Page 16 of The Hellhound's Mate
“He has,” I said on a chuckle as I led her back to the conservatory.
I’d set up easels throughout the room and staged each of my new paintings for her to view them as a progression through dark forests where glowing eyes followed innocent lost souls. Vera made me feel so proud when she gasped as soon as we entered the room, her eyes darting from piece to piece. I already had her hooked.
I moved to stand with my back to the plants so that I could watch her work through the room, one painting at a time. She didn’t speak, but her expressions said everything. I already knew she was going to take the entire collection because it was clear to me that she was enthralled.
Finally, she came up to me, cupped my face in her hands, and kissed my forehead. “You know I’ll take it all, but my god, darling, you’ve outdone yourself. This is terrifying and salacious in equal measure, and I already know we’re going to cause nightmares and orgasms as we run off with a fortune.”
I laughed, delighted, as she led me around the room to her favorite pieces so she could sing their praises specifically.
“This one,” she practically moaned as we stood before the painting with the beast and the nearly naked man. “My mind is engulfed by images both erotic and terrible! I can’t decide if I want that man well-fucked or bleeding.”
“I’d prefer well-fucked.”
“Wouldn’t we all.” She took my hand and said sincerely, “Should you want to paintthatscene, I already know who’ll participate in the bidding war to have it.”
I bit my bottom lip, imagining the captured moment between the lovers. I’d never done a truly erotic painting but… Perhaps I should? It would be inspired by what I knew now from being with Saph, and yet depict these two versions of us. I’d ask him for his input and permission later.
“Oh, you’re already thinking about it!” Vera squeezed me into her willowy chest, and I laughed. “We’ve plenty of time before the show for you to make my deviant dreams come true.”
Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling noise, and I looked around as though Saph might be in the room with us and growling. But no, it was probably the movers coming to transport the paintings because that was an aggressive truck’s horn sounding from outside.
I’d barely taken a step toward the front of the house, but Vera was already there and letting in a pack of well-muscled young men. I stood back and watched her caress biceps and backsides as she ordered them around the room and oversaw their packing of the paintings in individual crates. None of them seemed to have an opinion of the pieces—a pity—but I was sure all of them were flexing for Vera.
I was chuckling at her staring at one man’s ass, so when I heard the gates of Hell creak open, I saw Vera flinch. Had she heard that, too? She looked around with a frown, and I wondered if she was trying to find the source of that sound like I had on my first day here.
I didn’t know where the soul might run, but if it came by these windows, would she see it and Saph chasing it down? I’d barely finished that thought when Vera turned to me and gasped, a hand over her heart. I looked around and saw Saph tearing across the lawn outside like a huge menace of black furand murderous intent a moment before he tore into the damned soul. Worried about her reaction, I went to Vera.
“It’s alright,” I said quietly. “That’s really happening out there. I can see it all, too, but I don’t think anyone else here can.”
Her wide eyes flicked back and forth between me and the scene outside several times before she could look me in the eye. “You’re not painting fantasies.”
“Well, fantasies based in reality.”
I wouldn’t have thought they could, but her eyes widened even more. I blushed, realizing I was giving myself away. The someone that I’d met? The erotic painting I was considering? Now she could be speculating on the truth.
“Would you like to meet him?”
She stared out the windows and nodded slowly.
Saph stood not too far away and looked in at us. He cocked his head, his ears pointed our way, and a concerned expression on his face. I pointed like I wanted him to come around the house, and he nodded.
“Come on, Vera,” I said and took hold of her elbow. “Let’s go sit on the porch while these gentlemen finish up.”
I walked with her through the house and noticed that she seemed to regain herself by the time we reached the front door. It was open for the movers, so we went right outside and settled into the chairs on the right side.
“Ambrose?” Saph asked quietly while still out of view.
“Come on around and meet Vera.”
She gasped when he walked by the railing beside us and gave a little squawk when he leapt over it to land on the porch floor between us. Saph immediately crouched down, sitting on his haunches, and looked a bit sheepish.
“You’re absolutely glorious,” Vera said as her gaze flicked all over Saph. “Though I don’t know what you are or why you’rehere, I fully understand why Ambrose keeps painting you into his work.”
Saph’s lips twitched into a grin before he told her what he was and why he was here. I watched them ask and answer questions of each other for a while, the both of them relaxing the more they talked. And I was blessed to have someone else who knew about Saph and everything else he’d opened my eyes to since we’d met. Vera had always been a friend and now I felt even closer to her.
The movers finished and drove away as Chef Yamuna arrived to begin lunch preparations. Saph stayed where he was the whole time, and not another person noticed him.
“Fascinating,” Vera said as the chef went inside. “What is it that gifts us with the ability to perceive you while others can’t?”
