Stopping before me, he reaches out a hand toward my face. I swallow and hold my breath as his large fingers brush against my cheek. He hasn’t done more than trace his fingers along my skin, but I can feel my breathing deepen as my nipples harden.
I want him.
I want him with such an unexpected ferocity that I barely stop myself from begging him to rip off my clothes and fuck me right where we stand.
What the hell is the matter with me?
I clench my jaw, tilting my face up to look him in the eye.
“You want me to trust you, you say?” he asks.
That deep melodic voice slides inside of me and travels down to the aroused flesh between my thighs.
I swallow again. “Yes.” Then, with a little more force, I tell him, “Yes, I want you to trust me. That’s the only way this will work.”
His eyes scrutinize my face in a way that makes me think he’s memorizing every little thing about me. Suddenly, I’m worried that he might find me lacking. I’m frightened that he is comparing me to her, and I might inevitably come up short.
***
Phillipe traces his fingers down Gemma’s cheek, along her jawline, and finally, he slides the back of his fingers down her throat. When he reaches the neck of her sweater, he slips a finger inside and touches along the curve where it dips down low, leaving the material to hang loosely between her breasts. Suddenly, he wants to see those breasts naked.
Gemma ceases talking. She is standing so still that he can barely tell she’s breathing as she lets her eyes drop to his mouth. He can tell she’s curious but oh so cautious. Her eyes can’t lie though. Her eyes are telling him that she wants to fuck, and she wants to fuck hard.
Well, I can accommodate her, Phillipe thinks as he slides his hand around behind her neck, pulling her forward.
She stumbles and places her hands up on his chest. He can feel her nails as she flexes her fingers for better purchase.
“You want my trust?” he demands.
This time, he slides his free hand down between their bodies to cup her sex. He watches her mouth part on a needy moan, and instead of answering, she nods.
“I don’t trust journalists,” he tells her, grinding his palm against her hot covered pussy.
“Then, how—”
“Shh, Gemma.”
She immediately complies.
“Let’s compromise,” he murmurs.
Her eyes focus on his mouth before they slide shut. She squeezes her thighs around his hand. “Compromise?”
“An exchange of trust,” he explains. He rubs the heel of his palm against the fabric directly covering her clit. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask. Do you?”
Her green eyes blink once, and when they open, he notices her pupils have dilated.
Gemma is aroused. As Phillipe stands there, cupping the back of her neck with one hand while his other is wedged snuggly between her strong thighs, she moves against him like a cat in heat. He watches the pulse flutter at the base of her throat before his eyes move to her moist pink lips. All he can think of is how fucking perfect they would look wrapped around his cock.
Perfect, plump, fuckable lips.
Lowering his mouth to hers, he suggests against those very lips, “I think for you to understand this story, you must first become a part of it.”
He feels her breathe out, and he can’t help but bite her quivering bottom lip. She looks close to climax, like she wants to scream for him. As he releases her mouth, she trembles, panting softly.
She tells him, “I don’t understand what you mean.”
“I want to paint you, Gemma,” he informs.
He thrills at the hesitation he witnesses as her brain starts to catch up. She swallows, trying to pull away, but he keeps her where she is with a firm grip.
“No, don’t run,” he cajoles. “Aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know how it feels to be vulnerable yet so powerful at the same time?”
Her breasts start to rise and fall quickly against his chest.
Moving his head so his cheek is resting against hers, he surmises, “Yes, I can tell you are. Don’t you want to know that intoxicating feeling of having a man…” He pauses as he strokes his hand harder and faster against where he can feel her juices moistening her pants. “Having me under your spell?”
Lifting his head, his eyes connect with hers. “The only way you can understand who Chantel was to me and how she really felt is to become her. You ask me to trust you, and in return, I’m asking you to trust me. Trust me to paint you, Gemma, in the poses of The Blind Vision Collection. Then, you will have your story.” He lowers his head and takes her mouth with his own.
Sliding his tongue deep between her lips, he rubs it up against hers, their tongues dancing in an erotic mating. He strokes and presses his hand firmly up between her legs. She tightens those thighs like a vise around his hand and wrist and pushes her hips against him, driving herself toward her sexual release.
Pulling back slightly, he slides his hand from her neck to her hair, clutching it hard enough that her eyes pop open. “Tell me yes, Gemma,” he demands of her.
Her mouth parts as he strokes harder. She thrusts her hips twice more as he holds her captive. He has her exactly where he wants her.
Not even granting her reprieve to look away, he commands again, “Tell me yes.”
Finally, those sexy lips part, and without him even touching her bare flesh, she screams her agreement into the morning air.
***
Revelations ~
Today was my turn to show Phillipe something. I knew if anyone would appreciate it, then it would be him.
I arrived at the chateau around noon. The sun wasn’t there to warm me today. It seemed the clouds had decided to chase it away, but not even that could take away the joy I was feeling.
When I arrived, he took me straight up to his studio. This was a place I was now very comfortable in, which was what he had told me he’d wanted all along.
