Kaitlyn walked away, moving toward his
paintings in the back, uncovering the nude again. "I
love this painting. Please put it out at the fundraiser."
Brett's lips set in a firm, straight line, he shook his head.
She felt the temper boiling within him, knew she'd made him
angry. But she wasn't going to back away. If challenging him
was what it took to get him to feel life inside himself again,
she'd do it. No matter what it cost her.
"You can't hide forever. And you
can't walk away from your talent."
Wrenching the sheet from her hands, he
recovered the painting. "Stop
trying to psychoanalyze me, Kaitlyn. I don't need or want your
attention. Do you understand?"
More than he gave her credit for. If
he thought he'd hurt her feelings by pushing her away, he
was wrong. But an idea
had formed. Risky, but still might work. "Fine. I'll abide
by your wishes." She turned away and selected another
painting that had caught her eye. "I'll take this one
for the lobby."
"Good. I'll have these delivered
tomorrow."
"Fine." She grabbed her purse and waited outside
the storage room door while he locked it and led her down the
hallway. Before they stepped through the doors and back into
the reception area, she turned to him, halting his progress. "I
have a question."
His gaze wary, he nodded. "Go ahead."
"Who else paints nudes around here?
A good local artist."
"John Grayson and Mitchell Walker
do the best contemporary nude artwork in the state."
"Good. Can I get their phone numbers?"
Arching a brow, he asked, "I can
arrange to have some of their nudes brought in here. You
don't need to contact them
directly."
Here's where she hoped her gamble paid
off. "This isn't
about the fundraiser. I've fallen madly in love with that nude
you painted in there. I understand you don't want to sell it,
but I've always wanted to own a nude. I think I'd like to have
one specially created for my own personal gallery."
"Do you have a particular model
in mind, or does it matter?"
"Oh I definitely have a model in
mind."
He frowned. "Who?"
Smiling, she said, "Me, of course.
I want to commission an artist to paint me."
Brett gazed at Kaitlyn's innocent look, his whole body rigid
at the thought of someone painting her nude. And why the hell
hadn't she asked him to paint her?
Because you'd refuse and she knows that, you moron . Still,
she'd specifically asked for someone else.
Someone else besides him. "Why in
the hell would you want to do that?"
She arched a brow and crossed her arms. "Is
there something wrong with my body? Is it hideous? Deformed?
Do you think some
artist will lose his lunch if I stripped naked in front of
him?"
He caught the teasing glint in her eyes,
but refused to respond with the truth. "Not what I meant
at all. It's just that.some women.well, most women, actually.don't
want to.you know."
"Pose naked in front of a strange
man?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"It's for art, Brett. I'm not posing
for a men's magazine. You've painted nudes before. Did you
ever get a sexual thrill
from it?"
"No." Then again, he'd never
painted Kaitlyn. Well that wasn't entirely true. But he'd
never painted her while
she was in the room naked. God knows he'd fantasized about
it, though. Plenty of times. His fantasy of her was vivid enough.
"Then I'm not the least bit worried
about a stranger painting me nude. Now are you going to get
those numbers for
me?"
Did he have a good reason not to give her the numbers? Other
than he didn't want her naked body showing up for sale in some
art gallery.
But her naked body didn't belong to him.
