It is my hope that you will display this cross in your own personal treasure collection, wherever that may be, and think of me every time you see it.
Warmest regards,
Sebastian Antonio Bernal
It was true, what people said. The noise emanating into the courtyard from inside the exhibit hall fell away as Lacey looked back up to find Sebastian still watching her. His gaze was direct. Self-confident. Utterly absorbed in her. A bubble that seemed to thrum with excitement and a growing fire encircled them both, effectively cutting off the rest of the world. Lacey felt her own breath slip and shorten as Sebastian looked at her with an intent she hadn't yet seen.
An intent that caught her off-guard with its power, its enticement. With its smoldering promise of something she knew with more and more certainty that she wanted to experience, whatever that might be.
Sebastian had every intention of mingling with the guests at the exhibit. He felt quite a few glances aimed his way when he finally stepped into the room. His presence had been well noted by those in attendance. Yet he'd been so eager to see Lacey's response to the small gift he brought her that he'd planned to mingle for a short time before getting her all to himself again.
That wasn't going to happen. As his dragon roared somewhere in the back of his head, adrenaline and an icy fire raced up and down his body as he and Lacey seemed locked together in a little sliver of their own space.
As if no one and nothing else existed in the entire world.
She was an absolute knockout tonight in the pretty outfit she had chosen to wear. The muted teal and turquoise colors accentuated the blue of her eyes, highlighted the elation of the moment that was present on her face and every line of her body. He was well aware that was because of the occasion, not because he was standing there and just had handed her part of a piece of his own history. Even so, Sebastian felt his usual tightly controlled reason leaving him.
He needed this woman.
Right now.
It was driving him absolutely insane to not finally kiss those lips that been torturing him for the past year. She was an employee, she was someone he genuinely enjoyed relaxing with, she momentarily took him away from the daily sickening sense that his powers were ebbing just a little bit more. Something in her revitalized him.
He desperately wanted a drink of it right now. His dragon roared inside, urging him closer to Lacey's delicate sweetness.
"I'm glad you like it," he said. He took a step closer to her. The flush that rose over her collarbones, swept up her neck, was graceful. It sent his own pulse skyrocketing. “I wanted you to have something that was very specific to the Californio history, in honor of tonight's exhibit.” Another step closer. “To my family.” Another short stride, and he was close enough that her intoxicating scent rippled over him. “To me."
The soft shadows reaching across the courtyard slipped over her shoulder as she turned her face up toward him. Barely half a foot separated them. He could actually see her pulse vibrating in her throat. Her sweet scent enveloped him. Never in his life had he waited so long for a woman. He was about to explode if he couldn't touch her soon.
Without asking, he knew she wanted it to. Even so, he kept his movements slow and deliberate. Gently, he reached out with the back of a single finger to carefully tuck one slight strand that had fallen out of her usual severe bun to tip down in front of one ear. When his finger touched her skin, Sebastian knew he was about to finally taste her lips.
Lacey's sharp inhalation of breath was slightly wobbly. It was the first time he'd ever heard her voice lose the composure that usually held, and she hadn't even said anything yet. Emboldened by her blossoming of her scent, by the soft, sweet promise of her body, by the knowledge that he had finally gotten through her defenses with his small gift, he turned his hand around so his palm could cup the side of her face. He let his fingers gently curve around the back side of her neck, stroking the skin there.
Lacey's eyes half closed and she pulled in another shaky breath. Her lips slightly parted, and she leaned toward him just a bit. His attuned senses picked up her rapid pulse, which he could sense beating delicately in her throat.
It was too much. "Lacey," Sebastian said, his voice ripping out of him in a deep groan. “I know you want this. Unless,” he forced himself to add, suddenly and oddly terrified at her potential answer, “I've totally misread the signals here?"
The beautiful flush on her face was extending lightly beneath the mid cut of the dress where her breasts swelled so temptingly. Shaking her head, she answered in low voice, "No. You haven't misread anything." Her eyes deepening to that rich sapphire color that had captured his interest the first day he met her, she added in more husky tones, “Lead the way. Sebastian.”
