Naked (2 page)

I met his hand and he took mine.  Oh did he ever.  Or maybe I’d lost my mind shaking hands with the stranger who’d just purchased a huge canvas of my naked body.  Ethan possessed a firm grip.  And hot too.  Had I imagined he pulled me a little closer toward him?  Or
maybe
I was the crazy one, because my feet hadn’t moved an inch.  Those blue eyes were nearer to me than they were a moment ago though, and I could smell his cologne.  Something so gawd awfully delicious it was sinful to smell that good and be human.

“Brynne Bennett,” I said.

He let go of my hand.  “And now we know each other,” he said, pointing first at me and then to himself, “Brynne, Ethan.”  He motioned with his head toward his Rover.  “Now will you let me take you home?”

I swallowed again.  “Why do you care so much?”

“Because I don’t want anything to happen to you?  Because those heels look lovely at the end of your legs but will be hell to walk in?  Because it’s dangerous for a woman alone at night in the city?”  His eyes flicked over me.  “Especially one as beautiful as you.”  That mouth of his turned up just slightly on the one side again.  “So many reasons, Miss Bennett.”

“What if you’re not safe?”  He raised an eyebrow at me.  “I still don’t know you or anything about you, or if Ethan Blackstone is your real name.”  
Did he just give me a look?

“You have a point in that.  And it’s one I can rectify easily.”  He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a drivers license with the name, Ethan James Blackstone clearly printed.  He handed me a business card with the same name and
Blackstone Security International, Ltd.
engraved on the cream cardstock.  “You may keep that.”  He grinned again.  “I’m very busy at my job, Miss Bennett.  I have absolutely no time for a hobby as a serial killer, I promise you.”

I laughed.  “Good one, Mr. Blackstone.”  I put his card in my purse.  “All right.  You can give me a ride.”  His brow shot up again, and I got the sideways grin again too.

I winced inwardly at the double entendre for ‘ride’ and tried to focus on how uncomfortable my shoes really would be for walking to the Tube station and that it was a good idea to let him drive me.

He pressed his hand to the bottom of my back and led me to the curb.  “In you go.” Ethan got me settled and then walked around to the street side and slid behind the wheel, smooth as a panther.  He looked at me and tilted his head.  “And where does Miss Bennett live?”

“Nelson Square in Southwark.”

He frowned but then turned his face away and pulled out into traffic.  “You are American.”

What, he didn’t like Americans?  “I am here on scholarship at the University of London.  Graduate program,” I tacked on, wondering why I felt the need to tell him anything at all about myself.

“And the modeling?”

The second he asked the question the sexual tension thickened.  I paused before answering.  I knew exactly what he was doing—imagining me in my picture.  Naked.  And as weird as it felt, I opened my mouth and told him.  “Um, I—I posed for my friend, the photographer, Benny Clarkson.  He asked and it helps pay the bills, you know?”

“Not really, but I love the portrait of you, Miss Bennett.”  He kept his eyes on the road.

I felt myself stiffen at his comment.  Who in the hell was he to judge what I do to support myself?

“Well, my own personal international corporation never came through like yours did, Mr. Blackstone.  I resorted to modeling.  I like sleeping in a bed as opposed to a park bench.  And heat.  The winters here suck!”  Even I could hear the snark in my voice.

“In my experience I’ve found many things here that
suck
.”  He turned and gave me an expert blue-eyed stare.

How he’d said ‘suck’ got my blood tingling in a way that left no doubts about my skills in fantasy being sound.  I might not get a ton of practical experience between the sheets, but my fantasies don’t suffer one iota from lack of use.

“Well we agree on something then.”  I brought my fingers to my forehead and rubbed.  The image of Ethan’s cock and the word ‘suck’ in the same little space in my brain was a little much at the moment.

“Headache?”

“Yeah.  How did you know?”

We slowed for a stoplight and he looked over at me, his eyes traveling from my lap back up to my face in a slow, measured pace.  “Merely a guess.  No dinner, just the champagne you gulped back at the gallery, and now it’s late and your body is putting up a protest.”  He lifted his eyebrow yet again.  “How’d I do?”

I swallowed hard, desperately wishing for water. 
Bingo, Mr. Blackstone.  You read me like a cheap comic book.  Whoever you are, you’re good
.

“I just need two aspirin and some water and I’ll be fine.”

