Page 56 of Auction Time
“Oh my God.” She brought her hands up to her cheek and blushed as she stared. “Cole, that’s amazing. And, oh my God, I’m naked. There’sanothernaked painting of me.”
I laughed and pulled her into my lap. She pressed her dainty hands on my chest.
“It’s a great naked painting of you,” I told her.
“Who will see it, Cole?” Panic filled her eyes.
“This is for my eyes only.”
“All that work just for your eyes only?” she asked playfully.
“You want me to show it to the world?” I wouldn’t, but I loved doing whatever I could to bring out that color in her cheeks.
“No, of course not. I just mean it’s a lot to just put away in your gallery.” She ran her hand across my jaw. “Cole, no one knows you do this? Unless this is part of the seduction tactics you use on your groupies to get them to stay with you.”
I stared at her and thought about what she’d said. “No,” was the short answer.
It was hard to live down the name I’d made for myself as a notorious playboy,.
Andlive it down? Is that what I was doing here?
With her?
The truth was I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew I wanted her. As to what that meant, I didn’t know. Painting wasn’t something I’d shared with any other woman.
That didn’t escape me.
“Apart from my mother and you, no one else knows I paint.” I laughed a slight edgy laugh. “Not even my father knew.”
“Really? Why?”
“He was football. All about football. If he ever knew I was doing something else that took up my brain space, as he called it, he would have skinned me alive.”
“You’re amazing,” she breathed, and her words sparked something inside me.
“Thank you.”
“So, you just paint whenever you want?”
“Not always. It helps when I’m stressed, or depressed.”
She quirked her perfectly arched brows. “Coleridge Buchanan gets stressed and depressed?” She was right to ask me that because I always had the jovial lackadaisical attitude.
“Coleridge Buchanan definitely gets stressed and depressed.”
“I’m struggling to think of what could do that to you. Wrong color car? Or maybe you got standard Victoria’s Secret model and not an angel.” Although she said that in such a nonchalant manner, I knew all of that bothered her. So, I decided to be straight up with her and tell her about the most depressing time in my life. That was something I’d kept private too.
“My mother had cancer a few years back,” I declared.
The smile on her face fell, and genuine sadness filled her eyes. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t—”
I kissed the words away from her lips and pulled her closer.
“I’m sorry.” She told me again, pulling in a little breath. “It was stupid of me to say that. I’m really sorry.”
“I know, and I didn’t tell you so you could apologize. It’s been a three-year-long battle, but she’s okay now. There was, however, a time when it was close and I wasn’t so sure she would be. It was hard enough losing my father, but without sounding like a prick who’s choosing which parent he loves most, I don’t know what I would have done if I lost her.”
She cupped my face, and the warmth of her fingertips sent a tingle down my spine.
