Dark Masterpiece (Serendipity Series 3) (20 page)

“Hey, I’ve heard of that!” Seth exclaimed.
“It’s like snowboarding only on pine needles instead. You take the
wheels and trucks off of a skateboard and use the deck, right?”

Talis nodded, meeting Seth’s eyes in the
rearview mirror.

“That is the most absurd thing I have ever
heard,” Traveyn muttered. “Can you honestly see me doing something
so ridiculous?”

Talis shrugged. “You don’t have to do it if
you don’t want to, but go anyway. My friends want to meet you.”

Traevyn snorted his disapproval.

Evie giggled and reached around to the front
seat. She squeezed Traevyn’s shoulders. “What’s wrong?” she teased.
“Don’t tell me you don’t like sports. And you seem so typical
male.”

Talis and Seth both laughed.

“No one in my family likes sports.” Traevyn
said, giving Talis a pointed look.

Talis shrugged. “I like everything.”

Traevyn sighed. “I’ll probably end up
breaking my neck just from watching.”

The thought of tall, elegant Traevyn
anywhere near a skateboard did seem rather…contrasting, to say the
least, but Evie was glad Talis had planned things for them to do.
Sure, she was there for the gallery opening, but she had never been
to Arizona before and she wanted to have some fun.

The drive to Sedona was mostly boring. The
cactus was cool when she’d first seen it, but one could only stare
at cactus for so long before it became very dull.

Around ten minutes before they reached the
city, Evie noticed the soil turned from a pale brown to a rich, red
color. When they reached Sedona, Evie stared in awe as monolithic,
jagged red rocks jutted out of the earth and towered around the
small city like guardians. It was breathtaking, and she instantly
wanted to rummage through her things and find her sketchpad, but
all of her stuff was in the trunk. She imagined it would be hard to
sketch while in a moving car anyway. She made a mental note that,
sometime during the trip, she would need to find a good spot to
draw.

Talis’s home was small, but nice, with a
porch in the front and a pool and hot tub in the back yard. The
interior reminded Evie of a lair. Swords and medieval weaponry
adorned one entire wall and a mannequin with full armor sat
displayed in a corner. There was a gigantic black beanbag chair
sitting off to one side, as well as a black leather chair next to
the beige sectional, which was the only light thing in the entire
house. There were video games strewn everywhere in front of the TV,
as well as three different video game consoles. Seth immediately
started to drool.

The walls that weren’t covered in weapons
were full of Traevyn’s art and pictures of dragons, fairies, and
other mythical creatures. A large orange, yellow and black Celtic
wall hanging was tacked to the ceiling and the enormous yellow sun
in the middle of it seemed to glow down on them.

What surprised Evie the most was that, even
though it was cluttered, it was clean. No wrappers or empty
containers on the floor. No weird, foreign things breeding on the
carpet. That, and the fact that there were no role playing game
books anywhere, were the only things that saved it from looking
like geek-haven.

She could smell incense burning from
somewhere and she smiled. Talis’s house reminded her of some of the
hippie, new age stores in Ashland, and she loved it. She decided
right then that she adored the Whitelaw brothers, even Julian, even
though she hadn’t met him yet. She had no doubt he would be just as
awesome in some other way.

Talis scowled as he entered and accidentally
kicked a CD that was lying in his path. It skidded across the floor
and hit the leg of the couch. “Ash!” he shouted. “Dude! I told you
to bloody clean up the place!” He started to grumble incoherently
as he shut the door and set down Evie’s bags, which he had been
carrying.

“Sorry!” someone shouted from one of the
bedrooms.

Talis rolled his eyes. “Well, what the crap
are you doing? Get out here and meet my brother, you jerk!”

Evie giggled.

“Sorry,” Talis said to them. “He was supposed
to pick up a little.”

Traevyn shrugged with a smirk. “Talis, your
place has always looked like this. No need to start apologizing
now. Just be sure you put all the weapons away this time.” He gave
Evie a pointed look. “Last time I was here I sat on an arrow…point
up. That is not something I want to repeat.”

She laughed and glanced over to the hallway
as a blond man came bounding out. His ankle apparently caught on
something because he tripped and came stumbling into the living
room. He cast a perplexed glance at whatever the culprit had been,
then looked up at everyone and smiled.

