Fixer: A Bad Boy Romance (39 page)

"It's you," he said, his hand still flying over the page and adding more charcoal lines.

"What?" That couldn't be me. The figure on the page, although without limbs or a head, was the image of a lush goddess, the kind of primal figure that would make savage tribes in the Amazon jungle drop to their knees in worship. "No, it's not."

He put aside the sketch, rising up and stepping forward. His hands reached out again for my hips, drawing me in closer. "It's you."

I started to shake my head again, but instead made the mistake of looking up into his dark eyes.

They paralyzed me.

I'd always wondered why, on those nature shows, the mouse or the gazelle froze when it looked at the face of the lion. "Run, you fool!" I'd shout at the television, gesturing furiously to the prey animal. "Don't just stand there - run! Get out of there before you get eaten!" I didn't understand why they just remained frozen in place.

Now, I understood, as I felt that same paralysis seize me. Onyx's gaze swept over me, holding me in place and freezing me, disconnecting my brain from any sort of conscious motor control. He drew me towards him, his hands sliding up from my hips, pushing up at the hem of my shirt and lighting my skin on fire as they slid up and pressed in against me.

"It's how I see you," he murmured down to me, those lips of his still quirked up in the slightest of smiles.

His hands kept on sliding up, up past my waist and pushing my shirt higher. It rose up, caught briefly at my bra, but then cleared it as it kept moving up into my armpits. I wasn't consciously helping him to undress me, but I let it happen, leaning in towards him, my lips slightly parted. I swear that his fingers only slid over the clasp at the back of my bra before it parted, seemingly of its own volition.

"Onyx," I whispered, but I didn't know what else to say, didn't want to be speaking at all.

He drew me in, and I gasped as my body pressed against his. He didn't give an inch, acting like I weighed nothing. Maybe I felt like a feather to him, compared to the blocks of stone that he hauled around and carved. His hand slid up to below my chin, guiding my lips up.

I met him, my white skin against his darker tones, melting against him as he kissed me.

Chapter Eighteen

*

Onyx didn't kiss quite like how I'd expected.

I saw him as so strong, so powerful, that I expected his kiss to hit me like a raging flood. I expected him to be fierce, to sweep me off my feet and claim me, already moving towards his bed where he could take me, impatient and wanting the kill.

Instead, he was softer, more gentle with me - at least at first. He drew me to him, but he didn't force me, instead letting me explore his lips with my own, letting me gently part my own lips so that his tongue could gain entrance, so that he could taste me. His hand tightened against my hip to draw me in, but his lips remained soft, gentle, taking their time with me and exulting in each new inch gained.

We broke apart, my breath coming heavily in little gasps. He, meanwhile, didn't seem the slightest bit perturbed, and still wore that faint little hint of a smile, its ghost dancing around the edges of his lips.

"I definitely shouldn't be doing this," I murmured to him, making no move to remove myself from his arms, not even trying to catch the straps of my bra as they slowly but surely slid down off of my shoulders.

"Rebecca," Onyx murmured back, still smiling a little.

He didn't say anything more. He didn't need to say anything more.

He drew me in again, this time kissing with a bit more force, hungry for me. His hands rose up, and peeled my shirt easily off of me. With the shirt gone, my bra had nothing left to offer it support, and it slid off of my shoulders, falling away. For a moment, I hesitated, but he drew me to him and his hands pressed in against me, and I remembered that sketch, how he looked at me.

The bra landed along with my shirt down on the floor, leaving me bare from the waist up.

Onyx kissed me again, but this time moved his head sideways. His lips walked their way along my chin, along my neck, down across my newly bared shoulder. His hand slid up my side, up to caress the fullness of one of my breasts in his palm, and my breath caught in my throat as he held me. He slid his thumb ever so lightly across its surface, brushing very gently over my nipple, and I nearly cried out at how agonizingly good that touch felt.

"Bad," I breathed out again, my brain clinging to that word even as the rest of conscious thought dissolved away. I knew that I shouldn't be doing this, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember why.

"You won't feel that way soon," he murmured up to me, even as he bit down softly on my neck. I gasped again, my back arching slightly, and he pulled me towards him. He'd moved back, his ass now resting against his workbench, and he pulled me up to straddle his thighs, his leg separating mine. I rubbed against it, driven almost mindless, as he pulled me forward, his arms around my back and keeping me from tumbling backwards.

Onyx bent down over me, kissing lower, down across his chest. I looked down at him - just in time to see his lips run over my breast, down to draw my nipple into his mouth.

Oh god. Oh my fucking god.

Had Barry, even on our wedding night, ever made me feel so good? Onyx didn't just kiss me, didn't just paw at me like Barry had done, like a squirrel eager to get at the nut. No, this man was clearly a master of romance, and he teased me along, making me gasp and moan and almost break down and beg for him to do it, to take me, to blow my mind and make me lose myself forever in him.

"More," I breathed out, and he hauled me in closer, kissing at me. He didn't care about any imperfections in my skin, about how my breasts weren't perfect, how they sagged like normal skin instead of floating and defying gravity like those of a porn star. He loved my form, and he promised me that he would make me lose myself in ecstasy.

But even still, I couldn't quite let it happen. As much as I wanted this, as much as my body cried out for it, I couldn't quite relax and give in.

"No," I finally managed to force out from between gritted teeth, leaning back and struggling to disentangle my arms from around his neck, from where my fingers had knotted themselves into his thick midnight black hair. "No, I can't."

Onyx just looked at me, slowly releasing me so that I didn't go tumbling back onto my ass. He didn't say anything, but I sensed that he was waiting for an explanation.

