Everything You Need

Everything You Need

by

Evelyn Lyes

KINDLE EDITION

Sometimes you have to put your heart on the line.

Artist Ashton Langton makes no promises; women fall at his feet and he enjoys them without remembering their names the next day. Haunted by his past, he refuses to allow himself to get close to anyone, until he encounters Kris, the living image of his childhood sweetheart. He has to paint her, to sculpt her, to have her.

Against her better judgement, Kris Mayer accepts Ashton's request to model for him. The more time she spends with him, the more she falls for him, despite knowing their relationship can only last as long as her modelling job. When Kris tries to cut her ties to Ashton, he has no intention of letting her get away, ruining his plan to make her fall head over heels for him.

But fate intervenes, threatening not only their love, but also Ashton's life.

Copyright © 2014 Evelyn Lyes

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License Note:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting author’s work.

This book uses British spelling

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OTHER BOOKS BY EVELYN LYES

Everything You Need

Chapter 1

Kris pushed her hands deeper into the pockets of her jacket and lowered her head, her breath dampening the scarf she had tightly wrapped around her neck. She was almost there, one corner away from the coffee shop; Julia’s, it was called. Her step slowed down as she turned the corner and she lifted her head, her gaze directed at the coffee shop window.

She was lucky today. He was there, a wide-shouldered man, with black shoulder-length hair. He sat at the table by the window, absently gazing through the glass while his fingers played with the cup before him.

The first time she had noticed him was a month ago. There was something about him, something in the way he held himself, thoughtful and sad, as if he held the whole world on his shoulders.

The waitress came and stopped beside him, saying something.

The slouch of his shoulders disappeared, his eyelids dropped down and a seductive smile curved his mouth. He was beautiful, the same way wildcats were beautiful.

The waitress leaned over him and pushed out her chest.

It seemed that Kris wasn’t the only one who had noticed him. Too bad he wasn’t a patron of The Delight, the café she worked in; that way she would be able to gauge if he was as attractive up close as he looked from a distance.

His smile widened and he smoothed back the strands of hair that fell on his face and tucked them behind his ear. His eyes brushed past the waitress and through the window onto the street. It felt as if he was looking straight at her.

He probably wouldn’t notice her even if she stood before him. Kris smiled into her scarf and averted her gaze. Still smiling she passed the coffee shop and its window, but then somebody called her name and the smile she wore faded away.

A short, skinny man coming from the opposite direction waved as he hurried toward her.

She inwardly sighed and resignedly slowed down. She really wasn’t in the mood to talk right now, especially not with somebody who had never acknowledged her presence when they were schoolmates, only when he wanted something from her. How did he even recognize her when only her nose and eyes were visible between the hat and the scarf? She waved back to him. “Hey, Dan.”

“Kris, how are you? What are you doing here,” Dan asked.

“Going to work.”

“I wish I worked in the city too,” he said and then started to explain about his work and about the products they were selling.

She nervously shuffled her feet, waiting for a pause in his rambling that she could use to tell him that she was in a hurry and to say goodbye to him. But he just went on and on. “I’m sorry,” she interrupted him, “But I’m in a hurry, I have to go.” She took a step around him.

Dan grabbed her arm. “I was thinking, after work, we could meet and go for a drink. We haven’t seen each other since school, there’s a lot to catch up, and I can tell you more about my company’s products.”

“Well...” She searched for words to politely refuse his request.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting long,” a warm, slightly raspy male voice said from behind her, then a man stopped beside her, offering her a paper cup with a plastic lid. “Be careful; it’s hot.”

Automatically, she pulled her hand out from her pocket and wrapped her fingers around the cup, while her head turned sideways and up. Her eyes met with dark blue ones; their owner was the man she had just been watching a minute ago. He was even more handsome up close. Why was he here? “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled, the same flirty smile he had been giving the waitress, before his focus slid to Dan. “Your friend?”

“Yes, a schoolmate.”

Dan’s eyes darted between the black-haired man and Kris. “Who’s he?”

“Ashton.” The man pulled his glove off and stretched out his hand.

Dan observed the hand for a moment then took it and shook it. “Dan.” He frowned. “It was good meeting you, Kris. Take care.”

“Yes, you, too.” Kris watched Dan walk away before she faced the black-haired beauty beside her.

“I’ve seen him before,” Ashton said. “He has been bothering the girls I work with, trying to bully them into buying cosmetics or something.” He gave her another one of his charming smiles. “I thought he might be harassing you too.”

Yes, he really was handsome up close, very handsome, in the classic sense of Roman statues. She cleared her throat, hoping that her voice sounded normal as she spoke. “I think he was about to.” The scent of coffee drifted to her nose and she lowered her eyes to it. “Should I return this to you?”

“No, you can keep it. I’ll get another one.”

She nodded, pushed down her scarf, carefully pulled back the lid and took a small sip of pale brown liquid that looked like a latte. “It’s good.” She glanced up at him.

He was staring down at her, with his eyebrows furrowed. His dark eyes widened and the paleness that layered his skin made him look as if he was sick.

“Are you okay?”

He swallowed. “Yes.”

He didn’t look like it, even though colour was slowly returning to his cheeks. “Well, thank you, for your help and for this.” She hoisted up the paper cup.

“You are welcome.”

She nodded, gave him a small, shy smile and a ‘bye’ before she resumed her stroll.

“Wait!” He strode to her side.

“Yes?”

“What’s your name?”

“Kris.” Legally, it was Kristine, but nobody, not even her mother, ever used that name.

“Nice to meet you, Kris.” He offered her his hand.

She shifted the coffee cup into her left hand and without taking off her glove she wrapped her fingers around his. His hand was warm, she could feel it radiating through the wool of the glove, and the squeeze of his fingers was strong and gentle at the same time.

