Nicholas (McKinley Brothers Book 3) by Alexis Ashlie

Author:Alexis Ashlie [Ashlie, Alexis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

NICHOLAS

I spot Lexi standing there, so pale that she glows in the moonlight, pearlescent. Her strong, curvaceous legs bare, reflecting the same cool light that dances off the waves. With that astounding pewter-colored hair, and skin like sculpted marble, she seems almost preternatural, an otherworldly being. My mind runs on Artemis, goddess of the hunt, who has become practically our family’s patron saint, and I decide that Lexi is Selene, goddess of the moon. A powerful witch, and enchantress who is drawing me under her influence as effortlessly as she controls the tides.

Lexi walks beside me in silence, and I’m glad she doesn’t try to fill the strange chasm between us with babble. I lead her to the eastern end of the Artemis property, to the building where only two people have the key: me and the housekeeper.

I open the door and let her in, locking it behind us. The lights sense our presence and come alive, flooding the interior with a brilliant glow. I hear her gasp . . . for the second time in five minutes. I wonder if I would be able to elicit that sound from her lips again tonight.

She stands next to me, frankly gaping, and I see my studio through her eyes. It is chaos. I am not the neatest person. Two walls are lined with shelves from floor to ceiling, laden with tools: hammers, tongs, and huge shears capable of removing a finger with the slightest snip. A row of work tables run down the middle, scattered with sketches and designs, pieces that I have just begun, and works that I have just finished, which I only have to polish, sign and mount.

“What is all this?” she asks.

“Copper, brass, silver, gold . . .” I point at the piles of raw materials. “My preference is metalwork, but I do a bit of stonework as well.”

“You’re a sculptor.”

“Yes.”

“I thought you painted . . .”

I smile. I have no problem with the finer arts, but I find that slamming away at a slab of metal with a big-ass hammer does wonders for my mood. Plus, it does away with a lot of time wasted in the gym. There’s no better workout than working with a hammer in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other.

She walks around, eyes taking in everything. Some of my pieces are five feet long; others, just ten or twelve inches. But in each of them, I’ve embedded a piece of me. She stops by a triptych featuring the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, tall, majestic, and commanding. “You’ve got one like this in the lobby at the Artemis, don’t you?”

I am irrationally pleased that she has recognized it. “I do.”

She grabs my arm excitedly. “Nicholas! Please tell me you exhibit these. Please tell me you’re going to put these up for sale! You could do a one man show and sell every piece!”

And just like that, I’m jerked backwards in time, back to my dilemma, back to the agony of doubt.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.