Chapter 49: Headlines, Elevators & Barely Contained Lust

The car rolled to a gentle stop in front of Katherine’s apartment building — a modern high-rise with reflective glass and just enough subtle luxury to scream stylishly responsible adult.

They stepped out into the quiet of early evening. City lights flickered overhead, and the doorman offered a polite nod.

But as they entered the lobby, the shift was immediate.

Two residents at the mailboxes froze. A girl with a tiny dog nearly dropped her phone. A man by the elevator did a full double take, then pretended to scroll through the news while definitely sneaking a photo.

Katherine stopped walking. Her spine went straight.

“Sebastian.”

He exhaled beside her. “Yeah. I know.”

Because now he saw it too.

The side-eyes. The quiet whispers. The not-so-subtle glances from screens.

While they were busy making out in a dark cinema and nearly ripping each other’s clothes off in a car, the world had moved on.

Or rather — noticed.

Their brunch photos had clearly made the rounds.

And Katherine Brown — barefoot at brunch, practically straddling a billionaire in the back of a black car — was now trending.

She didn’t say a word.

She just turned on her heel and walked straight to the elevator.

Sebastian followed, jaw tight, tension coiled like a live wire under his skin.

The elevator doors slid open.

They stepped inside.

Silence.

And then the doors closed.

Katherine hit her floor number, her finger slightly trembling. Whether from nerves or something else, she wasn’t sure.

Sebastian stood behind her, hands in his coat pockets. The distance between them felt like a live flame.

And he was losing the battle with his self-control.

Her scent. The soft click of her heels. The memory of her hand on his thigh. The fact that every time the elevator light blinked for another floor, they were one breath closer to being alone — really alone — behind a locked door.

His fingers flexed inside his pockets.

She could feel him behind her.

The weight of his stare. The barely-there breath against the back of her neck.

Katherine swallowed hard. “Sebastian…”

A beat.

“I know,” he murmured. “Don’t.”

She bit her lip.

He took a step closer.

“You’re making this very hard.”

“I haven’t even touched you,” she whispered, voice teasing but shaky.

“You don’t need to.”

He was right behind her now. Close enough to burn.

And for a second — just one dangerous, pulse-pounding second — she thought he might pin her to the elevator wall and forget about floors and headlines and whoever was watching.

But the doors dinged open.

Her floor.

Barely.

Sebastian exhaled through his nose — a sound too primal to be polite.

“Let’s go,” Katherine said, voice low and wicked.

He followed.

And neither of them looked back.

---

The door clicked shut behind them.

And that was all it took.

In a single, fluid motion, Sebastian reached for her — arms around her waist, lifting her clean off the ground with a force that stole her breath.

“Sebastian!” Katherine squealed, half-laughing, half-gasping as she clutched his shoulders. “What are you—”

She didn’t finish.

Couldn’t.

Because he was already carrying her through the apartment, past her coat rack, past the kitchen, past everything except the magnetic pull between them. His jaw was set, his grip firm, eyes lit with something primal — barely restrained fire licking beneath the surface.

“You’re out of your mind,” she whispered, still laughing breathlessly.

“Completely,” he said.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, heart hammering as he moved through the darkened apartment. Every step was purposeful, steady, like he already knew exactly how this would end.

And then — the bedroom door.

Just before they reached it, Katherine leaned in and kissed him. Soft, lingering, lips brushing his like a secret.

But that kiss…

That was the mistake.

Because the moment her mouth touched his, something snapped.

A low, guttural sound escaped Sebastian’s throat — somewhere between a growl and a sigh of surrender. His grip on her tightened, and he crashed into the bedroom door with his shoulder, swinging it open without care.

Katherine barely had time to register it before she was pressed to the wall inside — her back hitting it with a soft thud, her legs still wrapped around his waist, his body flush against hers.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he rasped, breath hot against her skin.

Katherine just smiled.

“Too late.”

---

They barely made it to the bed.

Or rather — Sebastian barely let them make it.

He laid her down like something precious and devoured her like something forbidden. Every kiss, every touch was urgent, raw — like he’d been waiting years for this exact moment, this exact woman.

And Katherine…

She was breathless.

Not just from his mouth on her neck, or the way his hands gripped her hips like he was memorizing the shape of her —

But from him.

The intensity. The heat. The way his body pressed into hers like gravity itself had given up and just let them fall.

She pulled back slightly, giggling through her panting breaths, brushing her fingers over his jaw.

“Darling…” she whispered, laughing, “did you eat a plate of aphrodisiacs or something?”

Sebastian hovered over her, eyes burning, lips already chasing hers again.

“No,” he murmured against her mouth. “You are my aphrodisiac.”

Then — he kissed her.

Deep. Hungry.

And in the moment that followed, with her heart racing and her laugh still trembling between them, he added against her neck:

“…Well. And probably the seafood, too.”

Katherine laughed — the kind of laugh that bubbled up from somewhere completely involuntary.

“Oh my god,” she gasped, “you absolute menace.”

But her laughter turned into something softer, something breathier — because while she laughed, Sebastian’s hands were already at the hem of her top, tugging it upward with slow, reverent precision.

Katherine’s smile faltered — not from fear, but from how suddenly real this became.

The way his fingers trembled slightly when they brushed the bare skin of her waist.

The way he looked at her. Like nothing else in the world existed.

She bit her lip, half protest, half moan. “That’s not fair. You… you…”

“You what?” he whispered, kissing down the line of her shoulder as he slid the fabric over it.

“You’re cheating,” she said, breath catching.

He smiled against her skin.

“I’m winning.”

---

He kissed her like he meant to rewrite everything she thought she knew about desire.

Not fast.

Not rushed.

But with the kind of urgency that came from deep restraint — from weeks of stolen glances, near-touches, and lips that had hovered a breath too close for far too long.

Katherine's breath hitched as Sebastian’s hands moved over her, sure and reverent. Like he was learning her by touch, every inch, every curve. His fingertips left invisible trails of fire, and every kiss he pressed to her skin made her want more.

He didn’t speak.

He didn’t need to.

His mouth said everything — on her neck, her shoulder, her collarbone. Worship in the shape of a man.

Clothes were a blur — removed with a kind of reverence that made her ache. Not tossed aside, but peeled away like secrets, one layer at a time.

When they were finally bare before each other, he paused.

Just for a breath.

His eyes drank her in — dark, reverent, stunned.

And then he moved.

And she forgot what breathing was.

It wasn’t just the way his body met hers — it was the rhythm, the way their mouths found each other between gasps, the way his hands never stopped holding her. Not gripping. Not dominating. Holding. Anchoring. As if she might dissolve beneath him if he didn’t.

She wrapped her legs around him, pulled him closer, and everything else fell away.

The world outside the room. The headlines. The whispers in the lobby. Even the ridiculous shark movie.

Gone.

There was only this.

Only them.

And when it crested — when her whole body arched into his and her name fell from his lips like prayer — it was not quiet. It was not tame. It was not sweet.

It was wild.

Katherine gasped his name like it was the only word she knew, fingers digging into his shoulders as waves of sensation rolled through her — shattering and rebuilding her all at once.

And even then — even when the room settled back into silence, when her body trembled beneath his in aftershocks — Sebastian didn’t pull away.

He kissed her.

Soft. Slow. Like a promise.

And then finally, with a smirk against her cheek, he whispered:

“I told you I was winning.”

Katherine let out a breathless laugh, pressing her forehead to his.

“Call it a tie.”

---