Overlooked(2)(17)

“If that’s the case, then why do you care? Why bother coming here at all?”

“Because you’re being a pain in the ass. I’m tired of wasting my time with it.”

Kelso leads me into his office, the first room in the house that’s finished. I’ll have to remember to point that out to him.

I hit Kelso with all the legal points I’ve spent the past two days going over with Julie. It’s a no brainer and even he must see that. But he has such a big ego, I have to be careful to give him a way of saving face or else he’ll dig his heels in and fight to the end.

Forty-five minutes later, I stroll out of his office, confident he’s seen the light. Kelso doesn’t bother getting off his ass to see me out, and that’s fine, I’ll let him lick his wounds.

When I get back to the entrance hall, Skye has a paintbrush in her hand and a serious look of concentration on her face. She’s so focused on her painting, she doesn’t notice me.

I creep over, and stand beside her.

“Looking good,” I say.

“I’ve just done the roughing in. You can’t even see anything yet.”

I shrug. “It’s still better than anything I could do.”

Skye tilts her head, examining her work. “Come back in a few days and judge it.”

“I don’t want you to be here in a few days. Kelso is dangerous. If you really must do these paintings, then paint them somewhere else and drop them off to him.”

“I need the light of the room they’ll hang in. Besides, one of his conditions was that the paintings are painted on-site.”

“Who cares about conditions, you need to paint them elsewhere.” My teeth are gritted.

Skye turns and squares her shoulders, and immediately I regret the way I worded everything. “How dare you just come in here and tell me what to do? Just because you wear a fancy suit, you think you can tell people what to do?”

I sigh. “Skye, I’m telling you this…”

She interrupts, “I’m sorry, weren’t you just leaving?”

“Not without convincing you.”

“Then you’d better get a sleeping bag. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Get the fuck out of my house,” Kelso snaps from behind us, making me jump. I hadn’t realized he’d left his home office. Guess he finally managed to move after the mental blow to the head I delivered him.

I look at Skye, but she turns away and messes around with her paints. Kelso moves toward me. The last thing I want him to realize is there’s any connection between me and Skye, so all I can do is glare at him, and exit the house.





Craving

(Skye)



“How do you know that asshole?” Kelso snaps at me, his eyes flaring.

My heart pounding, I say, “I don’t, he just came in and started talking to me about my painting.”

He stares at me, his breath huffing and his brow somehow sweaty once again. I hold his stare, daring him to call me a liar but praying to God he doesn’t.

“Get back to work,” he says and goes back down the hall.

My heart is pounding against my ribs. There’s no way I can paint right now, my hands are shaking too much. I sit on the floor and grab my water bottle.

The water fills my mouth and I let it swirl around while I reflect on what just happened.

Hot tattooed guy is Lawson Heywood. The Lawson Heywood. Never saw that coming.

What do I do now? I can’t get involved with some billionaire. I don’t belong in his world any more than he belongs in mine.

But when he looks at me, my insides melt. And when he touches me, my body sets alight with flames fiercer than I ever knew existed.

Frustrated, I gather myself enough to get back to my work. The sooner I get it finished, the sooner I get the money and get away from creepy Kelso.

I work on the base of the temple in the painting, blending it in with the grass and bushes around its stones. It’s not meshing the way I want and I decide to take a break from it.

With my sketchbook and pencil in hand, I decide to get some ideas for the other rooms. I head down the hallway, intending to reach the family room at the back of the property. At least I think it’s the back; it’s difficult to tell in such a big, maze-like house.

I take a wrong turn and up in a short hallway by an ajar door. Kelso and another man’s voices spill out of the room and I turn to flee before Kelso sees me. Before I take a step, Kelso’s voice becomes clear.

“This lawsuit is killing me. I’m going to have to cut my costs everywhere I can.”

“Florida is your best bet,” the other man says.

“Agreed. I’m flying out there tonight.”

My eyes widen. Shit, am I one of those costs? I hurry away, though my feet are heavy and it’s a struggle to be silent.