Dark Masterpiece (Serendipity Series 3) (26 page)

“Traevyn!” the woman called. “Oh how lovely
to see you!”

Evie felt him bristle and she looked over at
the woman. Slender, elegant, gorgeous… Evie averted her eyes.

Traevyn‘s sigh sounded weary. “Hello, Jane,”
he greeted flatly.

“Well, I haven’t seen you in ages. How have
you been?”

“Just peachy,” he grumbled.

She made a
tsk
noise. “Oh I can
imagine the last few years must have been so hard on you. You poor
thing.”

Evie frowned.
Poor thing? That was just rude.

Jane’s eyes fell on Evie and she made a face
of disdain. “And who’s this?” she asked in a fake cheerful
tone.

“Evie,” Traevyn introduced, “this is Jane
Meadows. Jane, Evie Austin, my apprentice.”

She frowned. “Apprentice?”

He nodded. “Yes, she is an art student from
SOU staying with me for the summer to study.”

Jane flashed the most nauseating smile Evie
had ever seen and laughed amazing, fake laughter. “Oh, I thought
maybe she was your girlfriend!”

Evie blushed. “Oh, no,” she said. Her voice
sounded much too breathy and shy to suit her.

“Well, that’s good,” Jane
continued. She turned her attention back to Traevyn. “I mean, not
really your type, is she?” She gave another sickening giggle. “You
usually go for such sophisticated
ladies,
not short, homely…little
girls. I mean, she really wouldn’t fit into your world, would she?”
She laughed as though her evil words had been a fantastic
joke.

Evie looked down and time
stopped. Those words… The words she feared the most. They echoed
through her mind.
She really wouldn’t fit
into your world, would she?
She bit her
bottom lip and felt the familiar sting of tears. She forced herself
to face Jane.
She
refused
to cry in front of everyone
and make a fool out of herself. She gave them
both a wobbly smile. “Please excuse me for a moment,” she
murmured.

Traevyn watched as Evie all but fled and he
let out an exasperated sigh. Jane’s lips were twisted into an
arrogant, satisfied smile and it sickened him. “Good to see you
haven’t changed, Jane,” he snarled. “Class was never something you
were good at.” He turned and strode out after Evie.

Chapter Twenty

Traevyn’s heart broke at the sight of Evie.
She was sitting outside on a bench in between a bubbling fountain
and a bronze statue of a fairy. The moonlight bathed her in silvery
light and her face was in her hands. He could see her body shaking
with sobs. It would have been a tragically beautiful sight if he
didn’t care for her so much. He sighed. Seeing her so hurt stabbed
at his heart. Everything in his world disappeared except for the
desire to make her stop crying. He approached her slowly. “Evie,”
he said in a soothing tone.

She looked up at him. “Oh,” she said, trying
in vain to wipe her tears away. “I was just, uh…” She shook her
head as fresh tears coursed down her cheeks.

Traevyn knelt in front of her and ran his
hands up her arms. “Shhh, Evie. Please, please stop crying,” he
breathed. “You’re killing me inside.” He reached up and cradled her
face in his hands. “Don’t listen to Jane. She hates me because she
tried to date me at one point and I wouldn’t go for it. Since then
she’s made it her sole purpose in life to make my existence
miserable.”

Evie shook her head. “It wouldn’t hurt so
bad if what she’d said hadn’t been true,” she sniffed. “I am short
and I’m not pretty. I know this. I accepted it a long time ago, but
I don’t need it flung in my face. I know I’ll never measure up to
any of the beautiful women you’ve known in your life, but I’m still
human! I still have feelings!” She let out another little sob.

Traevyn frowned. “Never measure up— Not
pretty? Evie, who has told you such things?”

“Oh, only every guy I’ve ever liked!” she
spat.

He sighed and gently wiped at her tears.
“Evie,” he said, “look at me please.”

She struggled with it for a moment. He saw
the hesitation flash across her face, but she eventually managed to
look into his eyes.

He studied her face. He had rarely seen her
without her glasses and, since she had taken them off to cry, he
took the liberty of appraising the contours of her face. So gentle
and soft, all feminine beauty. “Evie, you’re right,” he stated.
“You’re not pretty.”

