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“You know how topaint?”I gasp, looking around Leo’s apartment, a combination bachelor pad, art gallery, and fine arts studio.
I’m stunned. That’s the only way I can describe it.
He smiles proudly and even puffs his chest out a little. He’sdifferentin this space. Lighter, somehow. Happier too, I think. The hard-driving workaholic photographer I’m getting to know seems not to exist here.
“It’s my guilty pleasure. When I was studying photography, I also took a couple art classes and fell in love with painting. I don’t have much time to do it these days, but I still take classes once a week.”
More I don’t know about this man.
“Do the guys know, Ethan and Jasper?” I ask, taking in the giant canvases covering almost every inch of his walls.
They’re seriously amazing, these paintings, brilliant colors splashed on the canvases in seemingly random patterns, that all make sense when you stand back for a moment and just look.
He laughs, glancing down at his shuffling feet. I love that he’s modest, so unlike other guys in the city. “Nah. They don’t know. This is just for me, really. Well, I guess you know now too.”
I take a step closer to him. “What’s it worth to you, my keeping your secret?”
He pushes a coil of hair behind my right ear and leans to brush his lips just under it. “A lot. You wanna know how much?” he whispers.
Oh god. My eyes fall closed, and I am melting into a continuation of the previous night’s lust. Once again, an annoying voice in the back of my mind admonishes me for going home with Leo, as if I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen.
But this time, I am ignoring it.
What changed between last night and this evening? I’m not sure I can say, except I had all day to realize I wasn’t sorry I kissed the guys. For heaven’s sake, I’m a grown-ass woman and write about sex and relationships every day. If I can’t take a risk, how can I expect anyone else to?
I am on a mission, it’s true, and why not try to reverse my lousy fortune with a nice guy I know rather than some rando from the internet? Yeah, I’m taking a chance here, but I take a freaking chance every time I cross a New York street.
Armed with a sudden burst of conviction, I run my fingers over Leo’s chest. The mountains and valleys of his hard muscles expand when he takes a deep breath in between the kisses he’s showering my neck with, and when my hand ventures lower, to the waistband of his jeans, he moans quietly.
This is crazy. I’m getting cozy—well, more than cozy—with someone I’ve only recently met, who’s friends with my roommate, and who also happens to work for the same parent company I do, naturally in the same building.
If this goes south, will I be embarrassed to see him for all eternity? Will I need to pretend I don’t know him in the elevator, and cross to the other side of the lobby when he comes to work in the morning?
Fuck that. Not going there. At least not right now.
No, right now is about feeling good with this man who trusts me enough to share his personal story.
I tuck my fingertips into the waistband of his jeans, using them as leverage to pull myself closer. That’s when our lips meet, and for a moment I am soaring on a cloud where everything is beautiful and perfect, and life exists without a worry or concern.
I’m not letting that go, dammit.
He tastes my lips, his tongue sliding between them, slowly and seductively, like time doesn’t exist, like he no longer has to go back to work, tonight or maybe ever.
I am falling, losing myself in his smell, the way he feels, even the sound of his breath. I don’t think I’ve ever been this turned on. I know for sure I never was with my ex.
This is rich and luxurious and I deserve it.
“C’mon,” Leo says, taking me by the hand. He kicks aside a couple socks on the floor, and we step over paint brushes and canvases to get to his bedroom, a tiny box of a room filled by his large bed. The saving grace is that it’s in the corner of the building and is full of huge windows.
“The light in here is amazing,” I breathe.
“Yeah. That’s why I chose the place. I knew it would be great for my painting,” he says, unzipping the back of my shift dress and letting it fall to the ground.
There I am, standing in front of him, in my heels, bra, and panties. His eyes rove unabashedly over my body as he takes me in, a small smile on his lips.
“Wow,” he says, shaking his head.
