Free Your Desire by Francis Drake, Dee S. Knight Page A

Noelani and Fauve in a few. Others featured strangers. Several depicted a man and woman, or a man with two women. With a pain she shouldn’t have felt, she admitted the man looked remarkably like Kailen. And he was depicted doing what he had done with her, last night and last week. Jealousy, hard and stinging, raged through her. Quickly, she shoved those paintings aside and flipped through another, smaller stack.
    She remembered he’d said he worked for local designers, and these must be some of the contracted work. There were landscapes of the Bay area and still lifes.
    “Do you like what you see?” His voice was hushed, or maybe it just seemed so, in the dim and quiet room. Yet, he’d startled her.
    Standing, she wanted to gather her thoughts before facing him. He didn’t give her the chance to turn, coming behind her and pulling her back against him with an arm around her waist. She leaned her head on his shoulder and cradled her cup with both hands in order not to spill. He had a cup in his left hand and sipped as he waited for her answer.
    “I do like them. Even your landscapes have a sense of richness that’s almost seductive.” She smiled as she felt his cock rise against her back, knowing her words and her closeness inspired his reaction. “I don’t know how you inspire sensuality with a painting of flowers or the Golden Gate Bridge , but you do.”
    “Hmm. You’re the first person ever to express it that way. I like it.” He set his cup on the worktable then put hers beside it before turning her in his arms. “By the way, paintings aside, you look damn sexy in my shirt.”
    She took in the fact that he wore briefs and an open bathrobe and nothing else. His hair was tousled from sleep and his cheek, as it rubbed hers, was scratchy with the bristles of a beard. Tilting her head, she encouraged his exploration of her neck with his tongue and lips.
    “I feel pretty sexy in it.” She slid her hands under his robe and to his back.
    He pulled her closer. “I almost hate to ask you to take it off, but I’m hungry.”
    Disappointment clouded her mind. She was getting all hot and bothered, and he was thinking doughnuts ? “Oh, so you want me to get dressed.”
    Chuckling, he tilted her head back. “Not yet, sweetheart. Just take off the shirt. Let’s satisfy one appetite at a time. First, into the shower. It’s huge—lots of room to … eat. Then we can get dressed and go out for something more conventional.”
    “I do like the way you think.” Snuggling against his body, she virtually purred. “Lead me to the shower! I feel a sudden urge to get all wet and soapy.”
    A quick movement of his hand made her gasp.
    “You’re already wet. Let’s go work on the soapy part.”
    * * * *
    Kailen posed and looked into the camera, but he wasn’t concentrating on how to look good in the suit he modeled for the department store catalogue. Instead, his thoughts were on Derica and how many hours remained before he’d see her that night.
    He couldn’t believe how much his life had changed in the past two weeks. What had started as simple physical attraction had quickly turned into a red-hot passion that separation hadn’t extinguished. Being apart that first week had only made him want her more, a fact that didn’t particularly make him feel at ease. He liked being a free spirit, painting beautiful women in his own evocative style without having to worry how a wife or girlfriend would—or could—complicate things. More, having been a member of the rat race for years himself, he appreciated what it took to climb the corporate ladder. Being involved with a man who modeled, rode a courier bike around town for a living, and painted nude women, wasn’t the kind of man who would help Derica’s career. He worried about that for her because he remembered so well what it took. He knew for certain he could never go back to that life, and so he could never ask her to compromise what she wanted in her life.
    As