She flinched as if she’d been slapped.

He smiled and cupped her cheek in his palm.
“You’re gorgeous.”

She stared at him in baffled silence.
“Wh—What?”

“Even gorgeous is too weak a word. Everything
about you is exquisite. Your lovely hair.” He reached up to tuck
back a wayward strand. “Your fantastic, curvaceous body.”

A soft blush touched her cheeks.

He smiled. “Your eyes that can see directly
into my soul.” He ran his fingers down her cheek. “Your soft skin…”
His eyes fell on her lips and he suddenly found it difficult to
breathe. “Your full, supple lips,” he whispered, running his thumb
along the bottom one. “Lips I ache to remember…” He slowly pulled
her toward him, needing to feel a real kiss from her, needing to
show her the things he felt, but had trouble expressing.

She seemed shocked at first, stunned and
timid. He felt her lips tremble as they touched his, and she drew
in a shaky breath that made him fill with desire for her. She made
him feel so much. Her awe and admiration for his work made him feel
like an amazing artist. Her gentle prodding and subtle reformation
of his character made him feel like a human. The way she reacted to
his lips on hers made him feel like a man. He drew her small, shaky
breath into his body, breathed it into himself, and felt everything
within him come alive.

He caressed her mouth with his, and all the
feelings he had buried deep inside him came to life with an
intensity that would have frightened him at any other moment.

He held her face in his hands like he was
holding a fragile object, and he ran his tongue in a slow caress
along her bottom lip before pulling it into his mouth, asking for
entrance, needing to sample all the beauty he knew she possessed.
It had been so long since he’d felt passion. It engulfed him like a
tidal wave and he basked in it.

Evie’s chest constricted as he gently sucked
on her bottom lip. She couldn’t breathe and her whole body tingled.
Her blood burned through her veins and reality began to slip away.
She opened her mouth for Traevyn, allowing his tongue to sweep over
hers and claim her mouth. She clutched at his suit jacket, gripping
the material as if afraid he might vanish at any moment.

For several heartbeats he continued to kiss
her, to pour his very essence into her just as he claimed hers.
When he pulled away, she was shaking badly, and she reached up to
touch her lips. She met his beautiful, green eyes and he gave her a
soft smile. It nearly killed her. Silent tears fell from her eyes.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” she whispered.

His frown was quizzical. “Why?”

She looked down, the ache in her chest so
acute she thought she would die. “Because I don’t think I can live
without those now.”

He smiled and moved up to claim her lips
again, taking his time, exploring until she was breathless and
couldn’t take it anymore. “Traevyn,” she murmured, shaking her
head. “I can’t do this. I have to go home.”

He nodded. “All right. Just let me tell the
gallery director.”

She fought a sob that
threatened to consume her and stood, putting some distance between
them. “No, I mean I have to go
home
! Back to Oregon!”

He stared at her for a moment. “Why? You’re
still supposed to stay with me for another month.”

She forced herself to meet
his eyes, which was becoming increasingly hard to do.
She’d never fit into your world, would
she?
She winced and looked down. “Because
if I stay, I’m going to get really hurt and I just can’t do it. I’m
sorry.”

He frowned and stood, going to her. “But
Evie, I need you—”

She nodded. “And I’ll
always be here for you. Just not
here
for you.” She couldn’t do it.
Not anymore. She loved him too much. She couldn’t just be the
person who made him feel. She couldn’t be his
companion
. It was all or nothing.
She needed him completely, not just shards of him.

Traevyn stared at Evie, his heart beating
sluggishly in his chest. “Why?” he breathed. “Why are you saying
this?” He felt the good part of his soul trembling in fear, in
complete horror. It could shatter in one moment if she said the
wrong word. In one second, she could shatter all he was.

“Because,” she cried, “you heard what Jane
said. She was right! I’ll never fit into your world!”

He felt his eyes flash
fire. “Never fit into my world? You
are
my world!”

He all but shouted it and Evie jumped. She
stared at him in obvious confusion. “What?” she whispered, her
voice shaking from pure emotion.

