Reckless In Love

He felt what she was saying deep in his marrow. Come on, baby, fight for me like I’m fighting for you.

His parents had never fought for each other. But he and Charlie weren’t his parents, damn it. With her by his side every single step of the way, the ghosts of his past couldn’t have power over him. Not when her love for him—and his for her—was a billion times stronger than anything else in the world.

“I told myself I needed to let you go. That it was the only way to keep you safe. To make you happy. But damn it, I could never have done it.” He framed her delicate face in his hands. Except that there was nothing delicate about Charlie. She was strong, independent, talented, stubborn. And she was perfectly imperfect. He loved her more than anything in the world. “I’ll never stop fighting for you, Charlie. And I’ll never stop loving you. Not for one single second. No matter what.”

Then he lowered his mouth to hers, sealing his promise with a long, slow, lusciously sweet kiss.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

It was the most decadent kiss Charlie had ever tasted, and overflowing with hope. When he lifted her into his arms to carry her out of his office and into his bedroom, she deepened the kiss until her heart beat recklessly.

Their kiss was gentle and rough all at once, sweet and desperate. They rolled over on the bed until she was straddling him, and he reached up to smooth her hair back as it fell in a curtain over them. “I believe in love,” he said softly. “And I’ve loved you from the very first moment.” His gaze roamed her face like a touch. “But I grew up believing love wasn’t enough.”

She leaned her forehead against his. “It can be.”

“You’re teaching me that. Teaching me that we aren’t my parents and we don’t have to drag each other down. We don’t have to be toxic to each other even if we’re not exactly the same, even if some of our passions and hobbies are different. I should have learned a lot more from Susan and Bob than I did from my parents.”

She nuzzled his hair. “It just took longer to understand that you could break the cycle your parents were stuck in.”

He nodded so slightly it was barely there.

“Love goes wrong because of the two people involved,” she told him. “It doesn’t have to be that way for us, not if we’re willing to work at it.”

He stroked beneath the fall of hair at her nape. “Loving you isn’t work. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop trying to help you in any way I can.”

She held his face in her palms. “You wouldn’t be you if you did. And I wouldn’t love you so much if you weren’t true to yourself the way I need to be true to who I am. I didn’t see us as a partnership before, but now I do. And partners support each other. They share the cost, both physical and emotional.”

“I will share anything and everything with you. You tell me what you need. I’ll tell you what I need. Then like you said, we’ll figure it out.” He spread his hands. “All those parties, the people...I like to play there, but you, the Mavericks, Bob and Susan, that’s my world. So if you want to attend a party with me, then you’ll come. If you’d rather stay home to work or catch up on lessons or whatever, then that’s what you’ll do. I want you to be happy. We’re not joined at the hip. I just want to come home to you.”

“Home,” she whispered. “I like the sound of that.”

“You pick and choose your commissions. If it doesn’t inspire you, don’t do it.”

“Or maybe when they ask for a cherub, I’ll tell them they need a pterodactyl instead.”

He laughed. Truly the most beautiful, wonderful man she’d ever known.

“God, I love you.” She threw herself into him, hugging hard and tight, with all her breath, with everything in her.

“Then move in with me for good. Tonight. Now. Share my bed. Fall asleep in my arms every night. Wake up beside me every single morning.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes to tonight. Yes to now. Yes to every night. Yes to every single morning.”

Then she kissed him. Tasted his lips, then took his mouth, played with his tongue, and opened herself fully. She was ravenous for him, ripping his shirt off his shoulders, popping the snaps of his jeans. She gasped as he pulled down the top of her sundress and took her nipple in his mouth. She arched, moaned, tangled her fingers in his hair to hold him tight against her as pleasure spiked deep in her center.

His fingers caressed sensuously down her belly, pulling up the dress so he could slip beneath the elastic of her panties. “Marry me, Charlie. Marry me and be mine forever.”

“Wait. Stop. What did you just say?”

But Sebastian didn’t stop stroking her with sweet, hot patience, pushing her even higher. “Marry me.”

“Sebastian.” She writhed against him, struggling for breath, panting, everything a blur of sensation, his fingers inside her, his body plastered against her, his words. Marry me. She couldn’t seem to say anything more than his name.

“Say yes, Charlie. Say you’ll marry me.”

She cried out then, a full-body explosion, an earthquake shuddering through her, breaking her apart, tearing her down. Then she grabbed Sebastian by the hair and pulled his face to hers. “Yes,” she whispered again. “Yes, yes, yes.”

And she devoured him with a kiss that said she’d never let him go.

* * *

They tore off the rest of their clothes in a flurry of madness. Sebastian wanted to be inside her, needed it so badly he could barely stop long enough for protection. Charlie’s fingers trembled as she helped him. When the deed was done, she pushed him down and took control.

And it was so damn good to give everything he was over to her.

“Marry me,” he rasped as she buried him deep inside her.

She rode him, slowly, tantalizingly, then leaned close over him. “I already said yes.”

“I thought that was the orgasm talking.” It was probably the last coherent thing he could get his mouth to say.

“That was an I-love-you-want-you-need-to-spend-the-rest-of-my-life-with-you yes.”

He planted his hands on her hips and moved her, needing so much more than the sensuous slip-slide of their bodies. “God, thank you, yes.”

He filled her until she gasped out his name. She filled him just as deeply, claiming his heart. “Take me, Charlie,” he begged. “Take everything.”

They came together, split apart, moving as one, over and over, stealing his sanity, giving him his soul. Her hands on his chest, her eyes so green, glittering like jewels, her lips plump from his kisses.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I’ll always love you.” There was no other way. “I’d have loved you forever even if you never came back.”

“I’ll always come back, Sebastian.” She made the vow even as her body contracted with pleasure around his. “Always.”

He lost it all then, gave her everything, joined her in ecstasy, riding the perfect wave of release with her.

A while later, they lay sweaty and replete in each other’s arms. He kissed her forehead softly. “You’re my gorgeous Zanti Misfit.” She laughed, the throaty sound that never failed to make him tremble with desire. He tipped up her chin with a finger. “I’m serious. You’re my unexpected.”

“Don’t make me cry,” she said, her voice already full of tears. Then she gasped and sat up, her eyes sparkling with that vision he so loved to see. “Oh my God, that’s it.”

“What?” He loved her gasps. They were either pleasure or inspiration.

“The gate!”

“The crusty old thing you found at the construction sale?”

“Yes.” She bit her lip, her eyes sparkling. “I know what to do. We need to put it on the slope below the terrace with all the Zanti Misfits behind it. Whenever we need something unexpected, we’ll let one out.”

“Brilliant. That’s what the Zantis are—all the unexpected things to come.”