"I guess I thought it might be sort of fun and, you know, hopefully it'd have, like, a lot less pressure than any sort of professional type of paint and?—"
I kiss her.
She gasps against my lips, surprised by the contact as I take her face between my hands, and she tentatively grips my waist, the tension fading from her body.
Distantly, I hear Sev walk past us to where Atticus is still by the door. "I think that's our cue, bro."
Atticus grunts, and the door sweeps closed behind them as they exit.
"Thank you," I murmur against her lips when I break the kiss.
She smiles up at me. "You don't hate it?"
I shake my forehead against hers. "I don't hate it."
"Thank god," she replies with a breathy laugh.
I take her hand and we go to the table so I can get a better look at what's there.
"We don't have to do this now," she reassures me, maybe noticing the way I stiffened when I went to reach for the paint.
I'd be lying if I said it doesn't intimidate me. I haven't touched paint in years, not unless cleaning dried swaths of it off the floor counts.
I mean, doesthiseven really count?
It does, that poisonous voice in my mind whispers.
But if it does, then this would be making art.
I canmake artagain, with Aurora. With nothing but our bodies, some paint, and a canvas. I won't need to hold a brush. I won't need to get the strokes just right. It's art without the pressure, like she said.
"I think…" I lick my lips. "I think I want to."
Her wide eyes glimmer in the early afternoon light from the front window. "Yeah?"
"Yeah, Angel. I do."
I clear my throat, finally lifting the paint bottle from the table, looking for some kind of instructions.
"So, how do we do this?"
She pushes some hair behind her ear.
"I don't really know," she admits. "It only came with black paint and I thought maybe that was sort of boring, so I bought these other colors."
She indicates the rainbow of body paints. All set up in neat little lines on the table.
"It's probably because if you mix all those, it'll turn into mud brown real quick."
Her face pinches. "Oh yeah. Why didn't I think of that?"
I chuckle, but looking at the colors, I get an idea.
"If we mix a couple, it'll turn out nice. I'm thinking maybe…black and gold." I inspect the bottles to double-check they won't cause any reaction to her skin. She's right, though, they're all water-based and labeled as 'intimacy safe', so we should be good.
I already know exactly where this is going when it's finished. I want it on my bedroom wall, right across from the bed. I want to look at it every night.
Fuck, I haven't been this excited about creating in a long time.