“Traevyn, it’s a pleasure to finally meet
you,” he greeted. “I’m Ashton, Talis’s roommate.”

Traevyn smiled and shook his hand. “Good to
meet you, Ashton. This is my apprentice, Evie, and her brother,
Seth.”

Ashton met Evie’s eyes and his grin widened.
“It is definitely a pleasure to meet you.”

Evie felt her cheeks grow warm. The man was
very attractive. Sun bleached blond hair that fell kind of shaggy
around his face and ears and a build that suggested he worked out
regularly. His eyes were a warm blue-gray and his smile lit up his
handsome face. A small, silver hoop looped around his left earlobe,
and she could see the markings of a tattoo around his right bicep.
She briefly wondered what it was and if Talis had done it.

“Uh, we don’t have a guest room,” Talis
said. “Just throw your luggage into a corner. I guess…” He
scratched his head. “I guess you’ll all have to sleep on the
hide-a-bed in the sectional. Unless someone wants to sleep on the
recliner or the floor.”

After some arguing and a game of rock,
paper, scissors between Seth and Evie, it was decided that Seth and
Traevyn would share the hide-a-bed and Evie would sleep on the
regular couch part of the sectional since she was the only one
short enough to fit.

Evie had been hoping that Seth would take
pity on her and let her sleep next to Traevyn, but his selfishness
apparently won out over his out of character niceness.

Since they had arrived in Sedona rather late
in the day, the first thing they did was find a place to eat
dinner. They all decided on a Mexican restaurant that had a man
playing people’s requests on a guitar and interacting with the
audience. The atmosphere was pleasant and all of them had the
opportunity to relax after their travels.

“So, you’re Traevyn’s apprentice?” Ashton
asked Evie as Seth studied all of Talis’s arm tattoos in mesmerized
silence.

Evie nodded. “For the summer. My art history
professor chose me for the program.”

He grinned. “What school do you go to?”

“SOU in Ashland, Oregon.” She met his eyes
and gave him a little smile.

“SOU is my alma mater as well,” Traevyn
interjected. “Evie’s professor was mine years ago, and I agreed to
take on an apprentice as a favor to him.”

“How do you like living with my brother so
far?” Talis questioned with a knowing smile.

“He’s actually been very hospitable.”

Traevyn chuckled. “Yes, after you ripped me
another one about my abhorrent behavior, I decided it would be in
my best interests to be more agreeable.”

Evie met his eyes and she gave a shy smile,
feeling her cheeks turn pink. “So, what do you do, Ashton?”

“Please, call me Ash. Everyone else does.”
He grinned again. “I’m a waiter during the renaissance faire off
season, but when the fairs start up again, I’m off with Tal.”

She grinned, intrigued. “What do you do at
them?”

“I joust,” he replied.

Talis rolled his eyes. “You joust. Sounds
like you’re baking a cake.” He met Evie’s eyes. “Ash is the best
jouster I have ever seen. He’s won more contests than I could even
count.”

Ash chuckled and waved it away. “Evie, would
you like a drink? I was going to get something for myself. Want
anything?”

She gave him a broad grin. “Yes, thank you.
A strawberry margarita, please.” She had been eyeballing the drink
menu earlier and was more than happy to take Ash up on his
offer.

He winked at her and headed to the bar.

Traevyn watched Ash walk away with a
disgruntled expression before he gave a slight huff and turned his
attention back to his brother. “Talis, when are you planning on
dragging us up to Flagstaff for this ridiculous sport
tomorrow?”

Talis shrugged. “I was thinking maybe around
noon or so.”

“Can we leave earlier and go to the Grand
Canyon? I’d like to show Evie.”

He nodded. “Sure. Everyone should see it at
least once.”

She grinned and held Traevyn’s gaze for a
moment before Ash returned with her drink. “Thank you,” she said
with a bright smile.

Ash flashed her his beautiful grin.

Evie bobbed her head in
time to the song that was currently being played, even though she
had no clue what it was. “I wish they’d play
Stairway to Heaven
,” she said to no
one in particular. “That’s my favorite.”

Seth frowned. “You like Led Zeppelin?”

“What’s wrong with Led Zeppelin?” she
asked.

