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.
*
Charlie wasn't sure how they ended up on the floor, with her straddling Sebastian. It was a good thing he didn't seem to care that his suit pants were getting dirty. Because she couldn't move. She was boneless and sated, wanting nothing more than to stay in his arms, keeping him buried deep inside her.
"Mmmm." She breathed against his neck. "I'm glad you came back early today."
He ran his heated gaze over her naked body. "No more than I am."
As hard as it was to leave him, she pushed off, using his shoulders for leverage, then held out her hand to him. "I still have so much to do."
He wrapped his fingers around hers and rolled to his feet, holding her close a moment, his hands all over her naked curves, his lips against her hair. "You're just too tempting to resist." He smiled down at her devilishly. "But I have to, don't I?"
"Yes, you do." Though a part of her prayed he wouldn't. All she had to do was say the word... But she didn't. They would have tonight, but the bowlegged stallion needed her now.
Sebastian left her to use the bathroom at the back of the workshop while Charlie scrambled into her clothes. The lingerie was toast, but she didn't mind. She loved how wild he got, tearing off the satin. It was so sexy, so erotic...
"I have a brilliant idea." She hadn't heard him come up behind her, but now he trailed his free hand down her waist to the curve of her hip. "You should always work naked."
She laughed. "Tempting." Especially if he came home early to do that to her again. "But I play with torches all day, remember?"
"In my bedroom, then," he murmured as he turned her in his arms to brush his lips over hers. "Naked. Just for me." Then he k
issed all the sense from her brain, until she couldn't think of a single reason why she shouldn't comply. "I'll leave you alone soon," he said, but he didn't let her go, his hands resting at her hips, a tingling reminder. "But I wanted to talk with you about a couple of things."
"Ah," she teased, "so you did have ulterior motives for coming to see me today. It wasn't just to bring me beer and love me senseless."
"You are always my first motive. Everything else places a distant second."
He always knew the perfect words to melt her, but she leaned back against the workbench. The couple of things he wanted to talk about were already making her wary, even before she heard what they were. It would be easier to listen if she wasn't pressed tightly against him. Then again, just gazing at his beautiful face was distracting. "Hit me with those other motives."
"I'm glad you and your mother let me help with the move into Magnolia Gardens. It's clearly a much better place than Shady Lane." He paused, as if he needed to let that sink in first. "But I thought we could probably spruce up the furniture in your mom's room. Cushy chairs. A bigger TV. A bookshelf. And something that's not plastic for the balcony."
The topic threw Charlie off--this wasn't what she'd expected at all--but it was clear from the expression on Sebastian's face that he'd wanted to discuss it for some time. She fought back her instinctively defensive response, but ultimately couldn't stop herself. "They recommend that residents bring stuff from home they're comfortable with. But I didn't have room at my place to store everything from the house she shared with my father."
"We'll get her something new, then." He stroked the bare skin of her arm. It should have soothed her, but the subject was pushing her buttons.
Still, she tried not to read any criticism into what he was saying, especially when she'd also thought about sprucing up her mother's new bedroom a bit. "Mom would like that, I'm sure. Some pretty sheets and towels, in addition to the bedspread I was going to pick up for her. So it feels homey." She was totally ready to switch focus to something that would make her less edgy--which she knew was her deal, not his. "What's the other thing you wanted to talk about?"
"Actually," he said, easing into her so he could rest his hands on her waist, "I wondered what you thought of the food at Magnolia Gardens."