Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife Read online

  Maybe I did, maybe I was being a bitch but there was this niggling thing in the back of my mind that still didn’t believe whatever this was. Was it real? Part of me expected this entire night to be a dream and where would that leave me? What if I was imagining having him here with me and imagining his words earlier that he loved me and I was his sunshine or whatever? What if it really was my brain that wanted to hear those words from him but he didn’t actually say them?

  “You won’t have it will you?” he asked after silence had settled between us, uncomfortable, tense silence.

  I continued to stay silent, not knowing what to say. If I opened my mouth and said yes, did I mean it? And if I kept my mouth closed, did I mean it? I was so fucking confused and it didn’t help with the drink in my system or Sebastian standing there with his hot body on show.

  “Look.” Sebastian grabbed his phone and began fiddling with it again. “Listen to this and then tell me.” He threw the phone on the bed, it landing at my side. “I’m going for a shower. Tell me afterwards if I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life.”

  With that parting cliff-hanger, he walked out of my room, slamming the door after him making me wince at the sound. I watched as one of my pound shop pictures fell from the wall, landing on the floor with a thud.

  Oh shit, what had I done?

  I went to close my eyes and settle back against my pillows when Adele began to sing next to me. I picked up Sebastian’s iPhone and held it up in front of me seeing Adele’s 21 album cover and the song playing. “One and Only”

  I did close my eyes as I held his phone to my chest and listened to Adele sing her heart out. I listened to every word she said, every word with meaning. A tear slid from my eye as I listened to her begging for a chance, a simple chance just to prove herself to the man she wanted to be with, the man she loved.

  Sebastian was trying to tell me the same thing, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he asking for a chance? Wasn’t he begging me to take that big step, that leap of faith and let him inside me, inside my heart because he deserved to be there? Because he loved me?

  He loved me.

  Sebastian Blackwell loved me, me, Victoria Jennings.

  Someone loved me.

  I pushed up from the bed, ignoring the pounding of my head and raced through to the living room where I stopped in front of the stereo and searched frantically for my iPod lead that I knew was around somewhere.

  I growled when my hand hit a pile of old CD’s and they crashed to the floor. I found the white lead behind them and snatched it up. I plugged it into the bottom of his iPhone and switched on my stereo only for the display to announce that it was detecting an unsupported device.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me.” I slapped my forehead and groaned out loud. That never happened before.

  I wracked my brains trying to think whether I had any Adele songs on CD. Not really sure because Jen was always buying me CD’s as gifts, I dropped down on my knees forgetting that I was butt naked and searched frantically through my CD collection. CD’s went flying, cases crashed and smashed, cracking against each other.

  My heart was beating frantically in my chest, pounding against my rib cage. I tried to get my eyes to focus as I continued to blink at the piles of them. Finally, I found Adele’s face on the front of an album. I picked up the CD and quickly turned it around, scanning the back of the case and saw the song near the bottom. I could have cried.

  Hallelujah.

  My hands shook uncontrollably as I got the CD from the case only for it to drop to the floor. I scratched at the roundness of the CD trying to pick it up from the floor but my nails couldn’t grasp it.

  “Damn it, not now.” My nails were so getting cut down after this. I gritted my teeth and nearly bent the thing in half as I scraped it up from the floor and jabbed the button on the stereo watching the three disc changer drawer open. I threw the CD into the only slot left and pushed the drawer closed instead of using the button. I pressed the skip button until I reached number nine and stood up with my hands pressed to my chest in the prayer position waiting for the song to come on.

  The display read 5:48 then started at 0:00 as the song began. I could have collapsed with relief.

  ****

  Sebastian

  Sebastian stood in the shower with his hand pressed against the wall and his head hanging from his shoulders, his shoulders that were weighed down so fucking much, he could barely move.

  He waited with utter tenseness in his body as he listened to the subtle sound of Adele playing from his phone. He watched the water run down into the drain from his body then suddenly the music was gone.

