“I’m not sure she knows I want to.”
“Women are not puzzles to be solved, Sebastian. They are novels. You read them, slowly. Carefully.”
Sebastian stared into his glass. “She hasn’t been kissed.”
Thomas arched a brow. “And you have.”
Sebastian gave a huff of laughter. “Pointtaken. But this feels like more than just a kiss. Like something sacred. Like I said, I don’t want to ruin it.”
Thomas clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Then don’t. Plus, it seems that she wants you too, no?”
Sebastian thought of her eyes, wide and shining. The way her breath had caught when he touched her lip. How she’d leaned in, just slightly, before the interruption.
“I believe so, yes.”
“Then that’s your answer. The next time you’re alone with her, don’t waste it. You’re not a fool. And she’s not indifferent.”
Sebastian took a long sip, letting the warmth of the drink settle something restless inside him.
Right. He shouldn’t waste any opportunity.
He glanced out the window in thought. “I keep thinking about how she held that cup. How her fingers trembled when she lifted it again. She didn’t say much after. But she didn’t need to. It was all in her eyes.”
Thomas leaned back against the desk. “Then what are you going to do about it?”
Sebastian turned, resolute. “I’m going to give her a reason to keep looking at me like that. I’m going to show her I see her too.” If she hadn’t read him like a book already. But then, even if she had, he’d make sure she kept reading. That she never stopped.
“Good man.”
“Thomas. Thank you.”
His friend raised his glass in salute. “Any time. Now go make her fall in love with you.”
He chuckled.
Yes, and if he were lucky, she was halfway there. All he had to do now was prove he was worth the rest. Prove that she was the woman for him. And prove that if she chose him as her life partner, he would spend all his days loving her more than anyone else.
Chapter Fifteen
Maddie hadn’t meantto vanish the next day for luncheon. But after a morning surrounded by stolen glances and shared laughter, and none of it hers, she’d quietly excused herself and slipped away from all the loving couples. It was all rather silly, really. All her friends in love, so she ought to feel thrilled for them. Instead, she felt… displaced. Like a supporting character in someone else’s grand romance.
And then there was Sebastian. Temptation on legs. Tall legs. Temptation that she didn’t know how to approach. Which was why she had decided to take her luncheon in the conservatory, nestled on a small table beneath an overgrown tangle of ferns and flowering vines—in the hopes of clearing her head a bit. Think. Process.
However, she never imagined she’d be followed. By the very man that tempted her beyond all reason.
She stared at him.
He stared back with a grin.
She poked a fork at her cold cucumber sandwich and gave a long-suffering sigh.
Get a grip, Madeleine. How could I fall in love with a man with sneezed on me?
Well…
He did also save you from allergies.
And he has an impossibly good bone structure.