He shook his head at me.  “When did you last eat some food, Brynne?”

“So we’re back to first names again?”

He gave me a tolerant look but I could tell he was pissed.

“I had a late breakfast, okay?  I’ll make something when I get home.”  I looked out the window.  The light must have changed because we started moving again.  The only sounds were of his body shifting as he turned the corner.  And it was way too sexy of a sound to keep my eyes averted for long.  I chanced a peek.  In profile, Ethan had a rather prominent nose but on him it didn’t matter, he was still beautiful.

Ignoring me now, acting as if I wasn’t sitting two feet from him, he efficiently drove us.  Ethan seemed to know his way around London because he didn’t ask me for directions once.  I could still smell him though, and the scent did things to my head.  I really needed to get out of this car.

He made a rude noise and pulled into a strip mall.  “Stay here; I’ll be just a minute.”  His voice sounded a little edgy.  A lot more than a little, actually.  Everything was edgy with him.  And commanding.  Like he told you what to do and you didn’t dare argue.

The warmth of the car and the coziness of the leather seat felt nice underneath the thin skirt I’d worn tonight.  Ethan was right about one thing, I would have died on my walk to the Tube.  Here I sat in the car of a virtual stranger, who’d seen me naked, bullied me into taking a ride, and now coming out of the convenience store with a bag in his hand and a grim look on his face.  This whole situation was weirder than weird.

“What did you need to get in the store—”

He shoved a bottle of water into my hand and opened a single packet of Advil.  I took both without a word.  He watched me gulp down the pills.  The water was gone in under a minute.  He set a protein bar on my knee.

“Now eat it.”  His voice had that don’t-fuck-with-me tone again.  “Please,” he added.

I sighed and opened the white chocolate Power Bar.  The crinkle of the wrapper filled the silence in the car.  I took a bite and chewed slowly.  It tasted divine.  I had needed what he’d brought me.  Desperately.

“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling suddenly emotional, the urge to cry bubbling up fiercely.  I held it down as best I could.  I kept my head down too.

“My pleasure,” he said softly, “everyone needs the basics, Brynne.  Food, water…a bed.”

A bed. 
The sexual tension was back, or maybe it never left.  Ethan seemed blessed with the talent to make the most innocent word sound like hot, sweaty, mind-blowing sex you remembered for a long, long time.  He sat beside me and didn’t back the car out until I’d finished the last of the protein bar.

“What’s your actual street address?” he asked.

“41 Franklin Crossing.”

Ethan took us out of the strip mall lot and headed back onto the street, bringing me closer to my flat with every revolution of the tires.  I leaned into the soft leather and closed my eyes.  My phone vibrated in my purse.  I fished it out and saw there’d been a text from Benny.

Ben Clarkson:  u home ok?

I shot back a quick ‘yup’ and closed my eyes again.  I could feel my headache begin to slip away.  I felt more relaxed than I’d been in hours.  Exhaustion wore out I suppose, because I would have never allowed myself the indulgence of falling asleep in Ethan Blackstone’s car if I could possibly help it.

2

Someone
smelled very good as they touched me.  I could smell the spice and feel the weight of a hand on my shoulder.  But the fear rose up anyway.  The blast of terror that brought me screaming into consciousness arrived right on schedule.  I knew what it was but still the panic ruled me.  I should know.  The feeling had been with me for years now.

“Brynne, wake up.”

That voice.  Who was it?  I opened my eyes and faced into the blue intensity of Ethan Blackstone not more than six inches away.  I pushed back into the seat to make more distance between me and that gorgeous face.  I remembered now.  He bought my picture tonight.  And took me home.

“Shit!  I’m sorry I—I fell asleep?”  I fiddled for the door handle but I didn’t know this car.  I scrambled blindly to get out—to get away.

Ethan’s hand shot over and covered mine, stilling it with a firm touch.  “Easy.  You’re safe, everything’s fine.  You just drifted off is all.”

“Okay…sorry.”  I panted some deep breaths, looked out the window, and then back to him still watching my every move.

“Why do you keep apologizing?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.  I did know, but couldn’t think about it at the moment.

“Are you okay?”  He smiled slowly with a tilt of his head.  I swear he liked the fact that he rattled me.  I wasn’t so sure if I didn’t.  I so needed to get away from this situation right now, before I agreed to all manner of things.  Something along the lines of:
Take off your clothes and stretch out in the big back seat of my Range Rover, Brynne
.  This man had a way with control that severely unnerved me.

