#thread;rose

biting her lip, rose picked up her phone. her finger hesitated over the call button for a moment before finally pressing it. when the call connected, rose flopped back into her pillows as his voice washed over her. “hi.” he couldn’t see it but her smile was full of quiet, secret joy. @exposurc​

the space between them had shrunk dramatically as sebastien moved closer. it was what rose wanted yet her heart rate rocketed, spiralling beyond her control. her eyes widened, her pupils blowing open as desire coursed insistently under her skin. her gaze danced over his expression as she felt his fingers slipping into her hair. he was close. so close. rose’s eyes slipped shut without thought, absorbed in the almost touch of his lips on hers. a breath caught in her throat and her eyes fluttered open, eyelashes brushing his as warmth bloomed across her skin. the pale expanse of her décolletage darkened, the flush spreading up her neck, as his eyes held hers. rose was entirely captured. she could never have resisted the charm, the quiet but powerful predator under sebastien’s skin. when his kiss came, it felt like being set alight from within. rose’s hand clutched his forearm, his hand still buried into her hair. only a few moments passed before he retreated, even as rose followed the kiss for a touch too long. her cheeks burned at the reveal of her own eagerness. her body hungered for him, though, beyond her control. a steady ache sat in her chest, needing so much more. blinking open dazed eyes, rose found his gaze quickly and focused on it. “again.” rose barely breathed the word, her hand moving to the front of sebastien’s shirt and clinging to the material as she closed the distance again for another kiss. rose had kissed boys before, knew the clumsiness, the awkward hushed laughter when two people bumped noses. this was different. they were on her bed and he was so much bigger than her, his hands holding her like so much spun glass. emboldened - of course i like you, rosie - rose pushed herself up a little and kissed sebastien with far less restraint than he’d shown, lips moving together in a steadily building rhythm that only fanned the flames in her veins. when this kiss broke, rose’s breaths came a little harder, her pulse all the more insistent. “sorry-” she began to apologise out of habit, for being too much, too keen, too quick, but rose stopped herself with a slight frown. “no, actually.. i’m not.” @exposurc​

oh yes. no doubt her father should definitely have cared about rose’s involvement with sebastien. god. he’d consumed her whole world for close to a year, undone endless securities and found the truth of who she was under the manners and the politeness and the chokehold of control. the things that they’d gotten up to in her parents’ house... well. john sinclair would have been exceptionally unhappy about all of that. rose sighed, reaching behind her and pulling the pins from her hair until it tumbled down in a bundle of soft curls. her scalp ached from having it up for so many hours already. her fingers massaged her scalp slowly, expression pulled slightly at the dull pain. i don’t believe in coincidences. so he was here on purpose. rose’s heart skipped before thundering riotously against her ribcage. rose shook her hair out, undoing a little of her facade. all loosening of her posture was undone though at the mention of dean. rose shifted on the bench, straightening up and looking to the house as if expecting the mention of her fiance to summon him. she didn’t want to explain this current set up to anyone. “my parents like him,” she said with a shrug, as if that were plenty enough justification. “there’s nothing wrong with him. he’s a nice man, polite, well respected..” god, her words sounded hollow. up until seeing sebastien again, rose had been satisfied with dean. compared to the man next to her though, he paled in every single way. “he’s everything someone like me is supposed to end up with.” a high society, private school, trust fund baby. rose was under no illusions as the role that she was supposed to play. this was her last year of dancing, of freedom, she’d been told as much very clearly by her father. anxiety swelling in her chest, rose stood and began to pace slowly. it was hard to think clearly around sebastien yet equally she desperately didn’t want him to go anywhere. “how long are you here?” she asked, fingers twisting her necklace once more. “in the city, i mean. not in my house.” the party inside roared in contrast to the quiet peace that they’d carved out here. “when did you even move back? or have you been here the whole time and hiding behind a newspaper every time i happened to be nearby?” @exposurc​

“sorry, i just needed a little air-” rose turned to address the person who’d followed her out into the garden. these high society parties were always just so intense. “i’ll be back in a minute,” she reassured them, shaking her hands out and letting out long breath. “are my parents still hovering around?” their oppressive presence always made everything so much worse. 

rose swallowed down the anger. didn’t she always? watching dean stride in the opposite direction, she let out a shaking breath and shook her hands out at her sides to stop her fists from clenching. she was now partnerless - at least until dean decided to stop arguing with her on every point - and rapidly running out of time. the routine was part of her final project for the year and her father would be furious if her grade dropped. turning on her heel, she stopped at the sight of the man on the other side of the cavernous studio - jace? mason? she couldn’t place his name - and tried her best to school her face into something neutral. “enjoying the show?” she asked, her tone acerbic and bitter. she didn’t relish the thought of someone witnessing her losing control of the situation. “unless you have ten years of dance training hidden somewhere back there, i’d really rather that you left right now.” so that she could lick her wounds in private. @gvngsigns​