  A breath stuttered from his chest wondering whether this was going to be the last time he did this in here with Victoria just a room away. Wondering whether the last time he’d just made love with Victoria was in fact the last time.

  He frowned when a crash sounded. His head came up as his other hand rubbed down his face, flicking the scorching water off him. His hair dropped over his forehead, blocking his sight until he moved it out of his eyes.

  He listened intently to Victoria moving around wondering whether she was going to burst through the door with his clothing, throwing them at him telling him to get the fuck out because he’d pushed it too far too quickly.

  With Victoria, he just didn’t know.

  “Fuck.” He ground out and fisted his hand against the wall.

  Minutes seemed to be hours as he stood under the reasonable pressurised spray. He hadn’t turned the light on when he’d first come in, not wanting to see his own face in the mirror above the sink or the small one he’d avoided in the shower. His eyes focused on everything else instead. The only light shining through came from the passage.

  Just as he took a breath and turned his head up towards the spray, he stopped dead in his tracks and tilted his head to the side. Then he felt it, the bass sounding and pounding through the bottom of the bath he stood in. The strained sounds of Adele came through as clear as day, filling the small room with her toned voice.

  He could even feel her voice strumming through his body.

  Sebastian’s breath came out in pants as he leaned against the wall, his eyes blinking back wetness and not just the water from the shower either. He quickly turned the water off and stepped out of the bath, dripping water all over the floor as he moved to the door. He stopped in the doorway and peeked around the doorframe to see Victoria standing naked in the middle of her living room with her hands pressed to her chest, her head down as tears dropped from her eyes.

  He must have made a sound because she turned and their eyes met. Her hazel ones filled with such tenderness and vulnerability, so much that he nearly stumbled back.

  ****

  With everything that was me, everything that I could possibly be. My body shook and my hands trembled. Tears streamed down my face as I turned and looked at the man that had my heart in his fist, had me effectively mind, body and soul.

  Everything I could muster, I forced into my eyes as I stared at him across from me. Everything that I felt for him, the pain, the hurt and the love, the lust, the want, the need, the everything, I pushed it at him, forcing him to take it, cradling it from me.

  His bottom lip trembled along with his chin as understanding flitted in his eyes, the blue coming alight with knowledge that I did too love him back, just as much or probably more than he loved me.

  Whether I liked it or not, the choice was taken out of my hands when my heart thundered in my chest, thundered with each breath for him. I had no choice, no choice at all.

  The chorus of the song was coming up; I could feel it in my bones, the muster and the need in Adele’s voice pushed me over the edge. My mouth opened as she reached that pinnacle point. I held my breath and waited.

  “I dare you to let me be...your one and only.” I shouted it along with her as more tears streamed down my face, my voice shuddering and my chest and heart begging my body to give in. My legs began to wobble. I dropped down onto m
y knees as my arms came out to be taken by him to be rescued, silently asking, begging him to never let me fall, to never be alone again because if he did, I would never survive.

  Not again.

  Sebastian rushed to me before I fell forward. He held me in his arms so tightly; I thought he might crack a rib. The breath that I had seemed to have held for the past twenty fours years left me. It left me with the knowledge that someone finally loved me, someone finally took that weight from my shoulders, someone was finally there to see me thrive, to help me through, to carry me if necessary, to be my one and only.

  This, I realised wasn’t just about love, this was about me, about my past with and without Sebastian. All of it crammed together and without Sebastian, it all meant absolutely nothing.

  Chapter Eleven

  I agree to not waste anymore food.

  “What are you going to be doing today?” Sebastian asked as he checked his emails on his phone.

  I shrugged as I held the bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes under my chin to save me from spilling milk down the front of me, again. “I don’t know.”

  The bread wrapper rustled as Sebastian dug into it. It was quite funny to watch his left hand trying to get one piece of bread out the packet without the packet actually falling over or more bread coming out at the same time. “What about work?”

