AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That was when she put me in my first dance classes and I never looked back.
“I would love to be sculpted by you,” I whispered. “But how would you do that? I’m not sure I can pose that long.”
His laugh rang out, and he rolled me beneath him, crushing me under his weight in the best way possible. “I’ll take pictures, firefly. Work from those.”
“What do you have in mind?”
With a mischievous smile, he got off the bed and opened the door, letting in a wild Mango, who sprinted across the room and leapt onto the bed like he was being chased by a lion. “Go to class, and when you come back, I’ll show you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
________
SLOANE
Mango was not a parrot kitten. I tried to get him to ride around on my shoulder, but he was too excited about exploring everything, and the fourth time I had to snatch him out of mid-air in order to keep him from launching to his death, I just let him be.
As it was, I was nervous about him being loose in Roman’s workshop. But my Alpha promised he’d be fine.
The carriage house where it was located had that dusty feel you saw studios have in movies. But instead of regular dust or sawdust, it was stone dust. Pale, white, and so fucking soft when I ran my fingers through the piles of it built up on some of his carving surfaces. It hung in the air, catching the light and creating something hazy and beautiful.
A flat slab of stone sat balanced on some sawhorses in the middle of the upstairs space. There was a pillow on one end, and I eyed it as I passed to where Roman sat, shirtless, in jeans, at a huge worktable.
Papers were spread in front of him. Sketches of ideas, and I immediately saw he was working on the idea he had of me. Like a Grecian goddess, lounging on her side, mostly naked.
“What do you think?”
My cheeks turned pink. “I think it will be beautiful.”
“Before you say yes, you need to know one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
Roman pulled out a different image, one I recognized. It was a building downtown. The Crown Spire. A skyscraper that held about a million offices, but also one of the biggest banks in the country. The inside lobby was known for its historical decoration on the ceiling, and plenty of tourists went there just to look up. “This sculpture is a commission. Several sculptors are contributing pieces for the lobby.”
“Like an installation?”
“Permanent,” he said.
I saw his eyes drop to my mouth at my intake of breath. In all the sketches, the woman was naked. Draped under fabric that left little to the imagination.
“I—”
One hand wrapped around the back of my neck. “I’m not going to let anyone see what’s ours,” he whispered in a growl. “That belongs to us. No one else.” Then he smiled. “But I will absolutely sculpt youcompletelynaked, just for us, some other time. If you’ll let me.”
Something in me eased, and suddenly I was curious about how he wanted me for this. “Show me.”
Roman stood, stepping around me and around where Mango was chasing a scrap of balled up paper on the floor. Fabric covered a table in the corner. I hadn’t even noticed. Every style and weight. It made sense, given how many of his sculptures contained fabric-like elements.
He sorted through the fabric, and I looked down at the sketches. If he wanted, Roman could sell these, and galleries would buy them. Even the simple ones breathed life naturally. They showed just how much he took in visually, because he’d had to. The subtle details that others might not notice.
I stripped my shirt over my head, undressing entirely before he even turned around. The idea of him sculpting me naked was… hot. I just wasn’t quite brave enough to have that statue be available for everyone to see forever.
Mango leapt onto Roman’s jeans, and he cursed, making me giggle. After prying the orange mountain climber off the fabric, he dragged the long, heavy piece of gray velvet across the floor for Mango to chase. Which he did, gleefully.
God, I loved this cat. And as much as I did, I thought Roman might love him more.
It took him a second to notice me standing there naked, and when he did, he took it all in, eyes traveling from my feet all the way up my body and back down. Which made me wish I’d let him make me come earlier, because now the air was charged with heat and perfume, and I knew I wasn’t going to get any relief with his eyes on me like this.
