Brian: I really liked the sculpture I saw at your gallery. I’d love to see some more of your work.
Piper: Maybe you will. [[Wink emoji]]
Brian: Maybe?
Piper: I mainly do commissions. This piece is a gift for a collaborator that I worked with for a charity auction.
Brian: Which one?
Piper: Habitat’s Boots & Boas at the end of the month.
Brian: I have a table. Want to join me?
Yes, she thought. But was she being too impulsive? Her mind tried to reiterate all the reasons she’d been listing since she’d first danced with him about why spending time with him was a bad idea, but she pushed them aside. Piper had realized in her mid-thirties that she regretted the things she didn’t do more than those she actually did. She had the feeling she’d always regret not going with Brian. Plus maybe she could information from him to help her family.
Piper: Yes. I have to get to bed now. Talk to you later about the art for your building.
Brian: I wish you didn’t have to go. Good night, Piper.
Piper: Good night.
She put her phone down and went to shower before she did something impulsive like invite him over. There was still too much standing between the two of them for her to be this interested in him. She knew it, but she pointedly ignored that part. And besides, it wasn’t as if this flirtation could develop into anything serious anyway. She was just going to take what she could with him and let that be enough.
He was fun and attractive. And, damn, the man was ripped. Piper never would have guessed that underneath his perfectly cut suits he was in such magnificent shape. She’d been trying very hard to forget what he’d looked like with his shirt off, but as she drifted off to sleep that night her dreams were filled with him naked and moving seductively over her.
Piper had been in and out of his offices for the last week, and Brian had caught a few glimpses of her but there hadn’t been time to talk. He’d had a case that should have been handled in mediation go to court and it had been a hell of a fight. He was ready for Friday night when he walked into his office and saw Piper hanging a portrait on his wall.
She had on a flowy white blouse with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows and a pair of leather pants that made her legs seem even longer than he had noticed them being before. A few locks of her short dark hair were tucked behind one ear.
“Who’s there? Tony?” she asked. “Come help me with this. I should have waited—”
“It’s Brian,” he said, hurrying to her side and taking the weight of the painting from her. “I got this.”
Her cinnamony perfume made him think of Thanksgiving and family. But the brush of her hip against his thigh conjured images of a long night spent burning up the sheets. He felt the portrait tremble in his hands, and he forced himself to get his urges under control. Shifting the portrait, he felt for the hooks on the wall and settled it onto them.
She turned toward him, her green eyes glazed with lust, and he realized that he was reaching the end of his rope. It felt like he’d waited years for her and right now, as she stood so close to him, smelling of cinnamon and looking like the only thing he’d ever wanted, he needed to kiss her. To taste her full mouth and see if the passion he’d felt from the moment they’d met was real or just a figment of his imagination.
The door was open, and he didn’t want her to feel pressured so he took a step back and stumbled over the small toolbox he hadn’t realized she’d left on the floor. She reached for him, her hand grabbing his forearm as he steadied himself, drawing her off balance. He caught her easily with one arm around her waist.
She put her hand on his chest and their eyes met. Something unspoken passed between them. Both of them were wary of pushing this and losing the chance of friendship. Or at least that was his concern.
“Thanks,” he said. “Sorry for being so clumsy.”
She didn’t step back but stayed where she was with her hand on his chest. “I think we both know that you aren’t clumsy.”
“I feel like it around you. I seem to lose all my chill with you, Piper.”
She shook her head, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, which made him close his eyes so he wouldn’t be so focused on her mouth. He wanted to kiss her. Needed to, actually. He literally felt like if he didn’t put his mouth on hers, he’d stop breathing, which he knew was ridiculous.
But with his eyes closed, the touch of her hand on his chest and the scent of her was stronger than his rapidly waning self-control. He was surrounded by Piper Holloway. The woman he couldn’t stop thinking about. The woman he’d promised himself he’d let set the pace. He had to get away. He let go of her, opened his eyes and moved away from her. She watched him go and then wrapped her arms around her waist, turning to look at the portrait she’d hung.
He did the same. Anything to draw his attention from her lithe body and her sensual mouth. The portrait was a surprise. It was a version of the corporate photograph that he’d had taken earlier in the year. But this oil painting had somehow captured his energy and passion. He looked like a man who would conquer anything.
“Who did this?”
“I did,” she said softly. “I hope you don’t mind. If you hate it, I’ll take it down.”
“I love it. You flatter me with your rendition of me. But I wish I was that man,” he said.
“You are that man, Brian. I was going to just hang the picture you had taken for the law journal but then... I haven’t been sleeping and somehow found myself at the canvas. Anyway, this is a gift and not part of the commission to decorate the building.”
He moved closer. Was this how she saw him? He hadn’t been paying attention to her words but then they sank in. “I’m paying for it. I should have thought to have you do this earlier. But I hadn’t seen any of your work.”
He’d had the feeling she didn’t want him to see her work and now he understood why. There was something very intimate about the way she’d painted him. And she’d revealed a bit of herself in the work as much as she had stripped away his outer layers, showcasing parts of him that he’d shown to her in conversations.
She’d really captured what he hoped to be. But it was an idealized version of him. Could he be that guy? Did he even want to be? She’d somehow seen through the outer man to the person he truly was.
Brian wasn’t too sure he liked it. He didn’t want anyone to see him this way—it made him feel vulnerable and he didn’t want to be. But maybe that was because she made him feel that way? And perhaps, deep down, a part of him hungered to live up to what she saw in him.
“It’s interesting. I like it,” he said, knowing he couldn’t say that she’d seen him in away that made him feel vulnerable.