7. Elias
It was important to Elias that Kate knew this wasn’t his MO. He wanted to explain that he never brought women home, let alone showed them his workspace.
‘I’m the only one?’ she asked, looking up at him.
He nodded before lowering his lips to hers once more.
God. Would he ever get enough of kissing her? Would he ever get enough of the feel of her soft skin under his rough fingers? He felt bad about the callouses, but Kate didn’t seem to mind.
She leaned back, dragging him forward, and something crashed to the floor. He actually didn’t care what it was, but it startled Kate, and she broke the kiss, severing their connection.
In an attempt to stop her from overthinking—and himself as well—Elias picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist again, and pressed his mouth back to hers.
‘I’m going to take you to bed now,’ he murmured as he trailed kisses down the side of her throat.
‘Okay,’ she replied, tilting her head back to give him more of her neck to kiss.
A low growl rumbled in his throat, but he held it back. He needed to get them back into his house, into his bedroom, and out of their clothes. To do that, he needed to concentrate. And having Kate in his arms was making that exceptionally difficult to do.
While he carried her, Kate had begun exploring his neck with her lips and goddamn if it didn’t take a herculean effort not to just find the first available horizontal surface and indulge. But no. It was their first time. He would never have this first time with her again, and he wanted to make it special.
It sounded corny, even in his own head, but nevertheless, that’s what he wanted. This was not a one and done thing for him. Not a one-night-stand or a quick hookup. He wanted more of Kate, and to do that, he had to show her exactly how much she affected him.
He had plans to go slow. He wanted to spend the next however many hours until sunrise worshipping her.
He kicked the bedroom door open and lowered her to the bed. She clung to him and pulled him down with her, kissing him so deeply that his mind went blank.
* * *
Elias stretchedhis hand out along the sheets. They were empty, and they were cold. He blinked his eyes open and turned his head to the side. There was a dent on the pillow where her head had been, but she was gone.
His stomach dropped as disappointment flooded his system.
Damn him for falling asleep!
There was the smallest shred of hope that she was in the kitchen getting herself coffee, or sitting on his couch watching television, but he knew he was just kidding himself. Kate was gone, and any hopes he’d had of them having something more had left with her.
‘Shit,’ he growled as he slapped his palm on the bed.
He sat up suddenly and looked around the room. If she had left that bracelet behind, he would hunt her down and force her to take it. Whatever did or didn’t happen between them, that bracelet now belonged to her.
He couldn’t see it anywhere, and he exhaled with relief.
He couldn’t explain why it was so important for her to keep the bracelet; it just was. He wanted her to have a little piece of him.
She might also think it was another one of his moves, but it wasn’t. He’d never given any of his previous girlfriends any jewellery he’d made. In fact, he’d never given them any of his artwork. If he was going to gift them anything, he’d always bought it. Giving someone a handmade gift was an extremely personal sentiment, one he had never felt the need to express to anyone before.
‘Damn it, Elias,’ he muttered to himself as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He buried his face in his hands. Was it something he’d done? Was it because he was Levi’s brother? Was it his age? Or had she just wanted a little stress relief for the start of her vacation?
He didn’t want to think that but… Elias knew how people saw him. They saw him as there for a good time, not a long time, and he had to admit that maybe he’d played into that a bit himself. He hadn’t had any desire to get serious with anyone, especially with his parents as romantic role models. His eldest brother’s marriage wasn’t any better. In fact, until Levi started dating Alexis, Elias hadn’t seen the value in a romantic partnership at all. From his perspective, they all seemed to be self-serving vehicles for selfish and cruel people.
Levi and Alexis had shown him differently.
With a weary groan, Elias pushed himself to his feet and padded to the bathroom. He washed his face and raked his hands through his hair. He definitely needed a cut. Maybe he could visit Sarah’s salon sometime in the next week. Although the chances of getting an appointment there were slim. Whatever. He could go a bit longer without a cut. He grabbed an elastic band and tied it up out of his face before dragging on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.
