Hellbound Heart

Sebastian gripped her arm hard and hissed, "Don't you dare… run off again, Izabelle!"

He said those words through gritted teeth. Threat and rage flashed harshly across his eyes. But Elle did not even flinch nor feel even a little fear.

Because now that his mask was gone, she could clearly see that he looked like someone who had just emerged from the darkest depths of hell itself. His face was wet with sweat and she felt as though he was using his rage and displeasure to hide something else that he did not ever want her to see.

"I… I won't." she reassured him in a gentle soothing tone. "Unless of course, if you push me away from you again."

His throat worked. "Me? Who the f**k is pushing you away?" he narrowed his eyes at her as he growled his question out. Elle could see that he was suddenly agitated and unhappy that she had said that.

Elle opened her mouth to retort but suddenly closed it and silently drew in a deep breath. She did not want to argue with him about that when he was like this right now. This was not the time and place to hash the details out for that. And to top it off, she was still worried about him.

And she was feeling tired all of a sudden. It seemed that tiredness had now caught up to her after being so hyper and moving about non-stop all day long, and even so late into the night. All she wanted right now was for this man to be okay, whatever it was that he was going through. Though she was still angry at the way he had handled things at the club before, she did not wish for any harm or unease to befall him. Just thinking of it brought so much pain to her heart. Oh, how soft-hearted she was to this man…!

Noticing a small green leaf in his hair, Elle slowly lifted her hand, wanting to pull it off him. She watched his every expression as she hesitantly reached her hand out.

Stopping midway, Elle met his gaze, shocked that it was intently locked onto hers. "There's a… leaf…" she told him in a weak tone before pointing to the leaf in his hair. Then she moved her hand with exaggerated carefulness, conscious of how he was watching her like a hawk.

His eyes twitched at the realization that she was almost afraid of touching him. He cursed within himself because the fact that she was so afraid to touch him, now caused him to feel f**king... f**k, this was truly going to make him lose his mind.

After gingerly pinching the leaf between her thumb and pointer, Elle slowly lifted the leaf from his hair before throwing it to one side. She suddenly swayed where she stood, causing Sebastian to move so fast and caught her on time just before she crashed to the ground.

"I'm… fine. I think I just need to sit down and have some rest." she told him. Then she quickly took her robe off and spread it on the grass, not wanting to sit directly on it lest she dirtied or accidentally ripped the dress that she borrowed from Abi. Abi had been so kind to lend it to her. She would die of embarrassment if she were to return it in a less than perfect state as to when she had taken it.

Wordlessly, Elle then seated herself before looking up at Sebastian. After staring at her naked back for a moment, he took his robe off and unceremoniously draped it on her.

"Please sit, Sebastian. You've been standing all day." She patted on the space next to her.

He could not refuse when she looked at him so pleadingly. Because of that, he unwillingly threw his ass down next to her.

"There's another…" her voice pulled at his attention again and turned to her. Her hand was in mid-air as she was about to pick something from his hair again.

Her obvious hesitation ticked him off so badly that he just could not stop his expression from darkening. He was truly going to be driven insane for getting so worked up that she was obviously afraid to touch him. And before he knew it, he spoke through gritted teeth, "You can touch me wherever and whenever you want, Izabelle. Except…"

He suddenly trailed off and shut his eyes. "Except anywhere around my torso." He continued with difficulty.

His eyes flew wide as an image of white-as-corpse hands reaching out and caressing his young body from his abdomen up to his chest. He felt like snakes and worms were crawling under his skin, making him want to vomit.

"Thank you…" her soft voice pulled him back to reality. The image was gone, but the crawling, disgusting feeling was still lingering on him. He was just barely suppressing the reaction of shivering and batting away at his skin, trying to get imaginary snakes and worms off his upper torso.

"Thank you for sharing this with me." She smiled gently at him.

He let himself fall back and laid there with the back of his palm covering his upper face. Sometimes, her sweet, glowing, and unadulterated smile made him think that he was so… so dark… so filthy for someone like her. Sometimes, he was afraid of what would happen to that smile of hers the longer she was with him.

And yet, he knew he could not possibly let her go. Not now. Not anymore. That was something impossible for him to do now. It was too late for him to let her go.

Her lovely face suddenly hovered over his. "Do you want to rest your head in my lap?" she asked. He could see the innocent concern in her eyes.

"No…" he reached out and fiddled with her red hair between his thumbs. His eyes gleamed so devil-bright as his gaze smoldered at her. "I'd rather have my head between your legs."

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A/N: Mass release done! Sorry for those who checked all day and kept waiting. When i say today, i'm talking about my timezone which is GMT+8. Hope you guys enjoyed today's MR.

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Monthly goal: top1 in GT ranking = mass release