Beneath The Skin(105)

I push my thumb. There’s a photo of a girl with brown hair whose forehead is screwed up in concentration as she adds a block to the top of a very tall stack she’s trying to keep balanced.

Another push of my thumb. The backside of two of the kids staring out the window at the street, a boy and a girl. The boy has his hands pressed to the glass, the girl has her hands linked behind her back, picking at her nails.

“Brant, these are beautiful,” she murmurs. “I wish the world could see them.”

“The world will.” She looks at me, mystified. “Well, at least the city will,” I amend with a little shrug. “You know Lori Turlington? She’s the owner of—”

“I know Lori,” she cuts me off, her eyes wide, already anticipating excitedly where I’m headed. “What about her?”

“She has contacts at several of the biggest newspapers nationwide. She also has a friend who works with a major art publication, though it’s not certain yet if my photos will be seen in that one, but …”

“Oh my god. Are you kidding? She’s hooking you up??”

“Nell, will ya let me finish??” I retort teasingly, poking her boob with my finger. She swats it away with a laugh. “Yes. That’s the crux of my news. Lori is giving me a platform to show my series of photos, which I called For The Children. But there’s more.”

“More?”

I steel myself for her reaction. I’ve been sitting on this news all day ever since Lori gave me the phone call this morning. I breathe in deep, then let it all out on my camera. “They’re also writing a story about them. An article, I guess you could say. It’s going to feature the kids, Westwood Light, and … how a person in the community with a heart can help these children.”

“Oh, Brant.”

“Donations. Major ones that could help turn their lives around—more so than just providing food and a roof. This story is going to be seen by so many people, Nell. This story—”

She interrupts me with a forceful kiss. Every damn thing in the world between us seems to be poured into this one, potent kiss. She damn near sucks my face off with her unapologetic fervor.

“Brant,” she murmurs when she pulls away, her face still close to mine, her green eyes flashing. “Your heart is bottomless. Your soul is so rich and so real, I didn’t even see it. I’ve been so trained all my life in looking for the falsehoods, in creating things that don’t already exist … I’ve become blind to the things that do. You are no fantasy, Brant. You are the real thing. You’re beautiful and your kind and …”

“Please don’t forget to mention my wiener,” I cut in. “He gets really sad when you leave him out.”

She growls at me frustratedly, then gets in my face and goes on. “You’re so amazing that you can’t even take my damn compliment, can you? Always deflecting them away with humor and jokes …”

“My dick is no joke.”

“And neither is your heart.” Nell presses her lips together. “Brant.”

I find I can’t make any more humor, so struck by the way she’s looking at me right now. I want to capture this moment and put it into a bottle and drink a tiny bit of it every day, just so I can preserve the emotion that’s so captured me right here on this couch with the woman I love.

Then I realize I can. “Hold that thought,” I murmur, lifting up my camera.

“I love you so damn much, Brant.”

I lift my big ol’ complicated device to my face, then give her my signature cocky smirk. “Right back at ya, babe.”

Aim. Focus.

Flash.



The end.



Continue for a sneak peek of With These Hands,

Book 3 in the College Obsession Romance series.





Thank you deeply for going to art school with me! If this is the first time we’ve been together, I want to welcome you to my brain, and I hope you consider checking out some of my other work!



Now that you’ve experienced Brant and Nell, go ahead and turn the page for a peek into the third book, With These Hands, where we will join both Dmitri and Sam in their final year at Klangburg University. Our emo bisexual creative writer and our blossoming deadpan pianist struggle with their respective loves—and it may take more than just a witty story or a clever song to figure themselves out.

This third book will include a bit of MMF, but it is not the primary focus of the novel.



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