The Body Painter by Pepper Winters

Author:Pepper Winters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Dark Romance, Pepper Winters, The Body Painter, suspense, Romantic Suspense, contemporary romance, new adult, New York Times Bestseller, general romance, kidnapped, brooding artist
Publisher: Pepper Winters
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

______________________________

Gil

-The Past-

“OLIN MOSS, WHAT have I told you about talking in class?”

I looked up from the pop test Ms Tallup had assigned us. Olin’s shoulders hunched, her head slid to the side, her gaze catching mine.

My fingers tightened around my pen.

The class was silent.

It’d been silent since the test began.

My hearing was acutely attuned to Olin’s every noise, and she hadn’t made a peep.

My eyes narrowed to blades as Ms Tallup snapped her fingers with a sniff. “Detention, Miss Moss. This afternoon.”

“Wait. But I—” Olin held up a hand. “I wasn’t talking—”

“Arguing won’t help your case.” Ms Tallup sat in her chair and ignored the class as Olin threw me a disbelieving look.

I wanted to tell her not to worry. That she didn’t have to do detention because she hadn’t done anything wrong. But I couldn’t because I knew why this had happened.

Last week, the deputy principal had found Olin and me hiding behind the school gym after hours. I’d had a rough night. My ribs were sore from being punished for not getting payment from some john at three in the morning.

My father decided to take payment in blood.

My blood.

After he’d finished, I’d walked out of the house—if that was even a word for the hellhole I lived in—and wandered (stumbled) the streets. At dawn, I’d found an old sketch pad abandoned on the footpath a block away from school. Some of the pages held doodles of dogs and flowers, but the rest were blank, offering a distraction from my pain.

I’d always liked to sketch, but I hadn’t attempted anything in years.

But as the sun rose and I waited for Olin to arrive at school, I drew the building, the street, and the tree outside our classroom. I even drew Olin—or what I could from memory.

All day at school, I deliberated whether to show her. The work wasn’t very good, but it’d made all the other shit in my life fade knowing I could create art from nothing.

The magic it gave me while dragging a pen over paper had been life-changing.

As life-changing as Olin.

Despite my lines being rudimentary and my skill lacking, I decided to show her, picking a spot where we wouldn’t be seen by other students behind the gym. She’d been so happy to share in my newfound hobby, so grateful that I’d given her another piece of myself, and we’d hung out for far longer than we planned.

And of course, we’d been caught.

Caught at the exact moment Olin put her hand on mine and our eyes locked while we sat against the brick wall. My mouth watered. My heart galloped. My stomach churned for the taste of her lips.

We’d been so close.

So fucking close to our first kiss.

But then the gruff command from the deputy ripped us apart.

I’d been furious.

But in an awful way, I was grateful.

Furious to have the perfect almost-kiss ruined, but thankful that I didn’t lose control and ravage her.

If I touched her.

When I touched her.

She deserved to be pampered and adored. To be given sweet and softness.

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