“No. I’m fine for now.” She looked around again, a frown creasing her brow. “You don’t paint here, do you?”
Hearing the suspicion in her voice, he pointed to the arch leading to the other rooms. “My studio is on the east side of the building to catch the morning sun. At some point I’ll need you hear early enough to take advantage of the light, but for tonight, I thought we could just start with some sketches using my lights.”
“I’m sorry I’m late. I’m not usually.” She bit her lip as if she was stopping herself from confessing a terrible sin. “I almost didn’t come.”
Until she’d showed up at his door he’d convinced himself she wasn’t coming either, and that he was relieved. But now that she was here he couldn’t find the words to send her on her way. And maybe Heather was right. Maybe he could get to know her and some of her magic would fade away. Though he hoped not before he captured her on canvas.
“I’m glad you did. Come on back.”
She followed him to his studio and he couldn’t help the leap of pleasure her gasp invoked. She turned to the left and slowly went from one easel held painting to the next. With each one, she stopped and studied it, at times raising her hand as if she would touch something she saw. But her hand would fall by her side and she’d move on to the next.
After she had rounded the large, windowed room, she turned to him, wonder in her eyes. “You are so gifted.”
Phillip felt tears sting his eyes, something that had never happened to him in a woman’s presence. But her words, and the sincerity of them, took his breath. No other words would have meant as much. “Thank you.”
Her smile started as a gentle turning up of full lips then bloomed until her dimples appeared. His breath caught, his heart kicked, and he held up his hand. “Don’t move!” Phillip ran to his drawing table, knocking off charcoal, pens, and pencils of all colors. He kept his eyes on her as he snatched his sketch pad and snagged a remaining charcoal pencil. With the evening light slanting across her face, giving both glow and shadow, he began to draw furiously.
Aurora stood frozen, caught in the moment, captured by his excitement, her only movement the blinking of her eyes. She was enthralled. Not only with the man but with his talent. To have such a master wanting her as his subject was an honor. It was spellbinding. And her heart felt full to overflowing, making her chest tight.
What it was about him, she couldn’t say. But they shared a connection. One that she had never before experienced with another human being. His concentration as he looked from her to paper, then back again, was as intense as the beating beneath her ribs. He shook his head, frowned, then flipped the page over he had drawn on, to begin again on a fresh page. After a while, the movement of his hand slowed, and he grinned at her.
“I knew it. You are a masterpiece.”
Aurora relaxed. “No. But I have no doubt that you could make me into one.”
He walked towards her and showed her the last drawing. The breath stuck in her lungs as she looked from it to the man who had created it. “You made me beautiful,” she said reverently, then bit her lip to keep from gushing praise all over him.
“You are beautiful. I only captured it on paper.”
What could she say? No man had ever looked at her with Phillip’s eyes. Sure, she’d had guys ask her out, proposition her, and even the occasional cat-call. But he had made her ethereal, whimsical, enchanted. He hadn’t only captured the woman she saw in the mirror, he’d looked at her and seen something more. Something astounding. There was no way she could measure up in reality to the fantasy his few stokes of the pencil created.
“I’m at a loss for words. I’ve never seen talent like yours. I’m honored you’re doing this for me.”
“I’m honored you are giving me this opportunity. But I have to know your name. I can’t paint you if I don’t know your name.”
Aurora debated with herself for only seconds. She knew her life had been more of a prison than anything else, and her fantasies had abounded with why that was for years. If the aunts had gone to so much trouble to protect her, she knew she couldn’t throw caution to the wind. Not even with the man before her.
“Rose.”
He studied her with a slight shake of his head. “It suits you, but it doesn’t.” He grinned as if in self-derision. “Rose. The most beautiful and fragrant of flowers. Your mother must have known what a gem she had created.”
Talk of her mother, the woman who had been an aching mystery all her life, made her frown. “I never knew my mother. Or my father for that matter.”
Phillip looked contrite. “I’m sorry.”
Shrugging, Aurora turned from him to walk to the entire wall of windows. A long flagstone balcony jutted out and had a couple of lounge chairs, an umbrella shaded glass top table and four chairs, and a variety of potted flowering plants. The patio, at such a height, would allow one to look out over the City while muting the street noise. Darkness was falling and soon the nightlife would kick into high gear. She was rarely in the City past dinner time, and knew it was time to call it a night.
She glanced back at Phillip. “Thank you.”
Surprise lifted his brows. “For what?”
“For letting me come here. For letting me do this.” She looked to the door across the room. Uncertainty was clouding his gaze when she glanced back.
“I should be thanking you. You aren’t leaving yet, are you? I could have something delivered for dinner. Or I could make us an omelet. It’s about all I know how to make.”
Oh, how she wanted to stay. But the aunts would get nosy if one awoke before she got back. She looked at him, wondering how many blessings one person deserved. He was so handsome. So nice. And had the talent and drive that would take him to the top of the art world. And she was afraid it would be very easy to fall in love with him.
Which wasn’t an option. At least, not until she knew what it was that was hanging over her head. No, she had to go home. And first thing in the morning she had to talk to the aunts. One way or another, she had to get answers.
