Ian

by Kate Hoffmann

  For a long moment, she waited, knowing that if she wanted to stop now, she could. But that was as far as her control went, just a casual thought and nothing more. His erection brushed against her damp entrance and Marisol’s need overwhelmed her. Slowly, she lowered herself, burying him inch by delicious inch, deep inside of her, in one long, sensuous movement.

  There was just enough light to watch his face, to see the odd mixture of pain and pleasure etched across it. This was what she had wanted from the moment she’d set eyes on Ian Quinn, but now that she had it-had him-Marisol was afraid to move, afraid that the reality wouldn’t live up to her fantasies.

  Ian grabbed her hips and silently begged her to keep still. But she rocked forward to kiss him and he slipped out of her. Marisol sighed as she sank down on top of him again, acutely aware of every sound, his breathing, the low moans he made as she moved, the crickets chirping and the waves against the concrete apron of the boat landing.

  “Wait,” he murmured, holding her back again. “Slower.”

  She sat up, then tipped her face into the moonlight. He filled her so completely, so perfectly that with every stroke, he brought her closer to the edge. She reached down and grabbed the hem of her dress and pulled it up over her head, the warm breeze caressing her naked skin.

  Ian let out a long slow breath and stared at her, his expression cast in dark shadows and soft light. He reached between them and touched her and Marisol moved again, this time more carefully, so they could both enjoy the pleasure they were giving each other.

  As she drove him deep inside her, Marisol let go of conscious thought and focused on the desire building. Instinct took over and she moved toward it with a single-minded urgency, pulling Ian along with her. And then, in a split second, she was there on the edge. She opened her eyes and looked down at him, only to find his gaze fixed on her face.

  Like a wave washing over her, knocking her off her feet, the pleasure was nearly unbearable. A spasm rocked her body and she arched against him and Ian joined her, holding her still as he came. It had taken so little time, yet Marisol had never experienced such a powerful reaction with a man.

  Their orgasms seemed to last forever, Ian shuddering beneath her until he was completely spent. He threw his arms over his head and groaned softly as she continued to move. Then Marisol collapsed on his chest, her fingers and toes tingling and her mind hazy.

  Ian raked his fingers through her hair, pulling it away from her face so he could kiss her forehead. “Are you all right?” he asked, his heart thudding wildly beneath her ear.

  “Mmm,” Marisol murmured. “I’m perfect.”

  He stared up at the sky, slowly stroking her back. “You are,” he whispered. “Perfect for me.”

  Marisol pushed up on her elbow and dropped a gentle kiss on his lips. “If I ask you something, will you promise to say yes?”

  “Yes,” Ian said. “Now tell me what I’ve agreed to.”

  “I want you to pose for me. I want to sculpt you. Will you do that?”

  “Will I have to take my clothes off?”

  “Of course,” Marisol said.

  “All right. But only if you agree to take your clothes off, too.”

  “I’m not sure we’d get a lot done if we were both naked.”

  Ian chuckled and ran his finger along her bottom lip. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that. We seem to do our best work with our clothes off.”

  MARISOL STOOD in front of the easel, staring at the canvas, a stream of sunlight spilling into the gallery from the windows along the back wall. She’d been working on the painting since Ian had left her in the early-morning hours before dawn. She’d expected to be exhausted by the passion they’d enjoyed with each other, but the moment he drove off, Marisol felt exhilarated, as if all her energy had been recharged.

  Funny what a few really good orgasms could do for a girl, she mused, unable to keep from smiling. And they had been good, deep, powerful and mindless, shaking her to her very core. Even now, thinking of what they’d shared, Marisol’s blood warmed and her pulse quickened. She could live like this forever, without sleeping, needing only her work and sex with Ian Quinn to sustain her.

  She thought back to the kiss he’d given her at the door, knowing it would have to last her at least another twelve hours. Now every minute away from him seemed empty and unexciting.

