The Sculptor's Seduction (The Gentlemen's Guild Book 2)

by Dr. Rebecca Sharp

  She paused to push herself up farther against the headboard.

  “So, I grabbed it, thinking I would throw it away. Well it wouldn’t pull off; and when I tugged harder, I noticed that the seat lifted up for extra storage or something. So, I lifted it up, thinking to tuck the plastic back in where it belonged.”

  Cyn held her breath, waiting for – and yet almost knowing – what Tash was going to reveal.

  “Cyn, there were bricks of drugs in there – cocaine, probably. I don’t even know.” She let out a hysterical laugh. “So, I quick dropped the seat and turned around, but of course, it was right as Julian was coming down the steps. I tried to play it off, but he must have suspected.”

  “But you were fine when you came home after that weekend…”

  “I know. I think he suspected. Maybe he has cameras on the boat that he checked and saw.” She shook her head. “All I know is that he called me a few days ago, very sweet, as if nothing had happened. He wanted to see me, so I thought this would be a great way to smooth things over – prove that I hadn’t seen anything.” Tash shook her head, the tears beginning to fall again. “I was wrong.”

  Cyn reached out, grabbing her friend’s hand to squeeze, wanting to give her every ounce of strength and support that she needed.

  “I went to his apartment. He said he wanted to try something fun. I thought ‘sure, why not?’ He tied my wrists together and I should have known then that something was wrong, because he tied them so tight and when I told him that, he just smiled and laughed without loosening them.” She drew in a shaky breath. “He started asking me about the boat – how I liked it, if it was comfortable… Then he asked if I noticed how it had extra storage underneath the seats in the cabin. Stupidly, I said no – that I hadn’t. And that’s when he hit me. The first time.”

  “Shit,” Cyn breathed out, her body on fire with anger and sadness and pain – but, nothing compared to what Tash must have been feeling.

  “I was shaking, Cyn. I was so scared. I thought he was going to kill me for knowing. He must have seen that because then his disgusting smile got even bigger and then he untied me – probably so sure that I was too petrified to run.” Tash shivered at the memory, before continuing, her voice still thick with pain and fear. “Then he touched my face… told me how pretty I was and that he would hate to waste that.” Her jaw wobbled as she spoke. “He told me that it didn’t have to continue like this – that he was looking for lovely women, like myself, to sell his drugs across the border.”

  “How?” Cyn asked.

  Tash just shook her head. “I don’t know. I started to shake my head ‘no’ without thinking and then he hit me again… and again.” Tears were streaming profusely down her face and even though the tissue box was right next to her, she didn’t reach for one. “The next thing I know is that I was on the ground; the pain was so bad, Cyn. So bad. I must have been begging him to stop because he bent down and returned to that disgusting fake person – asking again if I wanted to rethink my answer.”

  Cyn brought her friend’s hand closer to her, trying to stop her own tears from falling.

  “He went to help me up and in spite of the pain, that second moved so slowly. All I could think was that I couldn’t go back to that life – I needed to get out of there. I remember he was so close to me, whispering this in my ear; his hot breath felt like acid on my neck. As soon as I was mostly upright, I kneed him right in the dick.”

  “Holy shit, Tash,” Cyn whispered, in awe of her friend’s bravery.

  “I don’t know how I managed it, but he crumbled and I went to run. He managed to grab ahold of the heel on my shoe and I stumbled, my other ankle twisting and snapping. I couldn’t feel anything though except fear. And I just ran. I ran for blocks, making random turns, expecting him to come up behind me at any second. And then finally the pain started to set in and I was limping so bad I thought I might pass out; then he really would find me. I hailed a cab and had them take me to the nearest hospital. And… well, you know the rest.”

  Cyn stared at her for a moment before crawling up the bed to envelope her friend in a hug, one that finally let Tash release all of her emotions.