“Will you come back tomorrow?”
Aurora nodded. “Yes. What time?”
Phillip walked towards her, looking deeply into her eyes. “How soon can you make it?”
A little lost in is dark gaze, she mentally calculated when she’d finish her last class. “About three. But you probably have things to do. Is that too early?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ll be here and I’ll let Bart know to send you right up.”
“Bart?”
“The evening garage guard. You met him when you arrived.”
“Well then. Until tomorrow.” She turned towards the door.
“Rose?”
Looking back, Aurora waited. “Yes?”
“Wear something light.”
“Light?”
He nodded. “I’d like to do some preliminary sketches and I’d like to see your shoulders, arms, and legs.”
A tingle went up her back. She was really going to do this. She was eventually going to pose naked for this man. “Okay. Night.”
“Good night.”
Once out the door she took the elevator to the garage. Bart was there to meet her when the doors slid open. He tipped his hat to her. “Good night, Miss.”
She smiled at him. “Good night. And thank you.”
Chapter Six
“Hi.”
Aurora held the straight pins tightly between her lips and glanced up from pinning the beading onto the material draping her mannequin. “Hm,” she said, before dropping the pins into her hand and straightening. “What brings you here?”
Tina looked around the large room where several design students were also pinning, snipping, and sewing, then turned back to Aurora. “I asked the professor if it would be okay to come in and say hi. He said it was fine.”
“Oh. Is there something I can do for you?” Aurora asked, perplexed. She was busy and needed to concentrate since the garment she was pinning was for an exam grade. But more imp
ortantly, she didn't like being disturbed for anything less than the building burning down when she was creating.
“On no, not really. I was just passing by the door and saw you. I thought I’d see if you’d like to grab something to eat after your class.”
Though annoyed, Aurora tried to be polite. After all, the woman seemed clueless about how rude and inconvenient her interruption was. “Sorry. I have plans. But thanks, anyway.”
Obviously disappointed, Tina shrugged. “Maybe next time.”
Aurora nodded. “Sure. Look, I really am in the middle of a very important assignment and I only have about another hour to finish it so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Oh! I’m sorry. Well, I’ll get out of your hair. Take care.” With a little playful wave, she headed out of the room.
Aurora blew out a breath, then, one by one, placed the pins back between her lips. She glanced back to the front of the room looking for her instructor, wondering why in the world he’d allowed someone to come in and interrupt when she was working on such an important assignment. But he wasn’t even in the room. Frowning, she turned back, aligned the beads, and began pinning.
Half an hour later she was at the industrial sewing machine carefully attaching the last length of the bead-strip work to the material. It took concentration to get everything aligned just right so her stitching didn’t show, nor snag the expensive material. But class time was almost over and she couldn’t help but think, once again, to the night ahead. And that included preparing mentally to become Phillip’s nude model. She smiled to herself, wondering why she felt no fear at the prospect.
With living her life so tightly under the scrutiny of the aunts she’d had virtually no experience with the opposite sex, and certainly never expected to be stripping naked for one very handsome man who, in reality, was a perfect stranger.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have any sense, or was ignorant of the world. She knew, more than most, that there were evil people in the world. The aunts had drilled that into her head even before teaching her the ABCs. She watched the evening news and read the newspaper to keep abreast of current events around the world, and knew that it wasn’t smart to trust anyone you didn’t really know, whether in New York or Timbuktu.
But… Phillip Preston had a quality about him, something that she’d felt the first moment she’d met him. Sure, he was hot, and oh-my-gosh talented. More talented than anyone she’d ever met, and she knew some really talented people, but it was something more, and that something made her curious. And interested. And maybe even daring.
It was a new and wondrous sensation to find a man so taken with her, yet still a gentleman. Sure, he was more taken with the prospect of painting her, but that was okay. She could certainly appreciate a passion for creating something beautiful from something mundane. Not that she thought herself mundane, exactly, but she had no illusions as to her appeal.
Most people saw her as a nerdy student, too wrapped up in creating her clothing line for the school’s Spring Fashion Show to care that she wasn’t exactly a social butterfly. And in some ways they were right. To a great extent, she just hadn’t had any choice. That she’d had virtually no freedom wasn’t something she'd shared with anyone since graduating from high school.
She’d had no option but to confess how strict her aunts were when, at sixteen, a guy named Tommy had asked her out. He’d said, “Cool, no prob.” But he hadn’t expected the aunts. They had taken what should have been her first exciting step into womanhood and turned it into a horrific experience. They’d had Tommy investigated, had the man they hired question his neighbors and other kids at school. They had even asked Tommy to take a drug test.
Tommy hadn’t agreed. He’d told Aurora that her family members were a bunch of freaks and to forget about the date. Adding insult to injury, he’d made sure everyone at school had known what a freak she was, too. She’d been so humiliated by the experience she’d turned to her studies as a way to avoid guys and even the girls, as they had made fun of her, too. It had paid off as far as her grades went. But she’d been so lonely. The only pleasure she’d found was to lose herself in designing her own clothes, something she’d started doing to avoid other teens at the mall.