Kate was not in his kitchen or his living room. He made himself a coffee, the pour-over process being somewhat meditative. The aroma of fresh coffee helped wake his brain, and he concentrated on it rather than how empty his home felt.
He didn’t even have her phone number.
He hadn’t asked for it because he hadn’t expected her to creep out of his house in the middle of the night.
Fuck.
It had been the best night of his life—yet another corny and hyperbolic thing to say, and yet… he couldn’t dispute it. He sipped his coffee. He’d planned on spending the entire night worshipping her, but after round two, he’d needed a nap.
Why had she left like that? It wasn’t as if she was Cinderella who would turn into a pumpkin at midnight… and it had been well past midnight when they’d finally collapsed, breathless and sweating on his mattress.
Carrying his coffee mug, Elias wandered over to his couch and sat, dragging his sketchbook onto his lap. Did this mean he would have another two years of dreams of her? At least he would have some decent sketches to keep him company. He hadn’t drawn many nudes in his life but maybe…
No. He decided against it. It felt wrong to draw her like that without her permission. But her face? He could draw that.
He spent the next hour sketching while he sipped his coffee. Pages and pages of Kate looked back at him from his sketchbook. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t quite capture her essence. It was like trying to trap lightning in a bottle.
When his phone rang, he tossed his sketchbook aside with relief. He was just torturing himself by that point.
‘What?’ he barked into the phone.
‘Whoa. Who peed in your cornflakes?’ Justin asked.
‘Sorry.’ He exhaled roughly and tried to focus. ‘What’s the damage?’
‘No damage. It’s all good news. Have you seen the reviews?’
‘You know I don’t read those.’
‘I live in hope. Anyway, the reviews are good, great, in fact. More than half of the sculptures have sold with interest in another quarter of them. And Florence…’
‘What about Florence?’ Elias said, sitting forward.
‘The Royal Brisbane wants her.’
‘What?’
‘They’re remodelling their entrance, and they want to put it in the atrium.’
‘The Royal Brisbane Hospital wants my sculpture?’
‘I told them it wasn’t for sale, but they offered a licensing fee for the next twenty years.’
Elias swallowed. It wasn’t so much the fee that gave him a buzz; it was because it was the same hospital where Kate worked. Potentially, she would be walking past that sculpture every day.
Part of him loved the idea. Another part of him hated it.
‘I think the terms are negotiable, but they are really keen. One of the executive team was at the exhibition last night.’
Elias bit his lip. What to do. What to do. Twenty years was a long time, but it would also mean a steady income for him—not that he was hard up for money. But a little security in a world that wasn’t known for its financial security would be good.
‘I… I need to think about it,’ Elias said.
‘I told them you would. I also told them it is contracted to the gallery for the next month. They said they wouldn’t need it right away anyway, so if you decide to go ahead with it, the timing would work out.’
He needed to talk to Alexis. She wasn’t an attorney who dealt with the arts, but she might know someone who did.
‘Okay. Um, great,’ he said.
‘I also need you to come into the gallery today and sign some of your prints. We’re just about sold out.’
The gallery had commissioned a limited number of photographs of his sculptures and some prints of his working sketches. He signed and embossed them with his maker’s mark, and then the gallery sold them, giving him a royalty fee for each one. Another nice income stream. He knew his sculptures were expensive, so this was an option for people who couldn’t afford an original piece. Elias had also been playing around with the idea of 3D printing to make miniatures of his larger pieces, although so far, the costs outweighed the practicality.
Elias agreed to head into the gallery, and then he disconnected the call. He leaned back against the couch and closed his eyes. Waking up alone made it seem like the world should stop so he could process the loss, but the fact was, life went on. While he was here, bemoaning the fact that she had left—without leaving her contact details… without leaving any trace that she had even been there—Kate had probably already moved on with her life, leaving him in her dust.
‘Fuck it,’ he said, pushing to his feet.
The pity party was over. Elias knew when he was not wanted… it was a lesson he’d learned early in life. He also knew how to compartmentalise. It was time to pack up his memories of the night before and put them on a shelf. Would he peek into the box sometimes? Of course he would. But not today. Today he had things to do.