and blah, blah, blah. It’s like an estrogen tailspin you girls do after an emotionally draining experience.”
Rori opened her mouth to answer, then shut it again. “Who the hell are you?” she said at last, earning a chuckle from him.
“I’m a guy who has been heavily coached by his sister over the years in the ways understanding the baffling mind of females.”
“Well, she’s good,” Rori said, pressing her hand to her chest and feeling the steady thud of her heart even as her throat choked up.
“So I’m going to call tomorrow. Maybe you pick up, maybe you don’t. That’s up to you. But we’re still friends, you and I. That’s the point. My only regret about tonight is that I can’t give you a hug right now or that someone isn’t there to give you one for me. I think you need one.”
“Okay, stop,” she said, more than a little serious. “A girl can only take so much sweetness before she swoons, and you’re approaching that line.” Approaching? Yeah, right. He’d passed it way back. In her mind she was hugging him all right. Then she was tilting her head up and pulling her mouth to his before letting her hands wander. The feel of him might only be her imagination, but damn, he felt good.
“Then I won’t tell you that I think you’re amazing. That would just be crossing the line,” he said.
Rori’s breath caught and she felt an actual tingle run through her. “Yeah, that might cross the line.”
“So I’ll stick with good night and see you tomorrow. How about that?”
“Right back at you,” Rori agreed.
“Night, Rori.”
“Night, Mike.”
Then he was gone, and Rori was left with one reoccurring thought: Oh, shit. What have I done?
Chapter 39
Mike Cannon was a man of his word. He called all right. And like he promised, he treated her like a sister. He was the big brother she’d never had—the big brother whose naked ass she was currently imagining as she sculpted the clay in front of her while she talked to him on the phone. It was like participating in an artist’s version of porn.
She had to be careful not to drink while she was on the phone with him anymore—not because she might say something she might regret, but because she might say something she really wanted to say. Something like, Did you know that I’m imagining you naked right now? or You know, I would love it if you would pose for me when you come in September. I would love to do a nude of you. Or there was the off chance that she might go really transparent with something like, I’m trying to create the perfect male ass. Mind sending me a picture of yours?
Would he? What would he say?
“What are you working on?” he asked, breaking into her thoughts.
Rori blinked herself back to the present. “How can you tell I’m working on something?”
“The way you talk,” he said.
“Oh, well, a sculpture, actually.”
“Of what?”
She hesitated, feeling a little embarrassed. She was never embarrassed. “Well, my theme is connection, so I guess you can say that I’m sculpting the most intimate connection possible.”
He hesitated. “A baby in the womb?”
“Ha ha,” she said, noting his too-innocent tone. “No I’m doing the part right before that—the part where the guy buries himself inside the girl and gets the baby ball rolling.”
“Uh, wow,” he said, clearing his throat. “Sounds awesome.”
“I hope it will be,” she said, keeping her voice casual. “I’m doing the guy’s hips right now—his ass actually. I have the perfect model.”
“Yeah?” His voice sounded a little off and it made Rori smile.
“Yeah. I kind of want to do the rest of his body, but for this piece I’m only going to be showing the paired hips. Everything else is just a distraction from the theme.”
“You don’t think they should connect in other ways, too? Like the eyes?”
“Not in this piece,” she said quickly. “Other pieces cover other types of connection, but this one is just about the most fundamental connection of them all. The one that creates life without regard to any other connection.”
“Uh, yeah. So how does that work? You have two models there holding that position? That seems a little impossible.”
“No, just the guy for right now. I haven’t decided on the female model. I might use myself.”
He choked on that one. She could tell even though he didn’t say a word. She smiled in the silence, careful not to make a sound.