  Their affair had begun as a playful little game between two consenting adults, simple and easy sex, nothing serious. But after last night, Marisol had been forced to reevaluate. She’d never been with a man who’d made her feel the way Ian did. And it wasn’t just the orgasms. It was the way he looked at her and touched her, as if she were the perfect woman for him, the only woman who could bring him to complete satisfaction.

  So many of the men in her life had tried to change her, to make her into someone who played by the rules. Even David hadn’t been satisfied, constantly harping on her crazy work schedule and chaotic approach to her art and her distaste for self-promotion. In all truth, he’d never wanted to be with a working artist, he’d wanted an interesting woman on his arm, someone who could talk the talk that he enjoyed so much.

  It was nice not to have to discuss her work with Ian. He saw it, he admired it, and that was all. She dabbed a bit more blue on her brush and added a touch to the eyes. It wasn’t a realistic representation of a man, but an abstract figure that mirrored her emotional reaction to their passion.

  She’d painted him as she’d seen him last night, standing before her in the moonlight, naked and unfazed, his gaze downcast, his head tilted slightly. Marisol was amazed at how easy it had been to meld color with form, the memory of him burned into her brain like a sharply focused photograph.

  In real life, he looked like a modern-day Greek god, all muscle and sinew, hard angles and strong curves. On the canvas, he was brilliant color and vibrant slashes of paint, seductive strength and devastating power.

  As she stared at the painting, she couldn’t help but think of the man and wonder what he was doing at that moment. Was he thinking about her? Did her taste still linger in his mouth? Could he still feel the imprint of her hands on his body? Had thoughts of their night together plagued his day as they had hers?

  The buzzer sounded at the gallery’s front door and Marisol turned and smiled, then wiped her paint-stained fingers on her dress. “Just in time,” she murmured.

  She ran to the door and threw it open, anxious to kiss him, to slowly undress him and make love for the next five or six hours. But she didn’t find Ian waiting. Instead, Sascha stood in the doorway, staring at her over the top of her Chanel sunglasses. “I brought you lunch, though it’s nearly dinner time.” She swept past Marisol then turned and frowned. “What have you done to your new dress?”

  Marisol glanced down, not realizing that she’d forgotten to change. Globs of paint clung to the pale silk, red and orange and black, the colors of desire. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. As soon as I got home I started to work and I-” She rubbed her hands over the spots, then tried to chip them off with her fingernails. But the silk was ruined. “I’ll pay you for the dress, I promise.”

  Sascha waved her hand. “Let me see what you’ve been doing.” She followed Marisol over to the painting, then studied it. “It’s quite good.” She drew a deep breath, then sighed. “It’s very good. It’s…stirring.”

  “It is, isn’t it,” Marisol said, excitement filling her voice. “I think it’s the best work I’ve done in a long time. I really captured the essence of masculine power. It just seems to vibrate from him, don’t you think?”

  “Are we talking about the painting or Ian Quinn? Or are they one and the same?”

  “Don’t say it like that,” she said, pouting. “Like he’s some bad habit I ought to break. I have everything under control. Besides, I think this might be good for me. I feel energized. I can hardly wait to get to work.” Marisol walked over to the crate her father had sent her and ran her hand along the top edge. “Maybe he’s
my muse.”

  “Please,” Sascha scoffed. “You’ve never believed in that.”

  “I’ve never had a muse before,” Marisol countered. “All I know is that after I’m with him, my work is more…focused. All my insecurities are gone and I can just create without even thinking. He makes me believe I’m a good painter and a good sculptor. And as long as that continues, I’m happy.”

  Sascha wandered over to stand next to her, bending down to peer through the slats of the crate. “What do you suppose is inside?”

  Marisol shrugged. “I’m almost afraid to look. If it’s bad, I’ll have to lie to my father and tell him it’s good. And if it’s good, I’ll tell him it’s good and he’ll refuse to believe me.”