The sleeve of his jacket rose up and his watch peeked from under it, showing that it was fourteen minutes to eight.

She leaned over to see if she had seen it correctly. “I’m going to be late.” She released his hand. “Umm. I have to...”

“Yes.”

“Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome.”

A last glance at his gorgeous smile, a small nod of her head and then she was on her way, her boots thudding over the cobbled street. She felt his gaze on her back, and even though she was tempted to peek over her shoulder, to see if he really was watching her, she stared straight ahead as she rushed toward the coffee shop where she worked.

She needed forty-five minutes to get to work and, since she was late, she missed the customary morning coffee with her co-workers. She rushed directly into the locker room where she changed into a yellow T-shirt with ‘staff’’ written in black letters on the back, and wrapped a black apron around her middle.

“You’re never late,” Callie greeted her when Kris joined her behind the counter. “What happened?”

“Yeah.” A wayward strand of blond hair fell on Kris’s brow and she used a hair clip that she had in her pocket to tame it. “Do you remember that man I was telling you about?”

“The one you sometimes see on your way here?”

“Yes.” Kris took a glass pitcher from a shelf and filled it with water. “I had a close encounter with him today.” A smile found its way on her face. “He rescued me from an ex-schoolmate, who by the looks of things grew up to be a pushy salesman. I mean, I can understand that is hard to survive in today’s economy and that he is probably --”

“He?”

“Dan, my ex-schoolmate.” Kris set the pitcher on the tray beside the sink. “He’s probably just trying to make ends meet and he’s using every chance to do that, even if it that means leaving a bad first impression, but isn’t that a bad long-term strategy?”

“I thought you were going to tell me about ‘that man.’”

Kris, who was in the middle of setting the glasses on the tray beside the pitcher, turned to Callie. “There’s nothing much to tell, really. He came to my rescue --” not that she had really needed help, she would probably have listened to Dan, pretending to be interested, then slipped away at the first opportunity “-- because his co-workers had a bad experience with Dan and his forceful selling techniques.”

“That was nice of him.”

“Yes, it was.” It was a nice gesture, which wouldn’t repeat itself. Even though she knew his name now and he hers, nothing had changed; she would still gaze at him from a distance every time she noticed him in the coffee shop, and maybe even get a nod of acknowledgement in return, but that was all. Not that she wanted anything beyond that. She was a busy woman and, from her limited experience, men were a nuisance, the majority of them anyway. She couldn’t stop thinking about Ashton though, the way his blue eyes glittered down at her and the way his mouth curled up.

On her way home, she retraced her path from the morning and found herself searching for him, even though she had never seen him in Julia’s in the afternoons. She didn’t see him now either, and it left her with strange kind of disappointment.
So stupid.
She shook her head.

Her phone vibrated, which meant she had just gotten a text. Her mother, most likely. Without slowing down, she pulled the phone out of the handbag hanging across her chest, and checked the display. Yes, it was her mother and another list of things she wanted Kris to bring on her visit next Monday. Sighing, she shoved the phone back into her bag.

#

A soft sigh of disappointment left Kris’s throat. He was not there. She quickened her steps and pushed her chin deeper into the warmth of her scarf.

The door on her left opened and the man that came through it obstructed her path. “Hey,” he said, a wide smile playing on his face.

“Hi.” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

“I have something for you.” He offered her a cup.

She took it. “Thank you.”

“Are you on your way to work?”

She nodded and carefully took a sip of coffee, while her eyes glided over the words on the window display announcing that the space behind it was an art gallery.

“Shall we?” Another smile curled his mouth as he gestured forward.

She started to walk. “Are you planning to keep me company?”

“I might. I could use some exercise.”

She looked at his cup and then at the white puffs of fog made by each breath. “Is walking in the cold with coffee an exercise?”

He winked. “It could be, in the right company.”

He was flirting with her, and it was totally unexpected, but flattering and strange. It made her heart flutter like the wings of a butterfly caught in a net. She took a sip of her coffee, her gaze on the street before her, at the people that were, like her, wrapped in thick, warm clothes. Most of their gazes were lost in the distance or fixed on the ground as they rushed past her. “Who is the right company?”

“Right now? You are.”

She lowered her head and took another sip of her coffee to hide the warmth that crept into her cheeks and which must have been visible as a blush. He was quite a charmer and she didn’t know how to respond to his words, so she didn’t say anything, just waited for him to fill the silence.

“Am I coming on too strong? I’m sorry, I have been told that I can be too intense sometimes.”

She glanced up at him.

He gave her an apologetic upturn of his mouth. “Especially when I want something. You see, I’m an artist, a sculptor and a painter, and I would really like to use you as a model.”

“Me?” She stopped. “As a model?” But... she was so average and there was nothing special about her.

“Yes.”

Her eyebrows rose and she couldn’t help but ask, “Why?” If he really was a painter and in need of a model, with the way he looked, shouldn’t he have enough of girls lining up at his door for that?

“You probably don’t believe me, huh? But if you … I have a studio there, above the gallery.” He half-turned and with his chin gestured at the building from which he came. “I would just like to immortalise your face. First in clay and then maybe in stone.”

“Why?” she repeated her question.

“Why?” He pushed his woollen cap aside and shoved his fingers under it to rub his scalp. “Because there’s something about you that makes me want to create. Don’t look like that. I’m not some sort of a psychopath, I promise.”

“You haven’t even seen my face.” At least not properly, since a grey and white Chullo hat covered her forehead and a thick grey woollen scarf veiled her chin.

“I saw enough,” he said. “I’m aware that you don’t know me and it’s good that you’re cautious. You should be.”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t have to decide right away. Think about it.”

She took a drink of coffee. To be a model? Her? To the hottest man she had ever met?

“If you decide to, I will, of course, pay for your time.”