“Oh, the necklace—” She scooped up more of the chocolate and ate it. Nerves fluttered like mad to race around the core of heat blooming in her belly. “It was far too expensive.” So many diamonds—chocolate diamonds, he’d called them. The piece was absolutely exquisite. “It was—it was beautiful.” And far too much for her. He’d put it around her neck, insisting she at least try it on and, when she’d seen it there?Wow.Her heart had done a little summersault.
“Do you remember what you said?” His gaze locked on her as he picked up one of the thin wafers of chocolate and offered it. Leaning forward, she accepted it and laved her tongue against his skin just to watch the heat scorch across his eyes. Yes, she knew how to get to him, too.
“I said I could never wear it.” She’d always regretted reality intruding into their moment. “I was in my first year of tenure, so I really needed to prove myself. Those diamonds were exquisite,but too much.” If she’d stopped there, it would have been fine, but she’d said more.
“And?” he prompted.
Meredith sighed. “And I’m not one of those women you drape in diamonds and then escort around like some type of arm ornament.” She made a face because, while the words were bad, they really weren’t the worst. “Don’t get any ideas about me. Do I look like I want to be a princess?” She grimaced and put a hand over her mouth. “Please tell me you weren’t planning to propose.”
“I would, but it would be a lie.” Sebastian tapped her nose lightly. “You had plans, Meredith. Big plans. You spent the next hour telling me how you were going to rock the academic world. You were so alive with it, practically sparkling.”
“So you just decided to not ask?” Had they missed their opportunity because of her ambition?
“I decided what I wanted more than anything was you by my side, but I wanted you happy to be there. I wanted to ensure your freedom to chase your dreams. How could I ask you to give up your plans and aspirations with only me as poor recompense?”The earnest simplicity in his response…
“Wait a minute, how are you poor recompense?” She straightened and caught his hand when he would have pulled it back. This was important. “If I don’t get to call myself nobody, you don’t get to call yourself a booby prize.”
“My life is dictated by rules, rituals and guards?—”
“And death threats.” It made her cold just to think about it. “But Bastian, you’re wonderful. You see all these beautiful things everywhere you go. I mean youreallysee them. The artists along the Seine, how many did you sponsor? Or the lady with the dolls in Belgium. You paid for her home then gave her a stipend so she would keep making those dolls for children. When the Canadian floods nearly shut down a zoo because the damage wasso extensive, I know it was you paid for the repairs. It wasn’t your brother, his company, or his title, but you.”
“I didn’t tell you about the zoo.” A frown arrested his features.
“No, but you called me.” It was her turn to grin. “I heard elephants in the background. I remember you saying you needed to delay our trip by a day, and I could hear the animals. Still, you wouldn’t say why. A couple of weeks later, there was a special on one of the news programs about a secret angel who rescued the whole shebang.”
“You assumed it was me?” His neutral tone proved difficult to decipher. Was he surprised she’d noticed? Or worried he failed to hide it as well as he’d believed?
“If you didn’t want to tell me, I assumed you must have your reasons.” She’d made assumptions, but so had he. Their entire relationship was built on a tower of presumption. Mirth failed her. “Have we screwed this up? Irrevocably?”
“No.” She believed the stern conviction in his voice. “I have damaged your trust and given you fair reason to question your faith in me.”
His declaration brought her upright. “Bastian?—”
He squeezed her hand, tugged her forward, and pressed a firm kiss to her lips. “I don’t like to be interrupted.”
“I’m aware.” She grinned. “I do it because you need to be reminded you aren’t the only one in the room.”
“Never when you’re here. You’re the only one I see,” he told her. “But listen to me for now. Please?”
It was the please that did it. He so rarely said the word, and she knew he implied it more often than not, but he was a man raised to give orders, not make requests. “All right, but can we move the tray? If I dive face first into all this chocolate, I’m going to be bouncing off the walls.” Also, she wanted to be closer to him.
After releasing her, he shifted the tray over to the counter housing the other food. When he returned to sit on the bed, she crawled right up next to him and slid her arms around him. Certainly, they had a lot left to talk about and, yes, part of her was still angry. But even when he’d thought she might have taken Terry as a lover, he hadn’t pulled away from her. The memory of his constant care and comfort—always—bolstered her courage.
“All right,” she told him, after snuggling up to his warmth. “I’m listening.”
He chuckled and tangled his fingers in her hair. A light tug tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “I can think of far more pleasant diversions than baring my soul when you’re like this.”
Good.She’d wanted to remind him as much as herself, but she made a face at him. “No nookie for you, mister. We know exactly how compatible we are there.”
“Yes, we do.” He cupped her throat and a shiver scissored her resolve. “I know I’ve damaged your trust in me, and I will do everything to repair it. I have never lied about needing you in my life. Even the small parts we share are so much more preferable to nothing. I will take you however I can have you. I love you, Meredith.”
Then he said those magical words aloud. Thank God she’d been sitting, because she wanted to melt into a puddle. “Oh Bastian…I love you, too.” She had no idea who reached for who first, but his mouth was on hers, demanding access, and she surrendered to it. He cupped her breast through the shirt, and she went from longing to molten in seconds. Dragging at his lower lip, she pulled back. “No nookie,” she reminded him.
“No nookie,” he agreed and kissed the pulse point in her throat. Then she was on her back and he continued his sweet torment by trailing his hot kisses down to the opening of her shirt to the top of her breast.
“Bastian,” she groaned. He caught her nipple through the shirt and gave it the gentlest of tugs with his teeth.
“This isn’t nookie,” he told her. “It’s my version of chocolate. I find I can’t continue anymore of this without some chocolate.” He continued his descent, parting the shirt as he went. She laughed.
