Selling Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 1) (23 page)

Of course, Carter had also crossed paths with a couple women who enthusiastically insisted that the artist worked from an excellent real-life model, but he really, really didn't want to think about that. Especially not now, here, with the man himself standing beside him.

"The flagship of my series," Onyx murmured, perhaps the only one not intimidated by the size of his art. "I almost broke down this block for smaller pieces, but the lines were so perfect, so well defined, I had to give them shape. It practically shaped itself; I just wielded the hammer and chisel, but the sculpture was inside the stone the whole time."

"Uh huh." Carter nodded along, not really listening. Damn, the thing even had what looked like a little bead of sweat running down the shaft!

Or at least, he hoped that it was supposed to just be sweat.

"It looks bigger in person," Robert Albrecht commented, standing on Carter's other side. "I mean, I saw the pictures, but I didn't realize that it would be this, well..."

"Big," Carter finished the buyer's sentence for him. "And it's all yours, buddy."

Albrecht turned towards Carter, although he needed to put in a little more effort to pull his eyes away from the statue. "Yeah, thanks to you. You do realize that this is a big cost even for me, right?"

"I told you, this makes us even," Carter said, but the older man shook head.

"No, more than even. What possessed you to call me up and insist that I really ought to buy this piece, that you'd see it as a huge favor?"

Carter didn't reply, but Albrecht kept on looking at him, still frowning. "It's the girl, isn't it?" he finally asked. "That's why?"

Distinctly aware of Onyx listening in to the entire conversation, Carter shook his head. "Honestly, I think that the piece would be a great fit for you, Robert," he lied, turning and patting the older real estate millionaire on the shoulder. "Come on, right out in front of your house, maybe with a fountain nearby - can't you just see it?"

Albrecht just made a low noise in the back of his throat. "I guess it could work, if it's understated enough," he allowed.

"That's the spirit. Now, why don't you go outside and see if the movers are ready to bring the forklift in and get this thing loaded up and off to your house?"

Albrecht didn't look especially cheery, but he did as Carter suggested, heading for the exit from Onyx's studio. At least, Carter thought to himself, Onyx had a roll-up garage door so that the forklift could come in and pick the sculpture up directly, instead of requiring the efforts of several sweaty, muscled men to haul it out to a truck.

With Albrecht gone, Onyx sidled a step closer to Carter, still looking at the statue as if recollecting how he'd carved the thing. "I couldn't help but overhear," he said softly.

"That's too bad," Carter fired back, but Onyx didn't even blink.

"And I also remember hearing how, without a big sale, one just like this, Rebecca Grace would be in serious financial trouble."

"Really? I didn't know anything about that," Carter said, lying through his teeth. He risked a glance sidelong over at Onyx, and saw the other man smiling ever so slightly, showing just the smallest glint of his white teeth against his light brown skin.

"And then, at the eleventh hour, the notoriously flighty and unpredictable millionaire Robert Albrecht decides to commit to a purchase, saving her from all those money woes that were about to sweep Rebecca away."

"Sometimes, people get lucky."

"Sometimes," Onyx agreed, but he didn't sound convinced in the slightest.

The two men stood there for another minute, both of them looking at the giant black stone cock on the pallet. Distantly, from outside the warehouse, Carter heard the rumble of the forklift's engine turning over.

"You've invited her over to the studio a couple times," Carter said after another minute of silence.

He glanced sideways at Onyx to see if these words provoked a reaction, but if they did, the artist did a good job of hiding them. "She's come over and viewed some of my pieces."

"I bet." Normally, Carter considered himself pretty adept at reading others, but Onyx proved more challenging than most; the man's face might as well have been carved from the same stone that he used to create his sculptures. A little voice told him that it might be best to hold his tongue here, but he plunged on regardless. "You know, she spent last night with me."

"The whole night?"

"Well, no, not the whole night," he answered, stung a little that Onyx managed to ask the one question capable of deflating his story somewhat. "But the time we did spend together was quite... intimate."

That last word hung in the air between the two men for a minute, both of them feeling it out and getting a sense for it.

"The game's not won yet," Onyx finally said. "This is just the first quarter. She might come to her senses at some point."

"Or she already has," Carter countered, but he didn't exactly like the thought of what challenges might lay ahead. For someone like Onyx, with a legitimate reason to keep on showing up at the gallery, and his obvious, almost overwhelming sex appeal... the man literally carved dicks for a living, by god!

Another minute passed, both of the men carefully not saying anything. Carter caught the rumble of the garage door to Onyx's studio lifting up, as the forklift finally headed in to come and collect the pallet. From here, Carter knew, it would be loaded up into the back of an enclosed truck, and then the forklift itself would be rolled up onto the back of another truck. Both trucks would head over to Albrecht's mansion, where the process would run in reverse. Finally, once Albrecht had decided where he wanted to proudly display his newest art acquisition, the sculpture would carefully be removed from the pallet so that it could settle into its new, more permanent home.

"I'm fronting her the money for the commission on this sale," Carter said, as they moved aside to give the forklift operator room to maneuver his vehicle forward. "She's very appreciative."

Was that a wince that he saw for an instant on Onyx's face? "Mixing money and emotion is never a good idea," he replied, but he didn't sound quite relaxed and confident as before.

Carter just shrugged, feeling like he'd scored a point.