“Thank you for the ride.  And the water.  And the other stu—”

“You take care of yourself, Brynne Bennett.”  He pressed a button and the lock clicked.  “You have your key ready?  I’ll wait until you’re inside.  What floor is it?”

I dug my key out of my purse and replaced it with my phone which was still on my lap.   “I live in the top studio loft, fifth floor.”

“Roommate?”

“Well, yes, but she’s probably not in.”  Again, wondering what loosed my tongue in sharing personal information with a virtual stranger.

“I’ll look for the light to come on then.”  Ethan’s face was unreadable.  I had no idea what he was thinking.

I pushed the door open and got out.  “Goodnight, Ethan Blackstone.”  I left his car at the curb and headed up the steps of my building, feeling the stare of his eyes as I walked.  Sticking the key in the door, I looked back over my shoulder at the Rover.  The windows were so dark I couldn’t see inside, but he was in there waiting for me to get in my building so he could leave.

I opened the foyer door to five flights of stairs ahead of me.  I slipped off the heels and did it barefoot.  The second I entered my apartment I hit the lights and locked up.  I literally collapsed against the wooden door for support.  My heels dumped on the floor in a clatter and I exhaled a huge sigh. 
What the hell just happened?

It took a minute to heave myself away from the damn door and head over to the window.   I pulled back the drape with a finger to find his car gone.  Ethan Blackstone was gone.

~*~

A five mile run was just the ticket to help clear my head of the fog from last night’s— Alice in Wonderland down a friggin’ rabbit hole—trip.  I seriously felt like I’d done the whole ‘Eat Me’ and ‘Drink Me’ thing too.  Jesus, had the champagne been drugged?  I’d acted like it.  Allowing an unknown man to drive me in his car, drop me at my home and take over control of my food?  Well it was stupid and I told myself to forget about it and him.  Life was complicated enough without borrowing trouble.

That’s what Aunt Marie always said.  Picturing her reaction to my modeling made me smile.  I knew for a fact that my great aunt was less concerned about the nude pictures than my own mother.  Aunt Marie was no prude.  I set my iPod to shuffle and took off.

Pretty soon the awkward encounter from last night had been pounded onto the London pavement of Waterloo Bridge.  It felt good to push myself physically and just run.  Must be all the endorphins.  Cursing inwardly for another sex reference, I wondered if that was my problem, and the reason I allowed Ethan so much leeway last night.  Maybe I needed an orgasm. 
You’re so screwed. 
Yeah, and I could just imagine the literal and figurative versions of that statement.

I forged ahead and crossed over onto the Thames path that followed the great river.  My iPod helped too.  Music had a way of resetting the brain.  With Eminem and Rihanna battling out love and lies, or lying for the sake of love in my ears,
I kept a steady pace and admired the architecture I passed on my route.  The history in such an ancient city as London was vast, and yet contrasted with the bustling, modern world player in a perfect balance.  Duality.  I loved living here.

~*~

Modeling wasn’t my only job.  All students enrolled in the graduate program for Art Conservancy at the University of London were required to do practicum duties at the Rothvale Gallery in Winchester House.  The Duke of Winchester’s seventeenth century mansion had housed U of L’s Department of Art for about fifty years and a more beautiful location to study certainly did not exist anywhere else in my opinion.

Heading in through the employee entrance, I flashed my badge for security then again for the conservation studios.

“Miss Brynne, good day to you.”  Rory.  So proper and formal.  The back room guard greeted me the exact same way every time I came in.  I kept hoping that one time he would say something different. 
Shag any millionaire control freaks last night, Miss Brynne?

“Hey, Rory.”  I gave him my best smile as he let me through.

I stayed focused and sharp during my work.  The painting was a stunner, one of Mallerton’s early works, entitled simply,
Lady Percival
.   An absolutely compelling woman with nearly black hair, a blue dress to match her eyes, a book in her hand, and the most magnificent figure a female could ever hope to have, took up most of the canvas.  She wasn’t so much a beauty as expressive.  I very much wished I knew her story.  The painting had suffered some heat damage during a fire in the sixties and never been touched since.  Lady Percival needed some tender loving care and I would be the lucky one to give it to her.