He grabbed her by the
shoulders. “Without you I am
nothing!
” he cried. “I was nothing
before you. A hopeless, pathetic shell of a half man who felt
nothing but overwhelming sorrow. Would you send me back there,
Evie? Would you send me back to that dark place?” He started to
tremble, terrified of this entire situation. All she had made him,
all she had given him, was threatening to disappear.

Evie shook her head, shrinking back at the
raw, unadulterated despair he knew his eyes reflected. “No,
Traevyn, I—”

“Do you know I have not slept worth anything
since Amy left and Leanna died? Every night I was plagued, haunted
by their faces. Since you came to me, I can sleep. Do you know why?
Because, before I close my eyes at night, I think of you. I think
of your smile and your laugh and your touch. Your smile lights up
my whole universe. Your laugh is more beautiful than any music on
the Earth and your touch…” He shook his head. “Your touch drives
away every recess of darkness, every grasping demon. I think of
those things and I sleep because I know that the sooner I sleep,
the sooner I can experience the splendor of you all over again.” He
let it all out, every emotion and secret thought spilling out over
the next. He risked it all, laid himself bare. He opened his arms
wide and invited the last stab to his decimated heart, the one that
would surely kill him. If he couldn’t have Evie, he didn’t want to
live.

“And when I sleep,” he
continued softly, “it is
your
face I see.” He stared into her eyes, which were
now wide with overwhelmed emotion. “Would you send me back there?”
he whispered, a tear streaking down his cheek as his voice shook.
“Would you banish me back to the darkness? Back to hell?” He turned
away from her, unable to look at her any longer. It hurt too much.
His heart, it was dissolving. Not breaking, dissolving. It was
ceasing to be.

Evie stared at his broad shouldered back,
trying to process what he had just told her. In all her life she
had never expected that reaction. She reached out to him
tentatively, but let her hand drop, unsure of how to proceed.
“Traevyn,” she murmured.

“I love you, Evie,” he murmured.

Evie froze. Her heart stopped, then started
to beat way too fast. “What?” she rasped, realizing she seemed to
be saying that a lot. She couldn’t have heard him right. Surely
that was just a trick of her deluded imagination.

He turned back to her, his shining hair
glistening in the moonlight as it fell to frame his flawless face.
“I love you,” he repeated, fixing her with a forlorn expression. “I
love you more than the sun, the moon, or the stars in the night
sky. I love you more than the ocean, the fog, or even my art…” He
held his arms out in a helpless gesture. “There. It’s done. I said
it. It doesn’t even matter if I’m afraid. It doesn’t matter if I
get hurt. Nothing matters if I can’t have you.”

More tears began to fall from her eyes. Tears
of joy. Tears of confusion. Tears of every emotion in the
world.

Traevyn reached out to catch her tears with
his fingers. “Evie, I love you more than I ever could have hoped to
love Amy.”

She shook her head violently. “Oh no,” she
sobbed. “Don’t say it. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.” Loving
anyone more than Amy was impossible. She had been his life, his
goddess.

He took her face in both
his hands and forced her to meet his eyes. “I
never
say anything I don’t
mean.”

She stared at him for a
millisecond of time before collapsing against him and sobbing into
his shoulder. She clung to him with a ferocity she didn’t even know
she possessed. He loved her? This beautiful, perfect man
loved
her
? Evie?
Loud, abrasive, unrefined Evie? Her stupid brother had been right
the
entire
time?

Traevyn’s arms crept around Evie and he held
her to him, his heart aching and heavy. “You…don’t love me?” he
whispered. It was as he feared. Why else would she be sobbing like
that? She felt bad that she would have to hurt him. His world
started to crumble as if he could see the pieces falling around
him.

She pulled back and looked up at him. “Are
you out of your mind?” she all but shouted. “I love you so much it
makes me dizzy! I can’t even breathe without you!”

The threatening shadows were incinerated by
the inferno of love and passion that swept through him. He enfolded
her in his arms and held her close, wanting to make her a part of
him, wanting to be a part of her. “Then why do you cry like your
heart is breaking?”