  Sascha walked over to the worktable and grabbed the small crowbar that hung from the edge. “Let’s put an end to your misery right now.” She pried off the front of the crate, then removed the four-by-four-foot canvas, carefully brushing aside the packing material. As the layers of paper fell away, Marisol could see the basic colors and outlines of the painting and a sick feeling began to grow in her stomach.

  “Oh, shit,” Sascha murmured, when the last bit of wrapping was brushed aside. “I know this painting.”

  Marisol slowly dropped to the floor, running her hand over the surface of the canvas. “Oh, Papi, what have you done now?”

  The signature on the painting was unmistakable and could lead her to only one conclusion. The Emory Colter hanging in the Templetons’ library was a clever forgery and her father, until recently, had been in possession of the original.

  “It’s the same, isn’t it?” Marisol murmured, desperate to have Sascha contradict her.

  “It looks like your father might be up to his old tricks again,” Sascha said.

  “It’s not just the second in a series?”

  Sascha shook her head. “No, this is the same painting that Cheryl Templeton was showing off last night. Everyone at the party saw it. I can’t believe that was a forgery. My God, if your father painted the fake, it’s an amazing job. Emory Colter is not an easy artist to forge. His brush strokes and the application of paint to the canvas are so unique.”

  “This could be the forgery,” Marisol said. “We don’t know for sure.”

  “Why would your father send you a forged painting?” She shook her head. “You picked a bad time to start hanging around with a cop,” Sascha commented. “And there’s more bad news.”

  Marisol covered her eyes with her hands. “I don’t want to hear it.”

  “David is the one who sold the Colter to the Templetons.”

  “You think he and my father are working together?”

  “He’s the one who authenticated it, Mari. Either he’s slipping at his job, or he and your father are in this together. I’d put my money on the latter.”

  Marisol pushed to her feet and began to pace the floor in front of the painting. “I’m not going to jump to conclusions. I don’t know that the painting in the Templetons’ library is a fake. This could be the copy. And who knows why he painted it?” She groaned, then covered her face with her hands. “What am I going to do? Papi must have sent it here to hide it. Fake or real, if he gets caught with this, he’ll be sent back to jail in a heartbeat.”

  “What are you going to do? This is not your problem, Marisol, it’s your father’s.”

  She grabbed Sascha’s arm and squeezed it tight. “You have to promise not to tell anyone about this. Not until I figure out how to fix it.”

  “What can you do? You have to get rid of the painting. You can’t keep it here.”

  “It’s an Emory Colter, maybe. I can’t sell it, I won’t give it away, and I certainly will not destroy it. There’s no way to get rid of it. Unless…”

  “Unless?”

  “If it is the real thing, I could exchange it for the fake,” Marisol said. “I could find a way to get into the Templetons’ estate and switch paintings. Then I could destroy the forgery and they’d be left with the real one. It wouldn’t be difficult. It would take me just a few minutes to switch them.”

  “What if they have security?” Sascha said. “You don’t think that painting is wired to some alarm? They have at least a couple million in artwork in that house and it’s certainly not hanging there ready to be plucked off the wall.”

  “I could just leave it at the front door. And they’d figure it out.”

  “Your father’s fingerprints could be all over that canvas. You need to exchange the two if there’s any chance of keeping him out of this. But until you know which is which, you’d better stay away from Ian Quinn.”

  At that very moment, the buzzer rang and they both turned to look at the front door, then looked at each other. “Do you think that’s him?” Marisol asked.

  “Don’t answer it. Pretend you’re not here.”

  “He knows I’m here. My car is parked out front. I’ll just talk to him for a minute and get him to go away. He saw the Colter at the Templetons’ and he’ll probably recognize it if he saw it again. You wrap it up and hide it in the storeroom and I’ll…get rid of him.”

  Sascha picked up one of Marisol’s T-shirts and tossed it at her. “Put this on. You’ll never get rid of him wearing that dress.”

  Marisol did as ordered, then hurried to the front door. She peered through the blinds to see that Ian was indeed standing in front of the store, a large grocery bag held in his arms. Her heart skipped a few beats and she took a deep breath to try to still her hammering pulse.

