Page 90 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“Yes,” she answered immediately. It was the perfect invitation.

SEBASTIANSIPPEDCHAMPAGNEand laughed his ass off with Grace and Shelly and Cat and felt like part of him was walking around outside his body. Via was chatting with some people he didn’t know on the other side of the room. She was accepting an appetizer on a toothpick from a caterer who nearly swallowed his tongue when she smiled at him. And then she was swiping a glass of champagne from the bar and settling herself in the free seat at their table, grinning over at Rachel, a dozy, loose, electric expression on her face.

The whole time, Sebastian felt as if he were split in two. Half of him was sitting here, in this chair, chuckling as Grace and Cat narrated voices for each of Rae’s gawky cousins in the corner. And the other half? Well, the other half was over there with that little, warm, golden, wavy-haired sex perfection charming everyone she came in contact with.

He’d felt a variation on this feeling before, with Matty. Fatherhood had a way of making a man feel like his heart had grown two stubby legs and chubby little forearms and a tiny, blunt face alternately scowling and laughing. Even though he’d had a lot of room for improvement as a father in the first three years of Matty’s life, it didn’t mean he hadn’t loved his son to distraction.

He’d always felt better when he and Matty didn’t have much distance between them. He didn’t like the world getting in the way of his heart. In a way, that’s how he felt right now. Like he and Via were a unit, two parts to one whole and he just wanted to benextto her.

Actually, he wanted to be a hell of a lot closer than next to her. Inside of her was pretty much what he had in mind. He wanted to slip his hand up that green dress and watch his paw disrupt the fabric. He bet he could span her entire stomach if he spread his fingers wide enough. He also bet she had a light little touch. He wanted her to torture him with it while he took that dress in two handfuls and just smelled it. Honestly, he kind of wanted to do disgusting things to that dress. Destroy it. Just to take the edge off before he turned around and did all those same things to her.

When they’d come out of the bathroom area together, a woman Seb didn’t know had called over to Via. Her face had lit with recognition. And as much as Seb wanted to completely dominate her entire night, keep her all to himself like a child with a Blow Pop, he nodded her off to greet her friend. She’d taken one step and turned back, looking over her shoulder in a way that had damn near brought him to his knees. If he’d had a pencil in his mouth, he would have chattered it down to a toothpick. That look she gave him, it was a littlesee you laterpromise.

She’d gone and mingled, and so had he. And now she was sitting much too far away.

Her eyes glanced over at his and ricocheted away immediately, her cheeks going a deeper pink than he’d ever seen before. He realized that his heart must be in his eyes. He must look like he was thinking very dirty thoughts.

Seb attempted to be a little more discreet. He tried to fix his face and look generically out at the crowd of people who were dancing to the cocktail hour DJ’s Motown mix. But his eyes went back to her. He dragged them away. They went back to her. Again and again.

This went on for about fifteen minutes before Cat leaned over and nudged him hard in the shoulder.

“You better put a condom on those eyes, Sebastian.”

“Excuse me?” He jolted at her words.

“Either you wear a rubber on those eyes of yours, or you’re about to get Miss DeRosa pregnant from twenty paces.”

Sebastian, extremely aware that he was talking to his son’s second-grade teacher right now, had the humility to look pretty chagrined. He dragged a hand over his face and tried to wipe the dirty sex thoughts off of it. “That obvious, huh?”

Cat raised an eyebrow and her glass of champagne to her lips. “About as subtle as a jackhammer.”

“She looks really, really beautiful. I’m, ah, having trouble keeping my eyes to myself.”

Cat clapped her mouth closed, like she was stopping herself from saying something.

Sebastian rolled his hand through the air like,spit it out.

Cat leaned forward. “Seb, she’s making that same face right back at you. Ah! There’s my husband. He couldn’t make it in time for the ceremony, but now that he’s here, I’m going to get horribly drunk and do illegal things to him.”

She slapped Seb hard on the shoulder and rose. He wondered vaguely if other parents had this kind of relationship with their children’s educators. Probably not.

Seb felt a light heat on the side of his face and looked up fast enough to catch Via unawares. Sure enough, she was watching him. And the look on her face was...very inappropriate. In fact, she was looking at him like she was trying to gethimpregnant at twenty paces. He cleared his throat, took a deep breath and lifted his chin up once, as if to say,Come over here.

Her eyes on his, she rose from her seat with all the effortless grace of a bird. God, she was beautiful. A second later, she plunked down in the seat that Cat had just vacated and leaned across Seb to say something to Grace and Shelly that Seb didn’t even hear.

He was too busy suffocating in the nearness of her. Her bare shoulder firmly pushed into his as she leaned across him. A laugh tremored through her and shook something loose in Seb’s chest. He looked down and her fingers were in a pyramid on the seat of her chair as she held herself in a lean. He wished she’d put her hand on his leg instead.

Seb let out a long, low breath and laid his arm along the back of her chair.Good enough for now.When she leaned back, the ends of her hair danced over his arm.

She looked up at him, an expression on her face that he couldn’t quite interpret.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she replied way too quickly. She glanced at his armpit and looked away.

“Seriously.” He nudged her warm, soft side with his free hand. “What is it?”

She sighed, like she didn’t want to say what she was about to say. “You just smell really good is all.”

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