  Again, I shrugged and slurped a spoonful of cereal in my mouth, sucking the milk off the spoon. I chewed thoughtfully before replying. “I have to find another one.”

  And that was just a bitch. I really liked working for the Brewster’s because they were good employers and I had a rapport with the security guards who really didn’t like Conrad much. He was too much of a caveman for them and obviously, when he was in one of his moods, they got it in the neck, just like I did.

  Sebastian looked up at me from his phone with a frown. “Were you really serious about quitting your job?”

  “Uh...yes.”

  “It’s a bit much, is it not?”

  I rolled my eyes and stuffed another spoonful in my mouth and shifted to the side so Sebastian could pop a piece of toast in the toaster behind me. He kissed my cheek softly before moving back to his space.

  This was just freaking weird. This was the first relationship I’d had where the man had spent the night and still been here in the morning. When I was with Sean, of course he’d spend the night but then the twerp would leave early in the morning whilst I was still in bed or after he’d gotten his shag.

  He truly was a piece of shit and a knob and a wanker and a tosser and a whole load of other things.

  “What are you thinking about?” Sebastian asked, quietly watching me intently with those watchful and intense eyes of his. He reminded me of a tiger or lion stalking its prey.

  “Nothing,” I answered. Yeah, like hell I was going to tell him that I was thinking about what a prick my ex was whilst he was standing here. I was crazy not stupid.

  My phone rang from the living room where I’d put in on charge last night. I shuffled past the handsome shit in my kitchen, shoving the bowl of cereal at him before running to grab my phone. I frowned down at the screen seeing “withheld” flashing.

  With a sigh, I pressed answer. “Hello.”

  “Why aren’t you in work?” Conrad’s voice blasted down the line.

  I winced and pulled the phone from my ear and shook my head, feeling my ears tingling and slightly ringing. When I was satisfied that he hadn’t permanently damaged my hearing, I put the phone back to my ear. “Because, I quit,”

  “Uh-huh.” He muttered distractedly. I could hear the phones ringing in the background and a curse from Ben. It seemed like they were managing so well without me...not. “So, when are you coming in?”

  Was this man stupid?

  “Did you not understand me on Friday or what I just said? I quit.” And I wasn’t going back there without an apology for the hurtful things Ben said and an update to my packages. I wanted more because I worked damn bloody hard whilst I was there and they both knew it.

  “Yeah and I’m bright green with purple spots.” He growled.

  A snort left me. “I don’t care what colour you are.”

  He could colour his skin the colour of a bright sunflower, fix the petals on for good measure and even call himself Sunshine for all I cared.

  “Tell her.” Ben shouted in the background. “That she’s got an hour to get her pretty little arse in here before I turn up at her place and bug her fucking rotten.”

  “He wouldn’t.” And he so would. Ben could be like a giant gnat buzzing around, wanting to get to the vital red stuff pumping around your system. I gasped and turned around to see Sebastian standing in the doorway with his brow raised and a piece of toast in his hand. “Can you believe him?”

  “What?” he shrugged. He bit into the lightly buttered toast and frowned when his phone dinged in his other hand.

  Lot of help he was.

  Shaking my head, I walked back to the kitchen and looked around for my breakfast only to find my cereal in the bin and my bowl in the sink. “Sebastian.” I screeched. “What the hell?”

  “What?”

  “Why did you dump my cereal, I was eating it.” Talk about a bloody waste of food.

  “I thought you were finished.” He said with a bored tone as his fingers danced over his phone. The last piece of his toast disappeared into his mouth.

  “Listen here.” I marched up to him and jabbed my pointer finger against his shoulder, fascinated at that strong jaw of his moving back and fourth, smoothly. I shook my head, no concentrate damn it. “In this house, food is not wasted. Hell.” I threw up my hands, holding my still connected phone in my hand. “Food is not wasted at all. Do you get me?”

