Lovely Trigger (Tristan & Danika #3)(16)

I opened the portfolio, which contained only photos of the paintings, with absolutely no expectations.  One look, and I had to sit down.

Three hours later, I was obsessed.

The color, the depth, the dreamy imagination that each picture contained made my heart beat faster.  This was the part of my job that I thrived on.  It didn’t happen often, not like this, but when it did, I just lived to put a show like this together.

I felt such a sense of wonder at the untutored skill behind it all.  It always astounded me, the crap that came out in the art world, by artists that had impressive credentials, and years of study, and yet the results showed little in the way of skill or depth.

This was the opposite.  This woman put her soul on the canvas with a skill and talent that I could scarce believe was untrained.

One phone call with James, after looking at her portfolio, and falling in love with it, and he’d put me in charge of the showing.  We were kindred spirits when it came to this sort of thing, and I think my enthusiasm alone could have gotten me the job.

It all made sense to me upon meeting her.  She was so composed, so reserved.  I’d have thought she was cold, if I didn’t have a similar approach to strangers.

Her passion, her animation came out on canvas, it was clear.  It was all the expression she needed, as far as I was concerned.

I was promoted.  It wasn’t a little promotion.  One day I was quite satisfied to be the manager of one very successful gallery, and the next I was running seven, placed all over the globe.

It was daunting, but exhilarating.  I had to move back to Vegas, though I traveled a lot, so that was some consolation.

It was surreal to be working in the same building as Tristan, but after a few weeks with no sightings, I was fairly confident that we could avoid each other cleanly.

Andrew was pleased with my promotion, but not with the fact that I had to relocate for it.  Still, he accepted my decision without fighting me.

He wasn’t a fighter.

He came to see me every other weekend in Vegas, often surprising me with various show tickets.

Once, those tickets happened to be for Tristan’s show.

At first, I tried to make excuses and to talk him into getting a refund.  He seemed so baffled by that that I changed gears, bit the bullet, and just went.

If I were even a little bit honest with myself, I’d have admitted that I was dying to see the show.  Morbid curiosity, I told myself.

We sat three rows back, center stage.  The theatre was colossal, and they were amazing seats.  Andrew had to have spent at least five hundred dollars on the tickets.

Five hundred dollars to make me a paranoid mess.  We were so close that the entire time I was sure Tristan would see me, would know I’d come.

He never did, thank God, but as soon as it was over, I made sure we got out of there fast, feeling like I’d dodged a bullet.

I waited until Andrew fell asleep that night, went into the bathroom, and cried for hours.  The show had been amazing, but it had hurt so much to see him again, and moreover like that, so beautiful, so compelling.

It brought to mind how much of myself I’d invested in him, knowing that this was the investment, this amazing man I’d seen tonight.  He’d been a gamble, with a strong potential for loss and gain.  I’d suffered the loss.  Tonight I’d been reminded brutally of the promised gain.

I cried because of that.  But also, because I was a fool.

I was so very proud of him.

TRISTAN

I spotted James and his new woman just as I finished my stint with the red carpet photographer nonsense.

I grinned at the way James glared at me just for glancing in her direction.  The man had it bad.

I moved to them, making as if to embrace Bianca, but James was there, catching me up in a bear hug, lifting me just enough to show me that he was no pushover.

“You lay a finger on her, and I’ll break those magic hands of yours,” he growled into my ear.

I threw my head back and laughed.  That was just what I’d needed to get over some of my tension about seeing Danika again.

I sized him up, more out of habit than anything else.  I’d never lost a fight in my life, but I thought James could put up a good struggle before I took him down.

It was an arrogance born out of the simple fact that I was undefeated.  He was as tall as I was, but I outweighed him, therefore I could take him.  It was a simple formula that had always served me well.  Also, there was no way the prep school prince had been in as many fights as I had.

He pulled away, but not before I stole his watch.

He stayed directly between me and his woman.  I really couldn’t get enough of this new side of him.  He was just too easy to rile.

Bianca gave me a little wave and a smile.

I bowed to her, grinning.  She was beautiful and really quite sweet, and I’d seen the change she’d made in James.  I approved wholeheartedly.  She was good for him.  Even if she had turned him into a jealous nutcase.

I was going to have some fun with this.

“So no touching,” I observed.  “Can I at least see her tattoo?  I heard all about it.  I heard her back was lovely, just like the rest of her.”

Bianca giggled, and even James grinned, shaking his head.

“Outrageous bastard,” James said under his breath.