Chapter 17
Dane
I wasn’t sure why in the hell I’d switched the painting I was working on, but I had more focus on what was in front of me now.
It was another seascape, in oil this time, and something I hadn’t really practiced since my mentor, a master at sea paintings, had left the island to go back home.
I was more comfortable with oils, but I wasn’t so sure about the subject of my work. I didn’t do real pictures. I did abstract emotions. But for some reason, working on the perfect sunset over the ocean drew me.
Strangely, I was learning that I could pour emotions out on canvas with any subject. The scene I was painting was dark, the ocean churning with waves and a burnish brightness of the setting sun over a dark and angry sea.
Hell, that was kind of the way I was feeling. Kenzie was the light, and I was the tempestuous ocean. All I really wanted to do was sink down into her like the setting sun.
“Shit!” I cursed, realizing that everything I was painting depicted what I wanted in real life. “She’s driving me crazy.”
Kenzie had left the kitchen this morning and washed off all of her makeup, an action that had my complete approval. Her skin was beautiful and perfect, her nearly invisible scars a symbol of how much she’d been through in her past.
I told her life hadn’t been fair, and it was especially true in her case. How did one person live through her shitty childhood, and equally crappy adult life?
It wasn’t hard to believe she’d had modeling aspirations. She was fucking gorgeous, even with the blemishes on her face. Washing off the makeup did nothing to curb my urges to pin her up against the wall and take exactly what my cock was clamoring to get.
I wanted her to experience hundreds of kinds of pleasure, all of them taught by me.
“I’m never going to survive this,” I told myself as I stood in my studio examining what I’d done so far on my current project. “She’ll kill me.”
I knew I sure as hell wasn’t going to be able to stop touching her. Knowing she felt a similar attraction didn’t help me, either. All it did was make it harder not to try to get her into my bed. I wanted more than just her body. With Kenzie, I wanted every part of her, and that scared the hell out of me.
Seeing her every day, having another person I liked to talk to was slowly beginning to change me. Whether that was good or bad was still undetermined. But it felt good. It felt right having Kenzie here, and I wasn’t going to ignore something that had helped me start to regain my sanity again.
So much time on the Cay alone had been starting to get to me. Hell, maybe I’d started to lose my mind a long time ago, but I hadn’t really given a damn because I hadn’t wanted to be vulnerable.
“Dane?” a hesitant voice called softly from the door of my studio.
I turned to see Kenzie standing at the door, backlit by the bright sunshine. “Yeah?”
She smiled at me as she said, “Steph is ready to take your last painting. I just need you to sign the contract.”
“I’ll do it when I get back to the house,” I agreed.
“Okay,” she muttered, then turned to leave again.
“Wait!” I demanded.
“I don’t want to disturb you,” she said.
Damned if that sweet, feminine tone didn’t get my dick harder than it already was just from seeing her beautiful face.
“You’re not bothering me,” I confessed. “I think I’m done for the day.”
Once I saw her, I didn’t want to unsee her. Kenzie was an addiction, and I never seemed to get enough of her uplifting presence.
Seeing her smile had just made my damn day.
“Can I see it?” she asked curiously, waving her hand toward my current work.
“Yeah,” I consented. “I still have a lot to do. I was working on something different, but I’m not in a place where I want to finish it, so I’m working on another canvas.”
She moved closer, and the scent of coconut and heat invaded my nostrils. I breathed in deeply, then let out the air slowly, savoring the smell of Kenzie.
“Oh, my God. It’s…amazing.” Her breathless expression made me want to reach out and wrap my arms around her waist so I could feel her soft, curvy body plastered to mine.
“I’m hoping I’ll see another sunset like last night,” I told her. “I didn’t take a camera for pictures.”
“I love it,” she said as she cocked her head to examine what I’d done. “It’s raw and beautiful.”
“Then it’s yours once it’s done,” I stated.
Maybe having some of my work would give Kenzie some kind of security. I didn’t give a damn what she did with it. If she needed the money someday, she could sell the stupid thing.
She gasped. “No, Dane. I could never accept that kind of gift. Your paintings get at least seven figures. And this one is unique.”
“I don’t give a damn about the money. I never have. Keep it, or sell it. I don’t care. But I am giving it to you as a gift. When’s your birthday?”
She hesitated before she answered, “Next month. The sixteenth.”
“Mine, too,” I confided. “The fifteenth. I’ll be twenty-six. So you can take it as a birthday gift. How old?”
“Twenty-six,” she replied.
“I’m one day older than you are.”
“I’m not taking your painting,” she denied. “It’s incredible enough that I get to look at them.”
She’d take the painting, and any future work she wanted. But I didn’t feel like arguing with her right now.
“Do something with me?” I asked in a tone that sounded more like a command. “Let’s celebrate our birthdays together.”
I could argue with her about the paintings later.
“Sebastian called. He and Paige are getting married the day before your birthday. Paige wants me to stand up with her as her maid of honor.”
“Do you want to go?” I asked.
“Yes. I’m really honored that she wants me to be in her wedding. Sebastian wants you to be in it, too.”
She frowned, emphasizing the small crinkle between her eyebrows when she did.
I let out an exasperated sigh. “Okay. But we go out after and celebrate. It’s a damn miracle that you made it to your twenty-sixth birthday.”