"It's too early, too soon," I stammered out, unsure if I could even sufficiently explain myself. "I'm still trying to get my divorce over and done with, the last matters settled - and besides, you're one of the clients of the gallery, and this is a huge breach of business ethics. We shouldn't do this."

Of course, I knew that those same excuses could apply to Carter. Sleeping with a customer, or even flirting and kissing a customer, was surely just as bad as flirting with and kissing one of the artists.

I almost wished that Onyx would protest. That would make it easier for me to leave, at least, for me to say that maybe we didn't belong together. If he yelled at me or tried to draw me back in, I could tell myself that we weren't right together, that he turned out to be an ass after all, just hidden under a great body.

But instead, he nodded and bent down to pick up my clothes from where they'd landed on the floor. I saw his muscles bunch and shift beneath the thin, tight fabric of his shirt, and I lifted up one knuckle to my mouth so that I could bite down on it to keep from crying out that I took it all back, that he could do whatever he wanted with my body.

"Inspiration," he said to me as he passed me my shirt.

"What about it?"

He grinned, now, flashing those brilliantly white teeth. "You've definitely given me plenty."

I couldn't help but smile back, even as I stuck my hand out. "Good, glad I could serve as your muse. Now, hand it over."

"Hand what over?"

"My bra," I said, pointing at the article in question, still in his hand. "I need that if I'm going to walk out of here."

He glanced over at the bra in his hand, as if he hadn't realized it was there. "You need it if you're going to leave? Maybe I should hang onto it, then. It would be a nice trophy, I think."

"Gimme!" I demanded, lunging forward and swiping at it.

Onyx, of course, easily evaded me, and I had to clasp one arm against my chest as my bare breasts bounced back and forth. "Come on," I ordered, aware that the balance of power was most definitely shifted away from me. "Give it over!"

Finally, he returned my undergarment to me, although he made sure to get a nice, long look at my bare chest. "You look much better without it."

"Yeah, well, tell that to the general public," I answered, pulling it back on and covering up my chest before he could snatch it away again. "Now, will you let me take some pictures of the big stone dick, or are you going to try and seduce me again before I can get out of here?"

My words didn't dissuade him. "If I try, will it work?"

"No," I hastily lied.

Onyx didn't say anything else, letting me get dressed, but the twinkle in his eyes told me that he knew I was lying. Hastily, I pulled my shirt back on, despite knowing how easily this man could, if he so chose, charm me right out of it again.

I got my camera and took several more pictures of the big stone penis carving, doing my best to capture it in all its, er, glory, without getting too much else in the background. Onyx didn't say anything, but watched me as I worked; I could feel his eyes resting on me. He was probably undressing me and doing all sorts of deliciously wonderful things to me in his head, I thought to myself, wishing that he could be doing them to me in real life.

But no, I'd taken my stance. My damn morality had interjected and ruined the hottest hookup I'd ever come close to having.

After I got these pictures, I needed a drink, or maybe two or three, to help me forget about the incredibly sexy, mind-blowing encounter that I'd just turned down.

"Okay, I think that about does it," I said finally, straightening up and tucking my camera back away in my purse. "I'll email these to the buyer and see if he's interested."

"Right." Onyx crept in closer towards me, a panther stalking its prey.

Don't look at him in the eyes, I told myself. He'll catch you again, paralyze you like a gazelle staring down a lion. "I should be going, then," I stammered out, trying to back towards the door while keeping myself turned towards Onyx in case he decided to pounce on me.

He swept forward, and even though I faced him, I couldn't evade, didn't even try. He pulled me into his arms, bent my chin up and gave me a heavy kiss that nearly melted my clothes right off my body.

"I'll be seeing you again soon, my muse," he whispered into my ear as his hand caressed my breast, making my nipple pop out and grow hard even through my shirt and bra. The man had to be some sort of voodoo magician, I swore.

I left the warehouse before he could do anything more to seduce me, growling down at my breasts to calm themselves, to not make me go back in there. "I'll let him suck on you again! That will teach you a lesson," I murmured down to them, although I considered a second later that this might be entirely the wrong lesson to impart to them.

Still, I'd made it outside. I took in a deep breath of the cooler afternoon air, the sun dropping down towards the tops of the buildings at the horizon. Just get out of here, go send off those pictures, I told myself. Then I could relax.

I pulled my phone out of my purse as I headed back over to where I'd parked my truck, near the gallery. "Portia, it's me," I said, as soon as my best friend answered her phone. "You up for some wine tonight? I've got to tell you about what just happened to me."

I smiled as Portia enthusiastically assured me that she was free, that she'd head right over to Vini. "No, it's not about the money - although yes, I do have news on that front too, maybe," I told her. "It's a guy thing."

I winced and held the phone another inch further away from my ear, trying to not blow out my eardrum from her squeal. "I just have to send some pictures by email, and then I'll meet you there and tell you everything," I promised. "But I'm keeping you in suspense until then."

I hung up on her before she could wheedle the truth out of me and grinned, remembering the warmth and passion of Onyx's lips on mine. The man might work with stone, but he most definitely wasn't made of the same stuff! I remembered how he'd pulled me up against him, his thigh parting my legs, and bit my lip.

I needed to get this divorce fully resolved, pronto, I told myself, or else I was likely to die any minute of unsatisfied sexual frustration!

Chapter Nineteen

*

"Oh my god! Becca, you lucky bitch!"

Several other patrons at Vini glanced around in annoyance as Portia shouted out, but my best friend didn't even notice their glares. She slapped one hand on the table, and I hurriedly scooped up my glass of wine to avoid a spill.

"How the hell did you pull this off?" she demanded. "You've got not one, but two guys both after you, both of them sexy and promising to do all sorts of amazing things to your body? And why haven't you slept with at least one of them yet?"