“Is the map accurate?” he asked.
Faye looked up at him, startled by his question.
“I don’t…I hadn’t even thought about that! What an interesting question!” She hurried over to her stack of sticky notes and scribbled something down, slapping the note on the table in front of the painting.
For a long moment, Faye stared at the map, then the sticky note, then at the painting. It took her a moment before she remembered that Zantar was standing next to her. When she remembered, Faye looked up at him with a grimace. “Sorry. I tend to lose myself in these paintings and you brought up a very good question.”
A moment later, Faye continued with her explanation of why this particular artist’s paintings were so extraordinary.
“If you look over here,” she said, once again grabbing his arm and tugging him down to the opposite end of the line of paintings. “This is just a picture of the ocean.”
He stared at the picture, noting the swells of waves and the peaceful sunrise on the horizon. “Yes. It’s a nice picture. Very calming.”
She grinned. “Exactly! So if it’s so calming, why is there a gardenia floating on the waves?” She lifted his hand that was still holding the magnifying glass so that it was right over the image of a flower that was indeed floating pointlessly on the waves. “And over here,” she said, pointing to the opposite corner, “there is a strange box.”
“I’d want to know what’s in the box,” he grumbled, moving his magnifying glass over so that he could examine the box. “The box is also decorated with gardenias.”
She literally bounced with excitement. “You get it?” she gasped. “You see the mystery here?”
He straightened up, nodding slowly. “I get it,” he said with an intense expression.
Faye tapped her chin with the pen she’d been holding. “I mean, it could simply be that the artist was bored with what he was painting and decided to put arbitrary objects in strange places.”
“Or the artist could have been making a reference to something that he’d witnessed. Or it’s a political statement. Or maybe, the map along the side of the wall is simply a map to his lover’s house.”
She turned her head slowly, her lips curling into a wide, open smile. “Exactly! There are so many possibilities!”
He laughed and pulled her into his arms. “It seems that you’ve chosen a fascinating artist to study.”
She snuggled closer and Zantar couldn’t deny how perfect she felt in his arms. The woman was making him crazy though. She was both innocent and sensual. Her movements against his chest were most likely simple excitement over her research. But every time she moved against him, it became harder and harder to hide his body’s response. In the end, he stopped trying and simply lowered his head, kissing her as he’d wanted to do for the past several minutes.
Faye moaned when she felt his lips move and opened her mouth, wanting to deepen the kiss. Unconsciously, her hands slid up his chest and shoulders, her fingertips exploring the warm skin of his neck just above the dress shirt he wore before diving into his hair, pulling him even closer. She felt his hands on her hips, then lower, his big hands cupping her butt and pressing her body even closer.
When his hands lifted her higher, she gasped as the hard erection shifted against her core. Her fingers moved to his shoulders, bracing herself because the sensation was too intense. A moment later, she felt something behind but didn’t realize that he’d lifted her up onto the table behind her. All she knew was that the hardness was right where she needed it.
Never in her life had she experienced desire this fast and this furious. She needed him. Faye needed him now! She wanted to rip his clothes off and wasn’t even aware that they were in a room entirely made of windows where anyone from the warehouse area could look in and see them. All she was aware of was his mouth and his hands and that hardness pressing against her. She shifted again, her hands moving down from his shoulders, briefly exploring his chest before moving even lower. Her fingers gripped his butt and pulled him closer, moaning into his mouth as that hardness pressed against her even more intimately.
It was too much! She needed…something! “Zantar!” she whispered, her words a plea for help. She whimpered when he shifted against her and, if her eyes had been open, they might have rolled into the back of her head. Such was the pleasure and need that surged through her at that thrust. Every shift was like a bolt of electric current shooting straight to her core and her fingers curled into his butt, guiding him to exactly where she needed him to be.