She let out a startled laugh. “I guess maybe it is. Thank you so much. I don’t want to miss my best friend’s wedding.”
I knew she was sincere. Kenzie was the type of woman who would be there for a friend, even though life hadn’t been particularly kind to her.
“It’s not like I wasn’t going anyway,” I shared.
“But you thought about skipping it,” she answered.
“How did you know?”
“Because the longer you avoid something, the harder it is to fix. You haven’t seen your family for over a year.”
“I’ll see them at the wedding,” I grumbled.
“It’s going to be a gorgeous ceremony,” she said excitedly. “Eva and Paige have been planning this for weeks.”
“Did you want to be in on the planning?” I hated to think I was keeping her away from something she wanted to do.
She shook her head. “I already see it because Paige and I conference with video online.”
I was relieved. I didn’t want to have to be there early, but if Kenzie really wanted to go for the planning, I’d do it. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to see her smiling like she was right now.
“Will your jet make it to Hawaii?” she asked uneasily.
“Of course. Do you want to go to Hawaii?” I was confused because I thought we were talking about Denver and the wedding.
“The wedding is being planned there. Since it’s still going to be cold in Denver, Paige decided to have the ceremony in Maui.”
“Sebastian will probably like that,” I told her. “It’s one of his old hangouts.”
“Do you like it?”
“I haven’t been there since I was a kid. My dad used to take me scuba diving all over the world. I started when I was eleven. I was a junior diver before I certified when I turned fifteen,” I told her, my chest aching over the hobby that my dad and I had enthusiastically shared. They were good memories, but not necessarily easy to recall because I no longer had my parent to share it with.
“Do you still dive?”
I smirked at her. “I’m in one of the best dive areas in the world on a private island. Yeah, I go out as much as I can.”
“I’ve always wanted to learn,” she told me in a wistful voice.
“Then I’ll teach you.”
“You will?” She looked dumbfounded.
“Can you snorkel? We might want to start there and work you into scuba diving when you’re comfortable.”
“I have a confession to make,” she said solemnly.
“What?”
“I can’t really swim very well.”
I shrugged, filing the information away so that I was always near her when she was in the water. “Then we make you a stronger swimmer before the snorkeling.”
A childlike excitement lit up her expression. “Really? I’d love that.”
“Can you work the time into my busy schedule?” I told her with a grin.
“Yes, Mr. Walker,” she shot back at me with humor in her voice.
Holy hell. I was pretty sure I’d do just about anything to keep her smiling like she was right now.
Kenzie had occasionally appeared kind of melancholy and uptight for a few days after she’d arrived on the island. I was guessing that the prospect of not having a job had dented her optimism. I didn’t ever want to see her tense and worried again.
I wasn’t prepared when she suddenly leaped forward and careened into my chest.
Luckily, my reflexes were quick, and I snaked my arms around her. And dammit, she felt so fucking good that I didn’t want her to pull away again.
“Thank you, Dane. Thank you so much,” she whispered loudly next to my ear.
“Not like it’s exactly difficult or a hardship to go diving. We’re kind of surrounded by water,” I teased.
“I know you aren’t thrilled about traveling, but you’ll love the wedding. I promise.”
Her tone was so earnest that I didn’t want to disappoint her, so I didn’t say anything.
To be truthful, I probably would love the trip to Hawaii if she was there next to me. Her needs were rapidly becoming more important than my fear of the outside world.
I gritted my teeth as her sensual body rubbed against mine. Shit! What I wouldn’t give to be doing this without clothing between us. I wanted to explore her incredible body, and take my time doing it.
“I really don’t mind all that much,” I said as I buried my face in her hair. The feel and the scent of her drove me crazy. Maybe I was a closet masochist, but I couldn’t let her go.
“You were always planning on going,” she accused as she pulled her head back to look up at me.
“I was,” I confirmed. “My brothers are probably only going to get married once. I want to be there. I’m shocked that Sebastian has settled down at all.”
“Paige loves him,” she said. “I hope he’s good to her.”
There was no doubt that Sebastian was going to treat Paige like she was a queen. He adored her, and I knew he’d put his past behind him. “He was a player. But since he met Paige, I don’t think he’s even thought about another woman. He’s reformed.”
“I’m the last one to talk about past mistakes,” she shared. “As long as he sees what he has now, I’m good with that.”
“Nothing that happened to you was your fault, Kenzie,” I assured her.
“I feel like an idiot at times. I’m going to be twenty-six and I haven’t accomplished much.”
“Don’t,” I rumbled. The last thing I ever wanted for Kenzie was regret. Her life had sucked until the present, and I was going to make damn sure she never knew another unhappy day in her life if I could avoid it.
Much to my displeasure, she pulled away from me. “I’m sorry I interrupted you.”
I shrugged. “You didn’t. Like I said, I’m done for the day.”
“Can I use your studio for an hour or two?”
“Of course. I told you that you could.” I thought for a moment before I added, “But only if you let me see your work.”
I didn’t care about her technical skills. I wanted to see her doing something that made her happy.
“I don’t have anything with me that’s even started. I’m mostly just doing sketches right now.”
“I have the perfect place for you to start,” I said as I started to clean my brushes.
“You do?” she answered, sounding confused.
I washed my hands and dried them with a paper towel. “Let’s go. I have something to show you.”
I took her hand and led her to the house, hoping I could make her smile one more time today.