#thread;rose

[cariiad]

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​

[cariiad]

rose & ace

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​

[cariiad]

rose & sebastien

everything about her was so calculating, taking everything at face value without really thinking to pay mind to what may lie beneath. the things he was sure she knew, the things she was choosing to let go under her radar, or at least let them fall off from needing addressing. it was clear to him that she wanted something, possibly anything. her general nervous behavior made him wonder a flurry of things about her. had she ever been kissed? had she ever done anything physical with a boy? with anyone? the thought crossed his mind that she hadn’t, and he wished it hadn’t made him as excited as it did. but he was overjoyed with the notion that he may get to be that for her. something so fundamental, so poignant. he could practically feel his ego inflating as he thought about it. sebastien smirked as she finally took a beat from speaking, easily closing most of the remaining distance between their reclined bodies. the brunet stayed propped up on his side, watching her closely as he reached out for her, catching a stray piece of hair laying across her forehead as he brushed it away, tucking it behind her ear. he let himself linger then, feeling his fingers spreading one by one as he submerged the tips of his fingers into her hair, one large hand clutching the side of her face as he leaned over her. “of course i like you, rosie,” he muttered, the ghost of a whisper on her lips before he felt their edges brush, giving her that small taste of the heat of his mouth, feeling their eyelashes brush before he met her gaze once more, a final beat of silence as he waited for her retreat. but it didn’t last long, the final distance between their mouths closed easily, magnetically, locking their lips together as he let his lips hold her soft pillows in an embrace, one he finally broke after a few moments before looking down into her eyes once more.

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​

[cariiad]

open starter ( anyone ) 

concept: rose is the daughter of the sinclairs, upper class and high society. she’s stepped out of one of their lavish parties to push off a panic attack but doesn’t want anyone to know.

“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. 

[cariiad]

rose & sebastien

her reaction to his voice made him smirk, something sinister resting on that curve of his lips, living the rise he got out of her, liking that she seemed so affected. no, turmoil had not been what he had in mind, but he wondering exactly what feeling was at the root of this dread she seemed to hold in the pit of her being whenever he was around. he could never be sure if it was reality or it was his ego telling him that the torture of his own presence was only at having to bite back her true desires. maybe he’d never know for sure. the male moved in closer as she took a seat and made a bit of extra room for him. sebastien let himself tower for a moment as she spoke before he unfastened the button over his abdomen to free the body of his jacket before taking a seat beside her. “as the other party who was present, i will say i suppose it’s best he didn’t care. though maybe he ought to have…” he murmured, eyes scanning the tall hedges lining some of the walkways through the garden, the buzzing of insects around them as the sun began to set closer to the shoreline now mostly hidden by the expanse of outstretching foliage before them. “you know i don’t believe in coincidences. or fate,” he told the blonde rather plainly, finally feeling himself exhale a sigh of relief as he leaned back against the stone backing of the bench and turned his head to view the woman beside himself. he didn’t know how to answer her final question. namely because he didn’t want to lie. more than that, he’d never accept the vulnerability that came with the truth. “just got a tip from one of my informants. the fact that it was your father was just an added bonus.” still a lie, something that was so routine he didn’t even flinch upon it’s delivery. the informant in question had been his own lingering presence in her life. one he’d never truly revoked. “so… dean…. that’s…” the male cleared his throat, fingers combing back through the mussed layers of his hair. “that’s… fun…”

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​