Free His Canvas by Ava Lore Page A

damaged ones
that that probability is awfully high. Besides, he acts crazy in public,
right?"
    I shrugged. "I don't know, you're the one who knows
him."
    "I don't know him, I know of him. And yes, he does
act crazy in public. If he's not actually crazy, then it's an act."
She pursed her lips. "Which, ironically, would be totally crazy."
    I barely suppressed an epic eye roll. "Trust me, he's not
crazy, and if he's damaged at least he's really hot." I sucked the last of
my cigarette down and stubbed it out in the ceramic ashtray by the bed. Felicia
doesn't smoke, so it's mostly there for my benefit. I saw that the stubs I'd left
in there the last time I'd come over to her studio were still languishing at
the bottom. What a sad existence. I sighed. "And he gives really good
head, and that's not the sort of thing you want to just fling to the wind at
the first sign of trouble."
    Her mouth pursed again, and I could see she was struggling to
formulate a counterargument, but I knew she probably didn't have one. Her own
husband was pretty fucked up, too, but, from what I could tell, he was amazing
in the sack. You can't just throw that shit away lightly. Of course he was also
madly in love with her and the feelings were reciprocated, so I suppose he had
that going for him, too. All I had from Malcolm Ward was a bunch of weird
interactions and one great orgasm.
    It had been a really, really good orgasm, though.
    Why is life so hard? I thought to myself.
    "You're into him," Felicia said at last.
    I wasn't quite prepared to admit that, so I made a joke.
"Yeah, I was in his mouth yesterday afternoon," I said.
    Felicia made a face, but my crude attempt at changing the
subject was nevertheless effective. "So that's it?" she said.
"Did he take any pictures?"
    I blinked. "Oh! Yeah, he did. A ton of them, in fact."
Some of which I was feeling quite embarrassed by at this point, but I couldn't
do anything about that now. "He's never done anything artistic as far as I
can tell, but yesterday he said he wanted to become a... a brilliant madman,
connecting to the pulse of the universe through his art and that I was his
'inspiration.'"
    She arched an eyebrow at that. "Oh, really? He just decided
he wanted to be a brilliant artist?"
    "That's what I said."
    She returned to her clay, giving it a few good whacks with the
table leg before pausing. "I guess that's one way to go about it. I mean,
don't we all decide we want to be brilliant artists at some point?"
    "Yeah. After making art, not before."
    Whack. Whack. "So? Maybe he's got a talent for it.
Have you seen the pictures yet?"
    I shook my head. "Nope. He said he'd call me today."
    "Before or after he gave you head?"
    "After."
    "Well, he still wants to see you after giving head. At
least you didn't scare him away by smelling bad or something."
    I lit another cigarette. "Watch out," I told her.
"I've decided to be an arsonist and I'm going to burn down your
studio."
    "You've already tried that a couple times," Felicia
said. "You don't have the knack for it."
    Dammit. She was right. I cracked a beer and sipped it while she
tried to beat her clay to death. I was just contemplating drinking the whole
six pack by myself to erase my memories of the past twenty-four hours when my
phone rang. I jumped and nearly dropped my beer.
    Felicia clicked her tongue. "You're really into
him."
    I rolled my eyes and checked the number. Yup, that would be
Malcolm. Said so right there on the screen.
    I hesitated.
    "Maybe you'll get anal this time," Felicia said.
    "Shut up," I told her, and hit answer .
    "Yeah?" I said. Totally nonchalant. I'm hardcore like
that.
    "I was wondering if you would like to come over and assist
me in going over these photographs," Malcolm said without any preamble.
His voice was distracted and distant, and it rankled me.
    "I don't know," I told him. "Are you going to
stick your tongue in my twat and then run away again?"
    "Sadie!" Felicia hissed, scandalized.
    What? I mouthed back at her. He