  “I… don’t know…” she sobbed. “Can’t… go home…”

  “Shh.” Cyn comforted her. “We’ll figure it out tomorrow. Don’t worry right now. Everything will be ok.” She held her like that for almost an hour, her tears soaking through her t-shirt, make-up and dried blood staining her shirt.

  Finally, Tash drifted off to sleep just before there was a quiet knock on the door.

  Why would Terri be knocking on his own apartment door? Maybe to give them privacy…

  Her spine still tingled, unsure of who it was. She crept softly over to the door, looking through the peephole, pulling her head back in surprise.

  “Sebastian?” she asked, shocked to see their handsome, gay friend at the door. “What are you doing here?”

  “Terri called and asked me to come,” he replied, confusion spreading over his face. “He said he texted you.”

  Shit.

  “I haven’t… I don’t even know where my phone is. Sorry. Come in.” She ushered him through the doorway.

  “He got stuck at the club and so, he called me to come over and make sure you two were ok. What’s going on? Is Natasha ok?” he asked.

  Cyn wasn’t sure that Sebastian really knew Tash that well – at least, not that Tash ever mentioned. Over the past few years, her and Tash had been Sebastian and Cam’s dates, respectively, to many events over the past few years and the four of them had become pretty close friends, but it seemed like Cyn was the glue that held the two sides together. Cam and Seb certainly saw her more frequently at the Paradise and always texted her when they needed plus-ones. And even when Tash was there, it was always her and Cam that seemed to be in conversation with Sebastian on the outside.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. She’s pretty banged up right now, but they gave her some pain meds, so she finally just fell asleep.” Cyn shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going to happen… what we are going to do. She just told me what happened; it’s not good. The guy who did this… he’s a drug dealer.”

  Sebastian’s mouth firmed and his face darkened. He almost looked… deadly. She was taken aback for a moment, never having seen him so serious before.

  “Tonight is not the night to worry about it,” he said firmly. “Are you staying here, too? You shouldn’t go home.” His eyes said that he wouldn’t let her if she tried.

  “I know. I’m not,” she assured him. “I have somewhere I have to go…” Peering into the kitchen, she saw the clock. It was half-past midnight. Sloane probably thought she wasn’t coming; the pit in her stomach deepened.

  “No! Please!”

  Both of their heads jerked as Tash’s scream reverberated from the bedroom. They rushed inside, Cyn coming right up next to the bed as her friend’s eyes flew open, her breathing harsh and ragged.

  “Cyn… I’m sorry. I thought…” She began to cry again.

  “Shh… don’t worry. I’m right here.” She said, smoothing back the hair from her friend’s face. “Sebastian is here to be our knight in shining armor.” She made a half-hearted attempt to smile, one that quickly crumbled as she saw Tash struggle to look at the darkly brooding model standing in the doorway.

  If Cyn thought he’d looked deadly before, well, the Devil himself would have run from the expression that Sebastian had written on his face. It was as hard as granite until Tash whispered, “Hold me,” looking directly at him; then, the granite melted.

  “Cyn,” he said, turning his gaze to her, as he walked up to the foot of the bed and kicked off his shoes. “Why don’t you go. She needs to rest and I’ll stay here with her all night.”

  Already Tash’s eyes had begun to drift closed again as she shifted restlessly. Cyn watched in surprise as Sebastian climbed up onto the bed next to their friend, shifting her so that her head rested on his chest. Tash murmured at the movement b
ut didn’t wake.

  “Are you sure?”

  “There’s nothing else to do tonight. She needs to sleep.” His hand began to gently play with Tash’s matted, blood-stained hair. A few seconds later though, her body finally settled to a calm against him and she finally appeared as though she was deep in sleep.

  “Ok. I’ll be back in the morning.” He nodded, but his eyes were focused back on his charge. For a brief second, she wondered why a gay man was looking so protectively at her friend… but there were already too many incomprehensible things that had happened today, she couldn’t add another to the list.

