“It’s one of my hobbies, setting up shows. I did a great Dali exhibit once in Barcelona.”
“So you actually did everything here?” I was astonished.
“Didn’t you wonder where I was going in the mornings? Or that I’d taken some of your paintings? Did you really not notice that?”
“I thought you had to do, you know, work. Businessman stuff. And they’re not my paintings, I mean, you gave me the canvases and paint and everything, so technically—”
“I hate business,” Jake said. “I really have no head for it.”
“Shut up,” I said. He couldn’t be serious.
“It’s true. The key is to hire assistants who run my business better than I could and pay them well.”
“And what do you get a salary for?” I teased.
“For coming up with all of the good ideas. Like this.”
“This gallery? You think a gallery with my art is going to be profitable?”
Jake smiled and put his arms around me. He kissed the top of my head. Immediately I felt a warmth spread through my chest. I leaned against him, hugging him tightly. He cared. He cared about me.
“I hear we’ve already got an offer on the next painting from Unknown. She’s a quite renowned art collector in Manhattan. A cool hundred grand, which is more than I’ve ever heard for a new name in the business.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Unknown might have to make some more paintings.”
“Is that so? I think I can persuade Unknown to get back into the studio.” I thought of what we’d done to create that painting, and I flushed. Jake saw my pink cheeks and brushed them with his thumb knowingly.
“There’ll never be a painting quite like that first one,” Jake said, smirking.
“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” I said, my heart filled to bursting.
“Are you ready to go back into the crowd?” Jake asked.
I nodded. Now that I knew he cared, now that I knew he was behind me at every step, I felt like I could handle anything that the world could throw at me.
Chapter Thirteen
After the show, we headed back to the house. Jake didn’t waste a moment before taking me directly to the mirrored room.
Now, as though seeing it for the first time, I walked around, looking at the art painted on the walls. There was darkness there, but a darkness that hinted at something underneath.
Something burning to get out.
“Lacey, don’t make me have to spank you before you climb up on the bed.” His voice smiled with a warning.
“I only wanted to see your art.”
“There will be plenty of time for that,” he said. “Now come.”
He opened the cabinet on the side of the room. I saw a flash of leather: whips, rods, crops. Everything that he could use on me. Goosebumps ran down my arms. But what he took out was different.
I stared at it for a moment before realizing what it was.
“A… a collar?”
“I want you to put it on yourself,” he said.
It wasn’t a question. It was a command. But when he lifted the collar up for me to take, I saw in his eyes a flash of indecision. Before he could take it back, I reached out and took the collar.
The black leather was smooth, surprisingly smooth, and cool to the touch. Small diamond studs edged the outside of the leather strip.
“Matches my underwear,” I said. “Would you hold my hair up while I put it on?”
Jake smiled, and a thought flashed through my mind: I’d passed the last test.
His warm hands smoothed back around my neck and gathered my hair up. I put the collar on and slipped the leather strap through its buckle.
“Not the tightest setting,” Jake said, watching carefully as I put it on. “Leave yourself a bit of give. You’ll want it.”
I shook my hair out. Jake looked at me in wonder.
“You approve?” I asked teasingly.
When he spoke his voice was throaty.
“Very much so,” he said.
He pulled a silk tie from his jacket.
“Is that…”
“A blindfold.”
“Really?”
“I don’t want you distracted. I want you to focus entirely on how it feels. There isn’t a canvas on the ground tonight, and we’re not performing for anyone.”
He knotted the silk tie around my head, and everything was dark. His strong hands came around my waist and lifted me onto the bed.
“That’s why you brought me here?” I was beginning to see the real person behind Jake Carville.
“I’m Jake out there. In here…”
“You’re Kage,” I finished. “I understand.”
“You don’t understand yet,” he said. He sounded like he was smiling.