“What’s wrong?”
She almost dropped the torch in her surprise. Thank God she’d already turned it off. Laying it down, she flipped up her face mask. Her heart was racing as fast as her galloping stallions, and it wasn’t only from the scare. It was Sebastian, all dressed up in a dark business suit and tie, his hair perfect, every-absolutely-freaking-thing perfect about him. She could feel his gaze sketching her body, as if he were running his fingertips over her.
“You scared me.” Putting the face shield on the bench, she tugged off her gloves. “What if I’d been using my torch?”
“I wouldn’t have said anything if you were,” he drawled. “I just thought I’d bring you a refreshing bottle of beer.” He set two imports on the workbench.
She wasn’t normally a beer drinker, but with the heat of the day, her work, and Sebastian making her feel so temptingly hot... “God, that sounds good.” As good as having him here with her in the studio, close enough to touch, to taste.
“So tell me what’s wrong.”
She pointed at her horse. “He’s bowlegged.”
“He looks fine.”
She traced the lines of both legs with her hands to show him...and a memory of Sebastian’s sleek muscles beneath her fingers sizzled over her skin.
He stepped in close, his male scent surrounding her, making her a tiny bit crazy. “You’re right, he’s totally bowlegged.”
Laughter burst out of her. She wasn’t a tiny bit crazy for him. She was over-the-top completely crazy.
“But he’s good this way.” Sebastian threaded his fingers through the tips of her hair. She loved that he couldn’t do anything without touching her at the same time. “He’s the handicapped horse that Ben-Hur gave a chance.”
See? He was making up a story, like all great artists did. “Ben-Hur’s kindness would have meant he was gambling with his life.”
“That makes it even better. Kindness trumping both the win and safety.” He was close, so close behind her. She wanted to take him to the floor and tear off all his perfect, polished clothes.
“We should leave the horse like this,” he insisted softly.
“Even though he’s not perfect?” Desire hummed through her voice, but she kept herself in check.
“He’s perfect the way he is.” He dropped a kiss on her neck, heating her all the way through despite the two fans blowing over them. “I know what you’re doing, by the way. You’re saying that art isn’t about perfection.”
“It’s about heart.” She leaned back, letting him put his arms around her, then turned her face up to his. She wanted him, but just as badly, she wanted the moment he trusted her enough to share all the things he’d been holding back. “Is my plan working?”
He drew her tightly against him, all hard male muscle and heat. “Oh yeah. It’s definitely working.”
She wriggled, tantalizing them both. But she knew he hadn’t gotten her real message. Soon, she promised herself, she’d make sure he understood how amazing he was, exactly the way he was, no perfection necessary. “What message am I sending now?”
“That you’re hot and I should strip off every last stitch of your clothes.”
She had so much to do, and so much she wanted to help him see about himself. But wherever Sebastian was, something delicious and sexy was bound to ensue. And she could never resist him. “Anyone ever tell you how smart you are?”
He was already busy trailing his fingers to the smock’s buttons and undoing them. As for her? Despite making love over and over again last night, she ached for him, so desperate and full of desire that her voice was a little breathless. “What are you doing here, anyway? Don’t you have important meetings?”
“I couldn’t stay away from you.”
His simple, sweet words dissolved what was left of rational thought. The horse’s bowed legs could stay bowed for another couple of hours. Sebastian’s eyes were molten, his body all hard edges against her as he shoved the smock off her shoulders and let it fall. Then he unhooked the buckles of her overalls and flipped back the straps.
Charlie shimmied. Everything fell to her feet, and she kicked it all aside.
“Holy hell.” A pulse beat rapidly at his throat.
She wore nothing but panties, bra, and her steel-toed boots. In the heat of his eyes and the flare of his nostrils like a fine racehorse ready to run, she’d never felt sexier.
He dove on her, her face between his hands as he consumed her mouth, deep, hard, fast. She grabbed his lapels before her knees buckled beneath her. Hauling her up, he pulled her legs around his waist, and whispered, “Hang on, baby.”
God, yes, she would hang on. And she would make him see that everything he did was perfect simply because he was the one doing it.
Because, oh my, the things he did to her. She couldn’t live without them.
She couldn’t live without him.
* * *
Carrying Charlie to the workbench, Sebastian remembered the day he’d first touched her and all the things he’d been dying to do but hadn’t.
“This is crazy,” she whispered as he licked the swell of her breasts.
Snap and the flimsy bra fell away. “Completely reckless.”
“Any of your employees could walk in.”
“They could,” he agreed with a wicked grin. “But they won’t.” It was long past lunchtime and there was no reason for anyone to come down here. Besides, he was too far gone to care if they did.
“How can you be sure?”
Even as she asked the question, she was threading her hands into his hair and arching her breasts closer to his mouth. But he made himself lift his head. “I’ll stop if you want me to.”
“Don’t you dare.”
Sweet Lord, she was exquisite. Her hair falling loose from its knot, the face shield leaving dents on her forehead, the adorable lines of concentration between her eyebrows.
“I couldn’t get a lick of work done today, Charlie.” He emphasized the word lick with a long, slow swipe of his tongue across her nipple. “All I could think about was taking you.” He trailed his fingers down to her hips, laid his thumbs along the creases of her thighs, so close but not yet touching. “Loving you.”
She dragged his head up to take his mouth. Kissing her was heaven. With long, drugged swigs of her, he immersed himself in her taste and her scent as she pulled him tight, her legs trapping him against her center.
She went back on her hands, her breasts rising and falling with gasps of breath. “I want you just like this. In your suit. All your clothes on. And me in nothing at all.”
“Except the steel-toes.”
“Sure,” she agreed with a naughty little smile, “we can keep the boots.”
He didn’t mean to tear everything she owned, but she flipped all his switches. He couldn’t think and before he knew it, there were only shreds of satin in his fist...and the silky-smooth feel of her skin, her thighs urging him on. He’d wanted to taste her, savor her, make this last forever.
But he couldn’t wait.
She quickly undid his belt buckle and they unzipped together, he holding the zipper straight, she pulling the tab. A handful of beats later, he’d slid on protection, then he took her hips in his hands.
With one hard move, he thrust into her, so fast and deep she gasped his name. Sebastian.
For a few precious moments, he tried to slow it all down, to watch her, memorize her, savor her muscles tightening around him. Her color deepened, and heat rose off her flesh. She bit her lip, and her lids closed, fluttered, opened again, her eyes dazed with pleasure.
He moved, stroking that perfect spot inside her, then added the caress of his finger over her arousal. Then he lost himself completely in the clench of her slick heat around him. There was no holding back. He took her harder. Faster. Deeper. His lips found her mouth, and he swallowed her cries as she swallowed his. And they went up in flames together.