13

She was standing talking to one of her former art instructors from college when her eyes yet again drifted across the room towards Isaias. He was a very good-looking man and the easy, laid-back demeanor he possessed charmed the room expertly. He was easily six feet and three or four inches tall with thick black hair, eyes dark as coal and teeth white as pearls. His teeth were crooked. She’d noticed it right away when she had interrupted him at the restaurant. His bottom teeth were not perfect, and his top teeth were gapped just a bit too much. The man had never had braces, it was certain. Yet, it added to his charm. He was debonair and suave as he flirted with the older ladies who had come in fashionably late to an art show and more than once boldly refuted the advances of the younger ones. His complexion was a golden hue she would describe as ochre. He was strong and muscular, and he walked with the lithe grace of a lion or a panther. She wondered what it would be like to be stalked and hunted by him. A strange desire to play naked hide and seek filtered in her head. She gave it a shake.

He saw her ogling him from across the room and overtly winked in her direction.“Is he your new beau?” Alexis, her old instructor, asked with a sideways nudge.

　　“No. He’s a new friend.”

“You should convince him to let you paint him. I bet he’d look good in golds and reds.” Alexis spoke naughtily, “and if you missed my meaning, I meant you should use him as the canvas.”She slapped at Alexis’ playful words with a laugh, “you are still incorrigible.”“Art comes in many forms and not all of it needs to be shared with outsiders. If I were thirty years younger, I’d have had him in the alleyway out back hours ago.” She clicked her tongue appreciatively as the man in question, still talking to the small group at the other side of the room had his eyes firmly fixed on Liesl, “though I think his eyes are only for one woman in this room.”“Again, we just met. It’s not like that,” yet she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Earlier she had shown him her paintings, discussed them and then he’d left her to engage with her guests. He’d popped in and out but unlike Merl who had stuck to her side and monopolized the conversation, often speaking for her, he had listened to each conversation. He did not even attempt to answer for her and neither did he diminish the value of her work with pronouns such as “we” and “our” like her ex used to do. It had grated on Janka’s nerves when Merl had done so when they were together, causing her friend to often loudly question how he contributed to Liesl’s art.She watched as he made his apologies to the group and headed in her direction. Alexis snickered her goodbye with a blunt comment about Liesl taking him into the alley causing Liesl to hiss at her to be quiet as the woman cackled and danced away.“She seems a character,” Isaias said with a smile.“You don’t even want to know.”He was bold and stepped closer to her, “what if I do.”“She told me to take you into the alley and blow you,” she said bluntly, knowing her cheeks were as red as the paint on much of her canvas behind her yet unable to stop herself.“I wouldn’t go for it,” he chuckled. “I think our first time should be far sexier than an alley. Maybe the next show though.”“Oh my god!” she squealed, and he laughed and hugged her to his chest. She felt his lips on the top of her head and was surprised at both the hug and the affectionate kiss.“You are gorgeous when you blush.”“What are we doing?” she asked as he didn’t release her and kept her in a hug, drawing gazes around the room, and very inappropriate thrusting motions from behind him by Janka and Elsie. She quickly averted her gaze.“I like you Liesl. You have spunk and tenacity, not to mention talent in spades. I would like to spend more time with you.”“You would?”“I very much would.”“Is this why you’re so flirty with me?”“Flirty? Sweetheart, I haven’t even begun to flirt. This is an introduction. Once I start to flirt, then it’s onto seduction and from seduction it’s a whole new world for you.” His eyes danced excitedly. “I can’t wait.”“Can I ask you something?”“Sure.”“Is this because you simply want to upset the McGraths?”“Nope. Irritating them is a beautiful bonus, but I want you because I want you and for no other reason than this.”“You might not really,” she played with his tie embarrassed. “I’ve only ever been with one person. I’m not as experienced as you are.”“No way.” He stared at her, “are you saying pencil-dick Merlin is the only man to touch you?”“He wasn’t a pencil dick.”“How do you know? Not like you have much to compare to.”“I use pencils daily. He had more than a pencil,” she frowned, “why the fuck am I defending his penis size?”“I don’t know but we should compare.”“I haven’t had sex in two months.”“Should we leave and go dust out the cobwebs.”“Isaias,” she stared at him incredulously. “I don’t know you from Adam.”“I’d like to know you better than Eve,” he shot back. “I know you feel it. You feel this chemistry. No strings. I know you’re a little gun shy right now after the love of your life impregnating your sister, but if you want to blow off steam with a man you know is going to rock your world, then I’m your huckleberry.”She bit her bottom lip and looked everywhere but into those brown eyes which were begging her to agree.“I tell you what gorgeous,” he motioned back to the trio of women, “my mother wants to meet the artist. I will introduce you. I’m going to show her around and then I’m going to send her home with my driver. If by the time she is ready to leave, you have decided you want to go home to your brother’s place and stare at the ceiling in a lonely twin bed, no hard feelings.”“How did you know it was a twin bed?” she gasped.“I didn’t. I guessed,” he laughed at her. “However, if you want to come sleep in a giant king-sized bed with expensive thread count sheets, I’ll be giving you all kinds of hard things, none of them feelings. Well, maybe, some feelings.”“You’re the devil.” She whispered as he lifted her fingers and kissed her knuckles. “You were on a date last weekend.”“I was. First date. Last date. Didn’t even fuck her. Sent her home. She was whiny. It grated.”“You don’t have a girlfriend?”“No girlfriend, wife, or fiancé. My mama raised me right. I don’t cheat on partners or taxes. Everything else though is fair game.”She laughed at his words, “terrible.”“You keep saying it. Come home with me and see how bad I can be.” He took her hand in his large one and smiled, “come on, let’s go ask my mom if I’m trustworthy.”She scoffed at his words as he pulled her across the room.“Mom, this is Liesl. Tell her I’m a good boy and I’ll never do her wrong.” He winked at his mom, “Liesl, this is my mom, Apolonia Machado. She’s my favorite person in the world. She’ll tell you I’m a good boy.”“He’s the devil. He once threw a party in my house with a hundred people and got so drunk he puked in my favorite potted plant.” His mother threw him under the bus. “Terrible child. Terrible.”“I bought that house,” he rebutted with a grin ducking from his mother’s smack.She giggled as she hugged Apolonia. “I remember you. You bought one of my paintings years ago.”

　　“I did and it still hangs in my den. I love it. I am going to add another to my collection tonight. Come, educate me on your paintings and I will educate you on the reasons why my son is a good man but a terrible son.”

As she tossed a wide grin over her shoulder at the man in question, Liesl’s stomach did a somersault at his wide grin. She was in a for a world of his trouble. She couldn’t wait.

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