Siren Song (21 page)

He also wore more make up than Lexi, with heavily charcoal-lined eyes and mascara, though he didn’t wear lipstick. Again, he pulled it off and still managed to look very male. It probably had something to do with the fact that he was nearly six feet of solid muscle and was too gorgeous and he had probably slept with a majority of the models he photographed. Or because she knew the man beneath the mask.

“
Dima’s right,” he laughed, lightly touching the corner of her mouth. “You do drool.”

“
I do not,” she protested, brushing her fingers over his as she ran her fingers over her lip to check. Cole laughed even harder making her scowl. Turning her head, she saw Dima and Ashley flirting with one another and she smiled, “Look at Dima; he’s positively smitten.”

Cole barely spared a glance at the couple, the sophisticated society girl and the handsome bartender. “He could find a willing woman at a wake.”

Lexi’s eyes sparkled with laughter as she snagged another glass of champagne, oddly nervous to have her photos unveiled with Duncan in such close proximity. Draining her second champagne and setting the glass down the tray of a passing waiter, she whispered, “I think I am going to sneak away and make my escape before you expose my pictures to the world; what was I thinking agreeing to be the model for your showcase?”

“
That you love me and you know that the photos will be stunning,” he grinned, his clear green eyes sparkling as he twined his fingers with hers. Bringing their hands up to his mouth, he kissed the tips of her fingers, and asked, “You haven’t peaked, have you, minx?”

“
I’ve been waiting for you.” In truth, she hadn’t had time to look at the pictures otherwise she would have stolen a peak. Pressing her hand against her rebelling stomach, she did a quick scan for Duncan and sighed with relief as she spotted him near the back of the crowd. He was watching her but he was keeping his distance; he might have even been far enough away to not be able to identify the model…. “Just like I promised.”

“
Ready?” He slowly started making his way through the crowd, ignoring anyone who wanted to snag his attention; his focus was entirely on his art and on his muse.

“
No.” She inhaled and slowly let the breath out, trying to calm her trembling nerves; she was not ready to get up there and stand next to Cole as he opened the curtain on her naked, gold-painted body. “Let’s just get this over with”

“
They’re phenomenal, Lexi; even more beautiful than I could have imagined,” he said earnestly, attempting to reassure her when it wasn’t the pictures she was worried about. “I was able to capture a bit of your inner siren and the results are simply magical.”

Lexi’s world shifted slightly beneath her feet at Cole’s words. “Inner… Siren?”

“
For lack of a better term,” he said with an unrepentant shrug. “When I put all of the pictures up, the only thing that filtered through my dazzled mind was the fact that you were a Siren hence the title of this collection is
Siren Song
.”

She looked at him with bewildered and slightly hurt eyes and he laughed, “Something so beautiful you know you are doomed if you follow yet you can’t help it so you follow anyway.”

Her stomach felt like it was lined with lead at Cole’s words, but she laughed, the action almost painful. “That’s me; a Siren luring all of the men to their destruction. I see how much you and Dima suffer with me in your lives. With you it’s all ‘Lexi, darling, I want to take pictures of you naked;’ or ‘Lexi, darling, I want to paint your naked body gold;’ or my favorite, ‘Lexi, darling, I want to exhibit your naked, gold-painted body to the world.’ No, I take it back; I’m the one who has been led astray.”

First one corner of his mouth quirked upwards and then the other; soon he was laughing at her, “You forget, Lexi, darling, that you followed me home.”

She heaved a dramatic sigh as her eyes twinkled up at him, “And I have suffered for it ever since. I do love you, you know.”

“
I do know,” Cole grinned, “Now let’s give your adoring public something to talk about.”

Lexi turned and she was staring out at a sea of faces, some familiar, many not. Pasting on a smile that gave no indication of the fear that was running through her brain and screaming at the top of its lungs, she felt Cole squeeze her hand in reassurance. Her sisters might love the spotlight but she still hated it, preferring the spotlight of a specific few. The only thing that made it bearable was the clothes she wore; the mask that gave her the freedom to be herself.

