AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’d shrugged with a shy smile, thrilled that he had said that about her. “But we are hardly the same as a stunt person in a movie who dives off a high rise into an airbag four hundred feet below. Or someone serving in the military.”
“Yes and no,” he said. “You put your feelings on the line. And if it becomes your profession, then you put your career on the line with you artistic vision.”
“I don’t even know what my vision is half the time. I feel like some wild horse chasing lightning bolts in a stormy sky.”
“See that!” He gave her one of his dazzling smiles. “You just proved my point. That is a perfect metaphor and a great image. I think you should make a painting based on that.”
“But I hate being all alone out there on the plains.”
“So make it two horses. Because I’ll always have your back.”
But he didn’t have her back when she needed him. He had disappeared on her.
Yet here he was now, the only person she would ever take this piece out of the case for, the only person she would allow to own it. Normally, when anyone asked about it, she would always say it was not for sale but that a commissioned piece similar to it could be ordered. Jinx had set it in the display case with her higher priced work more as an example of her skill than anything else. And because she liked to look at it. She supposed a superstitious part of her had believed keeping it there would bring her some kind of luck. Tonight she had to wonder if Bailey had been right when she’d once joked about it being a talisman Jinx kept there to bring Logan back.
Now, as Jinx pulled the wrist cuff out of the display and held it out to him, she kept her expression neutral. She refused to acknowledge that the images on it meant anything special to her, despite the fact that the air almost seemed threaded with a tension between them that was so thick and taut it seemed ready to snap. And what would that look like if it did? Would she kiss him passionately and tear off his clothes? Or scream at him and throw him out of the shop?
Using a businesslike tone, she explained, “The horses are embedded with star garnet, the sky is turquoise, and the lightning is yellow citrine highlighted with tiny diamonds.”
“It’s exquisite,” he said, his deep voice soft and sultry, his eyes thankfully on the jewelry piece instead of her, giving her a chance to breathe. He took it from her hands and their fingers brushed. A spark ran through her at his touch. Was his slight pause a reaction to that? Or was it just her own imagination going wild because it was…
Him.
Logan stood so close to her she could feel the heat of his body and smell his sandalwood aftershave. “When did you make this?” he asked, setting it on the glass counter and looking at her.
“Oh, a few years ago, I guess.” She had to be vague to protect her heart.
“Is it one of a kind?”
“Yes. One of a kind.”
“I’ll take it.”
Jinx tried not to ask, but it came bursting out of her. “Is it for yourself?” And, okay, the tilt of her head and the tone of her voice might have been challenging, almost accusatory, because his answer would determine whether she would sell it to him or not.
The cuff could be worn by either a man or a woman. She knew he was not married, had found out that much from Anthia’s gossip, but he appeared with plenty of women on Google searches and most often with a certain beautiful woman who might be the one he loved. No way would Jinx allow him to give this cuff to another woman. After all these years it would still hurt. So, yeah, she might have to tell him it was not for sale just as she’d done to every other customer.
“Yes. For me,” he said, and she knew he understood why she’d asked. Then he smiled, making his unbearably handsome face even more so, and slipped the cuff on his wrist.
How he could make such a simple gesture erotic, she had no idea, but it nearly did her in. Unable to speak, Jinx merely nodded.
“Jewelry looks like a perfect vehicle for your talents,” Logan said, walking to another display. “You got interested in it at the University of the Arts, right?”
“Yes. They have a good jewelry and metal craft major.” Jinx struggled to keep her tone neutral. Her first year at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia was when Logan had left town, when he quit Wharton at U Penn and disappeared from her life. They both knew she had chosen that school so she could be near him. They had even talked about things they would do together when they would be living in the same city.
“You do commissions,” he said, nodding to her sign saying exactly that.
“Yes,” was all she replied. Not her usual spiel of inquiry with a sales pitch. The green-eyed monster reared its head again at the idea of him asking her to make a piece of jewelry for a woman he was seeing, or worse—an engagement ring for his intended.
But she reminded herself this man did not belong to her and never would.
“Any high-profile commissions?” he asked.
“You mean like…”
“Celebrities.”
“No, I’m not that well-known.” As if his silent response required her to defend herself, Jinx added, “I like my little shop here in this peaceful town. It works just fine for me.”
