Dark Masterpiece (Serendipity Series 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

for her
sketchpad. She screamed when she saw Traevyn’s figure looming in
the doorway. Good lord! Where had he even come from? She put her
hand over her wildly pounding heart. “What, are you an assassin or
something?” she cried. “Make some noise the next time you decide to
sneak around!” Her eyes narrowed. “I’m leaving, all right? You
don’t have to stand guard.”
    He sighed and clasped his hands behind his
back. “Twenty an hour, once a week,” he stated. When she paused
from her erratic slinging of clothing into her suitcase, he met her
eyes. “Twenty-five if you can figure out what to do with the items
in my refrigerator every evening.”
    She stared at him, raising herself to her
full height in an attempt to make herself feel as less like a
midget as possible next to his towering frame. She regarded him for
a moment. His face was impassive. He waited for her answer
patiently, and she noticed something in his eyes as he stood there.
Something sad. Something lonely…. It did a funny thing to her
heart, and she felt her anger melt. She nodded slowly. “Deal.”
    He gave a curt nod. “Bring your portfolio to
me later tonight. I’d like to look at it.” He turned abruptly on
his heel and strode from the room.
    Evie sighed and slumped down on the foot of
her bed. Her head started to hurt. What was that? What had she seen
buried so deep within his eyes? It troubled her and she had no idea
why. She let out an irritated snort and shook her head. “Seth!” she
shouted. “Never mind! We’re staying!”
    “What?” he screeched from the other room.
“Oh, no way!”
    She lay back on the bed and stared up at the
ceiling. Well, at least she had access to the kitchen now. That was
a definite plus.
    “Evie!” Seth cried, flying into the room.
“Come on!”
    She sat up with a triumphant grin. “Fear not,
little brother. I just got me a job. Our dungeon master is paying
me twenty-five dollars an hour to clean his house once a week and
make dinner every night.”
    Seth frowned and folded his arms. “You come
on this trip to be an apprentice painter and end up being a
housekeeper? That’s degrading, Evie.”
    Her eyes widened. “Excuse me? Do I see you
rolling in the Benjamins right now? You want to keep eating cold
toaster pastries? ‘Cause I sure don’t.”
    “Fine, but still. I mean, what gives him the
right to treat you like a servant when he’s the one who volunteered
to take on an apprentice in the first place?”
    She shrugged. “Who cares? Don’t worry about
staying out of his way, either. You want to watch TV in the living
room? Go for it. You want to play your guitar? Do it. You can sit
in the middle of the hall and holler like Tarzan for all I care. If
we have to live here for three months, you can bet we’re not going
to do it like captives. He knew what he was signing on for. Let him
deal with it.”
    Seth smiled. “No
more Full House ?”
    “Not unless you want to keep having
dreams about Uncle Jesse.”
    “Well, he is a hottie.”
    Evie laughed.
    Seth chuckled and sat down on the bed next to
her. “What if he gets all bent out of shape and yells at me or
something?”
    She snorted. “He’d better not even try it.”
She grabbed her portfolio and started to sift through her sketches,
trying to decide which ones she should show the Master of the House
later that night.
     
    * * * *
     
    Her pictures never changed. Pictures never
did. They were meant to capture the feelings and sights of a
specific event or time. They remained unchanging, locked within
their perfection. And, try as he might, he could not help but lapse
back into the emotions of old every time he looked at them. He
didn’t know why he tortured himself so much. He was a
masochist.
    With a heavy, weary sigh, he set the
pictures aside and went to the French doors in his office. He could
see the ocean crashing against the nearby cliffs and wanted
suddenly, more than anything, to hear the thunderous sound. He
pushed open