by Bella Andre
CHAPTER THREE
At eleven on the dot the next morning, Sebastian picked Charlie up in a limousine that quickly became covered in the dust of her yard. Rather than overalls and steel-toes, she’d chosen a pair of dark-wash, slim-fit jeans, a peasant blouse, and sandals. She’d been pleased to find one pair of jeans that didn’t sport burn holes from stray sparks off her arc welder.
Sebastian seemed to approve of her outfit as she slid in beside him and he said, “Good morning,” in a deep voice that was enough to raise her temperature several degrees, turning the air-conditioned interior of the car positively sultry.
“Nice ride,” she told him as she appreciated the soft leather with the slide of her palm over the seat. The limo was over the top, true, but he was a rich man and she could already tell that he did everything with style. And clearly enjoyed every second of it. “Although you didn’t have a driver with you yesterday, did you?”
“I didn’t want to split my attention between you and the road today.”
Her breath caught at the simple way he’d just told her that she mattered to him, both as an artist and as a woman. He always had just the right words. The fact that it was also his job didn’t make their impact any less.
“You’ve probably been working all morning and didn’t take the time to eat. So I brought you brunch.” He waved a hand over the spread he’d provided. “Bagels, cream cheese, and lox.” Sebastian tapped the coffee carafe. “And this is a special Arabian coffee imported by a friend of mine.”
She didn’t know which smelled better, him or the coffee. Both made her mouth water. He looked seriously scrumptious in another suit. She wasn’t necessarily partial to the executive type, but Sebastian Montgomery was rapidly changing her preferences on a lot of things.
“Sit back,” he told her as he poured her a cup of coffee. “I’ll serve you.”
A blush crept into her cheeks as she was instantly hit with an explicit image of him serving her breakfast in bed. He set her cup on the console, then slathered cream cheese on half of a sliced bagel, topped it with lox, and passed her the plate.
“You’re too good to be true.”
He fixed her with a gaze that was as sultry as she felt. “No. I am that good.”
“And cocky about it too.” She couldn’t hold back her smile—couldn’t see a reason to.
He laughed, and she felt the sound rumble through her. “So I’ve been told.”
A certain amount of cockiness was probably good in his business. And the truth was she didn’t find it at all unattractive. Not on him, anyway. Somehow, it only added to his charm.
She dumped a pile of sugar and cream into her cup, but he took his coffee black and didn’t make a bagel for himself. “Aren’t you eating?”
“Like I said, I want to concentrate on you.” When he sat back and asked her, “Why welding?” the full force of his concentration felt like a warm stroke of heat along her body. “From the research I’ve done, it’s not something a woman usually gets into.”
He’d done research? Only on her profession? Or had he tried to find out more about her too? “My dad was a welder by trade. I was an only kid and he didn’t have a son, so I was it.” She’d loved that father-daughter bonding in his workshop. “He was a patient teacher.”
“I’m sure you are too.” Sebastian caressed her with his gaze, moving from her eyes to her cheeks to her lips, as if he were memorizing every feature.
That, too, was part of his charm and his art of persuasion: total focus. “I love teaching,” she told him. “And I try to be patient. Although, I’m afraid I don’t always manage it.”
“Someone like you, with such a clear vision...” He smiled at her. “I’ve worked with artists before. I understand wanting things exactly the way you want them.”
He was talking about art, but the word want hung between them in the back of the limo, making her even more aware of just how close he was...and the fact that it would only take one small move for her to be on his lap.
And for his mouth to be beneath hers.
She’d told herself yesterday that she would be okay with starting something physical with Sebastian at some point. And he’d been clear about not expecting anything from her other than art. Nonetheless, her sculpture still had to come first so there would be no confusion at any point about his commission getting tangled up with hot, sweaty, yummy sex.
Considering they hadn’t even made it to the site yet, she deliberately put a halt to thoughts of getting naked with him. Instead, she talked about her dad. “My father worked on bridges, high-rises, mall projects. He did stuff in oil fields too, on the rigs. And pipelines. A lot of the pipeline work was in remote areas so he sometimes had to leave us for a while. I missed him when he was gone. But he missed us just as much.”
“He sounds like a great dad.” For a moment, Sebastian’s gaze seemed to turn inward, as if he were looking back into the past at his own relationship with his father. One that she sensed from the expression on his face might not have been the best in the world.
“Most of the time,” she said as he came back to her, “we moved with him. A lot of the projects he worked on could last for a year, so we didn’t stay in any one place for very long.”
“How did you feel about moving all the time and leaving your friends behind?”
Charlie didn’t mind his questions, not when he seemed genuinely interested in her answers. No man she’d ever been with had given her so much pure, concentrated attention. Being the center of such focus could quickly become addictive.
As addictive as she suspected being Sebastian’s lover would be.
“Sometimes it was freeing to start over, with everything new and fresh. But at the same time,” she found herself admitting, “I have no idea what it’s like to have friends I’ve known all my life.” Wanting to learn more about him too, she asked, “Did you move much?”
