Chapter 8

• Hands on hips, Devin glared at the canvas. Hours had passed since it was a brilliant empty white and now the image on it caused his throat to clench. I didn’t set out to paint this! Where did this come from? An overactive imagination? Not likely. The only thing he could blame this on was being celibate for far too long, it was finally affecting his creative thought process.
• Swatting the hair back from his eyes, he studied what the brushes had created, and let out a long sigh. The forest was dark, as it had been tonight. The wet and rain on the canvas—he understood where that had come from. It was the ethereal woman standing just far enough outside the tree line, with some unseen light source glowing off her light, smooth complexion that he didn’t understand. It was the woman that smelled of gardenias. She was beautiful with long straight blonde hair, which fell almost to her waist, she had the perfect body of petite femininity, with curves that begged to be explored.
• The hair color had stemmed from, the truth of what he’d seen and even the sexy body wasn’t too hard to picture, he was male after all. It was her eyes that disturbed him the most, causing his stomach to tauten in a pulsing manner. They were light blue, to his artist’s eye the truest hue he’d ever glimpsed. In his mind, warning shots were going off, that hue meant something he didn’t want to think about. Overall, the painting was extraordinary and pride should be his only feeling with the result. Then why do I feel like I should rinse the whole damn canvas with paint thinner and then burn it?
• Rolling his shoulders, trying to ease the tension, Devin let out a few calming breaths, he wasn’t going to make any decisions right at this moment. Sleeping on it and deciding in the morning sounded reasonable. He looked out the window, the storm seemed to have almost exhausted itself and only drizzle fell sporadically now. Walking from the studio, flicking off every light switch he passed, he just wanted to go to sleep and forget tonight happened.
• He thought about taking a shower and rinsing some of the paint off, he always wore what was aimed at the canvas, but he didn’t have the energy to bother. Dropping down onto the bed, he looked out the window. Had she calmed down? In the darkness, his face tensed into a scowl, this concern was a very new emotion. Closing his eyes tightly Devin attempted to breathe it away.
• Less than a minute later that he was out of the bed, flinging the covers to the floor in frustration. How am I supposed to sleep with an uninvited stranger on my land? I can’t. Whether she had calmed down wasn’t the issue, at least he was trying to convince himself of that. It was the fact that she was here that disturbed him enough to need to check on her. Again.
• As Devin headed through the trees for the second time in one night, cursing inside his head with almost each step, he tried to rationalize why. She could do something crazy, like run her car and die from carbon monoxide poisoning—or something... it’s my duty to check on her, after all I don’t need a dead blonde woman that smells like gardenias on my hands, or my land. The internal argument had his brain so distracted, he stumbled over the same trees he’d flawlessly cleared earlier. Anger flared as he rolled his lip back in a snarl for the rest of the distance.
• Stopping in the same spot in the trees, he watched the white car. It wasn’t lit or running. Was she all right? Inhaling deeply, the smell of gardenias filled his nostrils and his stomach spasmed at the exact moment the fragrance hit him. Why can I smell gardenias now, with her inside the car? Had she gotten out? This scent was feminine and enticing in a way he didn’t recognize. Moving closer cautiously, the scent got stronger. Devin inhaled warmth and had to stop to just absorb the feeling for a few moments.
• A foot from the driver’s door he noticed she had rolled the window down an inch, no more. That explained how he could smell her so vividly—but didn’t she understand how damp she was going to get with the cool night air filtering into the vehicle? More importantly, why did he care? He came to make sure she wasn’t doing something brainless, and she wasn’t, so he should just go home and back to bed, now.
• A sound in the trees had him turning and immediately alert. Inhaling the night air, Devin tried to detect what had caused it. No threatening scent, wild or otherwise came back to him. Probably just something shifting and settling from the heavy rain. The trees on this land weren’t tamed and manicured, but left it to be what they were meant to be. He moved to the front of the car and listened. There was nothing out there that felt alarming, just the forest, being a forest.
• Turning back to the car, he took the floral fragrance into his body once more, not sure why he felt compelled to. His stomach constricted so hard this time he wasn’t even sure he was going to be able to go back to the house. Maybe I should just stay here awhile and keep watch while she rested...
• He shook his head angrily as soon as the thought went through his mind. What is wrong with me? She was leaving in the morning, he would make sure of it, so why did it matter that she rest safely tonight? Looking towards the sky, he wished for the rain again. The clouds were rolling away with no more in sight. A small sliver of the moon was visible, it made him long for the full moon, when the forest and lake were alive with life—anything to distract him would be welcome.
• Devin turned so he wouldn’t look back and ordered his body to follow his nose and go back toward the trees. He’d go get some sleep and when he woke, chances were, she would be gone.
• Several steps later he realized he was not heading towards the lake and was not going in the direction of his bed. He moved faster, maybe the long way home would tire him and he’d be able to sleep.
• A slight breeze started to blow over his hair and ruffle it, even though it should be impossible at this speed, he could still smell gardenias. It had to be in his head, not real at all, so he was going to pick up the pace and exhaust it right out of there.