Brush Strokes Read Online Free PDF Page A

Tanya. Wow.”
    His arm wrapped around her waist and
she settled into his touch before realizing what they were doing.
The move, his closeness was so natural. That he complimented her
work didn’t hurt, either.
    Neither did the presence of his nudity
against her clothed body.
    “ It’s not finished yet,”
she said, more so for some distraction from his heat.
    “ No,” he agreed, “but
you’re right. You’ve grown since you started this piece and I can
tell the difference with what you’ve done already.”
    His jaw brushed hers when he spoke. It
took every effort to not imagine what the slightly rough feel of
his face might feel like against other sensitive parts of her body.
In between her spread thighs, for instance… “I have you to thank
for a lot of that.”
    “ Oh?”
    “ I don’t think I’ll ever
forget yesterday,” she replied slowly, softly.
    “ Me neither.” His thumb
made some very delicious circles beneath the denim of her overalls,
right over the thin slip of t-shirt covering her belly. Between his
touch and his proximity, she could have curled her toes in bliss.
If he could elicit that reaction with her clothing on, for heaven’s
sake, what could he do when nothing separated them? Hell, she’d
never noticed when his hand slipped between her clothing. Odder
still, his removal of it when he shifted away left a mild ache.
“I’m starving. How about you?”
    She shook her head. “I’ll eat later. I
need to work now. Take five though.”
    He stopped. “When’s the last time you
had something to eat?”
    “ I had some coffee this
morning.”
    The corner of his mouth edged up. “No,
I mean real food.”
    If a bowl of cold cereal counted,
she’d eaten early last night. “Dinner yesterday.”
    “ It’s past four in the
afternoon and the last time you ate was almost twenty-four hours
ago?”
    “ I guess.” Put that way, it
sounded so criminal.
    His face set into a look of distaste.
Reaching down, he retrieved his pants from the floor and then
slipped into them. “You have until I come back to work some more.
Then you and I are both taking a break to eat something. You mind
if I pillage your fridge?”
    Oh shit. “Joe, it just struck me that
today’s Wednesday.”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ I can’t pay you for today.
You’ll have to take tomorrow off to balance it out.”
    “ We’ll work something out
later, okay?”
    “ But—”
    “ I can either go out and
get something for us to eat or we can eat what’s here. What’ll it
be?”
    The abrupt change in topic distracted
her for a nanosecond from the state of her dwindling finances.
Reimbursing him for food expenses went beyond her budget. “Uh,
here’s fine. There’s some fruit or something around.”
    “ Good. Then I’ll be back in
a few.”
    In her mind, she captured a snapshot
of his retreating form for later use. Perhaps an in-motion painting
that immortalized his smooth stride. For now, though, she’d better
pay attention to what rested in front of her.
    The painting wasn’t bad. Actually, to
use Joe’s words, it was amazing. Not complete yet, but a few more
hours and she might get it there. His insistence that she learn
what he felt like paid off in spades. The subtle changes in
texture, the depth of feeling that existed now hadn’t been evident
more than five hours ago. Granted, her work could always use
improvement, but the difference between now and then was like night
and day. He’d inspired her in thirty minutes with something she
hadn’t grasped in three years of free-lancing.
    As if he’d heard her thoughts, he
stepped through the doorway with a plate balanced in his hand. A
simple cloth napkin covered its surface. She’d have to lift it to
see what he’d come up with for them to snack on. Tanya reached out
when he approached, intent on helping him out, but Joe pulled the
plate away.
    “ Not yet,” he tsked. “I
want you to come with me.”
    She cocked an eyebrow at that and
utilized his earlier one word