His name on her lips, tentative yet clearly enchanted by the sound of it, shot white heat through his body. Lacey's palms smoothed against his chest, one of them already beginning to rove up to his neck. First cautiously, then with more confidence, she caressed his skin there with her fingers, bringing another approving rumble from him. Her other hand drifted lower until it found his nipple. Pausing for a long moment, clearly bolstering her confidence, she gently circled her fingers over the sensitive nub
With a soft little “Mmm,” her delight in how it hardened tightened his balls. The sensation of her small fingers touching him through his dress shirt was so pleasurable it startled him into a small gasp. She paused at that, pulling her head back and slightly fluttering open her eyes to look at him. But he shook his head at her, murmuring, "No. Don't stop."
In answer, her mouth curved up in just a hint of a smile. She reached her hands out to his chest, placing her fingers on him. First tentatively, then with more certainty, she felt the planes of his chest beneath his jacket and shirt. Even through the clothing, he could feel the heat of her hands burning down to his skin. His entire body trembling with an excitement that went well beyond what even he had imagined, Sebastian gently pulled her face towards his even as he dipped his head down toward her.
Finally claiming her soft, luscious lips with his.
The taste and sensation of soft petals, her natural scent of lilies and creamy cloves and raindrops, seemed to infuse Sebastian's every molecule with a succulent blast. Her lips moved against his with a sensuality he hadn't quite expected but yet which did not surprise him. Swallowing another groan, he lightly held her face with both hands as he allowed himself to feast upon her mouth.
Lacey tasted exactly how he imagined. Only better.
Running one hand down to the small of her back, keeping the other curled behind her head, he pressed her close to him. The lush promise of her body that had been teasing him was even more sumptuous than he had dreamed during many restless nights of imagining her softness beneath him. Murmuring against her lips, he let the curve of his fingers drop down a little farther to touch the soft roundness of her delicious ass.
Lacey gasped against his mouth in surprise, but she didn't pull away. Instead, she pressed closer to him, pushing her hips against him in a way that caused his vision to darken with intense desire.
"Like this so far?" His dragon rumbled through his voice, lending a fiery edge to it.
She nodded against him. The tiny, breathless little moans he could feel dropping from her lips into his mouth excited him even more.
"Good. I don't think I could've waited another minute." Sebastian let his tongue explored Lacey's mouth, the intense heat and openness with which she welcomed him getting him harder than solid oak.
She murmured something unintelligible against his lips, but he thought it was
Me, either.
The world faded away into a soft black explosion of velvet, punctuated with shooting stars, engulfed as he was in the soft, warm feel of Lacey's curves beneath his hands. Her lush body pressed against his with as much if not more fervent desire.
Mid-kiss, the craziest vision of him flying as his dragon while Lacey rode fearlessly on his back, laughing with sheer joy, shot through his mind. It startled him so much he broke their contact, pulling back and opening his eyes to look at her. Her eyelashes fluttered open, her plush mouth a darker red from where his lips had been tenderly yet firmly savaging hers.
That was a careless moment of confusion. Although he fully intended to have Lacey, she would never know about his dragon side. That was something he would never trust to tell her. To cover up his momentary confusion, he said the first thing that popped into his head, aching and raw in its indisputably sensuous desire.
"There will be more of this, I promise.” His voice was raw. Slightly ragged from kissing her, his breath still coming fast. “You will want to feel my touch, Lacey. My fingers on your skin. Stroking, traveling along your body, dipping into every curve and rounding over every soft swell. And you won't want me to stop.”
She swallowed hard, her eyes shadowing into a blue so dark they seemed almost purple. Just as she opened her mouth to reply, the sound of a small group of people tumbling out into the courtyard made her retreat away from him.
Silently Sebastian swore. He reached for her, but the fragile, exhilarating moment had been shattered.