  It wasn’t fair. She shouldn’t have to make this choice, between her father’s future and her affair with Ian. But there was no decision to consider. Her father was family. Ian was her lover, a man she barely knew.

  “You can do this,” Marisol murmured to herself.

  IAN STOOD ON THE SIDEWALK and waited for Marisol to open the door. At first he’d wondered if she was home, but then he saw her peek through the blinds. He’d been waiting all day to get back to her, and though he was exhausted from lack of sleep, he had no intention of spending his evening home alone.

  The door slowly opened and he smiled as she poked her head out. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi,” he replied. He looked at her for a long moment, his gaze taking in all the tiny details of her face. When they’d first met, he’d considered her beautiful, but the more he got to know Marisol, the more he believed that he’d never meet another woman quite like her. “I brought dinner.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I-I’d ask you in, but I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Work?”

  “Yes. Work.”

  She seemed nervous, uneasy in his presence. “Are you all right?” he asked. “You’re not-”

  “What? No, I’m fine. Everything is fine,” she said. “I’m just tired. And busy. With work.”

  “Well, maybe you should take a break,” Ian suggested. “Why don’t you come out with me? We’ll walk down to the waterfront and have a picnic. I have sandwiches and root beer.”

  “I’m really not dressed. And I look terrible.”

  “You look lovely,” Ian said.

  “I-I suppose you could come in for just a while. But then I really have to get back to work.” She opened the door to let him pass. The front of the gallery was dimly lit, but light streamed in through the transoms above the door and the display windows, sending shafts of sunlight across the wood floor.

  He set the bag down, then turned to Marisol, frowning. “You seem-”

  “What? I’m fine,” she said.

  “Preoccupied,” he finished. “If there’s something wrong, we should probably talk about it. You can be straight with me Marisol. We’re certainly not in a position where we have to hide anything from each other.”

  She laughed softly, but the sound was forced. “There are always things to hide.”

  “Do you regret what happened last night?”

  Marisol shook her head. “No. Not at all.”

  A rush of relief came over him and Ian cros
sed the distance between them and took her in his arms. “Good.” He bent and kissed her and she offered no resistance. Instead, she seemed to melt against him. Her lips parted and he drank deeply of her taste, like a man dying of thirst in the desert. When he finally drew back, Ian noticed that her face was flushed and eyes clouded with desire.

  “You look tired,” he said.

  “I haven’t slept since you dropped me off.”

  Ian frowned. “You’re going to run yourself down and then you’re going to get sick.” He took her hand, then grabbed the bag. “Come on. Let’s get you some dinner and then I’m going to put you to bed.”

  “I can take care of myself,” Marisol said.

  “I’m sure you can. But you aren’t.”

  She grabbed his arm and pulled him back, then practically jumped into his arms and kissed him. Ian couldn’t explain her odd behavior except that she did look exhausted. He dropped the bag on the floor and slipped his hands around her waist, picking her up off her feet until her body slid along his.

  He felt himself grow hard with just the brief contact and he pressed her back against the wall and skimmed his hands over her body, his mind already on the pleasures of sex with Marisol Arantes.

  She wore an odd mix of clothing, the silk dress from the night before and the paint-stained T-shirt he’d found her in the morning they’d first been intimate. When he tried to take them off, she pushed his hands away and Ian decided maybe there was something wrong.

  Last night, she’d responded without hesitation or inhibition, but now she seemed to be a bundle of jittery nerves. Was this just a passing mood or was he supposed to read more into it? “Do you want me?” he asked, his mouth trailing down to the soft spot at the base of her neck.

  She ran her fingers through his hair. “Oh, yes.”

  “Then say it,” he demanded.

  “I want you. I do. It’s just-”

  “What?”

  “There’s someone here.”

  The words hit him like a punch to the stomach. Someone? Another man? Was that why she was so edgy? He drew back and looked down into her eyes. “Right,” he murmured, nodding his head. “I’m sorry. I should have called first.”