He needed her. He always had.
Tyce gripped her shoulders, pulled her up and slapped his mouth on hers. In between hot and heavy kisses, they managed to pull their clothes off, scattering them across his paint-splattered floor. When they were both naked, Tyce locked his arms beneath her bottom and lifted her up, sighing when her slim legs encircled his waist. Unable to wait, he pushed her down and he slid into her, wet and warm and wonderful.
Sage gasped and Tyce saw stars behind his eyes. Not convinced that his knees weren’t about to buckle, he rested her against his oil painting, and Sage’s head fell back. Tyce stopped and looked at her, eyes closed, long hairs falling through the still-wet paint of his creation, her milky shoulders against the various shades of blue.
Knowing that he couldn’t hold on for much longer, Tyce commanded Sage to open her eyes. When she did, he sighed and fell a little deeper in love. “I want to watch your eyes as you come. But do it soon, please?”
Sage pressed down, her butt sliding down the canvas, and he sunk even farther into her. She gasped, yelled and contracted around him and he was lost.
Then he spun away into a vortex of a million shades of blue.
* * *
The next morning, Tyce walked Sage to the taxi and she noticed the amusement in his eyes as he pulled a cap over her head.
“What?” she mock demanded, thinking that he looked, if it was possible, ten times sexier than he had last night. He had rings around his eyes, so did she since they hadn’t spent much time sleeping, but the shadows in his eyes were gone.
“I was just thinking about the streaks of French ultramarine on your butt,” he told her, laughter rolling through his expression.
Sage frowned at him. “I’m more upset that you destroyed your painting than I am about some oil paint on my ass.”
Last night, when they came up for air and were marginally functional, Sage felt the wet paint on her bottom and had whirled around to look at the painting, which now sported a perfect imprint of her butt cheeks. Instead of being upset about his ruined painting, Tyce had cried with laughter.
“I’ll do something with it,” Tyce told her, lifting his hands to cradle her face. “Maybe. Or I might just keep it as a reminder of the best sex of my life. And the best conversation.”
Sage smiled and curled her gloved hands around his strong wrists. “Just remember that I think you are fabulous.”
Tyce lifted one arrogant eyebrow but she saw the hint of uncertainty in his eyes. “A fabulous artist?”
“Just all round fabulous.”
Tyce smiled, lowered his mouth to hers and gently kissed it. His mouth held a hint of passion but it went deeper than that; she could taste his promises, the suggestion of a future together. The hope that this time they could make it work, that they could be better and braver.
“What’s your plan of action for the day?” Tyce asked her when he lifted his mouth from hers.
“Um… I have a client meeting at Ballantyne’s and then I’m heading home as I have to finish the Saudi princess’s ring.” Sage glanced at the taxi driver. He wasn’t looking impatient yet so she had a minute or two. “And your plans?”
“When you fell asleep, I started to think about all the work I’m dying to do so I might hole up here and just…work. Fall into that zone.”
Sage smiled, immediately understanding what he was trying to say. “So, if you don’t answer my calls or respond to my texts I mustn’t panic?”
“That okay with you?”
Sage smiled and nodded. “Very okay. Let me know when you come up for air. But it had better be before Thursday morning as we have a ten o’clock appointment with Dr. Charles, the obstetrician.”
“Day after tomorrow at ten. No problem,” Tyce told her. “I’m pretty sure that my need to have you again will bring me back to the land of the living way before then.”
Sage stood on her toes to slant her mouth over his in a hot, openmouthed kiss. “Can’t wait. Have fun.”
Tyce opened the passenger door to the taxi and when she was seated, he bent down to kiss her again. His fabulous eyes were full of mischief when he pulled back. “Oh, and maybe I should tell you that you have blue streaks running through the back of your hair.”
He slammed the door shut but Sage could still hear his laughter. She pushed her hat off her head and pulled a hank of hair in front of her face. Lifting her eyes upward, she immediately noticed the strands of French ultramarine.
Dammit! She spun around to look out through the window at Tyce and saw that he was looking down, his eyes on the screen of his phone.
Ten seconds later her phone buzzed with an incoming text.