I shrugged into my grey coat and grabbed my keys from the hall table, unwilling to end the conversation even though I needed to leave for Terry Paulson’s apartment.
“I didn’t know you liked jazz,” I said even though if I had taken the time to think about it, I might have guessed as much.
“We grew up listening to it in the orphanage. Cage actually considered being a jazz singer before the lure of rock stardom called to him.”
I laughed, picturing the sexy, leather-pants-wearing Cage Tracey crooning soulfully over a piano.
“I love that sound,” Sinclair said, casually.
I stopped laughing.
“I won’t take the tickets back, Elle. I want you to enjoy the experience. The Lincoln Center has magnificent acoustics and I like to imagine you there, dressed up in some purple dress with your eyes closed to absorb the music. I only wish I could be there to watch you.”
Watch me, not the legendary musician.
I swallowed hard and spoke before I could stop myself, “Come with me then.”
My words were followed by silence and I was just about to blurt out something for the sake of speech when he cleared his throat.
“I would like that very much. I have to work until the last moment but if you could meet me at the office at seven, we can walk to Lincoln Center together, it isn’t far.”
My smile cut brutally into my cheeks. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
We both smiled into the phone.
“I’ll see you soon then, Giselle.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me and hung up.
I was still smiling when Terry Paulson opened the door for me twenty minutes later. She was clad in a bright floor-length kimono with her voluminous hair twisted into riotous curls. Huge hoop earrings adorned her ears and her acrylic nails were a bloody red. My fingers itched to capture her particular brand of brazenness, a sexual appeal that was almost crass it was so bold.
“You look happy,” Terry said, ushering me into her opulent top floor apartment. “I hope I am at least p
artially to blame. Or am I the only one who has been excited for this all week?”
I laughed at her enthusiasm, immediately at ease despite the intimidation of our surroundings. A crystal chandelier the size of a Smart car hung from the foyer ceiling and nearly blinded me.
“At the risk of sounding like a pervert, I’ve been looking forward to painting you since we first met.”
She laughed loudly, throwing her red tipped hand out to playfully push at my chest. “You are delightful. Now, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve set things up in the master bedroom. Let Gus take your things for you. Did you cab here? I should have sent a car.”
“It was no problem,” I assured her as I handed off my cumbersome easel and wooden travel kit to the stoic faced liveried butler who appeared beside me. “It’s the only work out I get so I actually look forward to it.”
“You can’t be serious,” Terry’s bright red lips parted over her white teeth and I found myself wondering what that wide mouth would feel like against mine.
Sinclair had turned me into some kind of sex machine.
“I will have to take you to my tennis club. It’s great exercise and good fun. Plus, I think you would look wonderful in a little white skirt.” She winked at me, laughing lightly at my blush as she took my hand to lead me through a large corridor, up a set of marble stairs to the second floor and finally, into a bedroom painted a deep, lusty red.
A tarp covered the Persian rug before us and Gus the Butler had already set up my a small table and my easel. I moved over to the station, relieving him of his duties so that I could set up everything to my tastes.
“I did some research,” Terry explained as she perched on the edge of her massive four-poster bed, “about sex in the modern day art world. Pauly loves art and he’s been teaching me about it for the last couple of years but I didn’t really get into it until Elena mentioned your project. It seems like you are doing something similar to Jack Vettriano, yeah?”
I nodded. “There is definitely a similar theme though there are actually quite a few contemporary painters that explore sexual themes. I really admire Lisa Yuskavage and Jenny Saville too.”
“So it was the trendiness that got you interested in sexual fetishisms and fantasies?”