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hair tickle his nose. He loved her hair the soft, wild curls, the rich dark color. He framed her face with his hands,
letting his fingers tangle in those curls,then turned her face up to his. He kissed her gently, trying to ignore the
lingering wariness in her eyes.
"We'll do up the town tonight, so wear something sexy."
Laughter replaced the wariness in her beautiful blue eyes. "I don't own anything sexy and you know it."
"Then we'll have to buy you something." Of all the gifts she'd bought, she hadn't purchased anything for herself.
She'd only been thinking of the children at the shelter, and he liked that awareness in her. With all she'd been
through in her life, she still had room to feel concern for others. She was such a giving, caringwoman, it would be
all too easy to fall in love with her.
But that thought didn't distress him. He felt good, very good. He'd pick her out a dress more beautiful than
anything she'd ever had.
"Sebastian, I don't think..."
He interrupted her, unwilling to listen to arguments. He hadn't felt this enthusiastic about spending money
since...Never.
"We've got a lot to do, once you've called Shay. Shopping first, then food,then dancing." He turned her before she
could offer more protests,then gave her a light swat on the bottom."Get going, woman. I'm starved."
 Sebastian stood byimpatiently while Brandi went through another round of assurances with Shay. She'd been on
the phone five minutes now, and from what he could tell from her side of the conversation, Shay wanted a blow-
by-blow report of what had gone on,needing to know if she'd made a mistake by rushing Brandi off with a man.
That nettled him. Damn it, he wasn't just any man. Shay knew he had a special sensitivity for women, and she
trusted him with many of the situations at the safe houses. So why was she putting Brandi through the fifth degree?
"I promise, Shay, I'm having fun. Honest." Brandi's eyes slanted toward Sebastian, filled with apology and a tinge
of embarrassment. "No, it's...it's not like that. He's been...well..."
Sebastian couldn't stop himself. He reached out and plucked the phone from Brandi's hand. She tried to snatch it
back, but he held it out of her reach an easy thing to do given her small stature.
As he put the phone to his ear, drowning out Brandi's muttered complaints, he heard Shay say, "Just remember that
he is a man, honey, more man than most. And whether you know it or not, you're a very pretty woman. Don't
expect him to keep his distance for the whole trip."
Sebastian rolled his eyes, feeling both annoyance and chagrin. "I'd say she was beautiful, not just pretty, and damn
sexy as well. She can handle any man on her own even me."
A moment of silence, then: "Sebastian."
"Shay," he replied sweetly.
" I,uh..."
"Warning your sister away from me?And after you donated me to her so nicely. A birthday present, wasn't it?"
"Yes. You were...for her birthday." Then she said in a rush, "I just wanted to make sure I hadn't made a mistake."
He softened, hearing the fretful tone of Shay's voice. He knew she meant well, despite her meddling. Taking
charge and running things was simply a part of her. She wouldn't know how to be any other way. "There's no
mistake. You trust me, remember."
"Yeah, I trust you. It's just..."
"We've covered it, Shay. Things are fine, and we're having a good time.Both of us." He looked at Brandi and saw
her face had gone red. She looked ready to kill him.
He grinned. "I gotta go, Shay. Brandi is anxious to get on with our date." She swung at him, but he ducked and she
missed. Chuckling, he said, "If Brandi needs anything, she'll call you. Bye."
"Don't hang " the receiver hit the cradle and Brandi frowned " up."
"You don't need her filling you with nonsense."Or warning you away from me."And you don't need her ad­vice. I
think we're doing just fine on our own."
She glared at him, but after a moment of him grin­ning back, her frown smoothed out and she threw her hands up
in the air. "All right, I give up. I can't really stay mad anyway, not when I'm secretly glad to be off the phone. But
don't ever do that again."
 Her frown was back to being fierce, so he quickly apologized. "I was an arrogant jerk. It won't happen again."
She shook her head,then smiled. "I wouldn't go quite that far.Arrogant, but not a jerk. But you were too high-
handed."
"You looked embarrassed."
"Um, Shay being insistent is sometimes hard to talk around."
"Next time, just tell her to butt out." He touched her cheek."Especially when she's questioning your love life."
Brandi laughed. "Are you kidding? With Shay, that would be as good as admitting there was something going on,
and she'd have kept me on the phone forever prying for details.Mostly because I've neverhad a love life."
Sebastian took her arm and steered her toward the exit. Very quietly, he asked, "Is there something going on?"
"You know what I mean."
Of course he did, but he needed to know her thoughts. It had occurred to him that while he grew more and more
emotionally involved with Brandi she might very well only be using a prime situation to ex­periment with her
sexuality. He'd invited her to do so. And at the time, it had seemed to be enough.
Now he wanted more.
He'd offered her the use of his body, but he didn't want to be used. Not anymore. He wanted to share. He wanted
her trust. Maybe he wanted forever.
Brandi had never experienced lust before, so she had no way of knowing how unique the chemistry was be­tween
them. Lust existed, more powerful than any­thing he'd ever imagined, but it was tempered by so many other, more
tender emotions. He wanted to teach her to enjoy her body, to enjoy his body, but he didn't want her to take that
knowledge and apply it with an­other man. The mere thought made him furious.
"Sebastian? Is something wrong?"
"No." He shook his head. "Nothing's wrong."
"You look upset."
He glanced down at her as they walked through the doorway and into the dim, damp outdoors. Sebastian breathed
deep, filling his lungs with the rain-scented air, bracing himself. "I'd like for you to sleep with me tonight.The
whole night."
Brandi faltered. "I don't know..."
He turned to her, catching both her hands, looking down into her wide blue eyes."Just sleep, baby. I want to hold [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]