Phillip hadn’t had to undergo such scrutiny. And she was going to make darned sure that he would never have to, as the aunts weren’t ever going to find out about him if she could help it. She never should have allowed their interference in her life to last as long as it already had. And though it went against her nature, she was going to start lying to them more and more from now on. If that’s what it took to have a life of her own, then that’s what it took.
If only she could leave them. Start her own life. But to do so would be selfish.
The chimes from the speakers indicated the class was over for the day. Tomorrow she would have to complete this garment and would then find out what the next assignment consisted of. Her instructor liked to keep things simple by making each student in the class compete with the others to see whose design better fit his vision of the assignment. Since judging was subjective to the instructor’s whims, she didn’t allow herself to worry too much about who won which “competition.” As long as she got the grade for the work actually done.
Fortunately, the man seemed partial to her work, and so far she’d placed at least in the top three positions of the last five assignments. The other two had fallen to sixth and eighth, but that was okay, too. Nobody liked a know-it-all.
She stored her supplies in her locker, spun the dial on the padlock, and gathered her things and made her way out of the room, down the curving staircase, and out into an incredibly beautiful sunny afternoon. Birds sang and butterflies landed on the fresh blooms surrounding the building.
The sky was clear of all but the most fluffy of white clouds. The tinkling water from the surrounding fountains made music in the slight breeze. Chipmunks and squirrels ran and jumped and played like naughty children just released from elementary school. Aurora laughed at their antics, wondering how in the world the day could get any brighter.
And then she saw him.
Phillip walked towards her, his gaze intense, his lips set in a soft smile. Everything inside of her opened to receive him, then logic kicked in and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was actually looking at her.
But there was no one at her back. She turned to him again and allowed her own lips to relax into the welcome she felt. “Hi. I didn’t expect to see you here. I was just coming to your place.”
He took her hands in his and kissed the backs of each one. “I know. I thought we could get something to eat first, if that’s okay with you. Will you let me take you to this place I know?”
Flutters, like the wings of the butterflies she’d just admired hit the insides of her stomach. What was Phillip doing here, and was he actually asking her out on a date? Or was this just his way of greeting someone he was painting? She tried to settle the feelings his attentions were causing. She didn’t want to make a fool of herself if this was simply his way, and nothing to do with her. But she couldn’t help but hope maybe it was all about her, and him, and them.
He’d been on her mind all day. Since waking she’d felt this incredible need. Sometimes it resulted in nothing more than a secret smile, other times she felt giddy for no reason at all. And this simply was not her.
With the aunts singing gloom and doom all her life, she’d felt weighed down, though she was only now realizing the extent of it. Just meeting Phillip and allowing him into her life made everything seem so much brighter. So much lighter. She felt like she was walking on air, seeing the world through rose-colored glasses and that was even before he’d shown up unexpectedly, as if he couldn’t wait to spend time with her, too. And he’d asked her out. Even if he didn’t mean it as a date, she was going to take it as one.
For once in her life, she was going to dream. To fantasize. To jump without looking. She smiled at him, not caring that her enthusiasm was rad
iating like a lighthouse beacon. “I would love to. Should we take separate cars?”
Phillip’s smile flashed back. “I have a better idea. Come with me.”
Aurora walked by his side, to the front gates. They stood open, so tall and radiant, that when she and Phillip moved forward, it was like walking through the pearly gates of Heaven. She had to suppress a giggle, as she’d never felt as invigorated in her life.
Phillip slid his hand around hers, grasping her fingers. Startled she glanced at him, and could only grin at the questioning look in his eyes. Neither spoke as he pulled her forward to an awaiting horse and buggy. Aurora turned to him in delight. “Are you serious? I’ve always wanted to ride in a carriage.”
Chapter Seven
“Mmmm… This is delicious!”
Phillip couldn’t take his eyes off of Rose as she savored the treat. She was incredible, and, if he was being honest with himself, he was smitten. Her enthusiasm was more stimulating than anything he’d ever encountered. The Royal Chocolate dessert she praised was one of his personal favorites and he was happy to see her enjoying it as much as he did. But the teasing tilting of her eyes throughout the evening had him believing her pleasure tonight went deeper than the tasty treats on her plate. And he had to admit, so did his. There was something about being in her presence that filled him with a contentment he now knew he’d always craved, without knowing he’d craved it. He hoped like hell she felt the same way.
They talked the evening away, the conversation flowing like the expensive fine wine chilling in the free-standing ice bucket at the table’s edge. He lifted his crystal glass and took a sip, allowing the aroma to tickle his senses, and the taste to wash over his tongue, making him wonder if Rose’s plump-lipped mouth would deliver the same tang if he leaned over the table and took a taste.
He felt certain she had no idea that the wine was special, or that the meal was costing a small fortune by most people’s standards, but that was just fine with him. She was normal. And it seemed like he’d spent his entire life looking for one normal woman to have a normal romantic relationship with.
Unforgettable Heroes Boxed Set Page 54