Complementary Colors Read Online Free PDF Page A

you back.” People said things like that all the time but never meant it. “If you don’t feel comfortable being alone with me, I’ll take you to dinner.”
    I fingered the collar of his shirt. “I think we’re way past being uncomfortable together.”
    He dropped his gaze and ran a hand over his head. “Yeah, I guess we are.”
    “Go home, Roy.” I pecked him on the cheek. “Back to your world where you’ll be safe from me.”
    A V appeared on his forehead. “I don’t understand.”
    “There’s a limo downstairs. The driver’s name is Jerry. Tell him I said to drive you home.”
    “Thank you.” Roy kissed my palm, then the elevator doors closed between us.
    Over the years, a few men wanted to see me again for another quicky, but not because they wanted to take me to dinner. And I’m pretty sure “thank you” never crossed their minds.
    I picked up my wallet from the floor and slid his card inside. I don’t know why because I’d never see him again.
    I left it on the workbench while I gathered up my clothes. As I stood, I caught Julia in my periphery. The section canvas frame she wielded struck me across the shoulder and a blast of pain numbed my arm. She aimed the second swing at my head, but I turned and my shoulder took the brunt of the impact. Sharp colored agony ripped across my chest. A crack echoed through the studio, and I fell on my side. She tossed aside the broken stretcher bar.
    “Get up.” Julia grabbed a jar off my workbench and threw it. I shielded my face from the explosion of glass and mineral spirits. “I said get up, Paris.”
    I knew better. It only took once for me to learn the consequences of any action Julia could interpret as aggression. And thanks to a stack of papers and my medical history, no one would ever believe I’d acted in self-defense.
    A trickle of mineral spirits burned a line down my cheek. I wipe it away. Splinters of glass stuck to my skin, but there wasn’t much blood.
    “Fine. Stay there. Being on your knees is about all you’re good for anyhow.” She picked up her purse from the couch. “You have a dinner party tomorrow evening so get your shit together. Here.” She tossed a bottle of pills at me. They bounced off the floor and rolled to a stop near my head. “Make sure to take them. I need you presentable. Your next showing will be in two weeks at the Avalon. Andrew Davis is going to be there. He’s interested in the Blue Madonna, and you will do whatever it takes to make him happy. I swear to you, Paris, if you bail and cost me this sale, I will break your leg.” Bits of glass crunched to dust under Julia’s high heels. The elevator doors closed, and I was alone.

Chapter Two
    The light from the neighboring buildings drew outlines around the curtains and left highlights across my body, creating a ghostly image in the mirror above my bed.
    “I want to see you again.” The echo of Roy’s voice created ripples of color across the static of black. Normally nightmares kept me awake, not the memory of man’s touch, the scent of his flesh, or how he looked at me.
    The weight those thoughts created in my chest wasn’t unfamiliar only forgotten. Then in that moment, there in the solitude, a sliver of happiness rose through years of darkness and neared the surface. A precious memory from a time before the screaming inside my head spilled out into the world. Sometimes it was like that, and those rare pieces of my past were treasures that gave me a reason to live.
    I had to have it.
    Every thump of my foot on the stairs fed the tide of yellows, reds, and oranges. Green followed me across the studio while ribbons of gold connected everything. The need for the brush in my hand burned hotter than carnal desires.
    There were a half dozen canvases lined up on a shelf, most of them as wide as I was tall. Nothing I pulled from my thoughts could be contained on a smaller field.
    I grabbed a clean palette and filled it with the rainbow droppings of brutalized