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“Did I ever tell you how much I like it when you smile at me, Ethan?”
“No,” I answered, dropping the smile, “tell me.”
She shook her head at my tactics and then looked out the window at the rain. “I’ve always felt special when you do because I think you don’t smile much in public. I would describe you as reserved. So when you smile at me I’m kind of…swept away.”
“Look at me.” I waited for her to respond, knowing it would come. This was another thing we had yet to discuss but was crystal clear from the very beginning. Brynne was naturally submissive to me. She accepted what I wanted to give her—the dominan
ce, and it was just one more reason we were perfect together.
She lifted her brown/green/grey eyes to me and waited. My cock pounded in my slacks. I could take her right here in the car and still want her minutes later. She was my addiction. “God, you’re beautiful when you do that.”
“Do what, Ethan?”
I tucked a strand of her silky hair behind her ear and smiled for her again. “Never mind. You just make me happy is all. I love bringing you to your job after I’ve had you all night.”
She blushed at me and I wanted to fuck her again. No, to make love to her is what I really wanted right now. I wanted to take her slow, that gorgeous body stretched out naked for me to pleasure in every way I could manage it. Mine. She was for me and me alone. Brynne made me feel everything—
“Would you like to come in and see what I’m working on? Do you have time?”
I brought her hand to my lips and breathed the scent of her skin. “I thought you’d never ask. Lead on, Professor Bennett.”
She laughed. “Someday maybe. I’ll wear one of those black robes and give lectures on proper conserving techniques. And you can sit in the back and distract me with inappropriate comments and leering.”
“Ahhh, and will you call me to your office for chastisement then? Will you detain me, Professor Bennett? I am sure we can negotiate a deal for me working off my disrespectful behavior.” I put my head down toward her lap.
“You are insane,” she told me, giggling and pushing me back. “Let’s go inside.”
We ran through the rain together, my umbrella shielding us, her slim shape tucked against me, smelling of flowers and sunshine and making me feel like the luckiest man on the planet.
She introduced me to the security guard who was clearly in love with her and led me back into a large studio like room. Wide tables and easels were set up with good lighting and plenty of open space. She led me to a large oil painting of a dark haired, solemn woman with startling blue eyes, holding a book.
“Ethan, please say hello to Lady Percival. Lady Percival, my boyfriend, Ethan Blackstone.” She smiled at the painting like they were best friends.
I offered a half bow to the painting and said, “My lady.”
“Isn’t she amazing?” Brynne asked.
I studied the image pragmatically. “Well she is an arresting figure to be sure. She looks like she has a story behind her blue eyes.” I peered closer to look at the book she held with the front visible. The words were hard to read but once I realized they were French it was somewhat easier.
“I’ve been working on the section with the book in particular. She suffered some heat damage in a fire decades ago and it’s been a struggle getting the cooked on lacquer off that book. It’s special, I just know it.”
I looked again and made out the word Chrétien. “It’s in French. That is the name Christian right there.” I pointed.
Her eyes got big and her voice excited. “It is?”
“Yes. And I’m sure this says, Le Conte du Graal. The Story of the Grail?” I looked at Brynne and shrugged. “The woman in the painting is called Lady Percival right? Isn’t Percival the one who found the Holy Grail in the King Arthur legends?”
“Oh my God, Ethan!” She grabbed my arm in excitement. “Of course! Percival is her story. You figured it out! Lady Percival is holding a very rare book indeed, Ethan. I knew she was! One of the very first King Arthur stories ever written; all the way back in the twelfth century. That is a copy of Chrétien de Troyes, The Story of Perceval and the Grail.” She gazed at the painting, her face glowing with happiness and pure joy. I took out my phone and snapped a picture of her. It was a profile shot of Brynne smiling down at Lady Percival.
“Well I’m glad I could help you, baby.”
She leapt at me and kissed me on the lips, her arms wrapped tightly around me. It was the most amazing feeling in the world.
“You did! You helped me so much. I’m going to call the Mallerton Society today and tell them what you discovered. They will be interested I’m sure. There is his birthday exhibit coming in a few weeks…I wonder if they’ll want to include this…”
Brynne rambled, excitedly telling me everything I could ever have wanted to know about rare books, paintings of rare books, and the conserving of paintings of rare books. Her face flushed with the thrill of solving a mystery but that smile and kiss was worth its weight in gold to me.
~*~
