“What does the heroin needle signify?”

“It’s a threat. If I don’t pay, Sumiko will end up dead the same way as my mother.”

“Overdose?”

“Yeah.”

Andrew’s breath hung like a white cloud in the frigid air. He scrubbed his face with his hands and cursed. “Somebody should stick a needle in Big Ted’s arm and do the world a favor.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

Huddling closer to me, I wrapped the jacket around both of us. His presence slowed my heart rate to a normal level. Without Andrew, this situation would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“One second.” He lifted himself off the curb and patted his pockets. He made an a-ha noise when he found what he was looking for, a checkbook. “Is there a pen in my jacket pocket?”

There was. Handing it to him, he sat back down on the curb. Pen poised over a fresh check, he looked at me. “How much do you owe?”

“This isn’t your responsibility, Andrew. I’ll figure out a way to pay back the debt without your money.”

“Yeah, how?” He sighed. “Look I have done it your way. I haven’t called the cops and reported Big Ted for assault or battery but things have gone on long enough. Your sister, your only family, might die tomorrow because of a stupid mental block you have about taking money. There are no strings attached. I don’t think of you as a project and I certainly don’t view you as weak. Please, for once in your life, lean on somebody else for a change and let me fix this.”

Although it went against the very essence of who I was, my brain screamed at me to accept Andrew’s offer. I had no other options. “Fine. I owe seven hundred dollars, but I’ll find a way to pay back every penny of that money.”

Visible relief reflected in his gaze. “Yeah, whatever, that’s fine.”

He quickly scribbled the sum and handed me the check. I tucked it into my wallet for safekeeping.

“Do you want to come back inside?” Andrew wondered.

Big Ted had ruined whatever happy vibes I had by sticking Gums on me. However, I wouldn’t let him completely destroy Andrew’s show.

“Sure, I would love to,” I said.

“Good. There is something I wanted to show you.”

He hauled me to my feet and didn’t let go of my hand as we walked into the art gallery. The crowd had thinned since my brief departure.

Andrew gestured to the space around us. “This show has been a compilation of six months of blood, sweat, and tear—yet there are two pieces of artwork I started once we met.”

It sounded as if he wanted me to guess. “Andrew if you don’t want to stand here until we are old and gray, I suggest you tell me.”

Grinning, he led me to the canvas I saw earlier when Gums cornered me. My gaze swung from Andrew back to the painting.

“I don’t understand.”

“The day we met at the coffee shop, I ran home and stayed up till four a.m., painting the girl with the troubled eyes.” He pointed to a streak of purple on the horizon. “That’s how much you let your happiness show, only enough to know that it existed.”

Before I could process, he tugged me to the next painting, broken into three separate canvases.

“It’s called a triptych,” he explained.

Unlike the previous painting, orange, pink and yellow streaked the canvas in parallel lines. Flecks of gold bended the light.

“This was painted two days ago,” Glancing over at me, Andrew’s eyes shined with warmth. “This is your soul, the soul that I see when I look at you now.”

My hand flew to my mouth in disbelief. “No.”

Every tragedy I’d gone through, every moment that had threatened to tear me apart was worth it because it all led to Andrew. A man who saw the beauty inside me when I couldn’t.

Our discarded clothes formed a path down the hallway as we stumbled into the apartment. Buttons were ripped off and pants were shoved to the ground until our underwear was the only barrier between us.

Andrew’s eyes took in my hot pink bra with satisfaction. “I love a woman in pink.” His fingers teased the crest of my breast and I shivered. “But I especially love what’s underneath.”

He slid the straps over my shoulders, placing hot kisses against my bare skin. Overcome with a need so fierce I felt as if I was swimming underwater, my hand dipped below his waistband.

Andrew gently nipped my plump bottom lip.

Pain mixed with pleasure. I found his thick hardness waiting for me and I wrapped my fingers around the length of his shaft. My hand pumped forward. Andrew’s groan vibrated through me. Stopping at the entrance to the bedroom, he lifted me off the ground and my legs tangled around his waist.

“Where are we going?” I asked as we changed direction.

“My art studio.”

“Your art studio?”

Andrew looked at me with desire. “I want to paint you, naked and sedated with pleasure. I want to run my paintbrush over your lush curves. I want to plunge deep inside you and fill you to the very brim.”

My mouth gaped open in an O. “That sounds… nice.”

“Nice? It sounds nice?” Andrew laughed. “Nice is reserved for kittens and soft fluffy things. What we are about to do is anything but nice.”

He shifted me higher on his waist so that my clit brushed his hipbone. A zap of pleasure hit my core. Squirming in his arms, my fingers dug into his back.

His gaze darkened. “If you keep doing that, we might not make it there.”

I swiveled my head around and saw we were near the kitchen. I had no idea where his art studio was actually located, but if we didn’t get there within the next five seconds, I might die. Lust coiled tightly in my belly like a rubber band about to snap.

Andrew’s thumb dragged over my throbbing sex. “You’re so wet.”

A gasp passed my lips as I arched into his touch. Desperation sunk me to a new level, begging. “Please, I need you inside me. Please, Andrew.”

He swallowed my pleas. Our tongues danced together and he lowered me to the ground onto the scratchy surface of the runner in the hallway. Shedding his boxers, I drank him in.

“Shit.” Frustration passed over Andrew’s face. “One second. I have to grab a condom.”

“It’s fine. I’m on birth control and I’m guessing you’re clean. Right?”

“Clean as a whistle.”

With that information out of the way, I reached greedily toward Andrew. “Great, now fuck me.”

“Such a dirty mouth,” he chided.

Both at our breaking points, Andrew shoved my underwear to the side and thrust inside me. He remained a slow and steady rhythm that was both maddening and mind blowing. Andrew flicked his tongue against my covered nipple. I whimpered as a tornado built.

“Are you going to come for me, baby?” Andrew purred, his eyes locked onto mine. “That’s it, come.”

Throwing my head backwards, a scream ripped from my throat as an orgasm racked through my body. Moments later, Andrew tipped over the edge. He slumped foreword, his dick twitching and spent.

I laughed, breathlessly. “What happened to having sex in your art studio?”

“Your not wearing any panties happened.” He rolled off of me. His cum dripped free, coating my inner thighs with the sticky substance. “I’ll get a rag to clean you up.”

He put his pants back on and walked to the bathroom. As I waited for him to return, I thought about the significance of Andrew inviting me into his art studio. Yes, we didn’t make it, however, Matthew said only Camilla was allowed in there when they were together. His studio was his sacred space and Andrew wanted me to see it. Actually, it was more like he’d wanted to fuck me in it, but that was neither here nor there. Hopefully, this mess with Big Ted would be gone by tomorrow and we could start fresh. Maybe we could be a real couple with normal problems like dirty dishes in the sink.

Seconds later, Andrew returned with a wet rag. “I’ll never get over how stunning you are, Haven.”