“Just all round fabulous.”
Tyce smiled, lowered his mouth to hers and gently kissed it. His mouth held a hint of passion but it went deeper than that; she could taste his promises, the suggestion of a future together. The hope that this time they could make it work, that they could be better and braver.
“What’s your plan of action for the day?” Tyce asked her when he lifted his mouth from hers.
“Um... I have a client meeting at Ballantyne’s and then I’m heading home as I have to finish the Saudi princess’s ring.” Sage glanced at the taxi driver. He wasn’t looking impatient yet so she had a minute or two. “And your plans?”
“When you fell asleep, I started to think about all the work I’m dying to do so I might hole up here and just...work. Fall into that zone.”
Sage smiled, immediately understanding what he was trying to say. “So, if you don’t answer my calls or respond to my texts I mustn’t panic?”
“That okay with you?”
Sage smiled and nodded. “Very okay. Let me know when you come up for air. But it had better be before Thursday morning as we have a ten o’clock appointment with Dr. Charles, the obstetrician.”
“Day after tomorrow at ten. No problem,” Tyce told her. “I’m pretty sure that my need to have you again will bring me back to the land of the living way before then.”
Sage stood on her toes to slant her mouth over his in a hot, openmouthed kiss. “Can’t wait. Have fun.”
Tyce opened the passenger door to the taxi and when she was seated, he bent down to kiss her again. His fabulous eyes were full of mischief when he pulled back. “Oh, and maybe I should tell you that you have blue streaks running through the back of your hair.”
He slammed the door shut but Sage could still hear his laughter. She pushed her hat off her head and pulled a hank of hair in front of her face. Lifting her eyes upward, she immediately noticed the strands of French ultramarine.
Dammit! She spun around to look out through the window at Tyce and saw that he was looking down, his eyes on the screen of his phone.
Ten seconds later her phone buzzed with an incoming text.
Want to come back? I’m have this idea of tossing paint onto a canvas and rolling around in it with you. It would be a piece for my very private collection.
Sage smiled, shuddered with longing and flipped another look over her shoulder but Tyce had gone back into his building.
So tempted, Sage typed back, But I doubt the Saudi princess, or my boss brother, would understand me blowing off a meeting with one of our biggest clients to play with paint. Rain check?
Eleven
“Do you want to get some coffee?” Tyce asked Lachlyn as they left the small, warm studio and stepped into the icy wind barreling down the street. Lachlyn had asked him to meet her at a new gallery she’d discovered, thinking that he’d enjoy the eclectic pieces sourced from all over the world. He had.
“Sure.” Lachlyn looked around. “There’s a coffee shop at the end of the block.”
“Sage’s apartment is around the corner. She’s at a meeting at Ballantyne HQ but her coffee is fantastic.”
Lachlyn nodded her agreement and they started walking in the direction of Sage’s apartment. “How is Sage?” she asked.
“Fine. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, because when you told me you were moving in with her after her accident, you said it would just be for a couple of days. It’s been a couple of weeks and you’re still there. Did she crack her spine or is her arm paralyzed?”
Tyce narrowed her eyes at his sister. “Smart-ass.”
But it was fair question. Why was he still living with Sage? Every day he made the trek to Brooklyn, worked in his studio and at night he made his way back to SoHo. It was because making love with Sage was like a Class A drug and he was hooked. He couldn’t imagine a day without her in it, not waking up next to her, exploring her body every night. God, that sounded like he was...
No, don’t say it, don’t think it. His need to be with her had nothing to do with the L-word, or a future they could spend together, a life they could make. He was still the reserved, taciturn, need-to-be-alone artist he always was.