hours.

Nero stood less than a meter away, his cream shirt still open at the throat, long white-blond hair falling in a disordered sheet over one shoulder after he had dragged his hands through it during the argument. Whatever fury had controlled his expression earlier was gone now, leaving something almost painfully earnest beneath the violet of his eyes.

Why?

After everything Sebastian had just told him.

After seven years.

After six months of willingly placing himself in Nero’s hands while his body rewrote itself.

After accepting the engagement, negotiating collars, discussing children, moving into Nero’s palace, sleeping in his bed, and very deliberately changing the boundary Sebastian himself had once established around sex.

Sebastian sighed.

A long, exhausted sound.

Then he stepped forward, caught Nero by the open edges of his shirt, and looked up at him.

"Because I love you, you beautiful idiot."

Nero stopped breathing.

Sebastian immediately felt some vindictive satisfaction that, for once, Nero could be the one whose brain failed.

The silence stretched.

Sebastian’s irritation began creeping back.

"Do not make me repeat that because you’ve temporarily lost higher cognitive function."

Nero blinked.

"You love me?"

Sebastian stared at him.

"I am beginning to understand why your father occasionally looks exhausted."

"You said it."

"Yes."

The wonder in Nero’s voice was so completely at odds with the man who had been furious enough to freeze the atmosphere five minutes earlier that Sebastian’s anger finally began collapsing beneath something softer.

He released Nero’s shirt.

Nero caught his wrists before he could move away. Carefully this time. His thumbs rested over Sebastian’s pulse, the touch almost absurdly gentle after everything they had thrown at each other.

"You love me."

"Are you planning to continue saying that until morning?"

"Possibly."

Sebastian huffed and tugged at one hand. Nero loosened his hold instantly, though Sebastian ended up leaving his hands where they were.

"You already knew."

"I knew you chose me."

"That generally carries implications."

"Sebastian, you chose me because of survival at first, then again after the transition started." Nero stopped, swallowed, and for once seemed to have genuine difficulty arranging his thoughts into words. "I didn’t know if you wanted me or the only way to survive that I and your family forced you to accept."

Sebastian’s amusement disappeared.

"Nero—"

"I knew you were attracted to me."

That earned him a look.

Nero ignored it.

"I knew you cared about me. I knew you trusted me more than you wanted to admit. Then you accepted the engagement, but even that came while your body was unstable and everyone around you was telling you I was your best chance of surviving."

His fingers shifted around Sebastian’s wrists.

"I could make you safe."

The words came quieter.

"I could stabilize you. I could change you into something that wouldn’t eventually go berserk. I could give your family an answer after years without one."

Sebastian felt something painful tighten beneath his ribs.

Nero’s gaze lowered briefly.

"I knew you chose to stay. I did not know whether, if none of that had happened, you ever would have chosen me."

For once, Sebastian had no sarcastic answer ready.

The argument suddenly looked different from this side.

Seven years of rejection.

Then Sebastian arrived in Saha dying.

Nero became his treatment, his safety, his only realistic future, and somewhere inside all of that Sebastian had stopped resisting and started reaching back.

To Sebastian, the difference had become obvious months ago.

Apparently Nero had never trusted himself enough to assume it.

"You really are an idiot," Sebastian murmured.

Nero’s eyes lifted.

"I told you I wanted you."

"You were transitioning."

"I agreed to marry you."

"You needed stabilization."

"I gave myself to you."

Nero’s jaw tightened.

Sebastian stepped closer until their bodies touched.

"I changed my own rule because I wanted to be with you. I chose your birthday because I wanted it to mean something to you. How much clearer was I supposed to make it?"

Nero looked down at him with such naked intensity that Sebastian felt the last pieces of his anger dissolve.

"I wanted to hear it," Nero admitted.

Sebastian went still.

Nero had simply wanted Sebastian to say the thing Nero had never allowed himself to believe.

Sebastian’s fingers slid from Nero’s wrists and settled against his chest.

"You could have asked."

"I was afraid of the answer."

That genuinely startled him.

"You?"

Nero’s mouth twisted.

"I am capable of fear."

"Rarely."

"Only when something matters enough."

Sebastian stared at him.

The bastard had the audacity to look sincere while saying things like that.

Then Nero lifted both hands to Sebastian’s face, palms warm against his cheeks, and whatever restraint remained in his expression finally broke.

"I love you."

Sebastian’s breath caught.

Nero had said it before in different ways, wrapped it into possession, promises, obsession, and seven years of impossible patience.

This was different.

"I love you," Nero repeated, his voice rougher now. "I loved you when you wouldn’t look at me. I loved you when I hated myself for still wanting you. I loved you when I thought the most I would ever get was being permitted somewhere near your life."

Sebastian’s throat tightened.

Nero bent toward him.

"And now you’re mine because you decided to be."

Sebastian caught him by the neck and kissed him.

There was nothing gentle about it.

Nero reacted instantly, one arm locking around Sebastian’s waist while the other slid beneath his thigh, and Sebastian barely had time to breathe before his feet left the floor.

"Nero—"

The rest disappeared into another kiss.

Sebastian’s arms went around his shoulders automatically as Nero lifted him fully, Sebastian’s legs closing around his hips while Nero crossed the short distance toward the windows.

His back met the glass.