Page 15 of Eye of the Hurricane
“So that settles it then? I’m your fake boyfriend?” He pops his chin onto his fist and flashes me a megawatt smile. The devil on my shoulder is telling me to say yes.
“No. Definitely not.”
“What? Why not?” He sticks his lip out in an adorable pout. The thought of taking that lip in my mouth flashes through my mind and I have to mentally slap myself on the wrist.What the hell are we doing, team?
“You’re trouble. You’re a distraction. And most of all, no way in hell could you actually sell this thing.”
Ares pulls his hand to his chest in a dramatic show of offense.
“Ouch? I couldabsolutelysell it. Couldyousell it?” The defensive part of me jumps to yell ‘yes’. But when I give it a moment of thought, I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve ever been someone’s girlfriend before. It’s not like I have any dating experience.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been someone’s girlfriend before.”
“Okay, so we can practice,” he says simply.
“Practice?” I echo.
“Like pretend in places where it doesn’t matter before we pretend in places that it does. Go on fake dates.”
I don’t want to admit it, but it’s smart. Not only is it smart but it’s a level of effort I can’t picture anyone else putting into being my fake boyfriend. That’s the exact thought that brings me to the conclusion I can’t believe I’m making.
“Okay. Fine. But we’re definitely doing a trial run before I take you around my mom.”
“Deal.”
I hesitate at how quickly he agrees, feeling for all the world that he needs the same warning I’ve given everyone I’ve ever exposed to my family. “Ares, my parents really are not kind. They might say something to you that hurts your feelings. I don’t really take anyone around them.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?”
“Okay.”
Chapter 5
Ares
Yep,it’s official. If I ever see another empty paint canvas in my life, I’m going to break it over my knee. In fact, I might also set the broken pieces on fire.
Adding emotion into my art seemed really easy in the moment. When Vines told me I needed to include it, my first thought wasoh yeah, no problem.
That was fucking stupid. Maybe I can paint something and add the emotion in later? Is that even a thing? Can it just be added in like details? I thought my paintinghademotion.
Ravyn is somewhere behind me, reading some book on her tablet. I turn to get her opinion and she’s laid out on the couch, big brown curls splayed around her head.
“Ray, do you think my paintings have emotion in them?” I ask. She lazily sets her tablet down, then turns to face me and my blank canvas.
“Is blank an emotion?” she asks, a shit-eating grin creeping up her face.
“You’re such an asshole sometimes,” I grumble, rolling my eyes at her.
“It’s part of the charm,” she says with a shrug of the shoulders.
“That’s my line.” Specifically it’s the line I throw Katherine’s way quite often.
“Yeah, that you stole from me.”
I glare at her in response but she’s probably right. I feel like my personality is a third Ravyn, a third Audra, and a third my family.
“I’m serious. You’ve seen a lot of my work, do you feel like there’s emotion in it?” She pushes herself off of the couch and stands to take a walk around the room.
