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“You do know your art, Kait.”
She smiled at the compliment. “As the old saying goes, I just know what I like. When it touches something inside me, I know it’s good.”
He was silent for a moment, then said, “How many more pieces would you like to select?”
“Probably one more should do it.”
She turned around when his cell phone chimed. He slipped it out of his pocket, and spoke briefly. “Client,” he said to her. “I need to get something from my office. Keep looking and I’ll be right back.”
She nodded and turned back to the paintings, slipping along the rows quickly until she reached the end. Or at least the end of what had been uncovered. A row in the very back of the room sat still covered. Curious, she walked over and pulled the cover off one, instantly realizing why he hadn’t uncovered it. She pulled the other six sheets from the paintings, recognizing Brett’s work instantly.
He worked in both oils and watercolors. She’d never seen these pieces of art before and wondered how long ago he’d painted them. Studying each one carefully, the last one captured her like an arrow to her heart.
It was a woman. Nude and seated facing front, her knees were drawn up toward her chest and her ankles crossed over each other. The side swell of each breast was visible on either side of her legs. Her long dark hair draped over her shoulders and down her arms. Her head was bent so Kaitlyn couldn’t see her face.
It was magnificent. The background was a light blue wall, plain and without adornment. A cream-colored sheet lay crumpled on the floor underneath her, making the woman herself the focal point of the painting.
The woman’s arms were crossed over the tops of her knees, her delicate fingers pointing down toward the floor. She looked relaxed and utterly beautiful.
She’d always loved paintings of nudes. They were so free, so part of nature and their surroundings, uncaring that their bodies were bared for all to see. Kaitlyn would love to feel that free and unrestrained. The right artist could paint a nude and capture the subject’s very soul. Brett’s work was like that.
She reached out to lightly trace Brett’s signature gracing the bottom right corner of the painting. His work literally took her breath away and yet filled her with a sadness that moved her to tears. She sighed with a mix of contentment and melancholy, desperately wishing she could reach him, to bring him out of whatever shell he hid underneath and open his heart enough to use his gift again. Her magic flowed from her and kicked up a light spring breeze that blew through the closed room. The smell of lavender filled the room.
Damn. Sometimes she had difficulty reining in her magic, especially when she got emotional.
Why wouldn’t he paint any longer? More importantly, what would it take to get him to take a brush in his hand and create again?
“How the hell did it get windy in here?”
She whirled around, forcing the breeze to dissipate. “Have no idea. Maybe a gust blew in when you opened the door.”
He frowned and entered the room. “There aren’t any windows open in…”
He stopped and looked behind her, obviously realizing she’d uncovered his work. When he looked back at her, anger sparked hot in his eyes, turning them nearly black. Instead of speaking, he sidestepped her and jerked the covers back over the canvases.
“Have you decided on a third painting?” he asked, obviously choosing to ignore what she’d done.
“Yes. The nude you painted.”
He didn’t even turn around. “No.”
“It’s breathtaking, Brett,” she argued, moving with him and helping him drape the sheets over the easels in each row. “I don’t understand why you don’t want your work shown.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you again.”
Yes, he most certainly was going to have this conversation again. She’d touched a nerve. Granted, not a happy nerve, but any reaction was better than indifference.
Finishing up the last painting, they came together again at the back of the room.
“Choose another item, Kait. You wanted three, you selected two.”
“No, I selected three.” She walked away, moving toward his paintings in the back, uncovering the nude again. “I love this painting. I want this one at the fundraiser.”
His lips set in a firm, straight line, he shook his head. She felt the temper boiling within him, knew she’d made him angry. But she wasn’t going to back away. “You can’t hide forever. And you can’t walk away from your talent.”
Wrenching the cloth from her hands with a violent jerk, he re-covered the painting. “Stop trying to psychoanalyze me, Kaitlyn. I don’t need or want your attention. Do you understand?”
Oh, she understood more than he realized. If he thought he’d hurt her feelings by pushing her away, he was wrong. But an idea had formed. Risky, but still might work. “Fine. I’ll abide by your wishes.” She turned away and selected another painting that had caught her eye. “I’ll take this one for the lobby.”
His brows knit in a tight frown as if she gave him a headache. She hid her smile. She probably did give him a headache. She’d rather give him a hard-on. Why shouldn’t he suffer like she did? Even at his worst he made her wet, made her nipples tingle and her pussy clench with the need to feel his hot shaft stabbing inside her until she screamed.
“I’ll have these delivered tomorrow.”
“Fine.” Now it was time to put her plan into action. Praying it worked, she grabbed her purse and waited outside the storage room door while he locked it and led her down the hallway. Before they stepped through the doors and back into the reception area, she turned to him, halting his progress. “I have a question.”
His gaze wary, he nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Who else paints nudes around here? A good local artist.”
“John Grayson and Mitchell Walker do the best contemporary nude artwork in the state.”
“Good. Can I get their phone numbers?”
Arching a brow, he said, “I can arrange to have some of their nudes brought in here. You don’t need to
contact them directly.”
Here’s where she hoped her gamble paid off. “This isn’t about the fundraiser. I’ve fallen madly in love with that nude you painted in there.” He opened his mouth to object but she raised her hand. “Don’t bother. I understand you don’t want to sell it, but I’ve always wanted to own a nude. So I’ve decided I’d like to have one specially created for my own personal gallery.”
“I can arrange that for you. Do you have a particular model in mind, or does it matter?”
“Oh, I definitely have a model in mind.”
Brett frowned, dread sending his heart plummeting to his feet. He’d had control of this conversation a few minutes ago, certain he’d steered Kait away from dangerous ground. Right now, he had the feeling an earthquake was about to hit. “Who?”
Smiling, she said, “Me, of course. I want to commission an artist to paint me.”
He went rigid at the thought of someone painting her nude. Someone besides him. Another artist looking at her body and immortalizing her on canvas. Tension filled every muscle, his headache pounding harder by the second.
Why the hell hadn’t she asked him to do it?
Because you’d refuse and she knows that, you moron. Still, she’d specifically asked for someone else. Then again, he hadn’t given her any reason to think he’d even contemplate the idea.
Jealousy reared up and filled him with irrational anger he had no business feeling. Nevertheless, there it was and he couldn’t make it go away. “Why in the hell would you want to do that?”
She arched a brow and crossed her arms. “Is there something wrong with my body? Is it hideous? Deformed? Do you think some artist will lose his lunch if I stripped naked in front of him?”
God, she left him tongue-tied and unable to say what he really felt. He wanted to grab her arms and wrench her against him and tell her in no uncertain terms that no fucking way was another guy going to see her naked. “You know damn well that wasn’t what I meant. Quit playing these games, Kait. You don’t really want to…well, you just don’t want to do that.”
