“You’re making this up,” Tim cried, misinterpreting her pause. He grabbed her arms and pulled her close to his body. “You still love me. How could you not? We were together for three years. We talked about getting married.”
Alarmed by her sudden predicament, she braced her hands on Tim’s chest and pushed. Yes, they’d talked about it, but that’s all they’d done. He hadn’t proposed. Three years she waited for him, and he’d fallen in love with someone else and left her.
“Am I interrupting something?” A voice spoke from the front door.
Tim looked toward Sebastian and his expression darkened. He let her go. Missy stumbled back and caught herself on the rocking chair her grandfather had carved for her grandmother.
“I see the score now,” Tim snarled. “He’s what you want. He’s all you ever wanted.” Grabbing the videos he’d come for, Tim headed for the front door. He tried to muscle Sebastian out of the way and ended up bouncing off him like a pinball. “She’s all yours. Not that it was ever in doubt.”
Missy watched him go, her heart hammering at the expression on Sebastian’s face. He didn’t look overjoyed to find her in Tim’s arms. Not that she’d been participating in the embrace.
“Was that your boyfriend?” His tone was neither conversational nor friendly.
“My ex-boyfriend.”
“He didn’t look very ex to me.”
“He left me for his soul mate.” She tried to keep the hurt from her voice. She didn’t succeed. “I guess it didn’t work out between them.”
“And now he wants you back.” Not a question, a statement. Sebastian’s flat expression gave away none of his thoughts on the subject, but in his gray eyes, storm clouds gathered.
“He doesn’t know what he wants.”
“What about what you want?”
She was completely sure that she wanted Sebastian. He stirred her like no other man. The thought of waking up every morning to his handsome face made her blissful beyond words. But none of that changed the fact that she didn’t fit into his world and never would.
When she didn’t answer his question, Sebastian prowled toward her. “What do you want, Missy?”
“Nothing.” She couldn’t tell him the truth.
Sebastian captured her face in his hands, compelling her to meet his gaze. “Do you want him back? Because if you do, I’ll chase him down.”
“You would?” Missy regarded him in confusion. “Really?”
“No.” His voice smiled, but his expression remained tense and watchful. “Maybe you need me to give you some help.”
Her knees wobbled. “What sort of help?”
“I could tell you what I want.”
“You’ve been pretty clear about that,” she retorted dryly, but her banter didn’t rouse a smile.
“No, I don’t think I have. I want you. In my life. For as long as you’ll have me.”
Her breath caught.
She marveled at how his eyes glowed in the seconds before he captured her lips in the softest kiss imaginable. She remembered how his lovemaking had helped her overcome her fear of heights. Maybe it could help her overcome her fear of not fitting into his world.
“I’d like that, too,” she breathed when he let her come up for air.
And between one exhalation and a gasp, he’d swung her off her feet and moved toward her bedroom.
“Wait. What about your mother’s birthday party?”
“We’ll be late.”
He set her on her feet beside her bed, reached around her and grasped her zipper. His lips coasted along her neck as the dress came undone. Missy smiled, dazzled by the realization that she’d admitted her feelings to Sebastian and the sky hadn’t fallen.