Her Alpha Avengers [The Hot Millionaires #7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

Like hell you do!
“Ethan, this conversation is getting tired. I’ve got an agent, my buddy handles my investments, and that’s all I need.” The door opened, and Sabine came in, Mulligan at her heels. “Hi, darlin’,” Gabe said, deliberately loud enough for Ethan to hear. “I’ll be right with you.”

“Darlin’?” Gabe suppressed a chuckle, well able to imagine his brother’s suspicious frown. “You got a lady there?”

“Not just any lady, Ethan,
the
lady. Now I’ve really got to go.”

He cut the connection, feeling that he’d finally gotten the better of his brother.

“
The
lady?” Sabine asked, quirking a brow.

“Sorry. That was my brother, and I couldn’t resist giving him a fright.”

“How so?”

Gabe chuckled. “He’s always trying to make me feel guilty about my success by playing the family card. How much I owe them, they’re my flesh and blood, dah de dah. If he thinks I have a ‘love interest,’” he said, making quotation marks round the words
love interest,
“then he might back off a bit.”

“Or descend upon you to check me out.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think of that.” Gabe flashed a brief smile, watching as the dog nosed about the studio, found nothing that interested him, and curled up in a patch of sun for a snooze. “Problem is, you see, his not-so-subtle reminders of where I came from tend to work.”

“But Otto mentioned that your family didn’t give you any support in the early days. Why should you care what they think now?”

“They didn’t, and I look after them financially, but it’s not enough for my brothers. They’re always trying to find ways to get me to agree to have them with me in some unnecessary capacity or other.”

“They want to leave Kansas?”

“There’s nothing stopping them if they want to start over somewhere else. There are plenty of opportunities out there. They don’t need to sponge from me. Besides, it would cramp my style to have them around. We’ve never been close and never will be.”

“Then tell them so.”

Gabe managed a wry grin. “I should, I know that. I have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, but every time I talk to one of them, that’s how I end up feeling. You walking through the door just when you did was perfect timing. I never have been able to tell Ethan to back off before, and it felt good.”

“Then I was glad to be of help.” She walked up to him and placed a delicate kiss on his lips. “You absolutely shouldn’t let them get to you.”

“You’re right, I shouldn’t.”

“You were so relaxed earlier, and now you look angry and preoccupied.”

“Yeah, they manage to do that to me as well.”

“Then fight back.”

“I just did, thanks to you.” Gabe’s thoughts briefly turned to his art. He was anxious to get on with it but for once had an even greater priority. “Come here,” he said, pulling her into his arms.

Gabe turned Sabine’s delicate kiss into something that meant business. He savoured the taste of her as his tongue swept across her lush mouth and the flickering flame of his lust turned into an out-of-control bushfire. He pulled her closer, her soft breasts colliding with his bare chest, just the thin fabric of her vest and bra preventing the skin-to-skin contact he so craved but didn’t dare risk. She kissed him back with raw carnality, her mouth warm and mobile beneath his, demonstrating just how willing she was to explore her sexuality.

Reluctantly, he broke the kiss, aware that if he didn’t stop this right now, not much work would get done this morning.

“We need to get started,” he said.

“All right. Where do you want me?”

Gabe chuckled. “Not a sensible question to ask me right now,” he said, pointing to the bulge in the front of his shorts.

“Sorry.”

“So am I,” he said. “But we do need to get to work. The light’s best up here in the mornings. Take your clothes off, babe, and let me look at you.”

* * * *

So this was it, Sabine thought. She was about to get naked in front of a man for reasons other than having sex. To her astonishment, she felt no embarrassment as she pulled her vest over her head and unfastened her shorts. Having had sex with both Fin and Otto in quick succession, she could no longer claim to be shy or unaware what she was getting herself into when she came up here to be with Gabe.

Except that it seemed his art came before everything else. He clearly wanted her—his erection was too pronounced to leave her in any doubt about that—but he was more focused on his work. She wouldn’t take offence over that. Everyone knew that artists had tunnel vision.

She glanced at him as she reached to unfasten her bra. He was watching her with unnerving stillness, an approving expression in his eye. But was he seeing her as a woman or as a challenging commission to be approached with originality and flair? She threw her bra aside with reckless abandon and slid her panties down her legs.

“Now what happens?” she asked, standing in front of him, trying not to think about her belly being too round or her tits not being as large as she’d like.

Gabe emitted a strangled moan. “Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got one hell of a body?”

“Are you speaking as an artist or as a man?”

“Both. You’ll be a sensation on canvas, you just mark my words.”

“I’ll settle for being someone’s sensation in real life.”
Damn, that came out all wrong. I sound like I’m fishing for compliments.

Gabe looked surprised. “I took that as a given.”

He strolled round her, examining every inch of her as though she were an item for sale in a shop window and he was looking for flaws. Well, he didn’t need to look too closely to find plenty of those on her body. She wanted to make some quip but could tell that she’d lost his attention. He was away in some artistic stratosphere where she couldn’t reach him. Sabine stood where she was, feeling exposed and vulnerable as she waited for him to say that he’d made a mistake and that the whole idea had been stupid.

Another part of her brain willed him to settle her nerves by expressing his approval, even if he didn’t mean it. Her nipples had solidified, which had nothing to do with the cool temperature in the air-conditioned room. The glint in his eye as he examined her sent wild sensations ricocheting through her body. He hadn’t even touched her yet,
and
she’d been thoroughly fucked by his two buddies just the day before. Even so, her pussy was up for another bout and let her know it by leaking down her thigh. How embarrassing was that?

