Thirty Nights (American Beauty #1)(28)

He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close. His erection presses against me imperiously. Oh! What an effective demonstration.

“Nonetheless, in light of the fact that your friend will be here any minute, I have to restrict myself to things like kissing.” He smiles and starts rolling up my sleeves. Every time his fingertips graze my skin, my heart thuds so loudly, I’m afraid he will hear it.

My sleeves rolled, he steps back and gazes at me. I’m sure I look ridiculous.

“Why did you pick a shirt for the job?” I ask to distract myself.

“The series is called La Virgen. I don’t know if the title reflects fact, but it seemed that the finale should be about both liberation and belonging. Don’t you think?”

“You mean belonging to you?”

His eyes turn a stormy blue and the tectonic plates I first saw at Paradox shift out of focus—almost like a thousand-yard stare.

“At least in a painting,” he says after a moment.

He takes my hand and we walk out of his bedroom, winding through more airy corridors. Finally, light streams brightly from an arched doorway.

“After you,” he says, but it sounds like he means for you. I walk inside in a trance.

My first thought is that the lights don’t dim here.

My second thought is…peace.

Two vast glass walls curve around the room with sheer white curtains gathered to the sides. Beyond the glass, a wild meadow slopes into the thick forest. Celestial light pours inside, shrouding the room with an almost sacred air. The floor is bleached hardwood and in the very center, where all the rays of light fuse into an earthly North Star, are a chaise and chair identical to the ones in Aiden’s bedroom. The rest of the room is soft white, like a fairy tale version of a blank slate.

“Your bedroom furniture?” I ask with a muted voice, afraid of desecrating the purity of the room.

“Yes.” Aiden’s voice is lower too.

“Why not your real bedroom?”

“Because that’s not for Mr. Solis’s presence. And I wasn’t sure you would want it.” There is battle in his eyes, as if something dark is throttling the glimmer of light that brightens the sapphire depths at certain moments. I take his hand in both of mine.

“Do you want it?”





Chapter Seventeen





Hale and Sun


“I shouldn’t,” he says.

“Why not?”

He shakes his head. I have no idea what his cryptic words mean but I know I shouldn’t want this either. I caress his sculpted cheek, shivering at the combination of sharp planes, soft stubble and fragrant skin.

“Maybe for today, we can both pretend we should,” I say.

He pulls me roughly against him. His lips mold mine with a new edge of conflict. As though a force urges him on and another restrains him. From outside the door, comes Benson’s voice.

“Mr. Solis is here, sir.”

The effect of Benson’s announcement on Aiden is instant. His posture straightens and tenses. He stands taller, as he did yesterday outside my apartment. The battle is gone from his eyes, and a sniper focus has taken its place. At first I thought this look meant he was mad but I saw mad today, and mad was the Dragon. This look is something else. Vigilance. Or defense. Before I can think of something to say, he sweeps out of the room.

I use the alone time to try to calm down. It will be awkward with both of them here and me in a pair of nude knickers and an unbuttoned shirt. Too soon, their footsteps ring outside the room. I sit on the replica bedroom chair, crossing my arms over my chest and curling my legs under me. I can’t face Javier standing.

Javier and Benson walk in the room first, carrying the easel and cardboard boxes, followed by Aiden. Javier does not look like Javier. He is wearing a button-down pale blue shirt over a dark pair of jeans I have never seen before. His only dress shoes are polished better than the brand-new hardwood floor.

He marches straight to me and sets the box of supplies at my feet. Wordlessly, he takes something out of the box. My white sheet. I almost collapse with relief. He throws it over my shoulders, not looking below my chin. I clutch it over my chest for dear life. If I were not en déshabillé, I would hug him. He must have known I’d fall apart. He gives me a nod and a small shrug. I nod back but then I notice Aiden.

His jaw is sharp, posture rigid, eyes dark, glaring at Javier’s back. Before I can breathe, he flashes to my side. His shoulders twitch as he stands closer to Javier than I’ve seen him stand to anyone, except myself.

“If you don’t want to do this anymore, I can cancel it.” His voice is even, except the slight drop in cadence at the word cancel.

Two hours ago this would have been a gift. Now, it feels like a stab in my stomach. Not so much canceling the painting, but leaving him.

“Of course I do. I’m just putting on my work uniform.” I smile, pointing at my sheet. He searches my face, perhaps for confirmation.

“So, Mr. Hale, what do you have in mind?” Javier interjects politely.

Aiden tears his eyes from me and looks at Javier. “I’ll give you full creative license, Mr. Solis. My only conditions are that she is in that attire and you use the same theme and colors as the others.” I’m not surprised to hear his voice back to cold and detached.

Javier nods and walks around the room, looking at it differently than I do, and probably differently than Aiden. He runs his hand over the walls, the furniture, the curtains. I know him enough to know that he is smelling, listening and maybe even tasting the faint sandalwood scent in the air.