Free New Year in Manhattan by Louise Bay Page A

that it was a practice run for Velasquez’s portrait of the Pope at the time. He was just prepping and that’s what he came up with. Fucking brilliant.”
    “Have you been to Madrid? To see, you know, the one that Picasso did as well . . .”
    “Las Meninas.” He finished my sentence for me and looked at me as he nodded. There was something different in his eyes. “You like art?” he asked my question back to me.
    “A bit. I’m spoiled in London, there’s so much. I like baroque stuff—Caravaggio, Rubens and your man Velasquez. Did you get to see the Boy Bitten by a Lizard when you were in London? God, I love that painting. It’s tiny, but wild.” I caught myself making shapes in the air with my hands and quickly dropped my arms self-consciously. I looked across at Ethan to see if he had that ‘is she crazy?’ look on his face that he sometimes wore.
    “You couldn’t be any more beautiful to me than you are right now, Anna,” he said as our eyes met.
    My cheeks heated and he closed the distance between us and slid his arms around my waist.
    “Can we stay in tonight?” I asked. “Unless you had plans? I’d just like to be with you tonight.”
    “That sounds perfect.”
    He skimmed his hands down my back and began to harden against my stomach.
    “Me talking about gay boys and lizards gets you hot?”
    “Anna,” he growled in that disapproving tone he had that always made me laugh. He cupped my ass in his hands and he lifted me. I wrapped my legs around him. “Come on, pretty monkey.”

Chapter Nine
    Ethan
    Unsurprisingly, it hadn’t been the lizard talk that had gotten me hot. It didn’t take much around her, I had an almost permanent hard-on when she was nearby. But hearing how she liked art, that she knew of Las Meninas and liked Baroque—that was fucking hot. I guess I never thought that this was how it could be with a woman. Anna’s brain could turn me on as much as her body could—she created one new experience after another in me.
    “What do you think?” She flashed me a smile over her shoulder as she shook her black-lace covered ass. She’d insisted on getting changed in the bathroom so I was trying to be patient, as much as I could be with a hard on and a beautiful woman who was about to move in with me three steps away.
    “I think you would look incredible in a garbage bag. Get over here already.”
    She stayed where she was, and ran her hands up over her body, cupping those perfect tits and pushing them together. “Do you know what would make these look even better?” She looked up at me from under her eyelashes.
    “My dick between them?”
    She bit her lip and nodded. It took everything I had not to come right there.
    She started to walk toward me and my phone buzzed loudly from the bedside table. Fuck. Ignore it. I was waiting for a couple of confirmations about tomorrow night. It had to be perfect. I quickly checked my watch. Shit, I wouldn’t have time to call them back if I didn’t get this, it was getting late. Anna’s eyes were pinned to mine.
    “Honey, I have to get this,” I said as she climbed on to the mattress and lay on her back as I got off the bed and grabbed my phone.
    “Do whatever you have to do, baby,” she said as she dipped her fingers into her underwear. “Whatever you have to do.”
    Jesus, the blood rushing to my cock was making me dizzy. I kept my eyes flitting between her face and her hand as she started to circle her clit. Fuck, this call was bad timing.
    “Scott,” I barked as I answered the phone.
    It was the woman making the arrangements for after dinner. Shit, shit, shit. Anna’s back arched as she let out a small moan. I kicked the bed frame and stalked out into the study. She couldn’t overhear this.

    * * * * *

    It took about ten minutes to get back to Anna.
    “Do you think we should get a TV in here?” she asked, the mood clearly having shifted.
    “If I’m in here, I want to be fucking you or sleeping. I don’t want to be one