I explained to him that I had something to show him, knowing that he must have seen the music case I was holding in my right hand.
“You want to show me an instrument?” he asked, sounding a little confused.
I wasn’t offended at all by his confusion. If I were him, I’d doubt me, too.
“Sit over in your chair,” I told him.
I had been in his studio several times now. I was well aware of where everything was, so I smiled when I heard him mutter “bossy” under his breath as he moved away.
I opened my music case and pulled out Diva. I made my way over to where I knew he was sitting, and I handed it to him. He reached out and took my Stradivarius violin from me.
“Careful,” I whispered. “You’re now holding Diva, my best friend.”
He remained silent for several minutes.
“Wow, Beauty, I know this is expensive. Do you play?”
I knew he thought he was being rude. He was always so careful about the things he asked or said to me.
“Yes, I’ve played ever since I was five years old when my mother handed her down to me.”
He let out a breath, and I could tell he wanted to ask more.
Instead, he muttered, “Unbelievable.”
I was so pleased that he was impressed—well, impressed with the thought of my talent. Now, I just had to show him.
“I want you to play for me,” he told me, placing the violin in my hands.
Gripping the neck of Diva, I gently pulled her up and rested her against my left shoulder, turning my chin so it nestled perfectly in the chin rest at the base of the lower bout. “What would you like me to play?” I questioned, closing my eyes.
“Something you want me to hear,” he answered in that voice—that voice that had the ability to calm and excite me all at once.
“That’s not very specific.”
That was when I felt him stand and move around behind me.
He quietly requested, “Okay, how about something that will haun
t me?”
Taking a deep breath, I affirmed, “That, I can do.”
Closing my eyes, I started to play Méditation from Thaïs. I listened to my body while I played with everything I was feeling. Whenever I played for an audience, I usually found myself forgetting that they were there. However, as the sad melody floated through the air, I was very aware of my one-person audience. I could feel him as he shifted around me, silently watching my performance.
As I reached the end of the piece, I heard him move in closer to me. He gently placed his hands on my shoulders.
“That was the most heart-wrenching thing I have ever heard,” he whispered.
He laid a hot kiss against my neck. I sighed as I tilted my head to the side, granting him the access he was seeking.
“What are you doing to me, Chantel?” he implored.
Sliding his hands down my arms, he took the violin and bow from my fingers. I relinquished my grip on them, listening carefully as he moved away. He placed them softly in their case, and then he moved back to me. His hands gripped my arms, pulling me toward him, so my back was against his front.
His lips were against my ear. “You intoxicate me, you know that?”
I didn’t think he actually wanted an answer, so I let my head fall back against his shoulder as he wrapped one arm across my breasts.
“Let me touch you in the way you just touched me,” he begged, turning me to face him.
I felt him take a step back, moving his heat away from me.
“May I?”
Immediately, my eyes were drawn down. From the direction of his voice, the man was kneeling at my feet. His hand reached out and cupped my bare ankle. I was wearing a sundress because it was still warm right now, even with the clouds my uncle had told me were scattered across the sky today.
I swallowed and answered, “Yes.”
“Hmm, yes what?” he questioned, running his hand up behind my calf.
“Yes, you can touch me.”
He groaned as he moved, and both of his warm palms were on the back of my calves. He leaned in, pushing his mouth against my dress into the apex of my thighs.
I swallowed a sigh when his hot breath seeped through the fabric and his hands slid up under my dress to my ass. Reaching down, I gripped his hair and tugged on it gently.
I could tell he was looking up at me when he asked, “What do you want, Chantel? I’ll do anything.”
I didn’t know what to tell him. So I said all I could manage at that moment. Simply, I answered, “You.”
Those big hands slid over my lace panties and his long fingers gripped the edges as he dragged them down. I braced myself as his hands tugged them to my feet. He paused, waiting for me to patiently step out of them. He removed his hands for a moment, and suddenly, I felt alone and naked, even though I was still wearing my dress.
“Lift your dress for me,” he told me.
I thought not being able to see him would make this easier, but in fact, I really believe it made it more difficult. I couldn’t gauge his reaction to anything I did. I just had to trust him to be honest and tell me what he was thinking.
I bent down slowly to grip the edge of my dress and pulled it up to my waist and waited. I didn’t have to wait long because he was there immediately as his hands cupped my ass cheeks. His open mouth pressed a hot wet kiss just above my pelvic bone as I sucked in a deep breath.
He told me, “You are so fucking beautiful you hurt my eyes.”
He smoothed one of his palms over my ass, moving down my left thigh. He bit the skin gently above the small patch of hair covering my sensitive mound.
When his palm reached the back of my knee, he gently tugged it, so I let him raise my leg, placing it over his shoulder. Gripping his head, I made sure I was steady on my other foot and I moaned as he dragged his tongue in a hot wet caress across my lower stomach.
“Oh god,” I sighed, pushing myself against his mouth.
He nuzzled his nose against my throbbing pussy. He inhaled deeply before he let out a loud groan, raising a hand to push a long, thick finger up between my juicy wet lips.
