“It went fine.” Could he sense how much I wasn’t saying?
I r
efused to second-guess myself. I liked Silas, like, a lot. We’d stayed up until two in the morning talking about everything from movies to music. He had an eclectic taste, just as I did, but he used the different genres of music to infuse mood into his art. His charcoal piece had been an angry, aggressive one, which explained the rap.
I’d woken at seven this morning, dressed quickly, and kissed him goodbye before high-tailing it to my apartment. It’d been a mad dash to get ready for the day after that, and I’d tried my best not to think about him.
Because he made me giddy.
It was something no other man had done. After Reno, I felt like I was all darkness. Silas was light, my opposite, and it rubbed off on me in the best possible way. I liked Regan, the woman I was around him. But lying brought reality crashing back to me. All I’d wanted was to be an FBI agent. Not sharing such a huge part of my life with him was eating me up.
At least coming clean with Shane helped a little.
“I have a feeling,” Shane said, “that something’s going to happen soon. We’re gonna catch a break.”
God, I hoped so.
I went home Saturday night cursing both Kirk Roland and Victor Bennett. Another weekend down, and Roland hadn’t shown his face. He hadn’t reached out to Julius, either. I went home to my apartment pissed off at the situation.
There was a small UPS package sitting on my green rug, and the box looked like it’d been too big to fit in my mailbox. I scooped it up and carried it inside, curious. I didn’t remember ordering anything recently, and didn’t recognize the sender. Once I was in my apartment, I cut it open, and a laugh bubbled from my throat. Without reading the packing slip, I knew instantly who’d sent me the pair of patterned underwear. They were black with orange pumpkins on them.
I dug my phone out and sent a text message to Silas, not sure if he was still awake.
I smiled. Silas’s simple gesture had brightened my shitty day and I was grateful.
His single word sent a thrill through me.
We fell into an easy pattern of dates after that. Not necessarily seeing each other every day, but we always talked. Sometimes he’d work late into the night to finish a project, or I’d be assisting an investigation at the office that spilled into after hours.
Hope dwindled further each weekend that passed without hearing from Roland. I considered going to his office, but Shane advised against it. Not only would it skirt the edge of entrapment, but he felt strongly that Roland would have shown up if he had interest. Fuck, I’d been so sure I had him on the hook. Just another one of my instincts that was dead wrong.
It was early November when I took Silas out to celebrate the sale of his red piece, the one with the people having sex in the fog. He’d sold it to a decorator who was designing a fancy restaurant on the Gold Coast, and it made sense. The painting made me hungry.
We’d finished our meal when Silas laid his gaze on me, his expression unreadable.
“You have plans tomorrow night?” His voice was casual, but I picked up on the tightness. Was he nervous?
“I don’t think so. Why?”
“I’m doing Joseph and Noemi’s photo shoot.”
“Oh.” Conflicting emotions surged through me. Joseph and Noemi would be naked and probably fucking while Silas took pictures. I’d heard they were both exhibitionists from Payton.
I wouldn’t have said I was a jealous type, but Matt’s betrayal had knocked me sideways. And maybe I wasn’t jealous of my boyfriend looking at another woman, as much as I was jealous he’d be doing it without me.
But Silas was an artist, I reminded myself. Surely he’d used nude models before, and his tattoo work had to have put a lot of naked people beneath his needle. Not to mention, he’d already received the payment for the photo shoot. Payment that had been one of the hottest nights of my life.
Why had Silas asked if I was available tomorrow?
“You want me at the shoot?” My voice was coated in surprise. “Are they okay with that?”
His smile was cryptic and got my blood hot. “Yeah, Joseph said it was fine.”
“What aren’t you saying?”
He laughed lightly. “Joseph’s got an idea, but I can’t tell you about it.”
“What kind of idea?”