He gave a rueful smile. ‘Funny. I’ve been spending a fair bit of time with my dad the last few weeks, talking stuff over and he said exactly the same thing. It seems everyone is wiser on this than me. And maybe braver than me too.’
‘I don’t know about that.’
‘I do. If I’d have had the guts I thought I did, I’d have asked you out the moment you were free, like I wanted to, instead of just faffing around and giving myself excuses not to.’
I frowned at him. ‘I don’t understand.’
Seb carefully moved the dog out of the way before standing and gently pulling me up with him. His warm, strong hands, with their hint of roughness. cupped my face. ‘Lottie, I’ve been nuts about you since the moment I met you. Frankly, the fact you were already with someone was a huge pain in the arse. I knew I was in trouble with you, but as soon as we spoke, I didn’t want to let go. I thought if I could have a friendship with this amazing woman, it was the next best thing.’
I frowned again. ‘So, when I split with Tom? I mean, you never even hinted you might be interested.’
‘I was about to. I didn’t want to be a rebound, so I waited for a bit. But I waited too long, because the next thing I knew you were on this crazy path of saying yes to everything. Including dates you didn’t want to go on.’
‘And you think I’d have done that to you?’ I laid my hands over his, still cradling my face.
He gave a shrug, smiling. ‘I literally had no idea. I had no clue if you’d ever consider me. I was kind of the opposite to your ex by the sounds of things and maybe hipster arty sorts were more your type. That’s definitely not me.’
I laughed then. ‘No, I think we can agree that’s definitely not your niche.’
‘I just didn’t want you to be saying yes to me because of some pledge. I wanted you to say yes to me for one reason. Because you truly wanted to.’
‘I would have.’
He ran a hand back over my hair, following it down my back until it stopped at my waist and pulled me closer. ‘I was a fool not to ask you.’
‘So,’ I said, ‘once my year of saying yes was done, why not ask me then? Assuming you hadn’t given up on the idea by then.’
‘I never gave up. But just as I was about to ask, you told me you were planning to say no to stuff. Honestly, I could have cried. And I don’t really do that.’ He pulled a face. ‘I had no idea if you liked me and I thought if I asked you out, and you said no, then it was just going to make things so awkward and I’d lose a friend, and the best assistant in the world.’
‘I’m not sure which one worried you the most, going by that.’
He grinned and I felt the fireworks fizz and pop throughout my body.
‘So, what happened?’
He pulled me as close as he could. ‘In the end, I couldn’t wait. And I knew we had chemistry. I began to allow myself to believe that you might actually be interested in me. But then you said no and I was worried I’d wrecked everything, but I had to ask and at least I had my answer. I thought once I had that, I’d be able to put things behind me and move on. Just be the friend you wanted me to be. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t help it. I was already far too deep in love with you to put it behind me and when you said what you did at the gala…’ His Adam’s apple bobbed as he searched for words. ‘I couldn’t believe my luck. I couldn’t believe that you might actually feel the same… or at least something like it.’
‘Shall I tell you a secret?’
He gave a disturbingly sexy flick of his eyebrows.
‘I’ve had a crush on you since you first became my client.’
Seb looked genuinely shocked. ‘Seriously?’
I gave him a shrug. ‘You’re kind of hot.’
His laugh rumbled through me as he wrapped his arms around me and pressed me close into his body. ‘Does that mean I’m forgiven?
‘Like I said, you’re kind of hot. Luckily for you.’
‘OK,’ he said, looking down into my face. ‘So, what we’re saying here is that if we’d both just talked to each other a bit more, we might have saved ourselves a bit of heartache.’
‘Or possibly a lot?’
He pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. ‘So, how about this? We make a deal that, from now on we talk to each other. About everything.’
‘Everything.’
