Ari leaned against her bedroom door and smiled. “That was kind of the point. But thank you all the same.”
“It’s almost too good. I don’t know if I’m going to have enough money to buy it,” Tom lamented. “Maybe you can offer me a pay-by-instalment package?”
Ari shook her head. “Sorry, this one’s not for sale.”
“It’s not?”
“No. It’s a gift for someone.”
“A gift?” Tom asked with a frown, instantly wondering who the recipient would be and whether they would accept an offer from him.
“Look at the painting more carefully,” Ari told him. “Does it seem at all familiar?”
Tom’s eyes at once snapped back to the canvas. He took in the shadowy trees, the leaf-lined forest floor, the way the orange and red hues of light ebbed through the trunks and branches. He took in the curve of the land, the way the ground seemed to tilt to one side, as though this was a clearing before a stream or pond—
“This is the forest near my mom’s house,” Tom suddenly announced, recognition hitting him hard. “The clearing in the woods. My mom and dad were married there, you know.”
“I know,” Ari replied, and Tom turned to her, acutely aware thathe’dalso meant to get married there.
To Sasha.
“This is a gift for my mom, isn’t it?” he asked, swallowing down his shame.
Ari nodded. “She’s been so good with Reine. And me. It’s a small repayment, but...”
“She’ll love it. She lovedThe Ends of the Earth, even before she ever knew you painted it.”
“Mm,” Ari made a non-committal sound of reply. “She’s been great. One thing, though — I could do without all the knitted goods.” She laughed. “She made me a cardigan. It was awful. She made a matching one for Reine, and it was worse.”
Tom laughed too. “It’s a shame Corentin went into Druidry and not Dark Age Catholicism. Mom would have made him some great horsehair shirts. I admit, I’m not looking forward to our trip home from Iceland on Wednesday. Her needles clacking all the way over the Atlantic.” Tom shuddered. “How they haven’t been banned as a dangerous weapon on flights, I don’t know.”
“Knitting needles aren’t a weapon,” Ari chided him, but she smiled all the same.
“No? Try wearing one of Mom’s homemade jumpers for more than four hours and we’ll talk again.”
Ari laughed, taking another sip of wine. “Thank you for being so complimentary about my painting,” she said, changing the subject. “I want to get it right, and your words... they’re encouraging. I’d forgotten how much I was encouraged by you.”
By me or Tom Miller?Tom couldn’t help but think, before another thought struck him.It was me, it was always me.
He took a deep breath. “I used to love sitting next to you while you painted,” he admitted. “When we were... when we were together. I used to love it. You would paint and paint, and I would just sit and watch you and wonder how I’d ever gotten so lucky as to meet you. I’d been unhappy for so long, and then you were suddenly there, and my world was just... better. Everything was better. For years, I’d been unable to sit still. I was like a bird, ready to jump at the slightest disturbance. With you,” Tom’s eyes drifted lovingly over Ari’s face, “I felt like Icould be still. I felt like I could rest. I would sit by your side while you painted and just feel... easy.”
Ari licked her lips, nodding slowly. “I liked painting with you next to me.”
“You mean Tom Miller—”
“You,” Ari cut him off, and then she blushed. “I like having you next to me.You,” she added quickly, reaching out to take Tom’s hand. “You,” she said again, her eyes bright. “You, Tom.”
It occurred to Tom that he should kiss Ari. It occurred to him that this was a moment, and one that he should seize. Ari was here, and she was beautiful and sweet and loving andAri, and he was here, and he was in love with her and wanted her and adored her with his whole heart. Kissing her was the most natural thing in the world to him, and he was made brave by the wine in his blood and the love in his heart and the bright, blazing look in Ari’s eyes that told him a kiss would be more than welcome to her in this moment. It occurred to Tom that he should pull her into his arms and run his thumbs down her cheeks. It occurred to Tom that he should smile before lowering his mouth to hers. All of this occurred to Tom, but he didn’t have time to act, for Ari stepped forward, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling his face gently towards hers. She brushed her lips softly over his own, a caress more than a kiss, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.
“Hi,” she whispered, and it wasthat, that small sound of welcome on her lips, that broke him and made him pull her to him hungrily, seizing her lips with a ferocity that surprised them both. Ari gasped a little in his arms as he kissed her, and he stopped, pulling himself back enough so he could check she was okay.
“Ari, is this—” he began, but the words were cut off by her lips on his, and now she was kissing him, and he was kissing her back, and they were stumbling and unbalanced as he pushedher up against her wall, his hands in her hair and against her face and tracing her neck and anywhere else he could put them. He moved his mouth from her lips to her cheeks, before trailing down to her neck and shoulders, and Ari was making breathy sounds that were driving him crazy, and the only way to stop them and regain control was to kiss her again, swallowing her small noises of pleasure with his lips and tongue.
Ari’s hands were around his waist, but he felt them move up the curve of his back to his neck. His body tingled with the contact, and he pressed against her more firmly, wanting more of that, wanting more of this and wanting more ofher. Just her.
Her hands continued moving though, pulling away from his body and moving to her own. Tom stopped kissing her briefly, his mind doing a double take when he realised she was slowly unknotting the tie in her halter dress, the straps falling loose and the bodice falling to her waist. Half-naked in his arms, she kissed him again, encouraging him with little words of nonsense to kiss her back, to move his hands from her waist to her breasts.
“Please,” she murmured between fervent kisses, and Tom nodded, lifting her gently and moving them both towards her bed. She settled against her pillows, her hands moving up to cup his face, and he smiled at her before kissing her on both cheeks, once on the lips, and then lowering his head to mouth at her breasts and nipples.