  Closing the door behind her, she grabbed her bag and pulled out her phone to see the text from Terri saying that he’d been held up and that he was sending Sebastian. There was also a text from Sloane.

  - Are you coming tonight?

  She cringed. That was forty-five minutes ago.

  Now, out of the room, she felt the weight of everything that had happened today settle on her. Her breathing became stifled, tears streaming down her face. She’d tried to be strong, first to tell Terri that she was leaving, and then for Tash, who’d needed a rock. Now, she realized that all of her strength was spent. Every nerve inside of her felt frayed, every cell pushing in a different direction.

  Which meant that there was no question as to whether or not she should go to his studio.

  He was the only one who could manage - with just one touch - to pull all of her scattered pieces back together again; she needed to see him.

  Chapter 20

  Sloane stared at the marbled angel in front of him. Her face still wasn’t complete, but everything else was ninety-five percent finished. It was strange; usually, he started with the face and then let the body take form. With Cyn, it seemed that every time he tried to picture her and the expression he wanted, she eluded him. Just like she was eluding him now.

  She should have been done with work and been here already.

  He dropped his chisel onto the floor, one hand coming up to rub the bridge of his nose.

  He shouldn’t have told her about the Guild.

  ‘The first rule of the Guild – don’t talk about the Guild’ – Pierce always liked to joke, modifying the line from one of his favorite movies, ‘Fight Club’.

  This whole afternoon was a disaster. He’d been too damn excited seeing the excitement on her face. He wanted to invest in her business; he wanted to invest himself in her. And then she had asked about the Guild and all he wanted was to finally share that with someone. It was like with the memories of cooking with his mom – all he wanted to do was open up to her.

  But now, it looked like he’d opened that door too far.

  His hands cupped the featureless face of the sculpture before falling to his sides.

  He hadn’t felt guilty for telling her about the Guild; at first, it felt like a relief to finally include someone – besides the Guild’s other members – in that part of his life. Her questions kept coming and he realized too late what impression she had gotten. Cyn thought that what was happening between them happened with every one of his models when nothing could be further from the truth.

  He’d tried… He’d tried to remember the last time he’d touched a woman before her; he’d tried to remember if anything of what he was feeling was the same – was normal. But, he couldn’t.

  As far as his brain was concerned, there was no one before Cyn.

  Every time he tried to picture another woman, he was flooded with memories of his childhood – pillow over his head, muffled moans and thumping through the walls, and his mother’s cries from downstairs. Sloane shook his head as his vision went white with rage, his body on fire with the anger and helplessness that he had felt.

  It all filtered down to the look on Cyn’s face this afternoon – as though she’d just walked in and seen him with another woman. He knew that realizing who he was made her feel like that same ballerina who had been just another trophy for some asshole to collect. She’d felt betrayed – he’d seen it burning in her eyes. The worst part was that he couldn’t think of the words to stop it. He couldn’t think of the words to tell her how inexplicably special she was to him without subjecting her to the heartache he was bound to cause.

  He needed to find those words tonight – the words to show her that she was extraordinary, but that wouldn’t leave her wanting more from him. He stared at the blank face of his statue as though it had the answers hidden inside.

  The door of the studio flew open.

  Sloane spun around, his brightly broken angel standing in the doorway and suddenly, his vision and his mind were cleared from every trauma in his past.

  That was why everything that had happened between them did – because his body responded to her in a way that it never had before and in a way that he never had thought that it would.

  It took only a millisecond for him to realize that something wasn’t right before he was in front of her, her face between his hands as his thumbs brushed away tears that fell faster than he could capture them.

  “What’s wrong, Cyn? What the hell happened, sweetheart?” he whispered.

  She barely saw the stairs in front of her as she ran up them towards Sloane. The soft light and even quieter music were a distant perception in her mind as she threw open the door, jumping as it slammed because she hadn’t realized just how forcefully she’d pushed it.

