“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes to tonight. Yes to now. Yes to every night. Yes to every single morning.”
Then she kissed him. Tasted his lips, then took his mouth, played with his tongue, and opened herself fully. She was ravenous for him, ripping his shirt off his shoulders, popping the snaps of his jeans. She gasped as he pulled down the top of her sundress and took her nipple in his mouth. She arched, moaned, tangled her fingers in his hair to hold him tight against her as pleasure spiked deep in her center.
His fingers caressed sensuously down her belly, pulling up the dress so he could slip beneath the elastic of her panties. “Marry me, Charlie. Marry me and be mine forever.”
“Wait. Stop. What did you just say?”
But Sebastian didn’t stop stroking her with sweet, hot patience, pushing her even higher. “Marry me.”
“Sebastian.” She writhed against him, struggling for breath, panting, everything a blur of sensation, his fingers inside her, his body plastered against her, his words. Marry me. She couldn’t seem to say anything more than his name.
“Say yes, Charlie. Say you’ll marry me.”
She cried out then, a full-body explosion, an earthquake shuddering through her, breaking her apart, tearing her down. Then she grabbed Sebastian by the hair and pulled his face to hers. “Yes,” she whispered again. “Yes, yes, yes.”
And she devoured him with a kiss that said she’d never let him go.
* * *
They tore off the rest of their clothes in a flurry of madness. Sebastian wanted to be inside her, needed it so badly he could barely stop long enough for protection. Charlie’s fingers trembled as she helped him. When the deed was done, she pushed him down and took control.
And it was so damn good to give everything he was over to her.
“Marry me,” he rasped as she buried him deep inside her.
She rode him, slowly, tantalizingly, then leaned close over him. “I already said yes.”
“I thought that was the orgasm talking.” It was probably the last coherent thing he could get his mouth to say.
“That was an I-love-you-want-you-need-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you yes.”
He planted his hands on her hips and moved her, needing so much more than the sensuous slip-slide of their bodies. “God, thank you, yes.”
He filled her until she gasped out his name. She filled him just as deeply, claiming his heart. “Take me, Charlie,” he begged. “Take everything.”
They came together, split apart, moving as one, over and over, stealing his sanity, giving him his soul. Her hands on his chest, her eyes so green, glittering like jewels, her lips plump from his kisses.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I’ll always love you.” There was no other way. “I’d have loved you forever even if you never came back.”
“I’ll always come back, Sebastian.” She made the vow even as her body contracted with pleasure around his. “Always.”
He lost it all then, gave her everything, joined her in ecstasy, riding the perfect wave of release with her.
A while later, they lay sweaty and replete in each other’s arms. He kissed her forehead softly. “You’re my gorgeous Zanti Misfit.” She laughed, the throaty sound that never failed to make him tremble with desire. He tipped up her chin with a finger. “I’m serious. You’re my unexpected.”
“Don’t make me cry,” she said, her voice already full of tears. Then she gasped and sat up, her eyes sparkling with that vision he so loved to see. “Oh my God, that’s it.”
“What?” He loved her gasps. They were either pleasure or inspiration.
“The gate!”
“The crusty old thing you found at the construction sale?”
“Yes.” She bit her lip, her eyes sparkling. “I know what to do. We need to put it on the slope below the terrace with all the Zanti Misfits behind it. Whenever we need something unexpected, we’ll let one out.”
“Brilliant. That’s what the Zantis are—all the unexpected things to come.”
“I love you.” Her smile lit the room like a moonbeam.
“And I love you.” He disentangled their limbs. “So here’s the first test of our new plan.”
She sat up as he climbed off the bed, reaching over to turn on the lamp. They’d never slipped beneath the covers, and the light falling across her set her radiant skin glowing.
“What kind of test?” She narrowed her eyes playfully.
“You’ll see.” He retrieved the box from the closet and laid it on the bed. He’d had it wrapped in blue, with a dark blue ribbon around it. “A present.”
Charlie tore into the paper with gusto, the way she did everything, from making love to welding her stallions to loving him. Then she pulled off the lid of the box.
After a long moment, she reached out to stroke the silk velvet. “The pearl dress.”
“I bought it the same day you tried it on. I wanted you to wear it when we unveiled the stallions.”
“Sebastian.”
He put his finger over her lips the way she always did with him. “You know exactly how much it cost. I have money, and I’ll always want to buy you pretty things without looking at the price tag. I’ll want to spoil you. You just have to decide whether you want to take it.”
She pulled the dress from its box, holding it up, touching the strands of real pearls. “It’s so beautiful.”
“You’re what makes it beautiful.”
She held it against herself, then gave him the gentlest of smiles. “Thank you. I love the dress. I want to wear it for you. Especially when we show everyone the chariot race.”
“The chariot race?”
“It needs a name. Like a Rodin statue. The Chariot Race.”
He pulled her close to kiss her. “It’s perfect.”
“And actually,” she said when he finally let her up for air, “our first test has two parts.”
“Anything, Charlie.”
She let out her breath in a sigh as if she were preparing herself. “I’d like to frame your drawings of me working on The Chariot Race and hang them on the lobby walls for the grand opening. I want your work to complement mine.” She dropped her voice to a plea. “To complete mine.” She waited three beats of his heart. “And I want the world to know we’re a team.”
His body felt hot and cold, but he’d said he could change. He thought of all the nights she’d exposed herself for him, all the nights he’d paraded her through crowds of people. And the truth was that she’d shown him something special in his own work. She’d shown him the magic with that reflection in her face shield and the halo of sparks around her head.
“We’re a team,” he said. “How many drawings do we need?”
Charlie threw herself at him, crushing the dress, the box, and him. Giving him everything he’d ever wanted, all the love he would ever need.
EPILOGUE
Sebastian’s sketches of Charlie were nothing short of genius.
Matt leaned in for a closer look. Sebastian had captured the fully completed sculpture in the reflection of Charlie’s face shield. That small detail turned the drawing into a masterpiece.
Next to him, Daniel was grinning. “I’m glad Sebastian finally came out of the closet.”
Matt laughed. “Don’t let the press hear you say that or they’ll be starting rumors it’ll take years to put down.”
“Sebastian wouldn’t care. Hell, he’d probably love it.”
Matt laughed his agreement.
Everyone had arrived for the big unveiling at noon, and the lobby of Sebastian’s new building was a crush. The crème de la crème of San Francisco society had turned out for the grand event—and so had all of Charlie’s students from over the years. Her mother too. The champagne flowed, white-coated waiters circulated with trays of hors d’oeuvres, and at twelve-thirty, there would be a buffet on the mezzanine level above.