and cranny, her eyes, as well as her fingers, taking everything in. “I don’t know how you cannot do it, Bobby. You clearly have a passion for this.”
He’d wondered that same thing, as well. Especially after he’d worked so hard the year before to bring his skill to a new level. He wasn’t sure he was ready to quit seeing where he could take things.
As she continued skimming her fingers over each piece, he decided to take one more risk. Why not fully go for it?
He reached for the key tucked behind the locked cabinet. “Do you want to see more?”
She spun in his direction. “You have more? Yes. Please!”
Without giving himself time to think about what he was doing, he slipped the key into the lock and pulled both doors open wide. Then he took a step back. These were the real pieces. The ones he’d envisioned seeing in art galleries. This was the type of artwork he wanted to spend his life improving upon.
The theme was the human body. Hands, faces, curves, shapes, nudes, partial nudes. He had women in yoga poses, women rising up out of water. Mother and child. Lovers standing back-to-back. He’d carved every pose that had ever spoken to him, every thought that made him feel. He’d smoothed and polished them until they were as close to perfection as he could get. And then he closed them up in a locked cabinet.
Jewel hadn’t said anything yet. Nor had she made a sound.
And the eerie silence had Bobby’s pulse racing.
Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer. He slipped his hands into his jeans’ pockets and rocked back onto his heels. “Say something.”
She turned to him then, and the look on her face, the sheer understanding of what these pieces meant to him, had him falling a little bit in love with her. No one had ever looked at his work that way. No one had looked at him that way.
She didn’t comment. Instead, with methodical movements, she slowly closed the doors, then pressing her back against the cool metal, she pulled a breath in through her nose. And finally, she spoke.
“Why did you break up with Bria?”
He jolted at the unexpected question, but once past the initial shock, found it interesting that’s where she’d gone. It was as if she instinctively knew. “Because she didn’t want me coming back here again. She was afraid I’d end up delaying school for another year.”
She lifted her hand and touched one finger to the door behind her, right above her shoulder. “She was afraid you’d spend a few more weeks doing this?”
“She’s never actually seen those. But yes. She’s not a fan of my carvings.”
She laughed. “Those are not carvings, Bobby. Those are art.”
He wanted to hold this woman.
And he might never want to let go.
She looked around the room again, seeming to take in everything around them, each ounce of his soul he’d put into the work, before finally bringing her gaze back to his. And when her gorgeous eyes once again zeroed in on him, the earth shifted beneath his feet.
“You made the right decision breaking up with her. Now, kiss me, will you? Before I go up in flames. Because for all those years that you saw only Bria, I saw only you. And I didn’t even know about all of this.”
Shock rooted him in place. She’d always liked him?
How had he not known that?
And his work made her like him even more? That was the sexiest thing she could have said.
He hesitated no longer and did exactly as she asked. And as his lips closed over hers, for the first time in his life, it felt as if he’d truly come home.
Chapter Six
Jewel slid both arms around Bobby’s neck and flattened her body to his, and she’d have scaled him like a tree if he hadn’t lifted her up at the same time. Hands cupping her bottom, he pressed her to an impressively large erection. And with a grunt, he backed her into the cabinet.
Something fell over, but the sound slowed neither of them.
“Jewel.” Bobby tugged at one of her knees, and she clamped both legs around him. He finished his thought with a groan.
“Bed,” she uttered. It might be fun to be taken against a wall—or a cabinet—but she didn’t want to risk breaking any of the pieces she’d just laid eyes on. “Hurry,” she added, and he complied. And as she landed on the bed she’d eyed earlier, Bobby’s shirt disappeared over