Her fingers press into my lips, stalling words that I wasn’t going to be able to say anyway. It's too soon. She’s not ready for them. I’m not ready for them, to give them voice.
“Show me, pretty boy.”
Chapter 23: Charmed, I’m Sure
Courtland
My grin is automatic and I blow out a relieved breath as I twist the handle and push open the door. She steps through first, looking around the dark space, likely trying to make sense of it.
When I flick on the lights, I’m rewarded with an awed gasp.
Ren spins in a slow circle, hands clasped together in front of her heart as she takes in the space. I stand there feeling sheepish and uncertain, in a way I haven’t since sixth form.
“Court,” she breathes. And I find I want to hear her say my name just like that for the rest of my life. “It's beautiful. Everything is so beautiful.”
“Yeah?” I look around, taking in the studio from her perspective. Half-finished canvases stand in a row. When I’m working on a series, I can’t go in order, can’t start with the first painting, and then move on to the next. I paint them simultaneously. It's the best way I’ve found to make them cohesive, to make them speak to each other.
She wanders over to the closest painting, brow wrinkled. “This is darker than what you normally do.”
I shouldn’t be surprised that she recognizes my work. My most recent series, featuring the girl standing in front of me—my mate—blew up bigger than anything I’d done before. Which was both a blessing and a curse.
She turns toward me, her brow arched. “Actually, your last series was darker than you normally do.”
I shrug, running a hand through my hair. “I was working through some things, yeah? I found the girl of my dreams, fell in love with her and then lost her.”
If she’s surprised to hear the ‘L’ word she doesn’t show it, her head tilting to the side. “So, that was me? The girl in color while everything else was grayscale?”
“Of course that was you, Pix. Couldn’t be anyone else.” I tilt my head, taking in her stance, the way her arms are wrapped around her stomach, holding herself. “You don’t seem all that surprised?”
She shakes her head, turning away from me again. “Some of my students told me they thought it was me. That the artist must have been a fan of the show. It didn’t feel like that though. The paintings felt… more personal. They felt like they were created out of adoration, out of love.” Her kaleidoscope eyes flick up to me and away. “It was enough to convince me they couldn’t be me.”
God. My chest aches, and my arms twitch with the need to pull her into me, to hold her and convince her that I do love her. So fucking much.
“But,” she motions at the room around her. “I think on some level… I think I knew you were the artist. I remember finding odd splotches of paint on you during the show.” She smiles at the memory fondly and shakes her head. “I just didn’t understand how you could…”
“How I could let you go if I felt suchadorationfor you?”
She looks at me again. “I mean, yeah. How was I so easy to just leave behind?”
I take a step toward her. “It wasn’t easy, Pix. None of this was easy.” I hesitate. “No, that’s not right. Some parts of it were incredibly easy.”
She flinches, but I don’t let that stop me. In for a penny, in for a pound, I always say. “It was so easy being with you, Ren. Easy to bask in your sunshine. Easy to… Easy to fall in love with you.” Her gaze, which had been wandering around the room, taking in the countless easels, flies back to me with pinpoint accuracy.
“What?”
I meet her gaze steadily, with none of my usual flirty energy, just me stripped bare. “I love you, Florence Karlin. So much. I’ve loved you for absolute ages. Probably since the first time you called me ‘pretty boy’.”
She snorts a laugh and I feel like a legend for having managed it. “That was in the introduction ceremony!”
I grin at her and shrug. “So it was. Doesn’t mean I didn’t tumble head over heels in love with you right then.”
She shakes her head. “More like head over heels in lust.”
“That too.”
She laughs, a full on laugh. Nothing snorting or halfway about it. And holy shit, its bloody well makes my heart burst hearing it. It's been too long since she’s laughed like that.
It fades slowly, her eyes sparkling in that way that I can’t look away from, as she glances around the room again. “May I?”
