At least another night here means another chance to mess around with him. I’m nowhere near done satisfying that itch.
“I’m glad you had your art teacher looking out for you in high school,” he says. “She must have seen your talent right away.”
I don’t say anything for a second. Dumping my history out last night was out of character, but talking about it now, sober and in broad daylight, that feels damn near impossible.
“Yeah, she was cool,” I finally manage.
Matty tosses his pen down beside the notebook. “I thought about trying to be an art teacher,” he says. “It was my major for a semester in college. I figured it would be a good way to make a living and share what I loved with other weirdo kids.” He glances up, looking at the sky. “I wonder what my life would be like now, if I did that?”
I clear my throat and point to his notebook. “Distracted much?”
He glances down at his work and laughs. “Yeah, I tend to do that.”
I know this about Matty. I see his attention jumping all over the place when he’s excited. But I also recognize when an artist is trying to self-sabotage.
Hell, self-sabotage is one my greatest skills.
I set my sketchbook down and lean forward. “You’re not going to get your reward if you can’t focus,” I tell him.
He’s not the only one who can tease, after all.
Matty bites down on his bottom lip. “Well, now I’m even more distracted.”
I take him by the shoulder and pull him up, meeting him with a kiss. I can taste the coffee and cream on his lips as our tongues meet. Matty whimpers against me, and his hand strokes down my bicep, rubbing against the soft fabric of my sweatshirt. Heat coils inside of me, and my desire ignites again.
I could kiss him all day by the lake like this, but that’s not the point.
I tear my lips away. The separation is painful, and the world becomes colder again, but I force myself to do it anyway.
“What’s that kiss for?” Matty asks with a wide smile.
“Just a taste. And if you get enough work done, I’ll give you a little more.”
“If that’s the taste, I can’t wait to know what the full meal is like.”
I pull my gaze down to his ass, full and round in his tight jeans. Matty watches the rake of my gaze, and his breath catches.
I shrug casually and turn back to my work. “I guess you’ll have to wait and see,” I deadpan as I scratch a pencil across the page.
Matty laughs loudly. “Brutal, Stone,” he says, but immediately turns to his work with a renewed focus.
Under the afternoon sun, I can almost forget all the reasons that Matty and I can’t be together, at least not in any real way. He’s one more person who is going to leave my life and head on to something better, but I tell myself that’s okay.
If I can just earn a few more of those smiles, it will be worth it.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
MATTY
While all ofmy friends are busy making dinner, I drag Stone upstairs to get my reward.
I spent all afternoon planning out the next week of shooting, but it’s not even Stone’s promise that kept me motivated. It’s the fact that he believes in my art. That’s the thing I’ve always struggled with, believing that there’s value in what I do, and having him hold me in his steady gaze and tell me it’s all worthwhile does something to me.
Hedoes something to me, and the more time we spend together, the more I need him to do it again.
Fuck, that scares me.
I tug Stone into the small bedroom by the sweatshirt and kiss his neck. “We should have like thirty minutes before dinner,” I say. “We’ll just have to keep our voices down.”