His eyebrows went up in surprise as if he’d expected her to know his story, probably because he was so famous that most people already did. “Born and raised in Chicago. I’ve known my friends since I was a kid. They’re like my brothers.”
She hadn’t given in to the urge to do a Google search on him last night, hadn’t let herself give in to any doubts about their new arrangement. Whatever she learned about Sebastian, she wanted to come straight from the man himself, and now that he was talking, she wanted more. “You all still see one another?”
“We have several business ventures together. We’re known as the Maverick Group.”
“But that’s business. What about spending time with them for fun?”
He looked a little surprised by her follow-up question, as if most people didn’t differentiate between personal ties and business ones. Likely, she thought, because most people wanted something from the sexy billionaire. The thing was, when it came to Sebastian Montgomery, she could see how complicated wanting could be.
She wanted to make the sculpture for his building. She also wanted him as a man.
Just how intertwined those things were going to get, she wasn’t sure. Something told her, however, that both could very likely end up being the biggest highs—and the greatest pleasures—of her life...
“We were all together in Chicago for July Fourth. It was a great time.” He grinned at her and said, “You would like everyone. And I’m sure they’d like you too.”
Again, pleasure suffused her at his words. He truly did know how to make a person feel special, just the way her father always had. “How many Mavericks are there?”
“Five. Evan, Will, Daniel, Matt, and me. Daniel’s parents, Susan and Bob, raised us, right along with Daniel and his little sister, from the time we were all about twelve or thirteen years old.”
“They must be very generous.”
“They are,” he answered with undisguised fondness. “Susan, Bob, and the Mavericks made me the man I am today. I owe them everything.”
There was nothing cocky about him now. The way he shared credit for hi
s success was both humble and sweet. Even a billionaire, with all his money, needed a friend to unload with. Whereas Charlie’s only true confidante was her mom...and for the most part Charlie tried to shield her mother from the problems in the outside world. Francine Ballard had enough of her own problems to deal with.
“We’d do anything for each other. We’re all godfathers to Matt’s kid.” He smiled as he thought of the child, his beautiful face transforming yet again. “Noah’s a great little boy.”
By that look, she knew with perfect certainty that Sebastian was also a great godfather. She wanted to ask about his parents, since he hadn’t mentioned them, but before she could Sebastian said, “We’re almost there. What would you like to know about the building before we arrive?”
Wait...they were almost there? It felt as though five minutes had passed in the limo, not thirty. That’s what being the focus of Sebastian Montgomery’s attention did—made the outside world do a fadeout so that there was only him, his maleness, the deep timbre of his voice.
“Everything,” she replied. “Tell me everything.”
They both heard the sensual undertone beneath her question at the same moment. She’d always been curious, always been drawn to power. It was why she loved creating and delving deep into magnificent creatures like lions and dragons. But she’d never been drawn to anyone as much as she was to Sebastian. From the first moment, she’d been powerfully aware of him and had wanted to know, wanted to experience everything with him.
But for now, they each pretended it was all about his building as he said, “It’s an existing structure that I had gutted. There are all the necessities—a helicopter pad on the roof, a fully equipped gym and swimming pool on the tenth floor, and my production studio on the thirtieth.”
She almost laughed out loud at his definition of necessities. A helicopter pad had never quite made it on to her list.
“We’ve constructed a central lobby with escalators up to a mezzanine that overlooks the fountain. People will need to walk all the way around it to reach the elevators in the back. Everyone will see what you create from all possible angles.”
She was well aware that this was a big project he had hired her to do. Despite how easily he’d written her the check, she sensed that he wasn’t the kind of person who threw money away. Yet it wasn’t until this moment that she truly felt the awesome pressure that came with such a commission.
“I probably shouldn’t tell you how terrified I’m feeling, should I?”
He reached out and put a hand over hers. The touch sizzled through her, instantly shifting terror to something hot and hungry instead.
“You should always tell me what you’re feeling. Always. And you should also know that I have full faith and confidence that you can do the space justice. That’s why I chose you.”
The weight of his words—and his gaze—settled over her. It wasn’t that she doubted her abilities. She thought her creations were pretty cool. But this was a whole different level. One where plenty of other people would be seeing her art...and judging the way she took the crazy jumble of her vision and made all the pieces a reality.
“Expect the unexpected,” she reminded herself, saying what had become her mantra so many years ago almost under her breath.
“I always do,” he agreed with a smile. “And then I make sure I’m prepared to deal with whatever comes. Especially when the unexpected is more beautiful, intelligent, and captivating than I ever could have dreamed.”
Charlie’s head, her body, her heart were all still spinning as they pulled up to the curb. Sebastian opened the door and drew her out of the car, their hands linked. And as they stood on the sidewalk, closer now even than they’d been in the limo, the heat arcing between them was electric.
Explosive.
So explosive that she had to pull her hand away just to keep a little sanity. And remind herself that the commission needed to come first. Before all the hot sex she was dying to have with him.
She forced her gaze away from his to take in the immense skyscraper rising above them—and that was when her breath left her lungs for the second time that morning.