Vaguely, she felt his hand slide under the knit top she’d donned earlier today. His fingers against the skin of her back, then her stomach before he finally cupped her breast. His touch was almost a distraction. Then his fingers slipped underneath her bra and…oh, dear heaven…he pinched her nipple. One of her hands moved to cover his, pressing his fingers, guiding them to do that pinching thing again. But he didn’t! The dratted man simply slid his finger over her nipple and…oh, that felt really good too. Unfortunately, the sensation wasn’t enough! It didn’t give her what she needed. So she used her fingers to guide him, pressing against the rock hard globes of his butt as she lifted her hips higher, gasping every time he shifted against her.
Then he did it. He pinched her nipple again. And that was all it took! Faye’s body exploded and she shivered as her body climaxed. Holding very still while waves of pleasure rolled over her, she kept her eyes closed while Zantar teased her neck. She could barely breathe, the pleasure was so intense and she shifted once again, reveling in the aftershocks.
When it was all over, she sighed, her body going limp against his big, wonderfully hard chest and she laid her head against his shoulder. “Oh my!” was all she could say.
The deep rumbling laughter as well as the fingers massaging her scalp brought her back to the present. Slowly, she forced her eyelids open and she looked up at the man who had magic fingers and a magic…!
“What…what just happened?” she whispered, pulling away and looking around. Thankfully, there were no other museum employees present at the moment. Plus, his big, tall body seemed to be shielding her from the windows on the opposite side of the room. But still, she’d just…climaxed! Even now, her body seemed to be humming with happiness and delicious sensations!
“You are beautiful, Faye!” he growled, his hands sliding up and down over her back in a soothing motion as he held her against his chest.
“I didn’t just…!”
“You did,” he corrected with a deep, sexy chuckle. “And it was amazing to hold you while you enjoyed your pleasure.” He pulled away slightly, just enough to kiss her lips. “I eagerly anticipate enjoying that pleasure with you next time.”
Faye pulled out of his arms and pushed herself off of the table. Thankfully, Zantar grabbed her upper arms, holding her steady when her legs almost gave out underneath her. But his hands were strong, and he waited until she nodded. “I’m okay,” she whispered, smiling weakly up at him.
“You are more than okay, Faye,” he said as he took her hand, lifting it up to his lips so that he could kiss her fingertips. “Please don’t be embarrassed by what just happened,” he urged when he saw the blush staining her cheeks. “It was beautiful and proved that you are a sensuous, lovely woman.”
“I…can’t believe that happened here! In the restoration room!” she whispered, once again looking around. “I really hope that there aren’t any security cameras around here.”
He laughed, then pulled her close again, hugging her. But he made a mental note to assign one of his guards to review the security footage, erasing anything that could be compromising. “Don’t worry about that,” he assured her.
She pressed her face against his chest, shaking her head. “That was so unprofessional of me!”
“It was glorious, Faye.” He kissed the top of her head. “But I will leave here and allow you privacy so that you can continue your research. I look forward to speaking with you tonight and hearing what other symbols you have discovered today.” With that, he stepped back and took her hand, once again kissing her fingers. “Thank you for showing me your work.”
Faye watched as he turned and walked out of the restoration room, not revealing even a hint of what had transpired here. Thank goodness, she thought and leaned against the table as her legs began to tremble once more.
Turning, she tried to focus on the paintings. But it took her another fifteen minutes before her brain would start functioning again.
Taking a long drag on his cigarette, Scott leaned against the wall of a building situated right across the street from the museum he’d followed Faye to yesterday. He was waiting for Faye to arrive, wondering why she came to this dreary place every day. He was also irritated that she hadn’t arrived already. The heat was starting to become intense, and several people were looking at him as if he were doing something wrong by just standing here.
He wanted to leave, go find a place that was cool, maybe with a nice bottle of scotch. Unfortunately, he needed cash to tide him over until his next payment from old man Neville and, as he stood there, he wondered if Faye had some sort of connection to the museum director. Was she sleeping with the guy? Was that why she snuck in through the back door every day? She only stayed a couple of hours, so a lurid affair with the well-off buffoon would make sense. In the back of his mind, he thought about taking pictures of Faye with the old fart. From the little he’s seen of the guy, the museum director was a balding, simpering, blathering old goat that was probably too into art to ever get laid. But then he remembered that Faye loved art too. Okay, so maybe Faye was enamored of someone who liked art just as much as she did!