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“What is this?” she breathed.
“Go on,” I urged. “It’s for you.”
Dumbfounded, she tentatively stepped over the threshold and into the huge art studio, the lighting igniting to her movements. Without pulling my eyes from her face, I extended my fingers toward the cast iron candelabra on the windowsill and lit it as Elix gaped.
Dozens of blank canvases of varying sizes lined easels next to palettes of untouched paints and brushes.
She stared at the scene before her with an open mouth for what seemed like an eternity. “Y-you ordered this for me?”
Guiltily, I shook my head. “Well, not exactly,” I admitted. “The room has been here for years. The easels, too. There was a live-in portraitist for generations before my time, back before selfies. But the supplies I had shipped in for you. I know they’re a personal thing, so if you tell me what you like, I can have your supplies brought in, but I hope this will suffice for now.”
Elix extended a delicate finger to trace over the pristine items, her luminous eyes shining with excitement and wonderment. “I’m almost afraid to touch them,” she confessed. “It’s all so…”
She threw up her hands and spun toward me as if she was going to hug me. Abruptly, she dropped her arms like she realized what she was about to do and blushed furiously. Gnawing on the insides of my cheeks, I resisted the urge to grab and kiss her, her flushed face and gratitude almost doing me in.
“I honestly don’t know what to say,” she mumbled, stepping back and tripping awkwardly over her feet. Instinctively, I shot out an arm to grab her, and she took it, righting herself with a nervous giggle.
“It’s not that big a deal,” I told her, suddenly embarrassed by the display. I wished I hadn’t made such a big show of it now, like I expected gratitude. “Like I said, the room was already here. This should keep you entertained for the next couple of days until we go, right?”
“I was getting used to swimming laps with the butlers,” Elix admitted. “Have they been complaining that I’m beating their times? Is that why you did this?”
I smiled, swallowing the response that I wanted to say. “Yep. You got me. I need to keep my staff happy before they all quit on me.”
She stared at me, her naked appreciation embarrassing me. She seemed to read my growing discomfort and lightened the mood. “Thank you, Jace. Maybe I’ll paint something for the Alpha of Ironhelm,” she joked.
“I bet Cade would like that,” I replied honestly. “The entire front hall at Ironhelm is all portraits.”
Elix was appalled by the suggestion. “I was kidding,” she tittered, shaking her head. “I’m not nearly good enough for that.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I encouraged. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”
She shot me a baleful look. “I’m not a trained monkey, Jace,” she scolded me.
A laugh escaped my lips. “I was just giving you an idea for your first piece.”
She relented from her defensive position and offered me a sheepish smile of truce.
“That’s not really the way it works,” she said. “I can’t just be told what to paint. It needs to come to me.”
“I don’t know how it works,” I admitted. “I don’t have an artistic bone in my body.”
She eyed me. “I find that hard to believe.”
Did she just step closer, or was that wishful thinking?
My eyebrow shot up. “Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know… you have a good sense of style, and you’re graceful…” Her blush deepened to a near crimson, and my grin widened.
“I’ll leave you to it,” I told her, turning for the door. “I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it. Honestly.” Her voice was hoarse, as if she might cry, and my own chest tightened with an unfamiliar emotion.
Casting her a final glance, I was suddenly filled with a sense of contentment, like I’d done something right—at least according to Elix. Ever since she’d arrived, we seemed to have been clashing, and I needed us to be on the same page when we left for Ironhelm.
This is a step in the right direction.
We just needed to get through the next couple of months.