He shrugged. “Well nothing, but it doesn’t
really go with your mood music and your Lenny Kravitz.”

Talis chuckled and Traevyn smiled.

Evie scowled at her brother. “Whatever.”

Suddenly, Ash, who had apparently gone
somewhere, sat back down and the musician said, “This song is for
the pretty girl in the pink shirt.”

Evie looked down at her
shirt, then blinked in bewilderment as
Stairway to Heaven
started to weave
its way through the restaurant. She looked over at Ash, who
winked at her again. She grinned.

Seth glanced from Ash to Evie and frowned.
Then he looked at Traevyn, who suddenly seemed to be rather
interested in the napkin on the table.

The rest of dinner went by pleasantly and
afterward everyone headed back to Talis’s house to unwind. It was
decided that everyone would go to sleep early since the Grand
Canyon was two hours away from Sedona and no one wanted to be
rushed the next morning.

Evie thought that Traevyn had been rather
quiet since dinner, but she didn’t say anything about it. Traevyn
was, after all, known to lapse into brooding silence every once in
awhile.

After Talis and Ash turned in for the night,
Traevyn pulled out the hide-a-bed where Seth fell asleep almost
instantly and started to snore. Traevyn and Evie exchanged a glance
and laughed softly.

“We have all these crazy pictures of him
when he was little,” Evie said. “He can fall asleep anywhere in
seconds. It’s always amazed me.” She spread a blanket across the
couch and tried to figure out where to put her pillow. Either way,
one end of her body was going to be really close to Traevyn’s face
since her part of the sectional was attached to the hide-a-bed. “Do
you want the feet or the head?” she asked.

He arched an eyebrow. “Well, I think the head
would be the best choice.”

She giggled and set her pillow down. She
went to brush her teeth and wash her face in the bathroom while
Traevyn changed, and she took her time getting into her pajamas and
going about her nightly routine.

When she was finished, she opened up the
door to see Ash standing on the other side in only a pair of blue
plaid pajama pants. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know
you were waiting.” She tried to keep from gaping at his perfect
upper body. Good lord, he was buff. Six pack and everything… She
could see his arm band tattoo now. It was some Celtic pattern and
he had a double bladed battle axe tattooed right in the middle of
his chest. Something about that was very sexy to her.

Ash smiled. “No, it’s okay. I wasn’t waiting
long.” He pointed to her pajamas, which were pink and had karate
chopping monkeys on the pants. The equally pink shirt had Girls
Kick Butt written across it. “Cute PJ’s,” he commented.

A faint blush touched her cheeks as she
looked down at them. She realized she wasn’t wearing a bra either,
which made her blush worse. She wasn’t worried about Traevyn. She
had been living with him for two months now, and she was usually in
her PJ’s when they spent their evenings together. She was
comfortable with him seeing her, but Ash was a complete stranger. A
hot stranger who had been flirting with her all night.

“Hey, the air conditioner panel is in the
kitchen,” he stated. “I know you guys live by the ocean so it’s
probably a heck of a lot cooler there at night. It gets pretty
sweltering here so if you need to turn it up, go ahead.”

She nodded. “Thanks.”

He grinned and maneuvered past her into the
bathroom. “See you tomorrow. If you need anything, just ask.”

She smiled and nodded again. He shut the door
and she turned to go back into the living room. Traevyn sat on the
edge of the bed, brushing out his shining hair. She grinned and
went to him. “Can I?” she questioned, holding her hand out.

He looked up at her and smiled. He handed her
the brush and turned his back to her. “Braid it, if you would,” he
said. “I don’t need it strangling you and Seth in your sleep.”

She giggled and gathered his thick mane in
her hands. She sighed as she began to brush it. “I love your hair,
Traevyn,” she commented. “It’s so beautiful.”

Her words sent warmth into his heart. “Thank
you.”

“It was what first caught my attention when I
saw you,” she continued. “I’d never seen a man with such long hair.
It was a surprise. That and the fact that you were towering over me
in such a menacing fashion.”

He chuckled. “I hated you that day, hated
you intruding on my solitude.” He shook his head. That seemed like
forever ago. He couldn’t fathom ever hating Evie now. She was the
only beautiful thing in his world. “Evie,” he said softly, “I can
never repay you for what you’ve done for me.”