  “You know.” He grinned and snaked his arms around my waist, his face going straight to my neck where he rubbed his stubbly cheek along my skin then pressed wet kisses over it afterwards. “That you’re cute when you get all uppity.”

  “Cute?” I repeated, slightly offended. I didn’t fucking think so. “Sebastian.” I sighed. “Dogs are cute, kittens are cute but me.” I patted my chest with my hands. “Am not cute and stop changing the subject. Agree to not waste anymore food.”

  He rolled his eyes as a smile danced over his lips. Actually, he looked like he wanted to laugh. “I agree to not waste anymore food.”

  “Anymore of Victoria’s food,” I corrected.

  Now he full out laughed. His hand held his side as he bent over, his whole body shaking. He reached up and wiped a tear from his eye. Even though he was taking the piss, it was really nice to see him look so young and free when he laughed like that. By the sound of it, he didn’t do it enough.

  “Okay.” he said, trying to get himself under control. “I won’t waste anymore of Victoria’s food, happy now?”

  My eyes narrowed on him. He obviously wasn’t taking this seriously. Food to me was gold dust. I was a woman for God’s sake, a woman with hips, boobs and legs and lots of flesh that needed a good intake of protein and fats and regular amounts of sugar that my dentist would freak over but I needed it damn it. “Promise,”

  Those pouty lips of his twitched, his eyes filled with merriment. “Seriously,”

  My lip curled upwards as I crossed my arms over my chest, giving him the meanest glare I could muster. “Yes.”

  He sighed; a long put on sigh that was so fucking fake it wasn’t even funny. He raised his hands in surrender and blinked innocently down at me. “Even though I would buy you all the food in the world to make you happy, I promise. Is that better?”

  I pursed my lips and studied him for a good minute before nodding once. “Mmmm, but not much,”

  Sebastian reached out and snagged my wrists, pulling me to him and pressed his lips against mine. I let him give me one kiss before I swatted his face away when he tried to get the kiss to go deeper.

  “Haven’t you got work to do or something?” he was bugging me now. It didn’t matter that he had pledged his undying l
ove for me or not, he was officially getting on my nerves now.

  He shrugged his shoulders and went to grab me again but I moved out of the way, avoiding those intense long fingers. “I do but I’m the boss, so I call the shots.”

  I snorted and shook my head as I reached past him for a piece of bread so I could have some toast. “You sound so fucking arrogant.”

  “Victoria.” My name was shouted down the phone making me nearly drop the thing.

  “What?” I snapped pressing it to my ear.

  “Was that Sebastian I heard?” Conrad asked suspiciously.

  “Yes, why,”

  “No reason.” He said a little too quickly for my liking. “You’ve got an hour to get your arse to work before I come round there and put you over my knee and spank that fucking arse of yours and,” he lowered his voice until it was a growled whisper. “Don’t tempt me, woman.” With that he ended the call.

  I made a face at the phone and threw bloody thing down on the kitchen counter, watching it bounce around, sliding towards the edge of the counter ready to fall off—Sebastian caught it and handed it back to me with a raised brow.

  “Thank you.” I muttered, ignoring his look and pushing past him to get to the toaster. I popped the toast in the slot and pressed the lever down. I closed my eyes after a minute inhaling the smell of the little burnt crumbs at the bottom of the toaster being heated. The smell was one of the best, ever.

  “I’m going now.” Sebastian said from behind me.

  “Bye.” I waved and smiled when he growled and yanked on my arm until I was in his arms. “What are you doing?”

  “I want a goodbye kiss and a deep, good one too.” he murmured against my lips. My mouth opened to tell him to dream on when his tongue swiped inside, stealing my breath. I stood on my tiptoes and wrapped my arms around his neck and tilted my head to the side to get better access to his mouth.

  All of those times I’d wanted his lips on me before, all those times that I’d imagined what they would feel like, I could never have imagined it felt this good. His lips were heavy but soft, thick but pouty and determined but giving all at the same time.