“I noticed.”
“But not because Oliver Quincy exposed me and denied me what I wanted. That was my excuse.”
“Pardon?”
“To play the lead role on that stage wasn’t what I’d come to truly want.”
“Delilah, it was everything you ever wanted.”
She shook her head. “No longer. What I truly wanted wasyou.”
“Me?” The next instant he was giving voice to a cynical thought. “That’s been well established.” He jutted his chin. “In that very bed tonight, in fact.”
He refused to consider another meaning.
Not unless she spoke it.
“You, Sebastian. Not your body—well, that too—butyou. I’d come to want you with such a passion that it overwhelmed me. So, I ran.”
“You were running from me?” he asked, just to be clear she was saying what he thought she was saying.
She nodded.
“How is that better?” He failed to see it.
Her face became utterly transformed with fervor. “Because I had to run from you to discover that you were my destination all along.”
Her words—the raw sincerity of her voice—provoked a feeling inside him. A feeling that wanted to take wing. After all, she’d just spoken the very words he’d been wanting to hear. But… “Delilah, be careful with your words. Once you consent to be mine, you’re mine forever. There’s no more running.”
She appeared to be weighing his words. “I’ll always need to feel free. The mistress and orchestrator of my own fate.”
“I know.” And he respected and admired that about her.
“But I’ve learned I need something else equally as much.”
“Which is?”
“A partner…you,” she said simply. “What’s the point if you’re not by my side? It would only be a life half lived.”
She slid off the foot of the bed, her bare feet padding silently across the carpet, step by deliberate step, sheet held to her throat, dragging on the floor behind her. Sebastian’s heart raced in his chest, anticipation rioting through him. The tender look in her eyes spoke greater volumes than words ever could.
In a way, this was her running again…
Toward him…
Her destination.
She straddled his legs and lowered to a perch on his thighs, her light scent of rose and Delilah swirling through the air. Nothing separated them now.
“Every part of me is yours, Sebastian.” Her gaze shone clear and direct and honest. “I’m your wildflower.”
“Does that make me your sun?”
She gave his arm a light swat. “Arrogant man.”
A novel thought struck him. “And you love that about me.”
A seriousness entered her eyes. “No.”