“Do you like dragonflies?” he asked, breaking the intense silence between them.

“Dragonflies?”
What’s he talking about?

“Yes, you know, those pretty things that live near ponds.”

“I know what a dragonfly is. What I don’t understand is why you’re asking.”

“You’d look great as a dragonfly.”

“Thanks.” Sabine folded her arms resentfully beneath her breasts, a bit miffed. “Is that the best you can do by way of a compliment?”

“I’m gonna paint your body—”

“So you’re going through with that. I thought you were joking and would just want to paint me in the nude.”

“Nah, it’s been done to death.” He flashed an enthusiastic smile that she couldn’t help returning. “Dragonflies are beautiful. Did you know that they have large, multifaceted eyes?” He touched one of her nipples with the tip of a finger. “These would make amazing eyes. That’s what made me think of it. They have two pairs of strong, transparent wings that I could paint over and below your tits, and an elongated body that would start between them and head toward your cunt.”

“Go on,” she said, turned on by the fervour in his expression.

“They have six legs, and I could elongate them so that they reached to your pussy, sort of like they were guarding the gates to heaven.” He tilted his head and continued to examine her. “Dragonflies can be all sorts of colours, but I see you in greens and blues.”

“All right, but is it safe to use paint on human skin?”

“It is now. The stuff I’ll use is nontoxic and nonallergenic.”

“How long will it stay on for?”

“About ten hours, give or take.” He smiled a full-wattage sexy smile that increased the seepage between her legs. “What do you say? You up for it?”

“Yes, okay.” What else could she say? “So you’ll paint me first and then paint my painted body onto canvas.” She giggled at the clumsiness of her words. “Won’t that take longer than ten hours?”

“Yeah, but I’ll take a ton of pictures of you once I’ve painted your body and finish off the canvas that way.” He rummaged about, finding what he needed to get started. “You ready?”

“I guess. How will you apply the paint to my body?”

“A combination of hands, brush, and sea sponge.”

Good, she’d finally get to have his hands on her body. He quickly became absorbed in his work, not seeming to notice how turned on she became by the touch of the brush in her most intimate places. Sabine stood as still as she could, and Gabe worked quickly, with confidence, doing what he did best and being naturally creative.

“I need a razor,” he said when he tried to paint the first leg over her pubis. “Your pubic hair’s growing back.”

He disappeared into an adjoining room—a bathroom, presumably—and returned with a razor and shaving cream. He applied the cream all over her pussy and gently shaved away the near-invisible growth of hair. It was the sexiest moment of Sabine’s entire life. She was desperate to be fucked, but Gabe was fully concentrated on his task and didn’t seem to be similarly afflicted. Except that he was. He was tenting his shorts again but obviously didn’t want anything—not even the need to fuck her—to get in the way of his art. Damn it, why couldn’t he take a break from being an artist and let his masculine tendencies dominate for a while?

“Okay, that’s better,” he said, wiping her newly shaven pussy dry. “Now for those legs.”

When he’d finished his dragonfly he turned her toward a mirror.

“What do you think, babe?”

She gasped. “It’s amazing,” she said, meaning it. “You’ve turned me into something really beautiful.”

“You
are
beautiful,” he said. “Never doubt it, but there’s something missing.” He frowned as he stood back and examined her. “Your shoulders and upper arms need to be the backdrop for the dragonfly.”

He rummaged about some more and then set to work with a sponge. It didn’t take him long to create a pond scene with water lilies spilling down her arms and soft, rippling water flowing across her upper chest. The effect was stunning.

“I feel like I’m looking at someone else inside my own body,” she said. “I wish it didn’t have to wash off so soon.”

Gabe smiled as he snapped away from all angles with a digital camera. “Glad you like it.”

“I do. You are so talented.”

“Thanks.” He put the camera aside. “Right, now I need you to pose for a while. I’ll get the bare bones down on canvas and then finish it from the pictures.” He led her to a chaise. “Sit in the corner of that, darlin’, drape one arm along its back so that the pond extends, and spread your legs wide so I can see what the dragonfly’s legs are guarding.”

“Yes, sir.”

He stood back and examined her, then stepped forward and released a few strands of her long hair from the clip holding it on top of her head.

“Yeah, that does it.”

He seemed to forget about her as he set up his easel and assembled his paints. He did a few bold brushstrokes but then stopped and frowned.

“Something’s still not right,” he said.

“What is it?”

“Your expression.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

Gabe rubbed his chin, regarding her closely as he tried to figure out what was missing. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I can’t help the way I look.”

“I need you to appear more secretive, so that anyone looking at the canvas will wonder what you’re thinking about or what you’ve just done.”

“I’m not sure if I can—”

“I need the
cat that got the cream
expression.”

Sabine flashed a radiant smile. “Then give me the cream,” she said.

Gabe groaned. He never should have said that. He’d only managed to resist her for this long because absolutely nothing—not even her sinfully tempting naked body or the shimmering frustration that he longed to eradicate from her eye—came between him and his art.

“Not a good idea,” he said, trying to sound like he meant it.

“Why not?”

Now he’d made matters worse because she thought he wasn’t attracted to her. Hell, he’d been walking around with a raging hard-on, fighting that attraction all morning. She obviously didn’t understand how obsessive artists could be when inspiration struck.

“Like I said, the light.”
Geez, how lame is that?

“The light’s no good to you if I don’t look right.” A flare of provoking laughter slipped past her lips. She had him, and they both knew it. “If you don’t want to help me find it, perhaps Fin or Otto would do the honours.”