When she pulled away, he looked a little breathless, and she felt smugly pleased with herself. Her hand stroked down the front of his shirt. “You did that for me, Sebastian?”
“Chelsea, I would do utterly anything for you. How can you not know that?” He gestured at the roller derby building. “You want a sport? I will totally buy you the entire league. You want a house here in Austin so you can skate with Pisa on weekends? I will buy you a private jet so you can fly in and skate. You want an island? I know a realtor—”
She put her fingers over his lips, silencing him. “I don’t want any of that, Sebastian.”
“I love you, Chelsea. Come home with me, please. I don’t give a shit about the blackmailer. It’s taken care of for now. And even if something came up later, I would rather have you at my side than anywhere else. We’re strongest together. We make each other whole.” He took her hand in his and laced his fingers through hers, then brushed his lips over the back of her hand. “I’m lost without you. Like my mother without her plastic surgeon.”
Chapter Twenty-six
An awful giggle escaped her at that. “That is a horrible comparison.”
“And here I thought I was doing better.” He tilted his head, pretending to think, even as his arms went around her waist. “Like . . . Lisa and a TV camera?”
She gasped. “Lisa—did you hear? I saw an article about her and a sex tape, too.”
“Believe it or not, but that was planted.” Sebastian shrugged at Chelsea’s gasp. “I know. My mother suggested the idea to cover up our tracks while I went to the police, and to stall the criminals. No one would put out a sex tape at the same time as another, because you want to get maximum attention. So we figured that would fend someone off for a bit and give me time to go to the police.”
“But Lisa . . .”
“Is thrilled,” he said gently. “She wanted a huge story line for this season and now she has one. My mother’s thrilled, too. There’s no sex tape, really. It’s all fabricated for tabloids. They’re going to put out a few cease and desists, and Lisa’s going to have a million interviews, and they’ll release a few fake stills from it, and then people will just assume it was privately purchased. It’s not like your situation at all, love. I promise. No one’s hurting Lisa. She was so excited over the thought that my mother actually had to stop her from truly filming a sex tape.”
Chelsea blanched. “She wants to be famous that badly?”
“More than anything.” He shrugged. “This way, everyone gets what they want, I guess. Lisa gets her fame, my mother gets a story line that’s sure to bring in viewers, and I get my wife back, if she’ll have me.” He kissed her hand again. “Unless she’s happy in Austin.”
“And if she is?” Chelsea was breathless.
“Then I move to Austin so I can just be near her until she’s ready to come back to me.” His lips nibbled at her knuckles. “I’ll wait forever for you if I have to.”
“I don’t want to be in Austin,” she admitted, the familiar ache in her throat returning. “I want to be with you. But, Sebastian . . . I’m all fucked up. I can’t be the wife you need.”
“You’re utterly perfect.”
“I’m not,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t sleep with the lights off and I can’t enjoy sex unless I’m wearing skates and I think I ate ten pounds of chocolate-covered pretzels this last week because I was so depressed over things. That video might come out at some point after all.” The thought made her sick. “No matter how many lawyers and police we throw at it. Everything always gets out on the Internet. I could still ruin your family.”
“You are my family, Chelsea. Don’t you get that? I love you with all of my heart and soul. If you’re not in my life, I have nothing. I don’t care if you’re the woman you think I need, but you’re the woman I want. I love you and adore you, and every minute without you is worthless.”
Did any girl deserve such a wonderful man? Chelsea leaned in and kissed him again, whispering, “I love you, Sebastian.”
He groaned. “I love you, too, sweetheart. I’ve loved you from the moment your lips touched mine. I mean it when I say I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine. We can move to Austin. Hell, we can move to Venezuela. Just stay with me and be by my side.”
“I like your home,” she said between quick, happy kisses. God, she was so happy. She couldn’t stop smiling, couldn’t stop touching him. “I like being with you. You’re my home, Sebastian. You and my team.”