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

attachments. He couldn’t offer anyone a future. The only thing he could give was right now.
    He lowered himself to the mattress beside Mattie and cuddled her close. His heartbeat was thundering in his ears, probably a close match for the pulse he saw throbbing in her neck. Still, she didn’t seem satisfied.
    She was so frantic, so harried, so determined to go hard and fast and get to the climax before she’d really savored the journey. Owen castigated himself for getting swept along in her sensual wake. If right now was all he had, he should be slowing down, forcing her to make it last.
    He was making a personal vow to do just that when a noise downstairs made every hair on his body stand on end. His instincts took over, and he leaped from the bed.
    “Owen?”
    “Hush,” he urged. “Do you have a roommate?”
    “No.”
    He crept toward the bedroom door. “Expecting anyone? Anyone with a key?”
    “No, why?”
    Owen reached for his jeans and hurriedly pulled them on. “Because there’s someone downstairs, and I don’t want to kill a friend of yours.”
    * * * *
    Breaking into Mattie’s house hadn’t been one of Lars’s better ideas, but she hadn’t responded to his knocking. He’d been too worried about her welfare to even consider other possibilities. Hell, she might have a guest.
    I’ll kill the son of a bitch. No loser is going to take advantage of Mattie.
    He didn’t stop to think about whether or not he had the right to decide whom she did or didn’t take as a lover. He just couldn’t stand the thought of her being with anyone else. Especially when some other man would be all too willing to take what she offered and not spend any time giving her what she needed. She wasn’t like other women. Mattie’s needs were far more complex.
    Lars ground his teeth when he spotted her clothes in a pile on the kitchen floor. He’d driven out here to make sure she was okay. He’d do that, and then leave. That was all.
    The sound of rain on the old roof grew louder as the light shower outside turned into a downpour. His loafers were making wet tracks on her kitchen floor. He paused, wondering if he should take them off.
    A split second after his internal warning bell went off, a shadow stepped out of the stairwell. In the darkness, Lars couldn’t glean any details. Then a voice drifted across the kitchen. “I don’t know why you’re here, but I suggest you leave now before I make you.”
    Disbelief made Lars stagger. He reached out and grabbed the back of a kitchen chair to keep from collapsing. “Owen?”
    “Shit, Lars, what are you doing here?”
    It was so much to process. Owen was in Mattie’s house, had been up in her bedroom most likely. Lars felt twice betrayed. Something painful squeezed his heart. Owen was apparently screwing Mattie. Hours before, Owen had been with Lars , had enjoyed Lars , had been angry with Lars for regretting their frequent liaisons. Lars couldn’t stand the thought that this meant things were over between him and Owen, much less that Owen had moved on to Mattie.
    “What the hell are you doing here?” Owen asked, voice low and tense.
    Lars’s composure collapsed. He strode forward to close the distance between them. “What do you mean what am I doing here? Selena asked me to come check on Mattie, and this is what I find? What the hell?”
    Lars didn’t care about his tone or his volume. He wanted answers. He wanted to know how he’d managed to lose the two people he gave a damn about—to each other.
    “Some crazy-ass bastard wanted to look at her art,” Owen said calmly. “Selena sent me to keep an eye on things, and it was a good thing I did.”
    Lars’s emotions were tangled into a knot of self-doubt and regrets, but deep down he knew Owen was a good choice for a bodyguard. The inclination to protect came naturally for him. Not to mention Owen could be a mean son of a bitch when he wanted to be.
    Lars swallowed back his anger and tried to think rationally.