Boston Avant-Garde 6: Chiaroscuro by Kaitlin Maitland Read Free Book Online

long shadows. The faded chintz chair draped in Owen’s clothing looked like a beast crouched in the corner.
    “This is not normal behavior for me,” Owen commented. “Be honest. Did you spike my coffee?”
    She laughed. His tone was so matter-of-fact, yet he was lounging against the white wood slats of her headboard without a stitch of clothing on and looking very comfortable—and totally hot.
    She snuggled up against his side and brushed her fingers over the circles inked across his collarbone. “Does that mean you’re going to cry rape? I do have kind of a thing for guys with tattoos. I suppose you could claim I ravished you.”
    His dark gaze was impenetrable, but somehow Mattie didn’t need to know what he was thinking to feel comfortable with him. In that way he reminded her of Lars. She’d never been able to read Lars. It had pissed her off at first. He’d seemed like a useless playboy. Then one night he’d shown up out of his mind with worry for her best friend Selena, and Mattie realized his nonchalant exterior was just a smokescreen.
    She had a feeling Owen and Lars would have gotten along pretty well. They both had the smokescreen thing going for them. As if they hid behind jokes and sarcasm to make light of their feelings.
    Owen gently took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Who are you thinking about?”
    His perceptiveness unnerved her. What was she supposed to say? That she was reminiscing about her last boyfriend while Owen was naked in her bed? There was no way in which that statement did not make her sound like a skank.
    “Mattie,” he chided. “I’d rather you be honest. We both come complete with pasts. I’m not arrogant enough to think a few hours with me erases every memory of your previous life.”
    “Oh, I don’t know. You’re pretty mind-blowing.” She was only half teasing. The guy could play her body as if fate had created him for that specific purpose.
    He brushed her lower lip with his thumb. “Nice try, but I still want to know who put the sadness in your eyes.”
    Hiding her connection to Lars from him was pointless. She didn’t know much about Owen, but she knew that. “Just a guy I dated.”
    “The one you mentioned before who never called you back?”
    “It was a little more complicated than that.” Mattie wished she’d kept her mouth shut. It was actually a lot more complicated.
    “Meaning?”
    She rested her cheek against his chest and listened to the steady thump of his heart. Would Owen be like Lars? She didn’t know him. She didn’t know a thing about him. She should’ve taken one look at the scars on his arms, shoulders, and abdomen, and run the other way. He looked the part of a bad boy, and at this point he was just some guy she’d decided to screw. Why was she making more out of their connection than that?
    Owen gently tucked her hair behind her ear. “You loved him.”
    “I think I still do.” The words tumbled out before she could swallow them back. She thought she’d cried herself dry when Lars walked out, but the pressure in her eyes grew unbearable, and tears coursed down her cheeks. “I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but I wanted to tell him how I felt.”
    Owen’s arms tightened as he scooped her up and held her close. He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead as he rocked her against him. “It’s okay to be upset when something good ends.”
    His words soothed, though they seemed almost nonsensical. How could it feel so right? How could it feel as though he understood when he couldn’t possibly fathom what it had felt like for her to confess her hopes and dreams to Lars, and then watch him walk out the door and never come back?
    Desire and angst twisted in her gut, and Mattie wished it were possible to just let it go, even if it was only for a little while. “I want you inside me, Owen. Make me come. Make me forget.”
    “Mattie—”
    His words were lost when she took his mouth in a potent