Of course, he told himself, this whole thing is ridiculous. There was no need for the two of them, both professionals, both of them adults, to be fighting over a young woman like a couple of boys tussling in mud on the playground.

The forklift headed forward, but then paused and backed up again, the driver of the machine trying to determine the best way to approach with the prongs to slide them into the corresponding holes on the pallet. Onyx cleared his throat, coughing as the machine stirred up some rock dust from the cement floor.

"So, she's gotten things settled with that ex-husband of hers, then?" he asked.

"Doing it today. I dropped off her check, and she said she'd be heading over to finalize matters with him during her lunch break." Carter thought about adding that he'd also brought her lunch, the leftovers from their date the night before, but decided that he didn't need to bother tightening that particular screw any further.

"Good." Onyx paused, looking down at one hand and watching his fingers as they curled into a fist, and then relaxed. "I've heard of the guy."

This surprised Carter, and he turned and looked at Onyx with his eyebrows raised. "Really? Barry? How do you know him?"

Onyx shrugged, frowning a little. "He's a dentist. I needed a dentist."

"What?" A wild thought popped into Carter's head. "Wait, this wasn't recent, was it? You didn't go to try and scope out the enemy or something-"

The artist turned and raised a single eyebrow. Carter snapped his mouth shut mid-sentence, feeling like a bit of an idiot for jumping to the assumption.

"It was before I met Rebecca," Onyx went on after a minute. The forklift's prongs were now under the pallet, and the machine groaned as it began lifting the wooden square and its heavy, delicate weight up off of the ground. "I needed some dental work. I saw an advertisement for his practice, gave it a try."

"And?"

Onyx winced, lifting one hand and pressing it briefly against his jaw. "Not the dentist that I'd recommend."

It might be petty, but this fact made Carter grin with a hint of savagery. "Good. He sounded like an ass."

"Yeah."

The two men lapsed once again into silence. They both followed after the forklift as, its payload now raised a foot or so off the ground, it turned around and trundled back towards the garage door, out to the waiting trucks. Laden down with its load, the machine's engine strained to keep up a decent head of speed, and the two men were easily able to keep pace as they walked along.

It really was ridiculous for the two of them to be fighting like this, Carter reiterated to himself. After all, they'd worked together, and the relationship benefited both of them - Carter would recommend one of Onyx's pieces if it seemed suitable for one of the properties he needed to move, and Onyx mentioned Carter if he talked to any buyers who needed a real estate agent. They'd never exactly been close, barely more than professional acquaintances, but they'd built a comfortable relationship, in their own way.

And now, with Becca suddenly inserting herself in their equation, the whole thing had slid sideways. They were squabbling with each other, as if Becca was a prize up for grabs. After all, he reminded himself, the choice was ultimately in her hands. They could both be charming, and in the end, Becca would make whatever choice she decided was best.

But she's damn well going to pick me, he growled privately to himself, inside his own head.

"Well, that's that," Carter said as they stood outside in the sunlight, watching as the forklift released the statue and pallet carefully inside the covered truck. "I'm riding along, helping Albrecht make sure that the piece looks good at his mansion."

"Front and center," Onyx echoed back Carter's earlier words, not even bothering to disguise his smirk this time. "Hope that favor was worth it."

"Just one of my many favors that others owe me," Carter responded, stung by this dig. "And you're one of those people, if my memory serves me correctly. Maybe, someday, I'll call in the one that you owe me."

Onyx didn't respond to that one, and although the darker man's face remained expressionless, Carter still chalked this up as another point for himself. Wanting to duck out while still ahead, he headed towards his car.

Behind him, Onyx stood implacably, watching the real estate agent leave. Normally, he wasn't a competitive fellow, but something about Carter just rubbed him the wrong way. The real estate agent was cocky, convinced that he was God's gift to women, that he could easily charm Becca.

Not that Onyx didn't consider his own abilities with the ladies. Still, something about Becca made him detest the idea of her settling down with Carter. Of course, Onyx wasn't about to do anything stupid, but Becca Grace... He remembered how she'd gasped at the sight of his pieces, but even as her eyes went wide, reached out to touch the stone. She had a spark of bright curiosity about her, one that had somehow survived from childhood into adulthood so far. She deserved to be nurtured and loved, not breezily used.

Something about Carter just seemed too breezy, too casual.

After a moment more of watching the trucks drive away, Onyx headed back into his studio. He could always swing by the Halesford Gallery again at some point, he considered to himself. Last time, he'd nearly convinced Becca to come out and pose for him, let him use her as a model for his next set of pieces.

Maybe he should go offer her that invitation again. After all, the choice was ultimately hers - the breezy, overly casual real estate agent, or a mysterious and supremely gifted artist, one who worked with his hands every single day?

In the end, Onyx told himself, she's going to end up picking me.

Up above the two men, high in the sky, the sun shone down brightly on Davis, bathing the city in its warmth and energy. The day was a perfect one, not a cloud in the sky - full of promise and opportunity.

* * *

The End - for now...

Keep reading to see what's next for Becca and her friends in the Art of Grace Series, Book 2:

Sculpting Grace

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SCULPTING GRACE

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Chapter One

*

Wandering down the little streets, occasionally hearing the click of a bicycle as it sped past in the bike lane beside her, April Henderson couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so happy, so content. This little town of Davis had turned out to be an even better cute little vacation spot than she'd imagined when she signed up for the two-day trip!