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Francine turned her bright gaze to Sebastian. "I've sat in on her classes several times and she's such a gifted teacher. She always describes what her students need to do in such clear terms that even I was tempted to pick up a welding torch. Her students absolutely love her. But I'm sure you understand that, don't you?"
"Yes." He couldn't take his eyes off Charlie, couldn't even begin to hide what he felt for her. "She's very easy to love."
Francine beamed at the two of them while Charlie flushed at the compliments. "She certainly is."
A short while later, they said their good-byes, leaving Francine sitting happily in the lounge meeting other residents and already making new friends. Sebastian and Charlie were still in the middle of the parking lot when he crowded her up against a parked car, cupped her face in his hands, and bent to take her mouth.
She tasted sweet and fresh and perfect. More perfect than anything he'd ever known, anything he'd ever dreamed of. His heart beat in a wild frenzy of need--and love. Endless, boundless love. Her lips parted beneath his on a cry of pleasure, then his gentle kiss turned savage. Possessive. So damned erotic that they could have started a fire right there in public.
When he finally let her up for air, he needed her to know how he felt. "I love you, Charlie Ballard."
"I know you do. I could hear you saying the words when you were holding my mother's hand, telling her all you wanted to do was help her." Her eyes were slightly dilated as she looked up at him, her lips still gorgeously damp from his tongue. "And I could also hear it in your kiss."
"Then get ready to hear me say it all night long," he murmured before he took her mouth again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Three little words. They changed everything. Because Charlie had said them. To him.
Sebastian had wanted her right there against the door of the car, was already half crazy with desire and need. Those words. Her kiss.
He was head over heels.
The moment he got her home, he scooped her up in his arms.
She laughed. Her sexy, throaty laughter always turned up the heat inside him. "What are you doing, you crazy man?"
"Crazy for you." He carried her off to his bedroom, her body soft, warm, and yielding against his.
He needed her lips, now, her mouth under his. Her kiss seared him, burning straight to his heart. In the bedroom, he let her feet slip to the carpet as he buried his fingers in her lush curves and steeped his senses in her taste.
"Charlie," he whispered. "I need you." He needed her skin branding his flesh, her taste on his lips, her scent filling his head.
"I'm right here," she promised.
Desperate to get to her skin, he tugged on her blouse and the buttons seemed to pop off. "Too many clothes," he growled.
"T
ear them off."
He went wild. Crazy. Totally reckless. The cloth tore, fabric flew across the room, hitting a wall, falling into a corner. Until he could worship her gorgeous, naked skin.
This was what he wanted--to worship her, to give her everything, to be the man who made all her dreams come true.
She wore the laciest of lingerie, her bra almost see-through, her panties a mere wisp. And she stole his breath. He couldn't move. He could only trace her body with his gaze, the sweet pearls of her nipples dusky through the lace, the strong muscles of her arms that could hold him so tightly, the smooth belly he'd kissed.
"You are so beautiful." He felt like a caveman kneeling before a princess.
And she'd said she was his. I love you. The beautiful princess was all his. He would never believe it, never truly accept it. He was terrified he'd wake up and find her gone. Terrified he'd screw up with her one too many times. And yet she'd said she loved him right after his biggest failure. She'd forgiven him. She was so damned unique and special.
"You have too many clothes on," she whispered. And with seductive sweeps of her hand, she unbuttoned his shirt, his pants. The fleeting touch of her fingers was electric. She stripped him down and set his skin on fire, made his body burn for her.
Saturday at the Regent had been momentous, but this was beyond anything. This was Charlie loving him.
"Come here." Taking his hand, she backed up to the bed, pulling him with her.
The balcony doors were open, the evening breeze fluttering like fingers through her hair. Her skin was bathed in the last golden rays of the sun before it fell behind the distant coastal mountains, and her hair was lit by fire, a red-gold halo.
