“Favorite… object.”
“I have a bottle cap that Arat tossed at me the first week I was here. His smile. The flirty tone. The way he looked at me.” He paused. “I kept it. Just as a silly token reminder.”
“That’s cute.”
He turned his head to smile at me. “I have a lot of little things like that. But that was the first one I kept.”
“Mine is a blanket that my mother made me when I was a baby. There are a ton of pictures of me wrapped in it over the years. It’s one of the few things I make sure to bring with me wherever I go.”
He smiled, taking my hand in his. “Favorite time of day.”
* * *
I narrowedmy eyes at the rock. It was flat-ish. About the size of a tennis ball in width. But as I stared at the little thing, and then looked at all the painted ones around the room, I couldn’t help but wonder how he got such fine detail in such a small space.
Canvases were large. The ones I used, anyway. This was far too small. And yet, as I watched Raiden’s hand move with precision while he drew a nighttime landscape, some people just had a knack for working in small spaces.
And apparently, without looking at something for inspiration.
“It doesn’t have to be anything specific,” he said quietly.
“And therein lies the problem. My mind is a complete blank unless I have something in front of me to paint.”
His stormy eyes looked up, meeting mine. A smile on his gorgeous face. “So paint me while I paint the night.”
“This is far too small a canvas,” I said, frowning at the rock.
“Not so. It doesn’t have to be detailed. I bet you can make it obvious that it’s me without every minute line and curve.”
I grunted, not at all agreeing. But with that, I stared at Raiden as he continued to paint. Stared at the way he looked down at the rock. How his focus concentrated on the little space. The exact way his fingers moved in the tiniest lines.
Licking my lips, I used these tiny brushes that were too small to hold, and dipped it in paint. At first, I couldn’t concentrate on painting at all. Too frustrated with the small area for it to become an escape. But before I knew it, Raiden was looking at me and I blinked back into the moment.
He reached for the rock, turning it so he could see it. When his eyes met mine again, he was beaming. “Perfect, baby girl. Amazing.”
I flushed at his praise, looking at the rock again. It was primarily an abstract figure, all color juxtaposed together with little to no defining features at all. And yet, in the shape of his face, the falling of his hair, his concentration on his task. It was clear that I captured Raiden.
Smiling, I looked up at him again to find that he was watching me. He cupped my face, leaning in to give me a kiss. “Amazing,” he murmured.
* * *
The water splashed,soaking me as I laughed. A moment later, Bronte surfaced behind me, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my neck. His command of water made him move quickly and sleekly, like a seal. He was at one end of the pool where he jumped in and before I’d fully taken a breath, he was wrapped around me.
I reached back and tangled my fingers in his hair, feeling the way his lips curved against my skin. We’d been messing around in the pool for a while. Jumping and splashing and just acting like flirting teenagers.
Turning in his arms, I wrapped my arms around him, leaning against his chest. Stretching on my toes so I could brush my lips against his.
Bronte leaned back, so he was floating on the surface, keeping me on top of him. We continued to kiss as I sprawled across his body, his hands moving along my ribs and down to my hips and thighs before moving back up my body.
I’d learned in my short time with them that when Bronte said he didn’t take control of any situation, he meantanysituation. Unless I gave him direction, he waited for me to move us around. To take what I wanted from him.
So I continued to kiss him, shifting on top of him until we were almost sinking underwater. He grinned into my mouth and let us sink. I barely caught my breath before my head dipped under. And then his mouth was on mine again while we continued our kiss surrounded by water.
There was a heady feeling to it. Not being able to take a breath while our mouths were locked together and water threatened to surge into our lungs. Not being able to get enough. To get closer as he pulled me against him and I wrapped my legs around his waist.
Bronte pulled our heads above the surface long enough for us to take a quick breath before bringing us back underwater, where we kissed more. Deeper. Longer. Sweet, tender kisses that made my heart race and my mind fog.
The rush of playing with pushing the limit to how much breath you could hold while kissing, both of which made my heart race, was a wild ride that I happily got on over and over again as Bronte continued to let us take quick breaths before bringing us underwater again. To the point where I was lightheaded and wrapped around him like he was a lifeline.
