Artfully Yours (22 page)

“Since when?” Alex popped the top off his beer.

“Read your email, buddy. Trust me.”

For ten minutes, he didn’t read the email. Then he flipped the iPad face up, and swiped to the mail program.

Knew you’d do it
, he read in the latest mail subject line.
Article attached.

Alex slumped on the couch and read it.

He’d been expecting Stephanie to show up on his doorstep any minute since Gabe had warned of her imminent arrival. But apparently, Stephanie wasn’t coming.

Apparently, she’d found a more interesting angle for her article than a string of furious no-comments from him. She didn’t need him at all. Not now that she had an exclusive interview with Alex Zacharov’s mystery muse, small-town nurse Elizabeth Finley. Along with pictures, some of Elle looking cute and uncomfortable, some old ones of him, and
damn it, Justine
, some sneaky shots of his new pieces that he could date from the day she’d come to visit.

The woman Gabe was talking about, the woman supposed to arrive any minute, wasn’t Stephanie.

When the knock sounded on his door, he nearly fell over Gargoyle as they both raced to it. He snatched it open. “
Elle.
”

“Hi, Alex, I—”

He framed her face in his hands, held her still, and just plundered her with a kiss. She wrestled him back a step.
Fuck, did I read this wrong?
She kicked the door shut behind her and hauled him back down.
Nope. Not wrong.
He curved over her, sliding his hands into the deep indent of her waist, mouth a furious demand over hers. Inch by slow inch, he dragged her up his body, lifting her off her feet to align them. She drew her legs up, locked them around his waist.

“Take it you read the article?” she managed to get out when he gave her a brief chance to breathe.

“Mmm.”

“Like it?”

“
Mmm.
”

“Good. It’s not the final one obviously, it’s more of a mock-up, because I wasn’t going to make you wait until it was published,” she said, ducking to one side and shivering when he kissed her neck instead. “Stephanie was so helpful, I’ve promised her another one.”

At this, he bit down. Not very gently, either.

Elle yelped, curled a hand around the back of his neck, and directed him back to her lips. She kissed him again, then said, “Next one is scheduled for when you do your big show. Installation. Premier? I don’t know what I should call it. Anyway, this time we have to do the interview together. With photographs.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“I’m assuming you’re good with that?”

He pulled away long enough to grin at her. He didn’t even try to hide the hunger behind the grin.

“Yeah,” she said, looking shaken. “You’re good with that. I guess before I jump into the spotlight as your muse, I need a crash course on art appreciation? Because, you know. I’d hate to embarrass us both in front of everyone.”

Alex glanced at the computer, then eased her away from the wall, hands firm on her butt as he walked them through the living room.

“Where are we going? The bedroom’s that way.”

“Taking you out to the barn.”

“Oh.” She sounded disappointed. “You’re going to educate me on metal sculpture right now?”

“We can do that,” he said. “Later, though. Things I want to do to you first.”

About the author

Isabel North writes contemporary romance fiction. She is a huge fan of the genre, and after many years writing for children and young adults, she decided to write what she most enjoys reading.
Artfully Yours
is her first novella, available now on Amazon.

You can find Isabel on Amazon or her website:

www.isabelnorthauthor.wordpress.com.