“I want to worship you,” he confided as he pushed that finger deeper into my needy body.
“Phillipe,” I moaned as I bore down on his hand.
His wet lips traced a sensuous path across my quivering flesh. Holding on tight, I just about flew out of the room when his tongue finally reached my swollen clit. He manipulated it, flicking his tongue back and forth over my wet nub. I couldn’t help the way my hips started to thrust against him, almost as though I was fucking his mouth.
That was when I started to beg. “Please,” I implored.
I felt him shift and move lower, farther beneath me, so his wicked hot tongue could slide through my sopping folds. His hands held me in place as he flattened his tongue against my aching pussy. He licked at it like it was his favorite dessert before he moved his mouth back to my clit and sucked it between his lips. That was all I needed. I screamed and pulled his hair, climaxing all over his tongue.
Against my abused flesh, he admitted, “I’m yours.”
SOLITARY
Chapter Six ~ Solitary
Mid-afternoon finally arrives as I sit in my bedroom with Chantel’s journal on my lap. Still, I am trying to understand exactly all that happened out in the arbor this morning.
Was I seduced? Is that what happened? Was I seduced into agreeing to pose for Phillipe? Oh, and it’s not just for any paintings. I’m posing for Chantel’s collection.
There are millions of women who would clamor for the opportunity to sit for Phillipe Tibideau. That’s what happens when you are one of the most attractive, and yes, one of the most enigmatic artists.
He is such a difficult man to get a handle on. One minute, he appears sad and reflective, almost alone in the world he now chooses to inhabit, and then in the blink of an eye, his demeanor changes, and he becomes a frustrated rigid shell of a man. Both sides are now becoming familiar, I thought, tracing my hands over the leather cover. I can understand his sadness and anguish in the face of all he has gone through.
But what about the seductive side of Phillipe? He seems to slip into that side, using it to get his way. That is a potent force. It’s as natural to him as breathing. When he turns that force on me, there is not a hope in the world that I will be able to resist.
When he kissed me this morning, every single thought I had got lost somewhere between my beating heart and my wet, throbbing sex that had started an insistent pulse between my legs. His strong arms felt sublime when he wrapped one around me while he used the other to stroke me to a splintering hot orgasm, without even undoing my pants. The man is sex—pure, unadulterated sex.
However, unlike the flawless and almost reverent way he touched and worshiped Chantel, with me, he seems so capricious. I never know how he’ll react, which only makes the idea of posing for him in such an intimate way all the more daunting.
***
Phillipe moves quietly around the studio, setting up the area he wants to use for the afternoon’s session. Down in the arbor this morning, he let his emotions get the better of him, and once again, he now found himself rethinking his actions.
Touching Gemma in the seclusion of the garden felt right. She was warm, she was present, and he wanted her with a hunger he never thought he would feel again.
What is it about her? Maybe the way she looks at me? Her mixture of wonder and fascination is tinged with a hint of fear. She appeared as though she wanted to touch him, but she thought she might get burned.
Perhaps she is right. Maybe I will end up ruining her, too.
Sighing, he makes his way over to the shelves where he keeps his paint and brushes. Pulling them down, he heads back toward the easel, and that’s when he spots Gemma by the door. Her eyes are watching him closely as he walks across the well-lit area.
“It’s okay. You can come in,” he acknowledges, feeling like the wolf inviting Red Riding Hood into his den. Once upon a time…ha—ye
ah, well, once upon a time, he would have never viewed himself that way at all. It’s funny how things have changed.
“I know,” she replies bravely, stepping inside.
She’s clutching the worn leather journal. It’s ironic how it now seems like a safety blanket for her, yet to him, it represents a tragic nightmare.
“I was just making sure you were finished setting up. I didn’t want to distract you.”
Phillipe moves behind the easel, placing the items on the small table he situated beside it. He tilts his head, looking over her slowly. “Ahh, but you’re such a lovely distraction, Gemma. Why would I mind?”
She doesn’t seem to have an answer for him, so she remains silent as she moves farther into the room to where the drop cloth is now spread out on the floor. When she reaches it, she turns back to face him.
“Which painting do you want to do first?”
Now, there is the million-dollar question, he thinks. Phillipe walks over to the lovely Gemma. She is holding herself rigid. She no longer resembles the woman he held this morning when she came with such intense passion.
“Well, first…” He pauses, reaching out to take the journal.
She lets it go reluctantly before she clasps her hands again in front of herself.
“First, you have to relax, Gemma.”
“Was she relaxed your first time?”
Phillipe stops on his way to the desk where he is going to put the journal down. He looks over his shoulder at the bold journalist. He can tell she is bracing for his answer, so he lets his eyes travel down over her newly donned black pants before bringing them back up to her sweater.
“I made sure she was relaxed her first time, yes.”
She takes a deep breath of air, making it immediately obvious that she understands his double entendre. Placing the journal down, he moves behind the easel to see if she is in the space he is going to need her in. She waits so patiently for him. She’s so silent that he almost hates to break the peace that comes with it.