“I—we can't,” she said, taking a step back. Her fingers lifted up to her lips, feeling them as if they still burned. A deep breath. Another step back.
Damn it all.
Lacey shook her head. Her chest was heaving, and he knew, he knew she felt the undeniable attraction between them, but her professional walls were well up again. “I have to get back inside,” she finally said. She looked at him for a long moment before she wrenched her gaze away.
It took every ounce of self-control Sebastian had not to reach out and stop her as she left.
When the alarm buzzed on her phone, Lacey pushed her chair back from the desk, stretched her arms over her head, and luxuriated in a back-cracking stretch. She was working on an article about the exhibit. Since naturally the topic interested her intensely, she sometimes could find herself looking up a few hours later, stiff from sitting in the same position for so long. She'd learned back in grad school to set timers to make sure she got up every hour to move around a little bit and hopefully not drop dead of a heart attack from her sedentary lifestyle twenty years hence.
As she slowly brought her arms back down in front of her, fingers interlaced, leaning over in a forward bend, her eye caught the glitter of the little gold cross on her desk. Originally she thought she would take the cross home. Yet she was here the center so much more often. It also just made sense for the item to be in the building that housed so many objects from the same field.
Besides, not that she was observant, but a beautiful Catholic cross up on the wall at the apartment, in her bedroom, would make her feel pretty darn guilty whenever she had her very explicit imaginings about Sebastian. And she'd definitely had those, every single night, since the night of the exhibit opening.
Even though she hadn't spoken to him since then.
Well, she had made herself fairly clear, hadn't she? Like an idiot who apparently planned to be sex-deprived for the rest of her life.
That kiss had torched every rational thought in her head, setting off a chain reaction of thoughts that just wouldn't stop. Thoughts such as that she was just another conquest to him.
But surely, the small gift meant he was interested in her more than that, right? Not that that mattered, because he was Sebastian Bernal. Owner of the Bernal Center, world-renowned billionaire philanthropist, heartbreaking playboy of the Western world, and probably the Eastern world too now that she thought about it.
Besides, she didn't have time for something like that.
"Something like what?" Gabi had, naturally, been beside herself with excitement when Lacey had called her the day after the gallery opening to confess that she shamelessly had macked on Sebastian. "It's just going to be a fling, girl. That's what a guy like Sebastian Bernal is good for. You know I've been telling you forever that you need a good, old-fashioned fling. Sex, fun, nothing else." Laughter burbled under Gabi's words. "He's assured you a bunch of times it's not going to affect your job. Lacey, normally I would never say this about a guy who's in charge, but I believe him. He loves what you bring to the Center."
Well, so did Lacey. Which was why she had backed away from him the other night. Sebastian Bernal was far too dangerous, with those chocolatey eyes and that provocative smile. She had to keep a grip on herself and her senses. It was a good thing Gabi was gone now, over on Catalina to begin the dive that she been looking forward to. It was still being put off another couple of days because the storm was still stirring up sediment on the ocean floor. Lacey's feisty bestie playfully would be pushing Lacey at Sebastian so hard, she knew she'd be hard pressed to keep resisting.
Unfortunately, tonight would be another test of her personal fortitude.
Sebastian had recently decided to have the museum host fancy events here. Tonight was one of several initial runs of wedding ceremonies before the Center would be opening to the public for weddings and other events beginning in the fall.
Lacey had been conscripted into attendance months ago when it was discovered the bride and groom enjoyed her area of expertise. She was actually kind of excited to be able to attend, but for one thing.
Sebastian would be there as well. The groom hailed from an important old Angeleno family that apparently socialized with Sebastian on occasion.
She would have to see him again. So soon after the other night. This time, she vowed, she would not fall for his charming lines. His come-hither expression. His utterly kissable, delectable, wildly talented mouth that could—
No. She needed to stop that line of thinking immediately. She had a paper to write and two meetings before the wedding began. Dealing with her overheated body once again wasn't going to help matters.