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They were left standing on opposite sides of the desk, leaning toward each other with their hands braced on the surface between them and their gazes locked. Sebastian’s new body had unusual green eyes, but it hardly mattered. When Leon looked into them, he saw confidence and competence, passion, a fiery need to prove himself, an eagerness to please, the same tornado of things he always saw and was sucked in by whenever he was foolish enough to look.
This was why he tried to never look at the man. It was almost impossible to make himself stop once he did. And Leon had always thought Sebastian was at his best when he was in motion: graceful, flamboyant, and deadly. But that was wrong. Sebastian was at his best when he was still as a statue in Leon’s gaze, frozen in something like anticipation.
The upswell of embarrassment at that thought broke the spell, and Leon turned away to look at a wall instead. He snatched up a piece of paper without looking at it so he could pretend to be thinking about anything other than Sebastian within grabbing distance.
If Sebastian was anticipating anything from him, it was more harsh words and casually cruel comments. And even if he was anticipating Leon laying hands on him again, it was probably a dreadful anticipation. Not a hopeful one.
Leon inwardly cringed at the memory of his brutish behavior.
But Sebastian was still standing there, still staring at him as the silence dragged and dragged. Leon could see him from the corner of his eye but couldn’t make out his expression.
Leon swallowed to make sure his voice wouldn’t come out raspy. “You’re dismissed.”
That finally spurred Sebastian into motion. He leaned back and put his hands on his hips. “Not a fan of this body then, are you?”
Leon frowned and, in his confusion, gave in and looked over at Sebastian. “What?”
“This body.” Sebastian stepped back and swept an arm down to encompass his perfectly suitable body. “You couldn’t seem to get enough of the last one, but I guess you don’t like this one?”
Leon stared at him, mouth falling slightly open, paper—whatever it had been—utterly forgotten. He shook his head, bewildered. “Were you not listening to me?”
That made Sebastian scowl, but Leon was certain a little exposed hurt was in his face. He didn’t think he imagined it. “All I ever do is listen to you, Hess.”
“I don’t care about your body.” Leon almost laughed the words. Maybe it wasn’t such an absurd assumption, but Leon had been wrestling with this pining for so long now he knew it inside and out. He knew what it was about and what it wasn’t. “It’s never been about what body you’re wearing.”
That same vulnerability Leon had glimpsed in the hangar came back into Sebastian’s eyes. The look that seemed to say Sebastian liked what he heard but didn’t dare believe it. “Well, what is it about then?” He dropped his chin a little, pulled back, and curled in a little, as though bracing. “And on that topic, what is it anyway?”
Leon moved around the desk, and when he rounded the corner to Sebastian’s side, he didn’t imagine it when Sebastian uncurled toward him. Almost as an experiment, to see what would happen, he stepped close and reached slowly for Sebastian’s cheek. Sebastian’s eyes widened, then—somehow both miraculously and inevitably—he swayed forward and turned his stubbled cheek into Leon’s hand.
Sebastian’s eyes closed, and he nuzzled into Leon’s calloused palm before they fluttered open again. He met Leon’s gaze and bit his lower lip, and Leon groaned aloud.
It occurred to Leon for the first time that perhaps Sebastian was deliberately manipulating him. Maybe this surprise and confusion, the guileless wide eyes, was all for show and Sebastian knew exactly what he was doing and which of Leon’s buttons to press to get him just where he wanted him.
But Leon didn’t believe that.
Leon had watched him for years, and Sebastian was no liar and no sneak, no matter what role he served in the Resistance. With Sebastian, what you saw was what you got, and Leon could never get enough of what he saw.
He brushed his thumb over Sebastian’s lower lip and pulled it from between his teeth. Then he slid his hand around to the back of Sebastian’s head and tangled his fingers into the short hair. He pulled until Sebastian’s head was lower than his own, and Sebastian winced at the pain, but his muscles and shoulders dropped down lax.
Sebastian didn’t move. He stared at Leon with his neck craned back uncomfortably, his body loose, and his eyes bright with—yes, yes, Leon was sure of it this time—anticipation. Clarity and confidence flooded Leon’s system.
Leon smiled, crooked with just a flash of his teeth, and stepped chest-to-chest with Sebastian and pulled on his hair to keep him looking up at him. “It’s about you, Sebastian.”
Sebastian’s hands came up to Leon’s chest, his fingers grabbing at his shirt. “Hess—”
A whine, a desperate little whine, and Leon couldn’t bear to hear the rest of it. He tugged Sebastian’s mouth to his and swallowed the little sound.
Perfect. Leon had meant it when he’d told Sebastian he was perfect. The way his mouth yielded and his body shuddered, the way his fingers scratched at his chest through the fabric, trying to get closer but not daring to pull at Leon.
Leon pushed him back against the desk, pinning him next to it and leaning over him. Sebastian was his. A deadly, predatory, terrifying thing, and in this moment, like this, he was all Leon’s. Squirming against him, whining against his mouth, letting himself be arched over the desk, ready to go wherever Leon wanted him and be however Leon wanted him. He bit at Sebastian’s lip hard enough to make him gasp.
“Take off your shirt.”
When Sebastian’s eyes shot wide and he froze, Leon realized he couldn’t bear to make the same mistake he’d made last time. After just a beat, Sebastian’s hands flew to the collar of his shirt and the buttons there, but Leon caught his wrists. He stilled them before Sebastian could start undoing his own shirt. “Or leave.”
“What?” Sebastian’s mouth dropped open, and the question came out in a shuddering breath. The heartrending disappointment in the syllable almost had Leon reverting back to the same brutish form he’d been in at the hangar—so certain Sebastian wanted this—but he pushed through. He had wanted this man for too long to do it all wrong now.
“You’re the most valuable soldier I have, Sebastian.” He tightened his grip on Sebastian’s wrists for emphasis, then let them go. “That won’t change, whatever you do now.”