  Whatever she was expecting, it hadn’t been to see him standing in front of his masterpiece, looking at it as though it was all he’d ever see of her. He turned to face her and she hardly blinked the latest collection of tears from her eyes before his presence overwhelmed her, the warm strength of his hands on her face. She relaxed into his hands; he felt safe.

  “What’s wrong, Cyn? What the hell happened, sweetheart?” She heard him ask, his voice trembling with concern.

  She shook her head, the sobs bubbling out of her throat leaving no space for words or explanation to escape.

  “Jesus, Cyn,” he breathed despairingly as his arms encircled her, holding her tight to him just as the last vestiges of strength left her.

  She sobbed into his chest. Every emotion that had been held inside of her releasing in the torrent of tears. Vaguely, she heard him murmuring against her hair, “Shh, it’s going to be ok” and “I’m here, sweetheart; it’s all ok.”

  She cried for Tash and everything that she had suffered today. She cried for what the future would hold for her friend whose entire body was bruised and swollen from a man who wasn’t going to rest until he found her. More than that, she cried for herself and the end of her time at the Paradise because it meant the end of the time where protecting her heart came at the expense of her happiness. She cried for the naïve girl that she had been, the one who continued to fight through the hardened exterior that she’d crafted in order to be with Sloane. And she cried for that same girl whose heart was crushed every time Sloane pulled away from her, yet she kept coming back for more.

  “Baby, talk to me,” he whispered again as her gasps for air began to subside. She pressed her face harder into his chest, craving his solid warmth. Her tears had soaked through the t-shirt that he was wearing and when she finally pulled back slightly, she saw the splotchy mascara stains tie-dyeing the fabric. He tipped her chin up, his crystal-blue gaze meeting hers. “What’s wrong? Did something happen at the club? Did someone—” He broke off with a curse.

  She shook her head frantically. “No… wasn’t at the club.” She coughed, trying to clear her throat; that slight movement making her sway.

  “Shit.” He reached down and hoisted her up, carrying her over and sitting her on the couch.

  “It’s Tash,” she whispered as he sat next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Some guy… some drug dealer beat her up bad.” She hiccupped. “I barely got to work when the hospital called. She’s ok… broken ankle is the worst. Said we couldn’t go home so I took her to Terri’s place, but I couldn’t stay.” Her eyes slowly met his again. “I ha
d to see you.”

  “Holy shit, Cyn.” She watched his hand fist protectively at his side. “Are you safe? Did you go to the police? Jesus, you should have called me. I would have come for you. You’re staying with me.”

  “I… I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I was so focused on Tash – on getting her out of there and somewhere safe. I barely got the story of what happened from her before she broke down and then finally fell asleep. I have to go back over in the morning.”

  “What can I do?” Those blue eyes begging to be her hero.

  “Stay with me.” She wanted to drown in them… in him. “Take me.”

  The seriousness in his face faltered at her request; he hadn’t been expecting that. Then again, neither had she.

  He stood, his hands diving harshly into his hair as his jaw muscle flexed. Seeing the tightness in his pants, she knew that he wanted her even as he walked away from her and closer to the sculpture.

  “Cyn,” he began hoarsely. “I can’t imagine… how you felt today seeing your friend like that. Why don’t you let me take you back to my place so you can get some rest and we can tackle this situation in the morning?”

  His voice and his expression pleaded with her, but she couldn’t agree. Cyn felt her throat tightening and her tears brimming again. She couldn’t sleep right now. Every fiber of her being needed to be consumed by him – to be loved by him.

  She stood and followed his path, coming to stand in between him and the statue. “I don’t want to think anymore tonight, Sloane. I don’t want to feel anything else today… anything else except you.”

  The hot blue flame in his gaze sparked white with need.

  “Cyn… I can’t,” he whispered tightly. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

  Her head dropped as though he had struck her. His rejection burned through her, searing off every other emotion except the desolate fury of feeling that she was, once again, not enough. She’d lost hold of her emotions much earlier in the evening which meant that his few words were like a match to gasoline.