In Flight (Up in the Air #1)(58)

“You’re determined to make me like you,” I told him playfully.

He looked a little hurt by the comment. “You don’t like me?” he asked.

I thought back to my words. I hadn’t realized how rude they could be taken when they were coming out of my mouth. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was just teasing you. You’ve just been so well-behaved, so charming. It’s like you’re trying to make me become attached to you.”

He studied me intently, like I was a particularly fascinating novelty to him. “Well, yes, I want that. I don’t know how to show you any more clearly that that is exactly what I want.”

I just raised my eyebrows at him, staring for a long minute.

“It seems rather pointless and selfish to me that you would want to make someone become attached to you, while you remain detached yourself,” I told him quietly, raising my chin almost defiantly.

He never looked away from me as he spoke. His eyes were snapping with intensity as he caught my hand, pulling it to his chest. “You silly girl, I’m caught fast. I’ve been attached from the start. How can you doubt it?”

I pulled my hand away, skeptical and uncomfortable.

Is this some game to him? I wondered.

“I can doubt just about anything, Mr. Cavendish. I am, by nature, a skeptic.”

He raised a hand to my cheek, stroking it with a featherlight touch. “How can someone so young and innocent also be so cynical?” he asked me.

“Life hasn’t taught me to be anything else. Forgive me, but I wouldn’t even begin to know how not to doubt someone I barely know.”

He pushed me down onto my guest bed, it’s surface recently cleared. He loomed over me.

“Then I will make sure that you know me, Bianca,” he said, and kissed me with bruising intensity.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Mr. Shameless

I finally settled on the samples I wanted, and James had sent them off before I even knew that was his intention.

He gave me a wry smile. “It’s not in my nature to procrastinate. I tend to get things done right when I think of them.”

I shook off his whirlwind behavior, chalking it up to more rich people quirks.

He started making phone calls and working on his computer again, so I went out back to work on the painting I’d begun of him. He came out and sat in one of my cheap plastic chairs, still on his phone. He covered it briefly.

“Will I disturb you if I sit with you?” he asked.

I shook my head, still working. It helped, actually. Though he wasn’t posing, it still helped to look at him frequently as I painted him.

I worked for several hours and he stayed where he was, working and watching me. I distantly noted that he ordered food, but I just kept working. I had no idea what time it was and didn’t really care.

“Food is here,” James said after awhile, getting up. He left and came back, carrying to-go bowls from my favorite tex-mex restaurant.

I smiled at him. “I love that place.”

“Sit and eat,” he told me, pointing at the chair across from him.

I did, taking one of the bowls from him. It wasn’t what I normally ordered, but it was good, maybe even better than my usual.

I ate quickly, trying to be polite about it. My mind was still on the painting. I had eaten nearly the entire bowl before I realized it.

I went back to painting, not speaking. James went back to working and watching.

I was nearly finished with the painting when I quit. I always liked to finish a project with a fresh perspective.

I would step away from it for a few days, then come back and see it with new eyes.

James was on the phone and I started to clean up my supplies when I thought better of it. I started to prepare new watercolor paper.

“Would you pose nude for me?” I asked him when he ended a call.

He looked surprised.

“Out here?” he asked, glancing around my backyard.

I laughed. It was tiny, but the barrier was high, giving it a fair amount of privacy.

“On my bed?” I asked cautiously. I couldn’t believe that he would do it, but I was starting to feel hopeful.

“Okay, but I need to make one more phone call.”

I nodded, grinning, very happy at the prospect of such a painting.

“I’ll be in my room, setting up.”

He came in several minutes later. He was still in his boxers.

“Where do you want me?” he asked, eyeing up my small room.

“Just on the bed. On your side, I think, though I may experiment a little.”

He slid out of his only piece of clothing and complied. He lounged on the bed, looking relaxed. Well, most of him anyway. His c**k was not relaxed, jutting huge and erect between his legs.

I licked my lips.

“Should I paint it like that?” I asked, pointing at him. “Or will it get soft?”

He laughed. “You might as well paint it like that. It won’t be getting soft any time soon. It has a mind of it’s own.”

I licked my lips again. “Can I do anything for it? For you? Before I start painting. I could take you in my mouth.”

His eye got a little glassy at the suggestion. “No. I need to prove to myself that I can abstain for a few days.” But he stroked himself roughly with his hand.

I moved to him, but he waved me off, letting go of himself.