Windows reflected the surrounding buildings and the San Francisco Bay. High on the glass façade a monumental sign proclaimed to the world in huge blue letters that the building belonged to MMI. To Sebastian Montgomery, who was Montgomery Media International. A wooden construction barricade walled off the front while a covered walkway led to the entrance.
Inside lurked a completely different world. Traffic noise was hushed. At least three stories high, the lobby ceiling was made entirely of glass that grew up out of the floor at the front and curled over, allowing a wide strip of sunlight to pour down from between the surrounding buildings. Above them, the curved balustrade of the mezzanine provided an overlook. The floor appeared to be polished marble in varying shades of gray and black swirled through with cream. A broad belt of sunshine crept across the marble toward the huge circular fountain filling the lobby center. Charlie put a hand to her mouth, mesmerized as beams of light slid up the sides, and the fountain’s tiles seemed to glow with iridescent color—blues, greens, and reds, like a hummingbird in sunlight.
“It’s magnificent,” she whispered to Sebastian, wondering how on earth she could do it justice.
“I agree,” he said in the same hushed tone, but his gaze was on her, not the fountain. “Totally magnificent.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Magnificent. It was more than just a word to Sebastian, encompassing not only Charlie’s beauty but also the wonder with which she took in everything around her.
“Did you plan the light show this way?” Her voice was quiet, as if they were in a sanctuary.
“It lasts only a short time as the sun moves through at noon. Then the effect is gone.”
“You’ll have people coming here just for this sight.” She held her hands up to the ceiling, the sky, her skin glowing like that of a goddess in the sunlight streaming over her. “And it’s not even hot.”
“Low-E glass reduces the heat.”
“You thought of everything.”
“That’s what I do.” In Sebastian’s experience, if you didn’t account for every detail, if you didn’t understand absolutely everything about the people you dealt with, life could go completely down the tubes.
But he’d never imagined this moment, standing close to the most beautiful, talented woman he’d ever seen. So close he could barely keep from shoving his hands into the thick, gorgeous red masses of her hair and tasting her.
Devouring her.
“Can you already see what the space needs?” He grinned as he added, “A T-Rex, maybe?”
Her smile was a radiant curve. She’d put her palms against her neck, her elbows together in front of her, as if the posture increased her concentration. Tipping her head one way, then the other, she looked up, turned a circle, then stopped in the same spot she’d started from. “I love my T-Rex, but he’s not right for this space.”
Watching her work, getting to be a part of her creative process, had a physical effect on him. A need to touch, to taste, to explore. To try to satisfy all his cravings for her right here, right now. Yet at the same time, it went beyond sex. Because he wanted to be a part of that inner life, to touch the inner woman, to explore her genius. During his early morning meeting, he’d even found himself imagining how he wanted to sketch her. Instead of paying attention to the details of the negotiation, he couldn’t stop thinking of her.
Sebastian had never felt this way about a woman. Not until Charlie.
Then, when her eyes suddenly met his, he was hit with another one of those electric jolts as she said, “I know what you need.”
You.
“Tell me.”
“A chariot race. Like in Ben-Hur.” Her arms came out, encompassing the whole, then her fingers curled as if she were creating her vision out of water that wasn’t even flowing yet. “Four horses running so fast they’re almost flying. The chariot bouncing
so hard, it throws its driver, then slams on its side, snaps its wheel, and the magnificent stallions gallop headlong, dragging the broken carcass of the chariot behind them.” She tilted her head as if she was already looking at the sculpture in the middle of his building. “Can you see it?”
“Yes, I see it. The horses breaking free of all attempts to control their power—of everything holding them back—so they can run as fast as they were born to go. It’s what all of us truly long for.”
The images were so alive in her head that it would have been impossible for him not to see them too. But even clearer was Charlie, red hair on fire in the sun, her features shining, the light coming from inside her as well as outside. Her eyelashes lay lush against her cheeks as she closed her eyes for one long moment of vision. Her excitement was like fuel, making his heart beat faster, his blood pump harder.
“The fountain has to blow the water up, right under their feet, like it’s earth and dust roiling beneath their beating hooves. Can you do that?”
“Yes.” For her, he could do anything. He would do anything. Everything she wanted. Everything she needed. He would be her patron. He would show her work to society, introduce her to his world. And he wouldn’t rest until she’d conquered it all.
She pivoted on her heel and grabbed his forearms, her touch branding him. “It was meant to be here. I can see it so clearly.”
Her eyes were the deep verdant green of a forest when the sun hits the leaves after a hard rain. Her skin was flushed pink, her fingers warm, her grip on him unrelenting. Their eyes locked for an endless moment.
Then her gaze fell to his mouth. Her breath came harder, and she licked her bottom lip. She held more tightly to him, her body leaning closer...closer... He wanted his mouth on hers. He wanted her lips on his. He wanted to taste and touch and never let go.
“Sebastian,” she said softly, with the same awe he’d heard when she’d seen the light come shining through just minutes before. “Do you want it?” She could have meant the statue. She could have meant the heat that sizzled between them.