Cole released her hand and stepped in front of the burnished gold velvet curtain, addressing the gathering with a wide, friendly smile. “Welcome to my gallery and to my latest exhibit. I have been fortunate that most of my models were able to attend tonight, as many of you may be aware and as you can see, they are as gorgeous in real life as they are in print.”

The crowd chuckled and clapped appreciatively as Cole pointed out each model and briefly introduced them by name and which nearly naked picture was theirs. When he got to Dima, everyone in the crowd turned around and caught him in a passionate embrace with the red head. Her body was entwined around his as he held her thigh around his waist, as he held the back of her head with a possessive hand. They remained completely oblivious of the attention as Cole chuckled, “And perhaps after tonight I will have a new model to photograph if my roommate can find it within himself to get his tongue out of her throat.”

Lexi’s smile faltered as her gaze shifted and collided head on with Duncan’s; he hadn’t even looked at his date kissing another man. His attention was entirely upon her, intense and searing. The fluttering nerves shifted gear into heated desire and she had to squeeze her legs together to stop herself from walking up to him and possessing his lips in a similarly passionate embrace. Since she made the decision to give his memories back when their affair was over, she had become even more eager to make him break his rules. And she could tell just by looking at him that he was on the verge of breaking them.

Letting her fingers drift over her collar bone, she gave him a heated look filled with unspoken promises. The air around him seemed to thicken and then condense into a ball of lust as his eyes flashed silver. He looked poised to pounce on her and the thought had her red lips curling into a sultry smile.

The eerie sound of silence brought her back to Earth and she turned to see that Cole had opened the curtain, exposing her to the world. There were at least a dozen pictures of her on the wall and she had to admit that Cole was right; they were phenomenal. In all of the pictures, the lighting against the gold body paint made her appear ethereal and incredibly sensual. From the indent of her waist, to the smooth planes of her stomach, the bend of her knees, the curve of her ass, her body glowed in golden rapture.

In most of the pictures her face was obscured, hidden within the shadows, but three of them showed her face. The first was a frontal view with most of her hair piled up on top of her head, except for a few strands that made her look like she had just had sex. She was sitting on the ground leaning back on one arm; the other elbow was resting over her bent knee, the arm folded back so her hand was covering the nipple of her exposed breast. A thin strand of her gilded hair danced down her shoulder, drawing attention to the naked breast. Her head was turned to the side as her eyes flirted with the camera, the viewer.

The second was taken from behind with Lexi looking over her shoulder, giving the viewer a come-hither look. Her back was bare as the strand of gilded hair dangled, making the picture seem even sexier. And then there was the picture in the middle of them all, a close up of her face, without the gold paint. The image stared back as if she had a secret, the curve of her lips and the sparkle in her eyes making her look as if she was laughing at the world.

A low, rumbling growl broke the silence. Startled, Lexi looked around and saw Duncan staring at her pictures, his teeth clamped together and that delicious tic working itself into a fine frenzy in his cheek. He turned his head and she gasped at the possessive glare deep within his eyes, much further back that the surface. Fury and lust warred within those silver depths as he continued to stare at her. But then he seemed to remember himself and the powerful emotions faded until all that was left was amusement and desire.

With a slight smile, she made her way through the crowd, ignoring all of those who called out her name. Coming to a stop in front of the most scrumptious man in the room, she ran the back of her fingers along the rocky hewn edge of his jaw, breathing deeply of the midnight woods smell that he emitted. It was even more potent with the memory of strong emotions coursing through his blood. “Well?”

Gesturing to the wall of images without taking his eyes from her face, he ground out in equal measures of annoyance and arousal, “Did you do this for another one of your fluff pieces?”

She laughed out loud, drawing her fingers over his firm lips, feeling the puff of hot air as he exhaled. “No, I did this to support my friend.”

“
Do you get naked whenever they ask?”

