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And that very fact made him recognize that if toxic love was going to hit him, it would be now, when Charlie already mattered so much to him. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be to fall completely for her, only to have to give her up. When they finally did dive into the deep end together, he wanted them both to truly know enough about each other to take the risk not just with their bodies.
But with their hearts.
Though it was even harder to pull back today than it had been two nights ago, he forced a breath of space between them. Her chest rose against him, as she gasped for the air they'd both lost in their sweet, desperate kiss.
"You..." The word came out raw. Ragged. "I want..." Damn it, he was never at a loss for words. Hell, his job was always having the right words for everything. But he'd never felt this way about anyone, never had to stop himself from moving too fast because his heart was tied so closely to his desires.
She put her hand on his face. The same strong, elegant hand that could create such majestic art. "I want you too." She sucked in another shaky breath. "Just as badly. But--" She lifted her beautiful eyes to his. "I want to be sure."
Trust Charlie to find the words. Exactly the right ones. Exactly the ones he was feeling.
"Soon," he said again, just as he had after their first kiss two nights earlier. "We'll know soon."
She echoed the word "Soon," in a whisper of a kiss against his lips. Even before the day arrived when they finally stripped away each other's walls and became one, for him every other woman had already been erased. Because all along, something told him he'd been waiting for Charlie.
He hoped like hell she'd eventually realize she'd been waiting for him too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
For the next handful of days, Charlie alternately worked on the chariot...and daydreamed about Sebastian's kisses. Once or twice she did both at the same time, but that was a surefire way to cut right through a finger, so she forced herself to focus one hundred percent while she was in her studio. When she was back in her bungalow at night, however, all bets were off.
She'd been right about his incredibly busy schedule. More than once, she heard the helicopter taking off, and at one point she was pretty sure there was a film crew on the property up by the main house. But though they were both so busy, Sebastian always made sure to find her each day to give her a kiss. Just one perfect kiss each time. So perfect that he'd left her with her head spinning and her lips tingling. And every single time, as he drew back, he said one word.
"Soon."
It had become both her favorite word...and her most hated.
After working on some of her creations for up to a year or two at a time, Charlie thought she had patience down to an art form. But her need for Sebastian was eating through it faster than a plasma cutter.
But for as much as she desired him, she found herself liking him even more. His thoughtfulness knew no bounds. When Wednesday morning came, he had his driver waiting right on time to take them both to Shady Lane for a visit with her mother. She'd hoped Sebastian would steal his kiss in the limo, but he seemed happy just to hold her hand, stroking his thumb over her palm in seductive circles that made her almost mindless with need. And if they hadn't been on their way to see her mother--who would notice absolutely everything, the way she always had when Charlie was a teenager--Charlie might have given in to the reckless urges pumping through her veins and jumped him right then and there on the black leather seat, with the driver only feet away.
Once they were inside the building, Charlie handed the box of beautiful china to Sebastian. "You should give your gorgeous present to her." He didn't have a mother anymore, but he was a man with so much love to give. Charlie was happy to share hers, especially when she knew how much her mother enjoyed his company and attention.
Despite the dingy room, he was almost ceremonial in his presentation of the cups and plates. Sebastian, it seemed, could transcend anything. Two alcoholic parents. A childhood of poverty. Even the less than stellar surroundings of an elder-care center.
Her mother gasped with joy. A joy that, amazingly, seemed to replace the pain for a little while. "Oh, Sebastian." She pressed his hand. "I've never seen anything so lovely."
"I have," he murmured so softly that only Charlie could hear. He looked straight into her eyes and her heart thumped even faster in her chest.
He suggested they drive Francine out to Lake Elizabeth and share their tea and bear claws as an outdoor picnic. The park was only a mile from Shady Lane, and her mother seemed to enjoy the ride in the limo as much as she soaked up the dappled sunlight streaming through the trees on the comfortable portable chairs he'd stashed in the trunk.
"I'd like to bring a doctor by to see you, Francine." Sebastian had thoroughly discussed the Stanford hand surgeon with Charlie and she'd agreed to his intervention if it had any chance of helping her mother. "Would that be all right with you?"
"You're such a dear, but it's too late now. All the doctors have told me that."
"If you don't mind seeing one more, I know my friend would be very interested in coming to meet with you." Sebastian poured tea from a Thermos he'd brought, having naturally thought of absolutely everything.
Her mother nibbled her bear claw. "It tastes even better on this beautiful china." She added a sip of tea to her delight. "I've never heard of a doctor doing house calls, at least not in this century."
"It's a personal favor. Unfortunately, he's out of the country right now, so he'll see you in a couple of weeks."
Charlie shuddered to think that Sebastian had probably promised to fund a new wing at the hospital in return. She'd worked to get past her hang-up about his spending so much money on her and her mother...but it was difficult when he only grew more generous by the second.
Her mother squeezed Sebastian's hand. "You're going to spoil me," she said in a singsong.
"You deserve to be spoiled."
"I know what a busy man you must be."