“
It depends on why they’re asking.” Her hand moved over his cheek and she loved the heated silk of his shaven skin. With a delicate shrug of her shoulders, she twinkled at him, “You see, I do have other career options to fall back on.”

His jaw tensed until she thought he was going to break a tooth. Through clenched teeth, he seethed, “I don’t want you to pose naked for other men; I don’t want to share you.”

Her hand moved across his temple and she brushed her fingers through the black strands of his hair, around the shell of his ear. “You’re awfully possessive for someone you don’t want.”

His hand came over hers putting a halt to her explorations even as his gaze burned into hers, “Haven't we established that I do want you and that is the problem? Don't worry; I will figure out a way to get you out of my system, Miss Darling. I'm just not sure I want to even though I know that I must.”

“
But until you do, why don’t you give in – just a little?” she purred, twining her free hand around the back of his neck and plastering her body against his. Gazing up into his eyes, losing herself in the molten silver depths, she forgot her doubts, her concerns. And then his heated palm scalded the exposed skin of her midriff and she forget the world existed outside of his eyes. Clearing her throat, she smiled brightly and stepped out of his arms, missing his heat almost immediately, “I think we should get something to drink, maybe some water.”

After a moment he relaxed ever-so-slightly and offered his arm, which she gratefully took, considering how wobbly her legs became in the last few moments. “Anything Miss Darling wishes.”

“
Anything?’ she asked hopefully, absurdly pleased by the slight smile that graced his hard face. “Or are you just teasing me again?”

“
Miss Darling, I have the feeling that when you put your mind to something you don’t let anything hold you back. “His voice held a certain admiration that thrilled her to her bone. He chuckled suddenly and she looked up at him, mesmerized by the flash of white teeth and golden skin. Mesmerized by Duncan. “Do you know that when I first walked into the gallery I felt an oddly familiar punch-gut sensation and I knew you were near?”

He reached up and tweaked her wig, “And as soon as I saw the Bordeaux-colored wig I knew I had found you, to say nothing of the highly impractical dress and larger-than-life charm. I would recognize you anywhere, Miss Darling, in any disguise.”

She tilted her head down but was unable to wipe the silly grin from her face. If she wasn’t careful, she might find more to like about Duncan than his too-die-for body and killer smile. “I doubt you would have recognized me when I was a teenager; I was horribly gawky, with a too-skinny body and boring, plain brown hair.”

“
You’ve filled out rather nicely,” he commented, letting his eyes dip to her not very well concealed breasts before meeting her gaze. “Very nicely.”

“
You’re not so bad yourself, Mr. Tremain,” she teased, lightly bumping his hip with hers and missing because he was so much taller than her; she ended up hip-bumping his thigh. With a little giggle, she looked up at him, “I thought I was taller than that.”

“
When you wear five inch heels you are,” he said matter-of-factly "In reality, I think you’re about the same size as Ashley, maybe even a little shorter.”

“
Has anyone ever told you it’s rude to talk about past lovers with new lovers?” she asked, sticking her lower lip out in a feigned pout.

Touching the full bottom lip with the tip of his finger, he asked, “Has anyone ever told you it’s rude to pose naked for the world to see when your lover is a very jealous, very possessive beast?”

She laughed out loud at that; he wasn’t a beast and he wasn’t her lover; not yet. He grinned down at her, “You are utterly charming, Miss Darling, and I think that is far more dangerous than your provocative outfits and come-hither glances.”

“
You’re going to make me blush, Mr. Tremain.”

He cleared his throat and when she looked up at him, he looked faintly ill. “Uh, Miss Darling, I have to ask, where were you yesterday? Did my… behavior the day before keep you away?”

“
What?” she was dumb-founded by his question and it took her a moment to get past the emotional near-disaster of Thursday night to remember Thursday afternoon. And when she did, a slow mile spread across her face, “Not at all, Mr. Tremain; I simply wish you’d stop playing games and give in to madness.”